'Mermaid?' Mysterious skeleton on Australian beach puzzles internet

The photos of an unidentified creature spotted at a beach in Australia have shocked people on the Internet.

The pictures were posted by Bobbi-Lee Oates on a Facebook group named Marine Biology. According to her, she stumbled upon the skeleton at Long Beach in Queensland, Australia. The pictures show skeletal remains, consisting of ribs, a skull, and a long bone, lying on the sand.

“We came across this on Long Beach Keppel Sands Queensland, wondering if anyone has any idea what it is or who I could possibly get to find out exactly what it is,” Oates wrote.

Many users have tried to identify the creature.

“Doesn't look like a marine animal. It's got a leg. It's also very hairy,” a person said.

Another wrote, “Likely a dolphin of some sort. The head is twisted back on the body, snout tucked under the neck. Highly decomposed, but not completely. Concerned that the flukes look cut off in a straight line”.

One user claimed that it is a “mermaid” while another said it looks like an “iguana”.

Oates said the skull of the creature looked similar to that of a human which made her confused. “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 told the New York Post.

Oates added that the skeleton measured around six feet in length and 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”.

As per Rob Deaville, project manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme at the Zoological Society of London, the creature “definitely looks like a small cetacean to me.”

Deaville said he was not familiar with the area and hence could not offer more details about the species, the report added.

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