Horrifying Video of Mystery 'Creature' Washed Up on the Beach Sparks Wild Theories

A bizarre video showing a "creature" washed up on a beach in Central America has been watched more than 25 million times, as people debated what it was.

Ali Dupin captured what she called the "prehistoric" animal in Playa Venao, Panama, and shared it to various social media sites, including TikTok and YouTube.

Dupin, whose Instagram page indicates she's a surfer, stumbled across the creature at night, as she filmed a close-up of the head and mouth, before panning down the body to the feet.

"Holy s*** I found this weird creature on the beach last night in Playa Venao!!" she captured the TikTok clip, uploaded on Thursday, which can be seen here.

She also posted the video to her Twitter page, asking: "What kind of #prehistoric creature is this?!"

After being seen 25.9 million times, she wasn't short on suggestions over what it could be. Numerous people thought it was a monkey carcass, while others claimed the video was a fake, merely staged for attention.

Sir Ronny McDonny commented: "I think it's a monkey who drowned, because its feet are hand-like so I'm guessing it's a monkey."

Tori George: theorized "It's a dead monkey that's been sitting in water for ages."

XoJordie thought: "This is a sun-bleached monkey carcass, at least I think. Would make sense considering the location. But there's no doubt this is some sort of primate."

Brittany Dorman added: "Seen another post where they said it was a dead spider monkey. It had been dead and in the water so long its hair came off."

Their speculation isn't unfounded, as the white color could have been caused by the weather, along with other distortion.

Website eForensics explained: "After the fleshy portion of an individual is gone the skeleton is left without protection from the sun. The main types of damage caused by sunlight are bleaching, shrinkage, and warping.

"Sun bleaching occurs when a bone is left on the surface of the ground or is only partially buried. Bone that is exposed to sunlight will undergo discoloration, taking on a bleached or whitened or whitened appearance."

Others were adamant Dupin had staged the entire thing, with Randos Sky Cam writing: "If it was real, you would of did a more thorough job of doing more inspection of it."

"I mean it's fake already. Try harder next time when trying to promote your YouTube and Instagram," JAJ JAJ commented.

While Frank A simply said: "Obviously fake."

Others shared more tongue-in-cheek answers, with Puko joking: "I thought it was a dog at first."

Who commented: "So that's a mermaid."

Sam asked: "Ya'll never heard of the montauk monster?"

While 600Bluefitteds wrote: "That's the chupacabra of the ocean."

Newsweek reached out to Dupin for comment.