'Creepy alien' sea creature found clinging to boat is making people terrified of the ocean

Get ready to unlock a new fear after a 'creepy alien' sea creature was spotted clinging to a boat in bizarre footage.

On the one hand, the deep ocean is fascinating and filled with all manner of interesting creatures and animals.

On the other hand... naaah you're alright, buddy, not for me.

And it seems social media users are very much in agreement with me after a video of a creature you likely didn’t see in your animal kids' books growing up started doing the rounds online.

The bizarre creature appears to be wriggling and looks like a weird cross between face huggers from Alien and a plant.

Take a look for yourself:

Since initially being posted in December, the video - captured during a fishing trip in Malaysia by Mohd azhan Arshad - has already racked up four million views and shows a person on a boat picking up the creature as it opens and curls its arms, before they throw it overboard.

“Looks like stuff of nightmares! Yikes!,” wrote one X user.

“This looks like something straight out of Stranger Things’ ‘The Upside Down’,” another added.

“This wriggly ocean underwater tumbleweed is known for bein' kinda grabby and snacky,” a third joked.

“So many creatures exist on this planet that I dont even know exist,” another commented.

Mohd azhan Arshad/ViralHog

“Nope that’s a sleep paralysis demon,” joked someone else, while another added: “That s*** came down on a space ship or through a portal from another dimension."

And while it might look otherworldly, the creature is actually known as a basket star.

It belongs to the class Ophiuroidea and is related to starfish and sea urchins.

The animals tend to live in deep sea habitats or cold waters across the world and live among coral, eating zooplankton to survive.

Mohd azhan Arshad/ViralHog

Interestingly, like star fish, basket stars are able to grow their limbs back if they are chopped off or broken by predators.

Explaining more about the creature, the Monterey Bay Aquarium said: “A basket star depends on passing currents for food. It extends long arms and uncurls its branches to form an intricate net.

"Then it gathers a meal of tiny drifting animals, like small crustaceans and plankton."

Sounds cool... still a nope from me, though.

Topics: Animals, Viral, Social Media

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.