One million views for "Alien" sea creature caught off coast of Alaska
Their branched arms help them move across the floor and prey on other sea animals.
A video of a mysterious sea creature caught off the coast of Alaska has gone viral on the Internet.
Angler Sarah Vasser-Alford reeled in the creature that many have described as "strange" and "alien" about three weeks ago. She shared a video of the orange sea creature wriggling its tendrils on social media, where it has collected over 1.1 million views.
Ms Vasser-Alford reeled in the creature from off the coast of Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, in August.
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The footage she shared online shows the creature moving its curly tentacles. Blood vessels can be seen when she turns it over. The footage left viewers curious. Take a look at it below:
"Now this is an alien on earth," wrote one person in the comments section. "Live coral?" another wondered. "It's like a starfish with tentacles," a third wrote.
A lot of people also asked Ms Vasser-Alford to put it back in water, while a few identified it as a basket star.
Ms Vasser-Alford later updated the video caption to confirm that the creature was indeed a basket star that was "placed back in the water unharmed."
According to the New York Post, basket stars are a species of echinoderm similar to starfish that live on the ocean floor. Their branched arms help them move across the floor and prey on other sea animals.
In March this year, a picture of a rare fish with no eyes and sharp teeth had left netizens puzzled.
