Strange tongue-like sea creature found on Perth beach
A tongue-like sea creature was found by a Perth beachgoer over the weekend with Facebook users left baffled as to what it could be.
One Facebook user posted the photo on the social network site after he found it in South Fremantle hoping for an answer to the mystery creature's identity.
The photo was taken with the man’s tongue out while he held the creature up beside it to demonstrate the uncanny resemblance to a human tongue.
Many Facebook users were quick to venture a guess with its tastebud-like markings.
One Facebook user wrote "Ewww it really looks like a cut out tongue" while another one commented "the cow's tongue, must have been eaten by a shark".
Another person suggested it looked like polished coral to them.
But it appears the answer to the puzzle is not as exciting as everyone thought it was.
Western Australian Museum Head of Aquatic Zoology Dr Jane Fromont identified the obscure creature.
"It is an ascidian or sea squirt," she told WA Today.
"This particular specimen is a colonian ascidian meaning that it has numerous individuals within the dark pink oval jelly casing seen in the image. Each little whitish flower like shape indicates an individual.”
Department of Fisheries principal biosecurity scientist Dr Justin McDonald agreed and added the sea squirt had been in the process of going into hiding when its photo was taken.
"When you disturb the animal they retract and close their openings and essentially start to shrivel up – the colonial ascidian has retracted but not yet shrivelled,” he said.
Sea squirts are common along the West Australian coast.
