A washed-up creature dubbed the 'spawn of sea monster' left people baffled after being discovered by a dog walker.
Eleanor Morgan was shocked when she saw the mystery animal as she strolled along Ocean Beach in San Francisco, US. She noticed it when her dog tugged on her lead and tried to move closer.
Taking a snap of the creature with a long, pointed snout it left many baffled - but experts were quick to explain.
The student shared the photo on Reddit to see if anyone could offer some clues.
“I was really fascinated when I saw it, as I had never seen anything like it before,” the 22-year-old wrote.
“I don’t think it had been on the beach for very long because it didn’t smell at all and the tide looked like it was coming in."
Morgan asked others what it was and received some useful answers - and some not so helpful replies.
One offered that it could be a giant squid - and other suggests it's "the alien from Independence Day."
It was eventually identified by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute as a male shovelnose guitarfish.
Locals are growing concerned for the sealife after a surge in dead creature founds on beaches.
Last month there were two separate reports of rare Pacific footballfish being washed up on the shores of southern California.
The deep-sea creatures are commonly found all over the Pacific Ocean.
Paul Clarkson, director of operations at the area's aquarium, told SFGATE that in fact the sighting was actually “an unremarkable occurrence".
He said: “ Animals die all the time, of course; sometimes those carcasses wash ashore. If this was part of a larger group of animals being washed up all at once, that might suggest a different story.
“Shovelnose guitarfish are relatively common and abundant along our coastline.
"San Francisco is at the northern end of their range, but still well within ‘normal’ for this species.”
