Unidentified Sea Creature Found After Typhoon

[Trithemius]

Looks like a 'sea monster' turned up in China. They have no clue what it might be, but it's very large.


Partly rotten, with its spine exposed, it has been impossible to identify, but has been described as having some hair, and orange stripes across a three to four-meter wide belly. The skull, which alone weighs over 100 kg, and coccyx of the creature have fallen from its body.

Link to Story (http://www.china.org.cn/english/Life/136739.htm)

[Hærfest Leah]

Thats cool, but ugly. LOL They haven't found everything in the sea yet. My husband and I swear their going to cross a surviving Megaladon one day.

[Valnorran]

Well, I could tell nothing at all from the picture, and I'm no scientist. However, there have been instances in the past of large, rotting carcasses turning up that puzzled most laymen. The carcasses turned out to be those of basking sharks.

[Ben Gruagach]

Well, I could tell nothing at all from the picture, and I'm no scientist. However, there have been instances in the past of large, rotting carcasses turning up that puzzled most laymen. The carcasses turned out to be those of basking sharks.

And in some cases, it's not been a basking shark carcass but a whale carcass (like a sperm whale or some other really large species.)

Half-rotted carcasses with major bits missing, especially when they are carcasses of animals that people tend to not see very often, are often mistaken for monsters. DNA tests would prove what the creature was.

[Nighthawk]

True, and why is it that when these stories break, one black and white photo come with them? If I found something like that, there would be fifty color photos from every angle.

[Ben Gruagach]

True, and why is it that when these stories break, one black and white photo come with them? If I found something like that, there would be fifty color photos from every angle.

I'm with you. And with digital cameras so easily available there'd be HUNDREDS of photos! Just from me alone!

[Trithemius]

True, and why is it that when these stories break, one black and white photo come with them? If I found something like that, there would be fifty color photos from every angle.

It's absurd, isn't it? Heck, I'd shoot 50 rolls of film if I saw something like that.

[dragoncrone]

If the skull is missing, how do they know it has (or had) a long thin head???

[Jenne]

Sigmund the Seamonster

Johnny and Scott are friends

Funniest thing you ever did see

On the land or in the sea...

That thing is ewie! But cool nonetheless!!!

[Trithemius]

If the skull is missing, how do they know it has (or had) a long thin head???

It didn't say the skull was missing, it just said it has fallen from the body, indicating that it was attached when the animal was washed ashore, but no longer is due to the degree of decay of the carcass.

[StormVixen]

why cant i see the artical... i wanna see a sea monster rotten shark/whale thing...

[Valnorran]

why cant i see the artical... i wanna see a sea monster rotten shark/whale thing...
You're not missing anything. It's just a shapeless mass among some concrete. And it was a black and white photo.

[Laisrean]

Well, I could tell nothing at all from the picture, and I'm no scientist. However, there have been instances in the past of large, rotting carcasses turning up that puzzled most laymen. The carcasses turned out to be those of basking sharks.

I'm a layman, but it seems to me that it couldn't be a shark if it had hair and bones, right? IIRC, sharks have no hair and they have cartilidge instead of bones.

My guess is it it is probably a whale of some sort. If it has a head like a crocodile, though, that doesn't make sense. And what about the orange stripes? Are those a result of decay? *shrug* I don't know.

If we don't hear any update to this that means it probably was nothing significant.

[Ben Gruagach]

I'm a layman, but it seems to me that it couldn't be a shark if it had hair and bones, right? IIRC, sharks have no hair and they have cartilidge instead of bones.

My guess is it it is probably a whale of some sort. If it has a head like a crocodile, though, that doesn't make sense. And what about the orange stripes? Are those a result of decay? *shrug* I don't know.

If we don't hear any update to this that means it probably was nothing significant.

My guess is that it's a whale -- and the "hair" is actually the remains of baleen which the plankton-eating whales uses instead of teeth.

I think I read somewhere too that some whales have been known to have bits of hair on them too. Not much, but a bit.

Stripes can be just stripes -- lots of sea animals (sharks, whales, etc.) have colour variations on their bodies. Or they could be discolourations due to injury -- scars or bruises or just rotting flesh.