A ghostly white pile of rotting flesh in the shape of a mermaid that recently washed ashore on an island in Papua New Guinea has baffled experts. The strange sea creature was probably a marine mammal, but its exact origin is unclear. The mysterious mass was discovered on September 20 by local residents of Simberi Island, a small volcanic island with a population of about 1,000 people.

The creature is missing most of its head and some of its flesh. There is no information about the size and weight of the body. Local residents buried him without measuring him properly. Additionally, no one collected a DNA sample, making accurate identification nearly impossible.

“Experts were not able to identify the creature from images alone,” said environmental scientist Helen Marsh of James Cook University in Australia. “The creature looks like a marine mammal,” she added.

St. in Scotland Sasha Hooker, a marine mammal expert at the University of Andrews, was a little more specific. “To me it looks like a pretty rotten marine mammal,” she said. “The color of marine mammal flesh is known to change when their skin is shed,” she added.

According to one study, the most common marine mammals in the region are pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris), pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus).

Other experts have suggested it may be one of the chubby marine mammals that once inspired sailors with stories of mermaids. Jens Curry, chief scientist at the Pacific Whale Foundation in Hawaii, said it may have been a dugong.

“From what remains of the head, the creature appears to be too large to be a cetacean. “The amount of crying also points to a marine mammal, not a shark,” Curry added.

However, not everyone thinks this animal is a marine mammal. Marine biologist Gavin Naylor of the University of Florida believes the remains may belong to a large shark. “It’s a little odd that the entire skin looks like it’s rotted,” the scientist added.

Other shark experts disagree. “At first I was leaning toward a large shark. But now that I’ve spent so much time looking at it, I’m more convinced it’s a marine mammal,” said Gregory Skomal, a marine biologist at Boston University and head of the shark program at the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Service. “It’s all about the shape of the tail and the placement of the fins,” he said. The scientist added, “The vertebrae seen in one of the images are more similar to the whale spine than the cartilaginous spine of the shark.” Source