John Kettler Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 My nephew Mark saw something about this on TV where he lives and managed to track down a link. http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080626/BREAKING/638413900/1661 Anyone know what this is? Interestingly, it turns out we were both blown away when we first learned about the living fossil that is the coelacanth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subvet Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Very interesting. Hopefully when the experts figure out what it was the media will let us know too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akd Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Maybe a billfish with parts of the skull missing? Those "sharp, dagger-like fins" are pretty typical fish vertebrae. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoolaman Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Cool, I like a good mystery. However I strongly suspect that it's a fish of some sort. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted July 13, 2008 Author Share Posted July 13, 2008 I, too, suspect some sort of fish, but don't they generally have teeth? Didn't see any in what I take was the head. This struck me as odd. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071026010739AAMf3Tn Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellfish Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 I've been an amateur marine biologist and a volunteer aquarist for years and I've never seen a skeleton like that. It looks vaguely like a flathead or snakehead. It looks like the jaw is missing too. Of course, with that said, there's still incredibly little we know about the ocean. I wish I could see better pics of it, with a sense of scale as well (the kids don't help). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 Here's more info. http://levelbeyond.com/2008/07/02/mystery-bones-from-longboat-key/ This says there was still flesh on the thing when found. Any bets it wasn't saved? Note the much better skull pic accompanying article. Skull weight seems so large, I'm wondering if it isn't a typo. http://www.koaa.com/aaaaaa_down_to_earth/x471792746/Bones-of-mysterious-sea-creature-wash-ashore More comprehensive versions of the finding story. http://shstage.ny.publicus.com/article/20080627/NEWS/806270380 http://www.allenamerican.com/articles/2008/06/29/breaking_news/43.txt Hi-res critter video after commercial here. One segment has an adult female in frame, which should help on size comparisons. http://www.kalb.com/index.php/news/article/video-mystery-bones/9608/ Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Taxidermists use acid to remove the flesh from the bones. A friend of my brothers who was an amateur stuffer drank some, they don't know if it was on purpose or not. He died a few hours later. So yeah, it's likely there's no flesh left for DNA purposes unless the stuffer thought on and I think testing would have been mentioned in the article. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellfish Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Yeah, that's not a 30lb skull. I still have no idea what it is. Those spikes are pretty big, so they'd probably protrude from the skin, and they look like they're pretty even in length down the whole body. That skull, though, doesn't strike me as a fish skull. It does look kind of reptilian, but that doesn't jive with the rest of the skeleton for known species. It'll probably end up being something really obvious, but damned if I know. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Manbearpig? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akd Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Backbone is definitely fish: http://www.sportsmanschoice.com/A%20Note%20Worth%20Reading/encyclopedia/lr000531.gif Backbone to head configuration seems similar to a billfish: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Swordfish_skeleton.jpg Shape of skull itself? I still think it could be a partial billfish skull or something similar. There are definitely significant parts missing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Anybody remember the Piltdown Man? Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Viljuri Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Anybody remember the Piltdown Man? Michael I think many have read about it, but personal experiences and recollections about it, no. Though, you did cross the pond already before the 1900's, didn't you? Old country and sorts? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnergoz Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Anyone who doesn't remember Piltdown Man can certainly google it...and your point is, Michael? You think this is a pasted together hoax too? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 You think this is a pasted together hoax too? Do I think that? Not yet. But in all the speculation flying around, it's a possibility that should be kept in mind. Much closer to our own time, a decade or two back there was a Chinese archeological hoax centered on a supposed missing link between reptiles and birds discovered in the Gobi Desert. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted July 17, 2008 Author Share Posted July 17, 2008 Michael Emrys, Java Man was also a crock, but this thing was apparently found with all the pieces connected, not to mention some flesh still on it. Not so in the case of the the infamous Piltdown Man. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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