The skeleton of a mystery sea creature has washed up on a beach, baffling locals as to what kind of animal it could be.
The strange creature was found at a beach in Canterbury, New Zealand and was originally assumed to be an alien.
The creature appeared to have two legs and a tail, in addition to two 'wings', a fine set of teeth and a long point protruding from its head.
The skeleton gave Hanna Mary and her mother a huge shock when they spotted it while out on a beach walk, the NZ Herald reported.
'My first thought was that it was something alien, but I was more fascinated than anything,' Hanna told the NZ Herald.
The pair decided to take the creature to a taxidermist in the hope that they would be able to clear up the mystery.
Unfortunately the taxidermist was left just as stumped after inspecting the creature and decided to posit the question to Facebook.
Many people have guessed that it is, in fact, a skate.
Dr. Malcolm Francis at Niwa has identified the creature as a male Dipturus nasutus, aka a New Zealand rough skate.
"They are called rough skate because they are very prickly ... it's quite common in Canterbury," he said.
Skates are a type of fish that have cartilage instead of bone and enlarged pectoral fins attached to their heads forming a disc-shaped body.
Similarly to Rays, their wings are often eaten.
The strange creature was found at a beach in Canterbury, New Zealand and was originally assumed to be an alien.
The creature appeared to have two legs and a tail, in addition to two 'wings', a fine set of teeth and a long point protruding from its head.
The skeleton gave Hanna Mary and her mother a huge shock when they spotted it while out on a beach walk, the NZ Herald reported.
'My first thought was that it was something alien, but I was more fascinated than anything,' Hanna told the NZ Herald.
The pair decided to take the creature to a taxidermist in the hope that they would be able to clear up the mystery.
Unfortunately the taxidermist was left just as stumped after inspecting the creature and decided to posit the question to Facebook.
Many people have guessed that it is, in fact, a skate.
Dr. Malcolm Francis at Niwa has identified the creature as a male Dipturus nasutus, aka a New Zealand rough skate.
"They are called rough skate because they are very prickly ... it's quite common in Canterbury," he said.
Skates are a type of fish that have cartilage instead of bone and enlarged pectoral fins attached to their heads forming a disc-shaped body.
Similarly to Rays, their wings are often eaten.
Music: "Danger Storm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: NZ Herald , Daily Mail, Facebook
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