Mysterious Sea Creature Looking Like a Crocodile and Dolphin Washes Up on Lake (Photos)

 

 

This strange sea creature looks more like something out of medieval myth than a real animal with the body of a legless crocodile and the head of a dolphin.

 

Mirror Online reports it was photographed after washing ashore on the banks of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales in Australia.

 

A Newcastle man, Ethan Tipper, snapped an image of the creature before posting it online to see if anyone could identify it.

 

The creature has a long, slender body with scales and a tail like a crocodile with no legs, a head shaped like a dolphin's and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

 

The image has divided social media with some claiming it is a large hairtail, a long, slender fish found in tropical seas, while others suggest it has been photoshopped.

 

But Australian Museum fish collector Mark McGrouther told Daily Mail Australia he suspects it is a pike eel.

 

He said: "This is the first time I have ever seen one of them in the flesh. I suspect it was caught and discarded by fisherman who got more than they bargained for when they tried to reel it in."

 

This is not the first time a strange creature has washed up in Australia.

 

A rare goblin shark - described as an "alien of the deep" was discovered off the coast of Australia last year. The mysterious prehistoric-looking sea creature lives at the bottom of the ocean and has a distinctive fleshy snout and nail-like teeth - as well as a flabby pink body.