{"id":326411,"date":"2017-09-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/mysterious-hurricane-harvey-sea-monster-finally-identified-photos\/"},"modified":"2017-09-17T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T08:00:00","slug":"mysterious-hurricane-harvey-sea-monster-finally-identified-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/mysterious-hurricane-harvey-sea-monster-finally-identified-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Hurricane Harvey \u2018sea monster\u2019 finally identified (PHOTOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.09\/thumbnail\/59bc20abfc7e9306628b4567.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 16 Sep, 2017 00:32 <\/time><\/p>\n<p>        The terrifying, eyeless, fanged sea monster that washed up on a beach near Texas City during Hurricane Harvey has finally been identified.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>Preeti Desai, a science communicator, posted images of the creature to Twitter on September 7, simultaneously piquing the world\u2019s curiosity while putting most people off ever going back in the water again.<\/p>\n<p>Desai outsourced the investigation to budding marine biologists around the world but it was Dr Kenneth Tighe, a biologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who ultimately solved the mystery.<\/p>\n<p>Tighe claims the creature is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fishbase.org\/photos\/PicturesSummary.php?ID=7550&amp;what=species\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fangtooth snake-eel<\/a> (scientific name Aplatophis chauliodus roughly translates as \u201cterrible serpent\u201d) though he added the caveat that, without examining the creature&#8217;s tail, it may also belong to either the conger or garden eel.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It might be Bathyuroconger vicinus or Xenomystax congroides,&#8221;<\/em> Tighe told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earthtouchnews.com\/oceans\/oceans\/heres-an-id-on-this-fang-toothed-marine-mystery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Earth Touch News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;All three of these species occur off Texas and have large fang-like teeth. Too bad you can&#8217;t clearly see the tip of the tail. That would differentiate between the ophichthid and the congrids.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The nightmarish creature measures less than a meter long and typically buries itself in the ocean floor at depths of between 30 and 90 meters, but the intensity of Hurricane Harvey may have dislodged it.<\/p>\n<p>The creature\u2019s missing eyes may have decomposed in the water or were eaten by smaller creatures in the ocean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/403511-hurricane-harvey-sea-monster-identified\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 16 Sep, 2017 00:32 The terrifying, eyeless, fanged sea monster that washed up on a beach near Texas City during Hurricane Harvey has finally been identified. Preeti Desai, a science communicator, posted images of the creature to Twitter on September 7, simultaneously piquing the world\u2019s curiosity while putting most people off ever going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-326411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}