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Chilean beach blob identified

tazo

tazo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 6, 2003
3,129
0
Pacific Northwest, Seattle, WA actually
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/07/11/chile.creature.reut/index.html

"SANTIAGO, Chile, (Reuters) -- Chilean scientists said on Friday their study of a huge blob of flesh found on a Pacific beach about three weeks ago concluded it was the carcass of a sperm whale, ending speculation of a giant octopus.

Scientists have been baffled by the 40-foot-long (12-meter) mass of gelatinous tissue found on a remote beach in southern Chile, with initial hunches ranging from whale blubber to a disputed species of giant octopus.

Researchers at the Museum of Natural History in Santiago were the first to reach a conclusion after analyzing samples of the decaying specimen and finding glands of a sperm whale.

"It has not been necessary to do DNA analysis in order to obtain identification. It was enough to find the dermal glands that belong only to this group," the scientists Sergio Letelier and Jose Yanez said in a statement.

The sperm whale, made famous by Herman Melville's Moby Dick, is the largest of the toothed whales and dives deeper than any other whale. The males measure up to 65 feet (20 meters) in length and weigh about 50 tons.

When a sperm whale dies at sea, it rots until it becomes a "skeleton suspended in a semi-liquid mass within a bag of skin and blubber," the scientists said. Eventually, the skin tears and the bones sink while the skin and blubber float.

"This washes up and has the appearance of an octopus because the spermaceti organ keeps its bulky shape," they added.

The spermaceti is a large bulbous organ that forms a sort of forehead and contains a milky wax which early whalers likened to sperm fluid. "
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-tazo
 
rainman::|:|

rainman::|:|

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2002
5,438
2
iowa
well that all just sounds charming. way to go mother nature...

i had been wondering what this was, thanks for posting it. I was hoping for new giant jellyfish or something interesting but not surprised it's more ordinary in nature... Just weird that they didn't ID it sooner...

pnw
 
W

Wardofsky

macrumors 65816
Aug 6, 2002
1,194
0
Man, I'd love to see a whale skeleton sinking in sea ;)

Heh heh, it's blobby like a whale...

Wonder what they are going to do with it now.
 
jbomber

jbomber

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2003
549
0
Brooklyn - NYC
i retract my previous statement where i said i intended to eat one of these. i thought it was a new colossal squid, and i really had a calamari craving.

:)
 
medea

medea

macrumors 68030
Aug 4, 2002
2,517
1
Madison, Wi
maybe this should be moved to the original thread rather than starting up another seperate thread.

It's interesting that they didn't even have to run a dna testing, but if they figured it out by just the dermal glands why did it take such a long time?
 
Mr. Anderson

Mr. Anderson

Moderator emeritus
Nov 1, 2001
22,568
6
VA
When a sperm whale dies at sea, it rots until it becomes a "skeleton suspended in a semi-liquid mass within a bag of skin and blubber," the scientists said. Eventually, the skin tears and the bones sink while the skin and blubber float.
Click to expand...


Yuck, now that's just nasty.....makes you wonder though, since they also found a whale carcass near by in the ocean at the same time.....

D
 
sparkleytone

sparkleytone

macrumors 68020
Oct 28, 2001
2,307
0
Greensboro, NC
OMFG that was nasty. i mean what in the HELL were they thinking. anyone who has enough intelligence to SPEAK should be able to predict what happened. that was just insane.
 
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