quote:
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, a marine biologist and 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.
The Chilean Navy first spotted the mystery specimen along with another large mass, but the other dead animal turned out to be a dead humpback whale.
What scares me is that there's people who are so trained that they can differentiate the stench of rotting whale carcasses from the smell of other gigantic rotting sea creatures.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
quote:
Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael Model 2000 was programmed to say:
"Someone blows their nose, and you want to keep it?" -Venkman, GhostbustersWhat scares me is that there's people who are so trained that they can differentiate the stench of rotting whale carcasses from the smell of other gigantic rotting sea creatures.
It makes you wonder what kind of other psychos are out there. [ 07-02-2003: Message edited by: Jens ]
quote:
Verily, Sakkra doth proclaim:
Cthulhu
Fixed the type for ya 
quote:
This one time, at Mortious camp:
Any pictures?
I didn't bother linking to the article because last night when I posted it all they had was some crappy off center shot of the scientists with like half the creature out of the picture, but now they have like an entire gallery of it.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!" [ 07-02-2003: Message edited by: Xyrra ]
"In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu lies dreaming."
quote:
Katrinity spewed forth this undeniable truth:
Fixed the type for ya
He wasn't spelling it right because even SPELLING the name will summon him! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU STUPID COOKIE LOVING CAT!? YOU'VE BROUGHT RUIN ON ALL OF US! OHNOSE! WHAT'S THAT NOISE!? HELP! HELP! HE--
[ 07-02-2003: Message edited by: Cinnistyr ]
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Death of Rats was listening to Cher while typing:
Anyone rember that Dean koontz movie that came out a while ago, the one where the blob came out of the ocean and people started to disappear?
You talking about Phantoms? It was a shapeshifting prehistoric creature thats natural form was a giant gelationous blob. It slept in the oceans throughout the millineium.
quote:
KaLourin had this to say about (_|_):
nah, Phantoms was something else entirely.
Nope. The creature was what I described. I read the book too ya know ;P
It just used underground caverns/rivers to come up from the sea into the mountainous town that the story took place.
quote:
A sleep deprived Trillee stammered:
And people wonder why I don't like swimming in the ocean much!
Imagine that thing floating up around you while you're out swimming, followed shortly thereafter by the bigass whale it was probably trying to eat.
Yeah. 
quote:
KaLourin probably says this to all the girls:
Movie described it differently then. muuuuuuuch differently. Made no mention of it being an oceanic creature... more like evil manifesting in sentient crude oil.
The movie leaves a bit out. Its race was what orginally killed the dinosaurs and such. Also in the book some bikers get eatten up in a cabin on the other side of town and one remains alive and thinks the beast is Satan himself and thus follows it. It commands him to help it get those in the town who are trying to kill it.
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Tarquinn had this to say about (_|_):
Sakkra beat me to it.
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Xyrra probably says this to all the girls:
Hey, Jose... I think we need a bigger grill..
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Xyrra spewed forth this undeniable truth:
is it mean, or can you see the wave through the top of the thing, kinda like, its see through?
quote:
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.
How boring.
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Sakkra's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
Cthulu
Agreed.
Ozius
But I'll put "giant gelatinous rotting flesh-blob" on the pile of monsters I need to make for my RPG .
Uh oh.
