Preeti Desai works as a science communicator with National Audubon Society and was on the beach in Texas City, Tx. to document the effects of Hurricane Harvey on the habitats of various bird species in the area. She stumbled across a mysterious, eyeless marine creature with a mouth full of scary fangs.

Unable to immediately identify the mysterious animal, Desai posted an image of the creature to Twitter, asking experts to help her identify the creature, which had washed ashore following days of rain after Hurricane Harvey.

Biologist posts to Twitter to identify the mysterious marine creature

Global News quotes Desai as saying she originally thought the marine creature was a Sea lamprey, but after looking at its face she knew it couldn’t possibly be. That’s when she decided to ask the help of experts on Twitter. In her post she told, “biology Twitter” she had found the mysterious creature on the beach in Texas City, asking them “what the heck is this?”

Several people commented that it was likely some kind of eel. However, one Twitter user, @GSchaal_UBO, said it definitely wasn’t a shark or an eel, saying it was maybe something within the Saccopharyngiforma order, which are reportedly deep sea fish and are occasionally found stranded on beaches.

Another joked it was definitely a "super rare saltwater Chupacabra."

‘Aquatic xenomorph’ or eel

However, after receiving numerous responses that it looked like an eel, or “aquatic xenomorph” (referring to the popular “Alien” movies), an eel specialist came up with the likely answer.

Earth Touch News Network quotes Dr. Keeneth Tighe with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as saying it was most probably a fangtooth snake-eel or another type of snake-eel.

According to Tighe, all three snake-eel species have been seen in Texas and they do have large, fang-like teeth. However, he added it was a pity it is not possible to see the tip of the creature’s tail, as this would allow him to tie down exactly which species the creature belongs to. The website reports that the strong currents and strong winds from the recent hurricanes is probably the cause of the creature being washed ashore.

No reason to be scared of the eel

Desai went on to say that while she is excited over the media coverage of the eel, people shouldn’t be nervous of the strange creature. She said it was around 2-2.5 feet in length at the most and was already dead. Desai added that it is natural to react with fear to something unknown, but she believes this is because people are so “disconnected from nature.”
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