Keryn Donnelly
An Australian woman came across the skeletal remains of a mysterious creature while driving along the beach in Keppel Sands, Queensland.
Bobbie-Lee Oates, 34, posted an image of the 'mermaid alien' on Facebook over the weekend.
“It was exactly like a mermaid shape,” she explained in her post.
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“We were driving along the beach looking for a campsite, and we couldn’t help but notice how much the skull looked to be in the shape of a human’s.
“So we instantly stopped from the confusion as to what the hell could this be, and why does this look like a human skull?”
Oates said the creature was about two metres long and... hairy.
“It had a human-shaped skull with an elongated jawline, and hair similar to the colour of a cow or kangaroo, but with hair missing in many places due to decomposition," she said.
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“It was exactly like a mermaid shape, but hairy, because it seemed to have a tail or limb of some sort," she added.
Oates asked whether anyone could identify the mysterious creature in the comments.
"Wondering if anyone has any idea what it is or who I could possibly get to find out exactly what it is," she said.
“Doesn’t look like a marine animal. It’s got a leg. It’s also very hairy," one person explained.
"The long part tail or leg looks like it's got additional joint areas where another bone would attach, like a foot. The skull is round, the ribs are consistently human shaped. Wow," another person commented.
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While others thought it could have been a dead sea lion or a dolphin.
“The head is twisted back on the body, snout tucked under neck,” they explained.
“Highly decomposed, but not completely. Concerned that the flukes look cut off in straight line.”
While another person thought Oates might have stumbled upon something a bit more nefarious.
“Contact local police man, that looks human,” they said.
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James Cook University Environmental Science Emeritus Professor Helene Marsh believed it was decomposed marine mammal, most likely a seal.
"The most likely marine mammals of that size would be dugongs, dolphins and the very occasional seal," she told The Courier Mail.
"The shape of the presumed head and the robustness of the ribs suggests a seal, as does the posterior long bone."
In the end, Oates said she was no closer to discovering what the mysterious creature is.
“I still have not found out what it was,” she said.
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“I was hoping someone would comment saying what it was, but the comments were all so different.”
We guess we'll have to go with 'mermaid alien' for now.