What In The World Is Washing Up On Our New Jersey Beaches Right Now?

So what is the holy heck is this thing washing up on our New Jersey beaches?!?!?  Is it a dinosaur fossil? An animal vertebra?  Some sort of sliced, deep fried boardwalk snack tossed on the sand? Surprisingly, the answer to all of the above in no. You all had some funny guesses too...

Then we got to the serious answer...if you stumble across these on the beach, one commenter says to toss them back in the water because they are actually babies?!?!?

Ahhhh whelk babies!  I had NO idea this is what they look like before growing up! www.nj.gov says:

It's actually an egg casing! These are the egg casings of whelks, and inside each disk is a bunch of tiny little whelks As these sea snails grow, their shells grow with them. A whelk's shell can reach up to nine inches long. However, when they die they leave behind their shells. The shells then become homes for other marine life such as hermit crabs or a hiding place for an octopus.

So cool! Here is a photo of a full sized whelk shell...

I can't believe this comes from that!  So if you stumble across one of these things now you know what it is and what to do!  Thanks to all the locals for your information and the comedy...