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ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland – Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland’s east coast.
The six pictures show what looks like a brown rib cage and spinal column, slightly bent, sticking out of a crust of ice.
But researchers throughout Canada, Greenland and Norway are unable to determine the origin of the skeleton, said Garry Stenson, a marine mammal scientist with Canada’s Fisheries Department.
“It’s definitely unusual,” Stenson said Monday. “It’s not something that I’ve encountered before.”
His colleagues have been debating whether the carcass belongs to a bearded seal, a walrus or a beluga whale. But without the actual specimen in his hands, Stenson said he can’t resolve the mystery.
“It would be really nice to get a copy, a sample, a hold of it, but at this point we’re not quite sure what it is,” he said.
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