A rotting 15-foot seabeast dubbed the ‘Ainsdale Anomaly’ has been found washed up on a Merseyside beach leaving locals mystified.

Since being spotted on Wednesday, many have speculated about the beast’s origins with some saying it was a washed-up whale, wholly mammoth, or even an alien.

The fur-covered creature, which was found on a beach near Liverpool, is without an identifiable head but looks to have four flippers, with the decay and flies adding to its otherworldly appearance.

Images were shared to the Ainsdale community Facebook group with the person who posted them asking if anybody could identify the creature.

One reply read: ‘It’s very bizarre. It’s like a mishmash of different things in one.

‘It’s 15-feet long, it has flippers, it’s furry and it seems to have another creature attached, possibly via an umbilical cord, so it could have been giving birth.

‘It was almost like a whale that had eaten a horse that had eaten a dolphin.’

A 32-year-old woman, who filmed the creature, said just the stench of the carcᴀss made her feel sick.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: ‘It’s been called the Ainsdale Anomaly. My first ᴀssumption was it was a whale of some kind.

‘Some people think it’s a cow or a horse. I honestly have no idea.

My favourite theory is that it was a woolly mammoth or a crash-landed alien. It almost looked like an elephant too. I didn’t get too close because there were lots of flies and it stank.’

She added: ’To me the body looked quite twisted with flaps of skin here and there.’

However, Natural England, who own and manage Ainsdale Sand Dunes National Nature Reserve, believe it knows what it is.

Senior Advisor at Natural England Stephen Ayliffe, said: ‘We can confirm that an animal in a poorly decomposed state has washed up on Ainsdale beach and whilst the identification of the animal is unconfirmed it appears to be a species of whale.

‘We are working with an animal removal company to have the animal’s remains removed from the beach as soon as possible.’