Is this the real Dune Sandworm? Blood-sucking ‘vampire’ creature with a mouth full of swirling teeth is found on a beach in Devon
It resembles the monstrous sandworms depicted in Dune, but this blood-sucking ‘vampire fish’ and its mouth full of swirling teeth are all too real.
Will Miles, 26, met the bizarre creature on the beach at Exmouth Marina in Devon last week while taking a walk after work.
He said: ‘It was very striking, lying in the middle of the beach, near the high tide line, I was walking after work.
“It looked like a huge leech with a sucker full of sharp, inward-pointing teeth.”
The creature is a sea lamprey – a species known for sucking the blood of their prey; hence the nickname ‘vampire fish’.
It resembles the monstrous sandworms depicted in Dune, but this blood-sucking ‘vampire fish’ and its mouth full of swirling teeth are all too real
Will Miles, 26, met the bizarre creature on the beach at Exmouth Marina in Devon last week while walking after work
Once widespread in Britain, they are now rare, with their decline due to low water quality and man-made barriers in the rivers where they breed.
Mr Miles, a warehouse worker from Bovey Tracey, estimated he was about 80cm tall – just under the height of an average two-year-old.
“I was very surprised,” he said.
“I’d never had one wash up on shore before and never expected to.”
Eager to share his strange discovery, Will posted a photo on a Facebook page for naturalists.
And while some correctly identified the elusive species, others thought it looked like something from the blockbuster Dune films, based on Frank Herbert’s science fiction novels.
The creature is a sea lamprey – a species known for sucking the blood of their prey; hence the nickname ‘vampire fish’
Once widespread in Britain, they are now rare, with their decline due to low water quality and man-made barriers in the rivers where they breed.
“Looks like the sandworm from Dune,” one person wrote.
“So that’s where Frank Herbert got his sandworms,” another added.
“Just saw the movie and that’s what my head went straight to,” a third replied.
One person asked, referring to the fictional world in which the series is set: “Is this on Arrakis?”
While others called the creature ‘Shai-Hulud’, using the name given to the sandworms by the indigenous people of Arrakis, the Fremen.
One joker asked, “Is there any spice around?” I could use some interstellar travel in the run-up to the election.”
To others, the creature was more horror than science fiction.
Mr Miles, a warehouse worker from Bovey Tracey, estimated he was about 80cm tall – just under the height of an average two-year-old
“Looks like the sandworm from Dune,” one person wrote. “So that’s where Frank Herbert got his sandworms,” another added
One comment read: “When I say I love the ocean, what I really mean is that I love the surface. What happens underneath is terrifying and none of my business.”
“I’ll never swim in the sea again,” said another.
It was also described as a ‘fish of nightmares’ and a ‘terrifying looking creature’.
Marine biologist Jarco Havermans, who made headlines last year when he became the first person in six years to find a sea lamprey on the Dutch island of Texel, described their life cycles.
He said: ‘For five years they live embedded in the soil where they filter the waste.
‘After these five years they turn into an adult sea lamprey that migrates to the sea to live as a parasitic fish species on larger fish species and whales.’
The lamprey’s victim usually does not survive the encounter.
“They migrate back to the rivers for reproduction,” he added.