A Tongue-Eating Parasite Inside a Can of Tuna? (VIDEO)
Credit: Twitter/ @zoelouisebutler
A “strange creature” that a British mother found inside a can of Princes tuna she had just opened was likely a tongue-eating parasite, according to one expert.
British woman Zoe Butler posted in her twitter account a photo of what looked like a strange creature she found inside a can of tuna.
Natural History Museum said that the head probably belonged to a Cymothoa exigua, or tongue-eating louse. The parasite lives inside a fish, entering through its gills and attaching itself to its host’s tongue.
Dr Hany Elsheikha, associate professor of veterinary parasitology at the University of Nottingham, said it could be some form of juvenile crab.
Others speculated that it could be the foetus of a blowfish, a tadpole, a copepod or the head of a soft-shelled turtle.
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Update: After an investigation, Zoe Butler shared in her twitter account that the supposed tongue-eating parasite was found to be a small immature crab known as Megalopa by laboratory experts.