What kind of animal is this??

I wonder what this thing is! I hope they are going to do tests on it. Maybe someone could call the paper and ask if the creature was collected?

Jack Southam, skipper of the Whitehaven sea angling charterboat Riptide, said on seeing a photograph of it: �I have never seen anything like this in all my years at sea.�

Another Parton resident told The Whitehaven News: �It seems to have a seal�s body, the tail of a whale, fins on top and sides, but also claws and really sharp teeth.�

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looks like an underdeveloped fetus. Whale or the like. or not

looks looks like a baby plytasaur (spelling). The dinosaur nessie is supposed to be.

looks like a dead bloated lizard

Not sure what it is,but will say this.
This is why we can never fully debunk or decide if it is real or what it is.Here you have a person with a camera and takes the picture.Is that all the film you have!!! Get close ups! Get other angles! Flip the thing over and take more!
If I had found that thing,I would have a minimum of 15 pictures taken.
I hate it when we get these stories about something and all we get is this thumbnail image and only ONE!
Im not sure if there are more,but why not submit all the images if you have them?

My guess is a bird has fallen into the water somehow, got coated in mud so it couldn't get away, and suffocated...then washed ashore

I agree with what sheep said. Looks like somthing underdeveloped.

Originally posted by cpr12r
looks looks like a baby plytasaur (spelling). The dinosaur nessie is supposed to be.

That looks nothing like a pleisiosaur. And, i hate to be a jerk, but pleisiosaurs aren't dinosaurs.

On the taking many photos bit, how about these people take the damned thing! Or try to remeber where it was and have some zoologist look at it! I'm sure they'd be delighted, its obviously a little strange; if its fetal, then they'd probably welcome the opp to dissect a fetus of an animal that they already know. I once had a professor who was a parasitologist. A seal washed up on the river near the school, and he and his grad students jumped at the opp to open the thing up and study it. They unravelled the intestines in the parking lot, because the desks weren't long enough, and had thier own (gross) little field day out there.

I'm going with something bloated or underdeveloped as well. It always strikes me odd when only one picture is taken by the person that finds it and if they don't decide to take it to a zoologist as I would have done.

Its like those Big Foot films that people supposedly capture...quit filming from a distance and run after it!!!!

That looks nothing like a pleisiosaur.

No, but it does look like a Basilosaur. A wee Basilosaur.

WilliamOneSac-

What the @#%# is going on in your avatar? Woo!

well if you think about it at some peoples view.. if you happened to find this thing laying on the beach.. ould you really wanna touch it? You donno where its been

I also think that the picture does not accurately show just how big this thing was. As was pointed out in the article, there is a beer can lying alongside of the creature. So really the thing could easily be 2 or 3 feet long. But I agree, it's frustrating that no more pictures or articles about this have surfaced.

edit I just emailed the paper asking for any other pictures they may have or larger versions of the one they published with the article.

[edit on 9-13-2004 by William One Sac]

Well, no response to my email, however they did write a new article on the find. It seems everybody has a different opinion on what this thing could have been.

MAN�S fascination with the natural world is as strong as ever judging by the dozens of letters and calls The Whitehaven News received after a strange sea creature was washed ashore at Parton.

SEA MONSTER THEORIES FLOOD IN

I always wonder why people call something we don't know, a "monster".....it's not a monster, just an animal we haven't discovered yet? It always bugs the hell out of me!

Apparently it was a Harbour Porpoise, so the local press reported today.

Ah-Haaaa! See I knew a logical answer would show up sooner or later. Did the article say that it was foetal?

Wait a sec..... If it's a porpoise, where's it's dorsal fin??

[edit on 16-9-2004 by Der Kapitan]

www.whitehaven-news.co.uk...

SEA MONSTER THEORIES FLOOD IN

MAN�S fascination with the natural world is as strong as ever judging by the dozens of letters and calls The Whitehaven News received after a strange sea creature was washed ashore at Parton.

Whitehaven man Robert Beattie said he saw a similar creature a few weeks ago on the beach at Braystones.

He said: �It had quite big ribs and a backbone and I knew it could not be a fish, I thought it was an alligator, maybe a pet that had been thrown into the sea.�

He said the one he saw was slightly smaller than the one pictured in last week�s The Whitehaven News but was �much the same�.

BNFL were swift to light-heartedly emphasise: �It�s nothing to do with Sellafield!�

Dr Brian McCusker, of Newcastle University, rang to say when he has been fishing off the St Bees and Seascale coast he has noticed weird inbred beasts. He said some of them are �like something from the Alien film�� about four or five feet long.

A civil servant from Carlisle, who did not wish to be named, said: �It is a species of penguin, I am sure it is an old penguin that has lost all its fur.�

Charles Harvin, an American now living in Bulgaria, said: �Mystery monster?

�I wish it were a mini-Nessie but it�s a seal pup in a fairly badly decomposed condition.

�Gases in the body have bloated it out of proportion and the fur and skin in the small areas (flippers) have been scavenged or slipped off.

�I�ve seen many that look the same on the North Coast of California. First time I saw one I was also sure it was something �new�. Any marine biologist should be able to tell quickly from the teeth.�

Marine biologist Chris Frid said: �Pictures show a decomposing and hence very bloated young harbour porpoise.

�These are moderately common around the UK but are more difficult to see at sea than dolphins, they tend to stay underwater more and only show the blow hole when breathing�.

Nick Jeffrey, from Dent View, Egremont, said: �I think it is a baby porpoise that has inflated with decay gases.�

An anonymous caller said: �Unable to resist, I rang the Centre of Fortean Zoology and got through to someone called CFZ who became audibly excited. I gave him the web link which he typed in as we spoke.

�This is unbelievable,� he said. �I need you to get down there now, it doesn�t matter who�s around, just put it in a bin bag and Fed Ex it down � we�ll reimburse your costs.��

But later we had this message: �Sirs, I am a representative of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, based in Northants, England. We study unknown and out-of-place animals (www.cfz.org.uk).

�My attention was drawn to your story of the �mini Loch Ness Monster�.

�I have consulted a number of experts, and have come to the conclusion that the photo is actually of a foetal porpoise with desiccation of the pectoral and ventral fins which make them look like claws.

�No mystery here I�m afraid � but maybe next time.�

Is that the biggest picture there is? There's a can laying next to it so I think it's bigger than it appears...

oh wait...mystery solved. Goody.

It was really badly decomposed so the news item said.

It looks like a model of a fake monster . Okay if you REALLY believe it was alive once it is probably a premature fetus of a whale or something.