Mystery sea creature washes ashore in eastern Russia

The carcass of a mysterious sea creature has washed ashore in eastern Russia, but its identity remains under debate and adding to the intrigue is that the animal was reported to have fur on its tail section.

The marine mammal, about twice the size of a human, with an

elongated skull, and with some of its with ribs exposed, was found on Sakhalin Island.

According to Sakhalin Media, local residents who found the creature described it as resembling a dinosaur, but with “a huge nose like a bird’s beak.”

Some suggested that the animal is an endangered Ganges River dolphin from India, but it’s much larger than the average river dolphin, and it’s unlikely that a freshwater river dolphin could have traveled to the frigid North Pacific.

The Sakhalin Media report cited a stark resemblance to the river dolphin, aside from the size and the fur on the tail.

The Siberian Times quoted Nikolay Kim, Deputy Head of the Forecasting department of the Sakhalin Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, as saying: ‘Judging by the appearance of the head, this is clearly some big dolphin. According to a characteristic of the skin, it is a rare species.”

Kim added: “I can confidently say that this is some kind of a dolphin. However, it has fur. It’s unusual. Dolphins do not have any fur.”

This was before the Tuesday morning reports began to circulate on U.S.-based marine mammal-themed social media pages.

When The Siberian Times’ story was posted on the Facebook page of whale researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, fellow researcher Wojtek Bachara commented that the animal was “clearly Berardius,” referring to the Baird’s beaked whale (Berardius bairdii), which inhabits the frigid North Pacific.

Bachara is an expert on beaked whales and his claim makes more sense, given the size of the animal and the unusual shape of the skull.

As for the fur, Schulman-Janiger guessed that it’s not, in fact, fur, but fibers that are exposed as “part of the breakdown process” of the decomposing animal.

In other words, a whale of a mystery appears to have been solved.