Doctors and scientists were shocked at the sight of seeing a boy’s legs being chewed up by mysterious creatures known as sea lice

When it comes to mysterious, dangerous, and even deadly creatures, Australia can easily be called the Animal Kingdom of Dangerous Creatures; the country’s collection of dangerous animals includes deadly snakes (deadliest in the world, of course), tiny and toxic redback spiders, and the famous jellyfish that cause heart attacks.

However, everyone was in shock when they saw the legs of a teenager looking as they have been chewed up.

Apparently, that’s exactly what happened according to the doctors and specialists. The Australian teen came out of the ocean with bleeding feet and ankles as a result of getting chewed up by sea lice.

The 16-year-old boy simply wanted to soak his sore legs at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton after a football match. However, half an hour later, he strongly regretted it. Doctors and scientists said that they were in shock when they saw the severity of the injury.

The theory that they came to was that Sam became lunch for the hungry sea lice, also known as marine isopods; they are a group of crustaceans, marine versions of slaters and pill bugs. Sea lice are usually parasites of wish. However, when they bite humans, they usually just leave tiny pinpricks that look like a rash.

The boy’s father decided to investigate himself by dropping a hunk of raw steak in the water where his son was injured. The video that he posted shows the result: hundreds of tiny sea creatures feasting on the meat.

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that the true culprit has been caught.

Alistair Poore, associate professor at the University of New South, said that the animals caught on camera by the father are not sea lice, but a group of small scavengers called amphipods, which are not known to bite humans.

“You can attract a lot of animals in the sea with raw meat,” Dr. Poore said. “Even though it’s interesting, it doesn’t prove to me they were the ones that bit his legs.”

Dr. Poore expressed his doubts that this was a particularly aggressive strain of sea lice; however, he suspected that there may be greater numbers in the area than it should, something that is possible only if there is a lot of dead fish in the area.

Source: nytimes.com