Viral video shows raw chicken meat crawling off table

How fresh do you like your meat? Rare? Really rare?

Crawling-off-the-table rare?

Well, if a video making its rounds on the internet is to be believed, that last one is possible.

While the 7-second clip has been circulating for about a month, it seems to be a posting to Facebook by a Miami woman, who goes by Rie Prettyredbone Phillips, that is the reason for the viral explosion. The clip shows a piece of fresh meat — possibly chicken — in a restaurant suddenly coming to life and literally crawling off the plate and, eventually, the table.

A diner can be heard screaming when she realizes what’s happening.

And what exactly is happening? Well, some users point out muscles contract through signals from motor neurons. The signals come from ions, such as sodium. Sometimes, salt can trigger the nerves to fire. So, perhaps the meat was salted.

Even with a scientific explanation, it’s still pretty creepy.

But is it chicken?

USA Today talked with Dr. Amit Morey, assistant professor of poultry sciences at Auburn University. He suggests the meat just couldn’t be chicken.

“What they’re showing is too extreme,” he told USA Today. “For a chicken to twitch, you have to immediately kill it and debone it and place it on the plate.”

Morey — and a Snopes.com probe — suggests the meat is most likely a frog.