Strange beach creature looks like a 'gooey' alien

Question

Beach-goers have been left searching for answers after a bunch of mysterious 'gooey'-like sea creatures washed up on beaches. 

The bizarre creature which is covered in a series of yellow spots had many people suggesting it looked like an 'alien'. 

One person who found the blob-like sea animal on a beach in Semaphore, about 21 kilometres from Adelaide, posted a picture of it to Reddit in the hope of identifying it.




Aussies have been left baffled over a mysterious creature that has washed up on the shores of several beaches

'Found at Semaphore today, can anyone ID please?'  

In the picture, the jelly-like figure appears to be folded in on itself, with a slimy, shiny exterior. 

One user, a marine ecologist, said the peculiar creature was 'a type of ascidian' often found in coastal areas. 

'Each of those little yellow dots is an individual animal called a zooid, which are all genetically identical in the colony,' the user wrote. 

The creature is a mix between a vertebrate and invertebrate, the expert explained. 

'So while they are a marine invertebrate, they are placed in the phylum 'Chordata' and are an evolutionary boundary between invertebrates and vertebrates,' the marine ecologist explained. 

'They are, in evolutionary terms, your very distant, weird cousins that no one wanted at Christmas lunch.' 




The 'gooey' like creature is known as an ascidian, and are often found in coastal areas

The creature has a slimy liquid hirschhausen Erfahrungsberichte and 'meaty' feel but it is not as 'squishy' as jellyfish. 

Users were quick to comment on the post, with one saying the creature had features resembling that of an out-of-this-world being. 

''Alien placenta,' the user said. 

'Totally thought it was a curled up snake,' another wrote. 

'There has to be some relation to this specimen and the danger noodle, maybe more than we understand.' 




The bizarre creatures are a mix between invertebrates and vertebrates, with the spots on the outside of the body comprised of individual animals known as zooids

According to the Australian Museum, the scientific name of the creature is Botrylloides leachii. 

They are a species which belong to a group called phylum Chordata, which includes animals such as fishes, reptiles and birds. 

Dark ascidians, which are the most common forms of the species, are found in coastal waters, at a depth of 25 metres, and also on seaweeds and in shallow water. 

According to the marine ecologist who commented on the Reddit post, ascidians aren't harmful to humans. 




The creatures, which belong to a group of species which includes fish, reptiles and birds, are not harmful to humans



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