overanalyzer
Active Member
Uhm can you tell it is a slow day for me today??
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...le_science&e=4
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...le_science&e=4
we need an ID here
- Thread starter overanalyzer
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T
thomas712
Guest
Weather ballon Ha ha, no wait giant aptaisa kill it. I hope thay find out things like that nag me until it know what it is.
chuckularone
Member
The Blob!!!
overanalyzer
Active Member
OK just read this: SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Chilean scientists say their study of a huge blob of flesh found on a Pacific beach about three weeks ago has found it is the carcass of a sperm whale, ending speculation of a giant octopus.
Reuters Photo
Scientists have been baffled by the 40-foot-long 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 analysing 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 on Friday.
The sperm whale, made famous by Herman Melville's Moby ----, is the largest of the toothed whales and dives deeper than any other whale. The males measure up to 65 feet in length and weigh about 50 tonnes.
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 sinks 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.
Reuters Photo
Scientists have been baffled by the 40-foot-long 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 analysing 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 on Friday.
The sperm whale, made famous by Herman Melville's Moby ----, is the largest of the toothed whales and dives deeper than any other whale. The males measure up to 65 feet in length and weigh about 50 tonnes.
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 sinks 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.