Is this thing real??

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:39 pm

http://www.crackmuffin.com/html/Sea-Monster.html

The discussion is raging at another forum. Is this thing real or is it a display of some good photoshoping?
I believe it's total bogus.
You help decide. Does that thing excist?

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:45 pm

It might be constructed of real materials, like a baboon's skull with a fish skin stretched over it, for example. I remember taxidermists used to make jokes like this, where they would stuff a fish, but put a rabbit fur on the fish's body, and then claim it to be some newly discovered species from the Arctic. Stuff like that.

djm

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:46 pm

Henke wrote:http://www.crackmuffin.com/html/Sea-Monster.html

The discussion is raging at another forum. Is this thing real or is it a display of some good photoshoping?
I believe it's total bogus.
You help decide. Does that thing excist?

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say NO. It is a joke. And darned ugly too.

Tril Bluejacket · Post by **Tril Bluejacket** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:35 pm

It has to be a hoax. For one thing, the fin placement is all wrong, and the spike on the dorsal fin looks like one of those goofy canines we see amid all those other unfishy teeth. Also, how many fish have eyes close together at the front of their heads? None that I know of, except maybe some species of bottom dwellers like flounders. Oh yes...and where are its gills?

Casey Burns · Post by **Casey Burns** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:53 am

There are some bathypelagic (deep water) fishes that are just downright ugly - including some newly discovered ones. Who knows? I sent the link to a dear friend/paleontology colleague of mine at California Academy of Sciences to see if he would ask one of the icthyologists there. If it is a hoax, they will at least all get a good laugh out of it, assuming they didn't come up with this in the first place!

Locally we have something occasionally caught called a "Rat fish" that is related to sharks and Chimeras. Has 2 rodent-like incisors that deliver a nasty bite (speaking from personal experience). Ling Cod is more conventionally fish like - but with the gnarliest mouth I've seen, with rowns of very sharp teeth all pointing in one direction: towards the throat - so that there is only one possible direction if you happen to be an unfortunate rockfish: in, not out. One that I caught had 3 in its belly.

Casey

raindog1970 · Post by **raindog1970** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:48 am

That thing was recently auctioned on eBay, and the winning bidder was the same casino that bought the infamous 'Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich'.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 9525998618

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:00 am

I agree there are some very strange and downright ugly deep water fishes.

This one for example, it has teeth that looks almost like human teeths. This is a real fish from Mexico.

Still think that thing is fake though, will be very interesting to hear what Caseys friend has to say.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:44 am

Despite the last toothy fish pic Henke posted (very surprising teeth, indeed,) I do not believe the fish-on-the-beach is real.
Baboon choppers are a good guess. Really now--fish with canine teeth?
Yes, there are a good many really ugly deep ocean species, but that's nothing like them.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:53 am

Twisted Taxidermy. That is a baboon's skull with accessories etc... etc... but wait, there's more, if you act now you will get a second one free!!

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:33 am

Joseph E. Smith wrote:Twisted Taxidermy. That is a baboon's skull with accessories etc... etc... but wait, there's more, if you act now you will get a second one free!!

missy · Post by **missy** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:18 am

aw, common, Walden- I have it on good authority that the Jackelope DOES exist!!!!

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:41 am

Cynth wrote:
Henke wrote:http://www.crackmuffin.com/html/Sea-Monster.html

The discussion is raging at another forum. Is this thing real or is it a display of some good photoshoping?
I believe it's total bogus.
You help decide. Does that thing excist?
I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say NO. It is a joke. And darned ugly too.

Cute!

It's a concoction. I'll ignore ichthyologic reasons and draw only from my extensive background with dead things and beach life. Which kind of go together, although I do have formal training in the dead stuff.

1. Utterly dry, clean exterior with shiny, globoid eyes. (If it was real, it would be wet, sand glommed all over, and the eyes would be sunken, like . . . well, like dead fish.)

2. It's holding itself up of its own accord. (If real, it would be flopped onto the sand.)

3. Seagulls in background exhibit no interest. (Close proximity of a cameraman would not deter seagulls from fresh dead stuff, nor would the attendant crowd of gawkers.)

4. No attendant crowd of gawkers.

5. Seafood restaurant in background. (Fish's last doman was on its wall.)

Tril Bluejacket · Post by **Tril Bluejacket** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:33 am

How could a fish with such a huge front-end swim any direction but straight down? I'd think there would be no way those little fins could propel the fish forward.

herbivore12 · Post by **herbivore12** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:33 am

Primate jaws with deep-sea fish's body, fer sure.

There are plenty of weirdos in the depths without going to the trouble of making them up:

Umbrella-mouth Gulper (the whip-like bit is the tail, that entire assembly below is the mouth/jaws, hinge to the left, mouth to the right):

(here's a dead one, but maybe easier to see what's going on, physiologically. That mouth opens up wide):

Lasiognathus saccostoma (an angler-fish that actually has three bony hooks a t the end of its lure/rod):

Humpback Black Devil:

A Hairy Anglerfish:

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:41 am

This looks like a cartoon out of a Tim Burton film.

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Is this thing real??

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