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Could Verne have used an actual case?

From: Harry Hayfield <harry_hayfield~at~beeb.net>
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 00:33:58 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Chilean blob could be octopus

The 13-ton specimen was at first taken for a beached whale when it came
ashore a week ago, but experts who have seen it say it appears not to have a
backbone.

"Apparently, it is a gigantic octopus or squid but that's just our initial
idea, nothing definite," said Elsa Cabrera, a marine biologist and director
of the Centre for Cetacean Conservation in the capital, Santiago.

"It has only one tentacle left. It could be a new species or the remains of
a whale."

Ms Cabrera said samples from the creature's remains will be sent to France
for analysis by specialist Michel Raynal, and to a university laboratory in
southern Florida on Monday.

The creature washed up one week ago on Los Muermos beach, 1,100 kilometres
(680 miles) south of Santiago.

James Mead, a zoologist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
thinks the huge mass of slimy flesh is whale blubber.

"I don't have enough data to say it's an octopus or it's a whale, but I
would hazard a bet that when it gets firmly identified, it'll be a whale."

Mr Mead said a whale could have died of old age, decayed and a big piece of
it could have drifted to shore.

Richard Sabin, a marine biologist, cetacean specialist and curator at the
Natural History Museum in London said he would be surprised if it was whale
blubber after studying photographs of the find.

"Whale blubber has a very recognisable collagen matrix which gives it
shape," he said.

"We're not going to know for sure on this specimen until someone gets a
biological sample back to the laboratory."

Experts agree the bottom line rests with DNA analysis.

European zoologists said it closely resembled descriptions of a bizarre
specimen found in Florida in 1896 that was named "octopus giganteus" which
has confounded experts ever since.

Other alleged sightings of similar deep-sea creatures by fishermen and
divers from the Bahamas to Tasmania are the stuff of folklore, as well as
academic study.

The largest of the more than 100 officially recognised species of octopus
can measure up to seven metres.

Information gathered about this case matches that gathered by 19th Century
scientists who examined a creature found in 1896.

They described pulling at the 18-metre animal with a team of horses and
hacking at it with an axe without making a dent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/sci_nat_enl_1057242756/im
g/1.jpg

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Received on Fri 04 Jul 2003 - 02:37:12 IDT

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