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Date: | Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:50:49 +1200 |
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>Giant sea creature baffles Chilean scientists Wednesday, July 2,
>2003 Posted: 1:32 PM EDT (1732 GMT) SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) --
>Chilean scientists were baffled on Tuesday by a
>huge, gelatinous sea creature found washed up on the southern Pacific coast
>and were seeking international help identifying the mystery
>specimen. The dead creature was mistaken for a beached whale when
>first reported about
>a week ago, but experts who went to see it said the 40-foot-long (12-meter)
>mass of decomposing lumpy grey flesh apparently was an invertebrate.
>"We'd never before seen such a strange specimen, We don't know if it
>might
>be a giant squid that is missing some of its parts or maybe it's a new
>species," said Elsa Cabrera, director of the Center for Cetacean
>Conservation in Santiago. Photographs showed a round leathery
>substance like a mammoth jelly fish,
>about as long as a school bus. Giant squid live at a depth of
>9,500 feet (3,000 meters) and only rise to
>the surface when they die. Specimens have been known to be as long as 60
>feet (18 meters). There was speculation that the mass might be a
>whale skin, but Cabrera said
>it was too big and did not have the right texture or smell.
>Cabrera said she was contacting Chilean and international
>organizations in
>the hope that they could help shed some light on the find.
Sorry to say, the thing in the image DOES look like a whale (and I
have been involved in the butchering of several beached whales for
their skeletons).
The quotes given do not sound like those of scientists.
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<[log in to unmask]>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut
I want your sinistral gastropods!
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