Busy as we are to scan the skies to size any signs of alien life, too oftern we forget to live on a planet largely coverd with water, under whose surface lilve creatures totally “alien” to us of whom we know a little or nothing. Except, as happened last week, a cataclisma bring it to our attention.

What the heck is this?

So after the handover of Harvey in Texas, Preeti Desai, social media manager della National Audubon Society, discovered (on the beach of Texas City, near Galveston), photographed and spread on Twitter pictures of a mysterious animal (you can see some of them in this article) asking: “Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?”

Preeti, a girl interested in photography, reading, nature, wildlife, science, was previously social media manager for Greenpeace Usa and Mongabay (a no profit site that deals with news regarding science and environmental conservation) is what is called a reliable source, hence the possibility that it's just a hoax are really low.

Marine biologist provide a response

So what the heck is the creature Preeti photographed? As explained the same social media manager, some suggested to contact Kenneth Tighe, a biologist with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Tighe, for his part, explained to Earth Touch News that the creature was most likely an “Aplatophis chauliodus”, also known as “fangtooth snake-eel”, which usually dwells at a depth range from the Gulf of Mexico to the French Guiana.

Alternatively always according Tighe it could has been a “Bathyuroconger vicinus” or a “Xenomystax congroides”. All three species live off the coast of Texas and have large fang-like teeth, and are different only because of the shape of their tail (but the one of the specimen photographed by Preeti is not clearly identifiable). In short: despite the exciteemnt of some, we are not talking about any “alien monster”, but of a dead animal beached by Harvey on Texas City beach as a witness of the devastating impact made on flora and fauna by the transit of the hurricane.

The monster is not the one in the picture

“Hey guys, so this thing wasn't frightening, wasn't colossal, and wasn't a monster. It was just a damn sea creature trying to live its life” until Harvey destroyed, commented Preeti. A comment that most media, in order to maximaze the number of readings and the sharing of their articles omitted. A sign that the old trick to “slam the monster on the front page” still works, even when the front page is a social media.