A hulking armoured sea creature has been discovered washed up on a deserted beach.
Allen Sklar was driving over Assateague Island in Virginia, US, when he noticed a beast lying still on the sand and pulled over to take a closer look.
Allen Sklar was driving at the time he saw the creature out of his window (Image: ALLEN SKLAR)
It quickly became clear that this was no ordinary fish out of water, but a strange-looking armoured beast from the time of the dinosaurs.
According to Newsweek, the animal was around three feet long and had an overbite, with top gnashers visible behind a stretched out pointed nose.
The fish has been identified as an Atlantic sturgeon (Image: ALLEN SKLAR)
Fortunately for Allen, it wasn’t the first time he’d come across such a strange creature, and he was able to capture a tranquil photograph of what he recognized as an Atlantic sturgeon.
Allen said he discovered the fish on the beach of Assateague Island, a 37-mile-long spit of land, and hastily grabbed a few photos of it.
Allen told Newsweek: “I drive the 12 miles of beach about 100 days a year and so see a lot of stuff others don’t. This was the second sturgeon I have seen in 27 years of driving on the island.”
He captioned a photo of the fish on Facebook: “This 37-inch fish is a true member of the dinosaurs.
“It has no scales only rows of hard plates called scutes. A bottom feeder, it will eat almost anything including clams, mussels, and dead fish.
“Under its chin are four whiskers called barbels which are used to sense the bottom for food. The mouth is hard and bony with no teeth.
“This is a small one, researchers have found them up to 160 pounds in the rivers and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay and [they] can weigh over a thousand pounds in other parts of the world.
“Overfished to the point of almost being extinct they were put on the Endangered Species list in 2012.”
The Atlantic sturgeon is a prehistoric fish that can be found in rivers and coastal waters, and can grow up to 14ft in length.