I have a fascination with animals which seem like they should only belong to the annals of science fiction, but which actually exist (especially when said animal was thought to have only existed in science fiction, and then is later found to be real).  Creatures from the ocean depths seem particularly qualified for this distinction, perhaps none more than the giant squid.  Giant squid?  Yeah – they’re real.  And every once in a while, one washes up on shore:

Giant squid

Rare giant squid washed up in Australia

The squid, the mantle or main body of which measured two-meters (6.5 feet) long, was found by a walker late on Tuesday on Ocean Beach, near Strahan, on the western coast of island state Tasmania.

“It’s a whopper,” Tasmanian Museum senior curator Genefor Walker-Smith told local media on Wednesday. “The main mantle is about one meter across and its total length is about eight meters (almost 30 feet).”

Have you ever seen the beaks and teeth on one of these things?  It’s a good thing they like to stay deep – you wouldn’t want to meet one in the open ocean.