Mysterious Bloody Blob Washes Ashore in Australia

Australia is well known for its big, scary, and unusual critters, but a massive red blob found by beach-goer Debbie Higgs fits that description all too well.

The Mt Coolum resident was taking pictures at Mudjimba Beach when she stumbled upon a large pink and "bloody" blob that appeared even to be alive. Just about as long as an arm and less than a foot wide, Higgs really wanted to know what it was she was looking at, so naturally she Tweeted about it.

"It's definitely not a plant, it feels spongy like a jelly fish," Higgs told local media. "It's cold and rather smelly."

Higgs, who tagged the Sunshine Coast Daily in her tweets, also told the paper that she was convinced that when she first found the blob on the beach, it was still alive.

"I gave it a poke and it wriggled a bit," she said."It looks like a slug, it's got ribbing."

According to the Daily, the woman actually wound up wrapping up the strange creature in a towel and bringing it home with her. Either along the journey or even before, it may have died.

The woman reportedly did not think that it was a part of an eaten animal or plant, as some commenter's had suggested. Some have even said it could be the placenta of a marine mammal, but Higgs says it was too whole.

Marine experts at the Queensland Museum  later tweeted at Higgs through the Daily, telling her that the blob is most likely a Spanish Dancer sea slug, judging by its coloration and the "frills" circling it.

If that's the case, it is very likely that the creature was ill and dying long before Higgs found it.

Spanish dancers are the largest of nudibranch sea slugs - affectionately called "nudies" - and can grow up to 15 feet in length. They are also one of the few nudies that swim short distances, thrashing or "dancing" above the ocean floor to get from place to place.

Finding one washed up on the Australian coast is strange, but not unheard of. Updrafts could carry a nudie carcass to the ocean surface before scavengers notice. Past research has also found them living along pipelines running close to the Australian shore, which may be where this one came from.

It should also be noted that work conducted at the University of Technology Sydney has found that the sea slugs are vulnerable to climate change events, where uncharacteristically warm or cool waters can interfere with their ability to use photosynthesis.

However, whether climate change can be blamed for the death of this specific "red blob" remains to be seen.