Imagine walking on the beach in Galveston, Texas when something odd catches your eye in the sand. At first sight, you think of the movie "Alien." after you see what it looks like.

Well, that's exactly what happened when a person saw something wiggling in the sand that looked like a half-snake, half-worm with a strange-looking head. The photographer snapped a picture of the unusual creature and shared it on social media where it went viral last Thursday. Eventually, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department got involved after seeing the photos and came to the conclusion that it was not an alien it was a shrimp eel. These eels make the gulf region their home mainly in the bay areas where they bury themselves in the sand and muddy waters. Very seldom do they surface during the day as they are nocturnal creatures that usually only come out at night to hunt for their food.

According to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are usually dark grey or black to yellow in color and have three staggered rows of teeth. The shrimp eel has been know to grow up to 20 inches long but can grow as much as 36 inches. Here's where the creep factor comes in if eaten by a fish they can burrow their way out through the stomach. Now, that sounds like "Alien" to me for sure. The good news, wildlife authorities say the eel poses no threat to human beings. So if you spot one just leave it alone, according to KPRC 2 Houston.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

LOOK: Here are the best lake towns to live in

Many of the included towns jump out at the casual observer as popular summer-rental spots--the Ozarks' Branson, Missouri, or Arizona's Lake Havasu--it might surprise you to dive deeper into some quality-of-life offerings beyond the beach and vacation homes. You'll likely pick up some knowledge from a wide range of Americana: one of the last remaining 1950s-style drive-ins in the Midwest; a Florida town that started as a Civil War veteran retirement area; an island boasting some of the country's top public schools and wealth-earners right in the middle of a lake between Seattle and Bellevue; and even a California town containing much more than Johnny Cash's prison blues.

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