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Eve and Adam Dickinson were enjoying an outing with their two children at Pakiri Beach, north of Warkworth, New Zealand, when they came across a startling marine specimen.

Adam told Yahoo7 that his son observed the animal moving: "It's alive."   

"It almost looked like a load of muscles contracting," Adam said. 

They told their kids not to touch it — whatever it was.

Diana Macpherson of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research later identified the animal as a lion's mane jellyfish, the longest jelly in the world.

For perspective, the blue whale is thought to be the largest animal ever to inhabit Earth. The lion's mane jellyfish can grow 23 feet longer than the largest known blue whale. 

The jellies, which have a formidable toxin-loaded sting, are preyed upon by sea turtles. They mostly dwell in the Northern Hemisphere, but have been seen as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.