Globsters? What On Earth is That?
By Sara Fawley
What in the world is a Globster you ask? It is the name given to mysterious immediately unidentifiable carcassas that wash up on the shores of the ocean and sometimes(though not often) lakes
This does not apply to every carcass that washes up on shore. If it is recognizable as a known marine animal then it is not a Globster. These masses that wash up on shore are so bizarre looking that when they are discovered most think they are some sort of sea monster. In his book “Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology” George M Eberhart give this description of Globsters: No apparent bone structure, ivory -colored, rubbery, stringy, extremely tough skin, covered in fine hair or fiber, no defined head, no visible eyes.”
Let’s look at a few well known Globsters. In 1896 was tossed a massive corpse on the beach in St Augustine Florida.. It was a 6 foot high rubbery blob.It was speculated at the time to be from a giant octupus. In 1956 th “dry harbor carcass” washed up on an Alaskan Beach. It was 100 feet long and covered in 2 in reddish fur. In the early 1960s one washed up on the West Coast of Tasmania. The blob was about 20 feet long by 15 feet wide and had 6 to 8 strange lobes along the side. These are just a few. There have been many others over the centuries. So what the heck are they?
There has been specutlation over the years that Globsters are everything from basking shark carcassas to giant octopuses to the remains of prehistoric animals that were frozen in icebergs and finally thawed and washed ashore. In 2004 Bilogist Sidney Pierce and his team gathered all available Globster specimens and examined them using electron microscopes as well as molecular and DNA testing. Their conclusion was that all available specimens were from various species of great whales. Some will refute the assertion that all Globsters are whale blubber saying that the tests on some were inconclusive. The truth is that no matter how advanced DNA testing is it is only as good as the specimin being examined. If the specimin is to degraded or there is other contamination then the results could be inconclusive. However given the fact that all of the ones that were conclusive have come back as whale blubber it is probably safe to say that other ones resembling them are most likely the same thing.
We will always have stories of mysterious sea monsters and be looking for evidence or bodies. I for one do not think the answer is Globsters.
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