increasingly dramatic.
Some people suggested that it could be an unknown sea creature. Others imagined a deep-sea mutation or something created through a mysterious experiment.
The object certainly looked strange enough to fuel those theories.
But there was a much simpler explanation.
The Mystery Creature Was Actually a Chiton
The unusual object was identified as the underside of a chiton, a type of marine mollusk that commonly lives around rocky coastal areas.
From above, a chiton doesn’t look particularly frightening. Its body is protected by eight overlapping shell plates, giving