Scientists are examining the remains of a bottle-nose dolphin which washed up on the Sussex coast.

Experts are mystified as to why the creature was making the unseasonal visit to chilly water and what caused its death.

Beach walkers paused to watch as the body of the 9ft mammal drifted in the waves a few metres from the beach on the border of Brighton and Hove.

Trevor Weeks of Sussex Wildlife Rescue waded into the sea to pull the 9ft dolphin ashore.

Mr Weeks said: "There are a couple of puncture marks which could be from harpoons and there are also rake marks which could be from other dolphins.

"I have informed London Zoo and the Natural History Museum and am taking DNA samples and preparing a report for them."

Rodney Posner, owner of the Meeting Place cafe, was among the first to spot the dolphin at about 3.30pm yesterday.

He said: "It was just floating along and was obviously dead and one or two of the customers asked if we had seen it.

"I took a few pictures of it but there was nothing we could do."

A woman said: "I didn't realise at first that it was dead and thought it was sick and about to beach itself. When I looked closer I could see it was not moving at all and when it rolled over in the waves I realised it was dead.

"They are such beautiful creatures, it is just so sad to see it washing along like that."

A spokeswoman for Brighton Sealife Centre said: "Sadly we have had a few dolphin bodies wash up on the beaches along this stretch of coast recently."

Dolphins are not the only large sea creatures to be washed ashore on the Sussex coast.

A 15ft whale, believed to be a minke or baleen, came ashore at Shoreham Beach after a storm three years ago.