'It looks like baby Nessie!' Mystery sea creature washes up on beach

‘It looks like baby Nessie!’ Mystery sea creature washes up on Dorset beach and leave locals baffled

• Lindsay Freeman said she spotted the creature on the beach in Poole, Dorset 
• It has been dubbed a ‘mini Loch Ness Monster’ after photos of remains went viral
• Ms Freeman said that it ‘looked like a sea monster’ with a ‘very strange head’
• Several people suggested it was a ray of some sort with its fins or ‘wings’ missing

A mystery creature found washed up on a British beach has been dubbed a ‘mini Loch Ness Monster’ after photos of its remains left people baffled.

Lindsay Freeman said she spotted what ‘looked like a sea monster’ while on the beach in Poole, Dorset, and could not figure out what it was.

She said: ‘I was walking on the beach at the time. It caught my eye because it was so unusual looking and large.

‘I couldn’t think of an animal that had a tail like a shark, but also legs like a turtle. It also looked like it had little arms and a very strange head.

‘It looked like a sea monster.’

A mystery creature found washed up on a British beach has been dubbed a ‘mini Loch Ness Monster’ after photos of its remains went viral

Lindsay Freeman said she spotted what ‘looked like a sea monster’ while on the beach in Poole, Dorset

She continued: ‘I thought it was very cool and wanted to know more.

‘I sent an email to my family first and when we couldn’t figure it out, it just ate at me — I wanted to know what it was; it had to have an explanation.

‘I’ve never encountered something like this.’

Ms Freeman spotted the remains in November, but only shared her images online last week, where she attracted a flurry of bemused responses.

Several said it was a ‘baby Loch Ness Monster’ taking a break from the Highlands.

One commenter took a guess at a Liopleurodon, a prehistoric predator of the deep last seen some 150 million years ago.

Another suggested it was a facehugger, the parasitic movie monster from the 1979 flick, Alien.

And one self-proclaimed marine biologist said it was a sea cucumber.

One person suggested it was a Liopleurodon, a prehistoric predator of the deep last seen some 150 million years ago

‘I thought it was some kind of strange shark with legs,’ said Ms Freeman.

‘It was definitely smooth like a fish or water animal. Friends and family guessed it was a dogfish, turtle without a shell, or the Loch Ness Monster. None [of these answers] seemed satisfying.

‘Online, there were lots of suggestions like dogfish, turtle, salamander, lizard, sea monster, Loch Ness monster.

‘Once we posted it, we got a flood of funny and serious responses — it seemed to capture many people’s imaginations.’

But some of those commenting may have spotted the real answer.

Several suggested it was a ray of some sort, perhaps with its fins or ‘wings’ missing.

Rob Deaville, project manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, said it looked like ‘the remains of a skate or a ray’. File image

Rob Deaville, project manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, agreed that it appeared to be an elasmobranch — a grouping that includes rays and sharks.

He said: ‘I’m not an expert in elasmobranch identification, but to my untutored eye, this looks like the remains of a skate or a ray.

‘It looks like there are claspers next to the tail and eyes dorsally on the top of the head.

‘I assume the pectoral fins have been removed and the rest of the body discarded.’

For Ms Freeman too, it’s the answer that makes the most sense.

She said: ‘There was some suggestion of how it might have lost its wings — like it was caught by fishermen and eaten.

‘I am very curious to know how it ended up in its current state.’

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