Sea potatoes wash up en masse on Cornish beaches
Marine experts say mysterious orbs found at beaches around Cornwall are species of urchin stirred up from sandy burrows.
With their biomechanical, other-worldly appearance, these orbs look like baseballs reprocessed through the imagination of HR Giger. So their appearance en masse on many beaches in the area left locals slightly disturbed, I must admit that when I picked one of these creatures up it made feel a little uneasy.
But there is no need to napalm the beaches of Cornwall just yet. According to a marine biologist, the unsettling spheroids are not the vanguard of an invasion of Xenomorphs. They are a common species of urchin, known as sea potatoes or Heart urchin (Echinocardium cordatum.) and are related to starfish.