This picture of a "sea creature" from Gawker.com, which allegedly washed up on a beach in Montauk in July 2008, has created an Internet sensation.

The animal looks like a bloated, hairless dog, except that it's got an eagle-like beak, a prominent brow ridge and a curiously elongated front paw.

The short beak-snout and long, flipper-like paw certainly don't belong to a dog, but they could easily belong to a young raccoon whose fur and nasal cartilage rotted away in the water.