What is this bizzare creature ?

[khathlan]

Can anyone please help in identifying this creature.

Info: on sand, 30m down , in Red Sea. max. dimension is about 25 cms (10 inches), looked alive, not crawling, no marks in the sand near by. Looked to have a soft texture.

Thanks

[acelockco]

I am totally lost, looks similar to an octopus, but I have never seen anything like that before.

[khathlan]

Thanks for the response.

I have got many different suggestions or thoughts from different forums/sources. However none of them seemed definite.

These range from dead octopus, a solid object encrusted with sponges, mating gastropods ...etc. The most promising is a bizzare "Tun Shell" (Tonnidae).

If you happen to know any specialist person or forum in mollusks please let me know.

Thanks

[The Publisher]

Khathlan,

I looked up tun shell, and I can see how the siphon thing on the side steers one that direction, but there does not seem to be any shell on this one...

[khathlan]

You are absolutely right. That is why I said it is may be a bizzare case, but the creature size was a key factor for that guess.

Tun shells have a permanent shell, so the theory was that it could be upside down with the shell in the sand. Tun shells are known to hide under the sand and then crawl out.

It just shows how difficult it has been so far to identify that thing.

Thanks for your interest

[acelockco]

Was it dead or alive?

[khathlan]

It was alive. There was very slight movement of its surface but it was not crawling.

[lottie]

Maybe you've idenitified a previous unknown species?! From here on in it will be called Khathlan!