Scientists are baffled and eager to learn more about a strange ‘mermaid’ who has reportedly washed up on a beach in Papua New Guinea, reigniting human fascination with the depths of the ocean. Photos of the ghostly white piece of meat, shaped like a mermaid, were shared on a Facebook page called ‘New Irelanders Only’.
The strange, pale and decayed mass resembling a mermaid was found by humans on September 20 on Simberi Island in Papua New Guinea’s Bismarck Sea. Experts are unsure of its true nature, but they think it is more likely a sea creature than a mystical creature. being.
According to Living ScienceIt is known as a globster, an unidentified organic mass that washes ashore. The origin of these mysterious lumps is difficult to determine because much of the corpse has rotted away and is missing most of the body parts that fell at sea. In this case, most of the creature’s head and large chunks of its flesh are missing. There is no information about the size and weight of the corpse because it was not properly measured before locals buried it, NIO representatives told LiveScience. And no one has collected DNA samples, making proper identification virtually impossible.
Helene Marsh, an environmental scientist at James Cook University in Australia, told LiveScience that it resembles a marine mammal. “After that, it’s anyone’s guess,” she added.
Sascha Hooker, a marine mammal expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, elaborated further. “It looks like a very decomposed cetacean to me,” she said Living Science. Cetaceans, or whales and dolphins, are known to turn this color when their skin falls off, she added.