Mysterious Creature Washed Up On Cumbrian Beach

Apparently they are having a bit of trouble identifying this -

Article

Mr Boardman's own theory is that the carcass could belong to a primeval species, the zeuglodon - a kind of sea serpent.
He said: "It reminded me of a picture of a dinosaur I saw when I was younger - it does look like a prehistoric creature."

I like the way it is described as a 'Sea Sepent' - A nice generic term if ever i heard one!


Found this pic -




[edit on 18-8-2004 by KhieuSamphan]

Anymore images available?

Can't say if it's a "serpent" or not.
All I see in that picture is a log, twigs, and dirt.

Apparently there were several images taken but thats all I can find at the moment - Will look for some more!

hard to say with that small picture.

I enlarged the photo a bit and cropped out what seemed to be the Ground.

Still looks pretty confusing.

Judging from the size as described by the article, I'd say a really mangled seal. By the by, Zeuglodons were primatives whales, not a dino.

Which end is it? I can't even tell what I am looking at.

It looks like a small whale, of some species, perhaps a calf.
The long white bone looks like a typical cetacean skull bone.

It looks like a fish or seal with its head cut off. I cant really be sure though I wish there was more pictures

The people of cumbria may be just a touch inbred (and most probably drunk), but they'd be able to tell if it was a seal or whale carcass.

With one photograph of this type it's pretty much impossible to identify this, so for us, anyway, it's almost a total toss of the dice.

Notable quote: "It was about two to two-and-a-half feet long and had a leathery skin but no hair and seemed to be the composite parts of a bird."

I think I'll side with Warren Crutchley and his colleague, who apparently looked at the whole photo series, and call "squid!"

Originally posted by Bluecollar

Good job at that Bluecollar, your whitecollar superiors must be happy.



I looks like we are looking at a bunch of teeth. The bright white part I had thought was a long canine tooth, but I am not so sure now. Either way it got me thinking about this as a view from the ventral perspective of the roof of the organisms mouth.

The semicircular mottled brown item could be rotted and decayed shearing teeth, and if they are there does appear to be another row running parallel to it.

More distal along the 'snout', the structures there (right next to the bright white pointed looking portion) look like incisors and perhaps the outermost one is the actual canine tooth (ignoring that strange white portion). If so, then this organism has a bit of schnaze comming off of it, as it extends beyond these front teeth.

However, mammals almost allways have cheeks, and this thing doesn't seem to. and of course, the mandible would be gone or just not in the picture. The row of shearing teeth i talked about initially, they don't seem to be set into any obvious sort of gums either, and there are also no lips on this creature.

The lack of hair is interesting too, as is the small size. It might be a very juvenile whale or something along those lines. If those teeth are infact like I have described them, I have trouble seeing this as a fish or serpent.

They did say that the 'bird-like' portion was that it had a beak, which a squid would.

I wasn't clear on something tho. The article says photos were sent to professionals. What happened to the carcass? What was teh news article that this photo came from, I tried searching that 'preston press' site that the image is noted as comming from, but couldn't find anything.

How big is it supposed to be? Still looks like a partly decomposed, mangled sea creature to me. Sorry. But keep us updated, ya never know, this could prove to be a huge scientific discovery in which case all of ATS will be grateful you posted this

As one of the scientists said, the best way to identify a animal is opening it, pictures do not convey enough information for this kind of work.

Originally posted by ArMaP
As one of the scientists said, the best way to identify a animal is opening it, pictures do not convey enough information for this kind of work.

"He added: "One of the best ways to find out whether a creatures is a mammal or not is to cut it open on the beach and see if it has a backbone.""

Which, may I suggest is a bit misleading, as backbones are not exclusive to mammals ...

However the quote taken in the context of cephalopod vs cetacean does make sense.

The picture kinda looks like the end of a limb, split at the elbow (or knee) - the hollow area being between the ulna & radius (or tibia & fibula). The white bit being the humerus (or femur).

Maybe the thing that looks like a jawbone (running along the bottom edge of whatever it is) is not attached - just ended up there ?

More here:

www.100megsfree4.com...

[edit on 1-9-2004 by 0951]

is it possible that what ever it was had been frozen in the Ice of the Arctic and floated south as the ice melted (due to global warming) and could be an animal or person that has 'Defrosted'?

looks like a seal that got all shot up, bit by a shark, or like was dragged across coral for along time.