The remains of a mysterious faceless sea beast have left people scratching their heads after washing up on a British beach.
The hairy eight-foot carcass was found just before high tide on Sunday by Whitby business owner Samantha Murphy in Sandsend, North Yorkshire.
She added she was baffled by what the bizarre dead beast could be and was sickened by is stench.
She said: “I was walking with my two boys and partner collecting sea treasures when we saw it.
"At first I had no idea at all what it was, it looked like horse hair, and had a long bit of flesh which I thought was like a horse’s tail.
"When I pushed on it, it was definitely blubbery - like bouncy, and the bone threw me off, no horse has a bone that size.
"I feel sick remembering the stench. I can't compare it to anything as I've never seen anything like it."
As it had no face, Mrs Murphy turned to a specialist marine identification group on Facebook in an attempt to work out what it was.
She thought it could be a seal while one person took a guess at a walrus and another at a minke whale.
One even suggested it was an old carpet.
Rob Deaville, project manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, had another suggestion.
He said: "To me, these look like the decomposed and fragmentary remains of a baleen whale.
"In some images you can clearly see what look like throat pleats, as seen in images of live whales.
"Given the small size and location, I suspect it may be the remains of a minke whale.
"Checking our national strandings database, I can see - and know from reports - that we've had a few dead minkes reported stranded and/or floating dead in the region in recent weeks.
"It's possible that this may be the remains of one of the animals previously reported to us.
"It is Whitby, we have minke whales all over our coast.”
Earlier this week a family were shocked re-watching a holiday video as they spotted a "sea monster" popping its head out of the sand.
Debbie Clintworth decided to record parts of their recent trip at the Haven Greenacres Holiday Park near Porthmadog, Wales.
But when they got home to watch back their adventures, they couldn't believe what they saw.
It wasn't until reviewing the footage she had taken on the beach that Debbie noticed the strange creature in the sand.
