A beautiful waterfront scene in New York City was altered after a jaw-dropping discovery.
This “sea monster” is an important reminder that we know more about the Moon, Mars, and even Saturn, than we know about the creatures inhabiting Earth’s oceans and sharing this planet with us.
What is this creature that was beached near Texas City, Texas, by Hurricane Harvey? (Credit: Preeti… [+]
If you use Twitter frequently, you may have seen tweets about a mysterious lump of flesh discovered washed up on the beach near the coastal town of Texas City, Texas, by Preeti Desai, a science communicator with the Audubon Society. Although this sea creature resembled a large and sloppy sausage, its mouth was full of pointy, menacing teeth.
“Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?? Found on a beach in Texas City, TX,” Ms. Desai tweeted on September 6.
One of the people who responded to this tweet was a friend of mine, Adam Summers, a professor at the University of Washington who teaches students and other professionals about fish biomechanics.
“Well, @Frable has IDed this thing. It is an Ophichthid eel called a tusky eel (Aplatophis chauliodus),” Professor Summers tweeted the next day.
I contacted Twitter’s resident fish ID expert, Benjamin Frable, Collection Manager of Marine Vertebrates at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD, who kindly informed me of this creature’s likely identity and told me how he and his colleagues arrived at this ID.
“Adam [Summers] posted the pics on a facebook group of ichthyologists quizzing each other on identifications (nerdy, I know),” Mr. Frable replied in email.
“I recognized it pretty quickly as an eel. We get quite a lot of moray eel wash-ups here and they’re pretty horrifying-looking, too.”
Credit: Pen News/Preeti Desai
Mr. Frable suspected the fish was a snake-eel after learning it was beached on the Texas coast. Snake-eels are cylindrically shaped burrowing fishes found in tropical seas with sandy or muddy floors. These fish live in burrows in both marine and brackish waters at depths ranging from 33 to 91 meters (100 to 300 feet) and feed on a variety of careless bony fishes and crustaceans.
“Apparently, the tongue of this fish is developed into a fleshly lure to attract prey to their horrible mouth!” Mr. Frable added, clearly finding delight in sharing the macabre details of this fish’s feeding habits.
Mr. Frable recognized the fish based on its head shape and color, both of which are unique to the genus Aplatophis.
“What made this genus so weird to me is the head shape and large fangs. A lot of snake-eels have similarly point[ed] heads with eyes very far forward near the tip of the snout. This is because they tend to burrow in the sand with only their head sticking out,” Mr. Frable explained.
“The brown coloration also struck me, as many others are tan-ish or spotted. That being said, the [specimen] in the pictures could also be badly sunburnt.”
A closer look at that strange creature that was beached near Texas City, Texas, by Hurricane Harvey…
These clues led him to believe it was a fangtooth snake-eel, also known as a tusky eel, Aplatophis chauliodus, a marine species found along the Gulf of Mexico’s coasts, though Mr. Frable added that he has only ever seen this species in a photograph.
“I posited [my ID] to the facebook group, got some agreement, then there was some back and forth and everyone generally agreed that [the identification] sounds good. However, with all the desiccation, decay and bloating, it is still tough to tell for sure.”
This discussion was also attended by some local fishermen. They believe this is a different eel species, one whose specific Latin name refers to its small spots.
“There is another common snake-eel called the Snapper Eel, Echiophis punctifer, which this could also be, especially if it is sunburnt,” Mr. Frable said in email. “A bunch of ichthyologists discussed this on facebook, but the pendulum swung back towards tusky eel. But, fishermen from the region on Twitter are backing this as the candidate.”
This specimen’s identification is still up for debate at this point, but it’s the best that could be inferred from the information available.
“The jaw and teeth are a bit diagnostic for the group and this species, but we’d need to see the teeth inside its mouth to be sure,” Mr. Frable said. “Also, being able to see the tail would be helpful.”
This type of debate is a normal part of the scientific process, particularly in most zoological fields where different people’s expertise is based on a wide range of experiences.
“It’s really tough for us hairless apes to tell fishes apart, so there can be a lot back and forth on specimens, especially when they’re in poor condition,” Mr. Frable explained. He also pointed out that this fish is actually a zoologically known species, not some sort of cryptozoological sea monster, nor a misshapen mermaid, nor is it a species that is new to science.
“This just goes to highlight the need for specimen-based [natural history museum] collections — we can only get so far in figuring out the life around us from a picture,” Mr. Frable said.
As a molecular biologist, I, of course, had to ask if anyone is planning to do any DNA work to confirm the identity of this creature.
“The use of genetics could definitely help narrow down an identification,” Mr. Frable replied. “Even with decay, we could still extract DNA from the tissue and compare it against online databases of identified species.”
Unfortunately, this specimen was left in place on the beach so a DNA identification is not in its future.
How did Ms. Desai come across this creature in the first place?
She was part of a group sent by the Audubon Society to look for birds and document damage to their habitats as a result of Hurricane Harvey.
“Hurricane Harvey caused erosion to critically important nesting islands, which are already suffering from pollution and shrinking land mass due to rising sea levels linked to climate change,” Ms. Desai said in email. She also pointed out that America’s coastlines are the first line of defense against storms; that they protect our communities whilst also providing important habitat for birds and other wildlife.
“We ended up at the beach in Texas City to observe some of the birds that Audubon Texas is working to protect, such as Black Skimmers and Royal Terns. While looking at the birds, I noticed this a couple yards away. It was completely unexpected, not something that you’d expect to see on a beach,” Ms. Desai said.
“My main reaction was curiosity; I wanted to figure out what it was.”
So, Ms. Desai did what I, and many other people, would do under the circumstances: she took some photographs and tweeted them, asking for an ID.
Twitter is a rapid-response educational community that helps people see the wonder in nature for many people, particularly those who follow a lot of scientists and researchers. And Ms. Desai’s tweets certainly accomplished their intended goal: species identification – as well as a large, but entirely unexpected, public discussion about a fish.
“[T]here is a TON of diversity out there,” Mr. Frable said. “That is what drives me and my scientific interests. I’ve been interested in fishes for almost 20 years, and still, almost weekly, I see a fish I’ve never seen before — that stops me in my tracks.”
“For me, it was just cool to come across this while I was out birding,” Ms. Desai said. “It really shows that you never know what you’ll come across when you’re out in nature!”
“The natural world is deeply complex and beautiful (in the case of our eel friend, maybe not necessarily beautiful), and I hope this inspires people to learn more about it,” Mr. Frable agreed.