A mysterious, hairless creature recently washed ashore on a California beach, stunning residents as it appeared in the wake of brutal storms that battered the coast.
The mystery carcass was discovered on a beach in Santa Barbara, according to the Daily Mail . The brown skinned creature displayed pointed teeth and sharp claws, yet residents were left baffled, unable to identify the strange beast. KEYT reports that the mystery creature was found near a drain washout, in an area where sandy water from the harbor flows out of a dredging pipe, east of Stearns Wharf.
Mystery creature washes up dead on California beach http://t.co/vRo96efMbp pic.twitter.com/tP4MJ1CYnP
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) December 17, 2014
Local residents were perplexed by the mysterious creature, though several offered their take on what the strange animal could be. Several suggested that it might be a bear or a pig, though KEYT anchors noted that the body was small, citing a branch near the carcass to demonstrate its size.
One Santa Barbara resident offered his thoughts on the mystery creature while being interviewed by KEYT .
“I’d say it looks like a combination of a seal and a dog with fangs, dried up, potentially,” he noted.
His friend had a different reaction to the creature, citing the apparent age of the carcass as a factor.
“To me it looks like a… reminiscent of a dinosaur. Like it’s just really old… It’s something you’ve never seen but like a dog, but ancient, you know? It’s old.”
Earlier this year, another mysterious creature was spotted in California, prowling the streets of Norwalk. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the large animal was captured on a security camera, and though residents at first thought it to be a mountain lion, its tail was inconsistent with that species. Experts asserted that the strange creature was more akin to an African lion than a cougar, though the local zoo confirmed that all of their animals were accounted for.
UPDATE: Mysterious animal caught on camera is not a mountain lion, wildlife officials say. http://t.co/DceBXP01rQ pic.twitter.com/C9b11MMcLI
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) August 1, 2014
Another unidentified creature, bearing a striking resemblance to the body that washed ashore in Santa Barbara, was found on a beach in San Diego in June of 2012. Josh Menard, a snowboarder from Lake Tahoe, discovered the mystery carcass, which he described as about two feet long. The strange creature’s body had a shape similar to that of a pig, Menard noted, with a fat stomach area. The animal also sported a vicious set of canine teeth, distinctly different than those found on California’s most recent mystery creature.
[Image: KEYT via the Daily Mail ]