Nature is a thing of beauty - it makes us realise that the world is so diverse, we will never stop getting surprises, good and bad.
Every day across the globe, things wash up on beaches. Some of them manage to shock people.?And the deep sea has so many diverse creatures that this one will blow your mind.
One such creature called 'deep-sea monster' was spotted by a person at Black's Beach in Torrey Pines in the San Diego area.
According to reports, Jay Beiler said he was walking on the beach in the evening on 13th November when he came across a scary-looking fish.
From a distance, Beiler thought that the mysterious creature was a jellyfish. However, as he got closer to the spot, he realised it was something completely else - something he had never seen before - by anyone.?
Before heading home, he clicked three pictures of the creature and shared them with others. After he sent out the photos, he found out that the creature was a Pacific Footballfish.
Footballfish, scientifically known as Himantolophidae, are known to live in waters that are 3,000-4,000 feet deep. They are mostly found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.The fish was first discovered in the year 1837 by Johan Reinhardt, a professor of zoology.
The photos clicked by Beiler show how the creature looks - knife-sharp teeth, spikes on its sides, and a projectile flowing out of its forehead.?
"I have never seen anything quite like this before. At first, I thought it was a ¡ª like a jellyfish or something, and then I went and looked at it a little more carefully, and some other people were gathered around it too, and then I saw that it was this very unusual fish. It¡¯s the stuff of nightmares ¡ª mouth almost looked bloody," Beiler was quoted as saying by NBC 7 San Diego.?
The channel sent the creature's pictures to the scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.?
?¡°This is one of the larger species of anglerfish, and it¡¯s only been seen a few times here in California, but it¡¯s found throughout the Pacific Ocean,¡± said Ben Frable, the collection manager of the marine vertebrate collection at Scripps.?
Another footballfish washed ashore on a California beach earlier this year. It was completely black in colour with shart teeth and a football-like body.It was found on the shore of Crystal Cove State Park's Marine Protected Area in Laguna Beach.
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