A sea monster that recently washed up on the shore of an Australian lake was discovered by a fisherman who found it while fishing last weekend. It had been described by the media as a creature with a thin body and scales, and reportedly had a crocodile tail, dolphin head, and very sharp teeth.

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A photo of the sea creature went viral. The online community made guesses that ranged from a live dinosaur to a Photoshop hoax.

However, within a few days experts soon classified the creature as a pike eel, accoridng to Discovery. The animal is active at night but is often seen in the lake.

In addition, the monster was estimated to be 5.5 feet long (1.6 meters). Although it would be a plausible size for a large eel, it is smaller than the maximum length for that eel species.   

The creature looks huge in the photo of Australian fisherman Robert Tyndall, according to The MarshallTown. He photographed the eel at a low angle near the ground, which made it look like a large creature.  

There were a few reasons. The eel's body was higher in the photo so it was closer to the horizon line. In addition, the angle of the photograph makes the tail unclear so the creature looks longer than it actually is.

Another issue is that nothing near the eel's body creates a sense of scale. For example, if it was near a can of Coke people could use it as a reference to guess how large the animal is.

Some online people suggested the picture was fake. However, there is no proof that Tyndall used any tricks to change the photo of the real and common sea creature.

However, the animal being large was not the only reason the photo went viral on social media. In an interview with Newcastle Herald Tyndall admitted he knew he snapped a photo of a big eel.

Tyndall added that the creature looks larger than an eel in the picture. He noted that based on people's online comments the animal seemed to be growing.

Discovery points out that many photos go viral on social media because original content that could explain the creature including other photographs and quotes has been removed.

Here are 10 viral photos that tricked the web: