A "freaky" skeleton has been found on a Hampshire beach which has been likened to a "facehugger from Alien" with plenty of debate about what it could be.
The mysterious remains were found by Julie Barker last weekend while she was walking her dog in Gosport on the beach between Hill Head and Lee On Solent.
She posted pictures of the skeletal creature on Facebook with her boots next to it so as to give an idea of its size, reported HampshireLive.
Julie said: "My dog brought it to my attention and I just wondered what kind of ray it is, or I thought it may be a skate of sort.
"The body looked more like cartilage than bone. The skin that was left was very shrivelled and dry."
In reaction to the pictures, many people began to speculate what kind of life form it could have been.
The post's top comment was: "Looked like a face hugger from alien," with a woman replying "zenomorph [sic]".
A facehugger was a creature in the science fiction horror film Alien. It was the second stage in the Alien’s life cycle and looks like a pair of skeletal hands fused together with a spine-like tail.
Another person wrote: "Freaky," while some more down to earth suggestions were that the creature was a sea ray of some kind such as a Thornback Ray.
One woman said: "Rays don’t have bones and the cartilage remains would be much larger for the pectoral fins or ‘wings’. I don’t know what the species is but I did look into the rays to check."
Another person stated: "It's been winged by the look of it that's the banjo left" while someone else added: "My money is on its come from the sea, after that I have no idea."
Dr Tim Ferrero, senior marine biologist at the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust was, though, able to shed some light on the mysterious creature.
"This looks like the remains of a ray or skate which has had its wings eaten (or cut) away. There's not much to go on for a proper ID but judging by the tail, it could've been a thornback ray which, like all our ‘rays’ except the stingray, is actually a skate," he reportedly said.
