A strange sea creature has confused locals after washing up on Bondi beach with few able to agree on what it is.
Stunned beachgoers discovered the bizarre ‘alien-like’ animal among washed-up debris on the famous Sydney beach.
Drew Lambert was with a friend when they stumbled across the bloated animal with ‘human-like lips’.
Mr Lambert posted a photo and video of the animal to a local Facebook group, hoping others would help identify it.
‘I just looked at it… what the hell, does this fish have human lips on it? It looked like it was puckering up for a kiss,’ Mr Lambert told Yahoo News.
At first, Mr Lambert thought the creature was a shark because it had a tail and skin, but he quickly dismissed that idea because it did not have a dorsal fin.
I thought [but] the mouth is on the underside. And it’s got grey leather-like skin like a shark. But it doesn’t have that dorsal fin at the top like a shark so I was really confused,’ he said.
Most locals believed the animal was a bloated stingray and said the curled tail and organ swelling occurred after it had died, giving it an enlarged appearance.
‘It’s Bondi, even the rays have botox,’ one comment joked.
One shrewd user wrote: ‘It’s an Australian numbfish. They produce electricity when touched. Crazy fact.’
Sea Life Sydney Aquarium supervisor, Laetitia Hannan confirmed the animal was indeed a numbfish or coffin ray.
Ms Hannan said the numbfish, a type of elasmobranch, is known to bite off more than it can chew and may have eaten something too big for itself, which could have contributed to its engorged size.
She also confirmed the bloated appearance was indeed due to the decomposition process which fills animals full of gas.
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