Mysterious sea creature found dead on Texas beach

An ugly, partially decomposed creature has been found washed up on a Texas beach after Hurricane Harvey.

Preeti Desai posted a series of photos of the bizarre-looking creature to Twitter.

“Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?? Found on a beach in Texas City, TX,” the post reads.

The finned, fanged, eyeless creature is oblong in shape, with mottled skin and a long tail.

The photos have drawn comparisons on social media to the monstrous star of 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien.

Some Twitter users have suggested the creature might be some kind of eel – a claim supported by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History eel specialist Dr Kenneth Tighe, Earth Touch news reports.

Dr Tighe has identified it the corpse as belonging to an Aplatophis chauliodus, also known as a “snake eel”.

The snake eel is known to inhabit a range of environments, including sea shallows and rivers, where it burrows into sand or sediment and preys upon small fish and crustaceans.

Dr Tighe has also suggested the eel may alternatively be a garden or conger eel – two other species which “occur off Texas and have large fang-like teeth”.

It is possible the animal may have been beached by wild weather in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

The absence of eyes may simply be the result of natural decay.