Its a real-life version of one of the most feared monsters in horror fiction... only smaller. A lot smaller.

On Wednesday, an international team of researchers unveiled the fossilized remains of an ancient relative of the sea cucumber. It had 45 tentacles and lurked at the bottom of the seas some 430 million years ago.

Theyve dubbed it Sollasina cthulhu , after the tentacled Great Old One of H.P. Lovecrafts weird tales, a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B said.

Unlike the massive Cthulhu of fiction, the creature unveiled by scientists this week was quite tiny, with the fossil measuring just about an inch across.

However, the researchers said those 45 tube feet extended out in every direction and would make it seem much larger as it sat on the ocean floor, perhaps waiting and dreaming.