A Glaswegian woman had a leisurely trip to her local reservoir to forget - after coming across a monstrous creature washed up on the shore that looks like something straight out a horror movie.
Ex-pat Karen Lythgoe discovered the "prehistoric"-looking fish on the banks of the MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore at the weekend.
And the scary find sparked much interest and debate online after she shared news of the discovery on the Nature Society (Singapore) Facebook group, the Daily Record reports.
With a thick scaly body and large sharped teeth, the strange-looking fish bears resemblance to an alligator or crocodile.
The 31-year-old said: “There were some people already looking at it from the boardwalk, but that was too far away to see what it was. We though it was a crocodile from that position, but it didn't look quite right, so we went off the path to get a closer look.
"It wasn't a crocodile! It was like something you might see in a zoo – it looked prehistoric with its big jaws and teeth. I was shocked and intrigued at how it came to be in the reservoir."
Now the creature has been identified – but the answer has only deepened the mystery.
In a joint statement, the city’s water agency and National Parks Board said the creature was an alligator gar – a fish native to the southern United States, some 10,000 miles away.
The species has been called a “living fossil” because so much of its biology can be traced back to its earliest ancestors.
As for how the creature ended up in Singapore, authorities can only assume that it was kept as a pet and released once it had grown too large. According to local media, juvenile alligator gar – averaging around 20cm long – can be purchased from local fish merchants.
The joint statement said: "We would like to remind everyone that the release of these animals will disrupt our delicate aquatic ecosystem and may also pose a risk to users of our water bodies."
