What was the Montauk monster?

Tetrapod Zoology ^ | August 4, 2008 | Darren Naish

[ari-freedom]

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, or spending all your time on Tet Zoo, you will almost certainly have heard about the 'Montauk monster', a mysterious carcass that (apparently) washed up on July 13th at Montauk, Long Island, New York. A good photo of the carcass, showing it in right lateral view and without any reference for scale, surfaced on July 30th and has been all over the internet. Given that I only recently devoted a week of posts to sea monsters, it's only fitting that I cover this too. I'm pretty sure that I know what it is, and I'm pleased to see that many other people have come to the same conclusions, as demonstrated by the many informed comments that appeared at Cryptomundo and elsewhere last week. So, what is the Montauk monster?

[ari-freedom]

also see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396182,00.html

No, it is not a turtle.

[Red Badger]

Pit Bull carcass..............good.............

[Brilliant]

No way is it a raccoon.

[Joe 6-pack]

A shaved beaver?

[ClearCase_guy]

It ... ah ... looked a bit butch. I can say that much.

[BGHater]

[Apercu]

Helen Thomas / John Edwards love child?

[Lurker]

"It's dead, Jim."

L

[Snickering Hound]

[DCBryan1]

I knowbwhat a shaved beaver smells and taste like, but have never seen one in the wild.

[CitizenM]

I always thought this was a dog and that the front part of it’s face had just decomposed faster because there was not as much flesh there. I felt sorry for the poor thing. No one bothered to even bury it. How stupid for the media to spend a whole week telling our country about a Montauk monster. Do any of these people have any brains...nope, sensationalism is all they think about.

[Pistolshot]

[mysterio]

When viewed from the other side, it’s obviously a dead dog.

[spectre]

I think it's definitely a "male" monster..

sw

[BGHater]

[reagan_fanatic]

[bmwcyle]

I guess you have that feature right.

[derllak]

A friend of yours?

[spectre]

Me and everyone else...:)

sw

[Centurion2000]

Excellent post.