A man couldn’t believe it when he stumbled across what he thought was an extra-terrestrial animal on an icy cold beach, but it turned out to be a creepy crawly from the sea.

Mike Arnott, 33, was taking a stroll along Portobello Beach in Edinburgh, when the creature caught his eye.

He found the strange green, fluorescent object on the sand while the tide was out.

The engineer originally thought it was a moss-covered pinecone before realising it was alive.

He said the idea of it being an alien ‘did cross his mind’ – because he had no idea what the bright green spiky creature was.

Mike said: ‘I saw this fluorescent green thing with weird needles – I had no idea what it was.

‘The bright green and gold colours drew me straight to it.

‘I flipped it over and saw it had lots of tiny legs – I had never seen anything like it.

‘It being an alien definitely crossed my mind – or I thought it might be something from way out in the deep sea.’

Pete Haskell, of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, offered his expertise to help identify the alien-like animal.

He said it’s a washed up ‘sea mouse’ – which is confusingly a type of worm.

Pete said: ‘It looks a bit strange being out of the water, but it’s a type of marine bristle worm that’s found all around the UK coast.’

The lesser-known creature’s iridescent shimmering green and gold bristles make it look unlike any other marine animal.

The segmented worm can grow up to 30cm in length and feed on small crabs and hermit crabs and other worms.

To warn off predators, they are covered in bristles that can flash green, blue or red.

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