Scientists are perplexed and eager to learn more about a strange "mermaid" that reportedly washed up on a beach in Papua New Guinea, reigniting human fascination with the ocean's depths. Photos of the ghostly white lump of flesh, 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 people on Simberi Island in Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Sea on September 20. Experts aren't sure about its true nature, but they believe it's more likely a sea creature than a mystical being.
According to Live Science, it is known as a globster, an unidentified organic mass that washes ashore. The origin of these mystery lumps is hard to pin down because much of the corpse has rotted away, and most are missing body parts that have fallen off at sea. In this case, most of the creature's head and large chunks of its flesh are missing. There is no information on the size and weight of the corpse because it was not properly measured before locals buried it, NIO representatives told Live Science. And no one collected DNA samples, which makes a proper identification almost impossible.
Helene Marsh, an environmental scientist at James Cook University in Australia, told Live Science that it looks like a marine mammal. "After that, it is anyone's guess," she added.
Sascha Hooker, a marine mammal expert at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, narrowed it down further. "It looks like a very decomposed cetacean to me," she told Live Science. Cetaceans, or whales and dolphins, are known to turn this color when their skin falls off, she added.
