The Most Bizarre Beasts And Bounties Discovered On Beaches In 2020

You’d be surprised by the number of weird and wonderful things that show up every year on the world’s beaches. And last year was no exception, with 166-million-year-old dinosaur fossils, ice boulders and sea hares among the bizarre things that people came across. Read on to find out about 20 of the most unlikely items that appeared on coasts around the planet in 2020.

20. Gigantic squid

Adéle Grosse was out for a stroll along South Africa’s Britannia Bay beach with her spouse when she came across this extraordinary monster. It was an appropriately named giant squid, or Architeuthis dux to give it its scientific label. Invertebrate zoologist Michael Vecchione told the Live Science website that beachings of these extraordinary creatures are extremely unusual.

Speaking to Live Science, Grosse described the moment she came across the huge mollusk. “At first, I just wanted to get it back into the ocean. [But] on closer observation, one could see that it was dead.” Apart from their outlandish size, these carnivorous animals are distinguished by possessing the largest eyes of any creature on Earth.

19. Mysterious monolith

Mysterious monoliths were a thing in 2020, with the first appearing in the Utah desert in November and others soon following. In December one appeared on a beach on the Isle of Wight, which lies in the English Channel, south of mainland Britain. Standing proud on Compton Beach the mirrored obelisk was initially a real puzzle.

But then a local designer called Tom Dunford came forward to claim ownership. He confessed to the BBC, “I did it purely for fun.” Soon afterwards, an associate of Dunford’s removed it and put it on eBay in a charity auction. The distinctive piece had sustained some damage but nevertheless it reportedly fetched around $1,100.