(Planet Today) A couple was walking along a beach in Brazil when they discovered a creepy object on the beach. People noted that what they found looked "like an alien arm in the sand."
What would you think if you found such a "hand" on the beach?
Leticia Gomez Santiago and her boyfriend Devanir Souza were walking along the shoreline when they came across a giant hand with long bony fingers. They took a picture of the object and posted it on social media.
The photos were spotted by marine biologist Eric Kaming, who said the "hand" belonged to a cetacean, such as a whale, a dolphin or even a porpoise. And judging by the stage of decomposition, the marine animal died about 18 months ago.
Dolphin Fingers.
Although the appendage found looks like an alien limb, this anatomy is characteristic of marine mammals, which adopted this trait from their ancestors who walked on land about 50 million years ago. Whales, dolphins and porpoises are the descendants of a stocky animal about the size of a fox with an elongated body and tail. This ancient creature roamed the land and hunted in the water until it became fully aquatic.
To illustrate the anatomy of cetaceans, last year Dr. Mark D. Schertz, associate professor of vertebrate zoology and curator of herpetology at the State Natural History Museum in Denmark, dissected a beaked whale that washed ashore. Photos of the animal's "hands" have thrilled the web around the world!
Schertz then said: "Animal flippers have evolved many times in different mammalian and reptilian lineages, each time differently; but the fundamental structure is the five-toed limb, but the specific structure [of the limbs] is very different."
Did you know about this feature of marine animals?
