‘Horned Monster’ Mystery Solved: 13ft-Long Sea Creature Washes Up On Spain Beach, Confirmed As Smelly Shark Carcass?

A "horned monster" was found washed up and decomposing on Luis Siret Beach in Villaricos, Spain, and now a scientist says he believes it is a shark carcass.

NBC News reports that Florida State University ichthyologist Dean Grubbs confirmed the carcass is that of a shark. Grubbs is a specialist on the biology of fish species, and especially sharks.

"That is definitely a shark skeleton," Grubbs told NBC News in an email. "The elements toward the back were confusing me, but those are the lower caudal fin supports. The 'horns' are the scapulocoracoids which support the pectoral fins."

According to The Daily Mail, a spokesman for the Marine Biological Association previously said: "A few people have said it could be the backbone of a shark with the rest of it decaying away.

"Really we would need a vertebrae to properly identify it. If it was a shark it would have cartilage skeleton as opposed to bone.

"As for the horns  - it's pretty inconclusive. No one knows of anything with horns in the sea. From the picture you wonder if it is even part of the creature."

Experts and residents were struggling to determine what the remains were, and guesses ranged from a horned sea monster to a large oarfish carcass, News.com.au reports.

"A lady found one and we helped her retrieve the rest," Maria Sanches of Civil Protection in Cuevas said. "We have no idea what it was. It really stank."

"It's hard to know what we are dealing with," PROMAR Sea Life Defence Program spokesman Paco Toledano told Ideal Ameria.

"It's very decomposed and we cannot identify what it is."

The mysterious monster appeared to have horns, and a long white body, The Daily Mail reports.

Further tests are being conducted to scientifically determine the specific species of the carcass in Spain.