These 'alien' deep-sea fish found on a Scottish beach will haunt your nightmares

Scotland may be home of the world's most famous fictional sea beast, Nessie, but new images show that Caledonia really does have monsters lurking in the deep.

Volunteers at a local conservation agency were amazed to find a host of unusual deep-water fish washed onto the Aberdeenshire coast earlier this week.

Locals Jobrul Chamberlain and Bob Fitzpatrick encountered the animals at the St. Cyrus National Nature Reserve and put the deceased beasts in a bucket for further examination by professionals.

Staff at National Scottish Heritage were able to identify the creatures with expert help.

One of their most disturbing finds was a Sloanes Viperfish, a toothed snake-like fish that lives deep underwater at depths of up to 2,500m.

According to a Facebook post, the deadly animal uses its prominent teeth to kill its prey. The post said: "This Dragon fish is a really fierce predator, it swims at its prey, skewering them on impact with its needle like teeth! The first vertebrae ('backbone') of the fish, is specially adapted and acts as a shock absorber. To me it looks like it inspired the creature from the 'Alien' films, think back to the baby alien that burst from its victims stomach! Uncanny...."

Other rarely seen finds included a Fangtooth fish and a Chimaera. The trust's manager, Therese Alampo, wrote on Facebook: "Chimaera are amazing, mysterious creatures. Very little is known about them. I will probably never see a real one again! They are related to Sharks but diverged from them 400 million years ago."

According to the trust, swells off the Scottish coast often force deep-sea fish to shallower waters. However, it is believed a deep-sea researcher caught these creatures from nearby Shetland Islands, but were later washed away when he attempted to show children his findings.

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