By Tim Binnall
A mesmerizing piece of footage from Britain shows a bizarre-looking 'alien' creature slowly shuffling along a beach. According to a local media report, the weird animal was stumbled upon at the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve earlier this month. Sharing footage of the creature online, the Sussex Wildlife Trust explained that the "chunky marine worm" is known to wildlife experts by the delightful moniker 'Sea Mouse.' According to the group, the nearly six-inch-long critters are "rarely seen, but in winter, storms can wash them up on the high tide line."
The nature reserve went on to explain that the somewhat unsettling bristles sported by the Sea Mouse are "structured to reflect light in a certain way" wherein they produce a colorful shimmer thought to be a defense mechanism that evolved over time. Remarkably, they also noted that the footage of the creature shuffling along the beach was "sped up 3x faster than real life, after the first 5 seconds, because clever engineering aside, sea mice are rather slow!" Fortunately for the little worm, it wound up back in the water shortly after being documented by the nature reserve.