A young child was left in pain after being stung by a mystery eyeball-like sea creature which left ocean authorities puzzled.
Mum Jennifer Baltazar says her son was attacked by the animal dubbed the spaghetti monster at Mustang Island State Park, Texas, in the US.
Rogelio, eight, was hurt after a visit to the beach – and the family contacted experts to get to the bottom of it.
“My son was in the shallows swimming when he felt the sting,” said Jennifer, 36.
“He came running from the ocean and said he was stung by something, so that’s when I went looking for what it could’ve been.
“He said it stung and burned a lot, and he was in moderate pain for about 20 minutes.
“Then it stared to wear off and he was OK, but it hurt him bad enough to not want to go back in the water.”
She continued: “I noticed these strange jellies. It was interesting because we have never seen anything like that on the beach.
“Actually when I first saw one I thought it was a fish eyeball.
“It was globe like on top, about the size of a marble, with what looked like an eye in the middle."
At first, the San Antonio resident took her photos to the park authorities, who were just as stumped as she was.
But sending her photos to Jace Tunnell, from the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas, she finally got answers.
“I've never seen these things wash up before," the scientist told local media.
“At certain times of the year we randomly find interesting things coming in, and this one, in particular, kind of threw me off – it's an interesting find for sure.”
He told Jennifer that it looked like a species called Rhizophysa.
“At this point I was intrigued and I wanted to know the exact name of it,” Mrs Baltazar said.
“I came across the thread jelly, sometimes called a spaghetti monster.”
