WHILE enjoying a walk at Mothers Beach, Mornington Jodie Richmond-Smith came across a strange object that has become something of a mystery.
Piquing her interest, the odd-looking object resembled a skull or body part of a marine creature.
“I’ve been walking the beach every day for years and I often find strange things on the sand,” Richmond-Smith said.
“But this one has me and everyone else I’ve shown baffled, and even the Melbourne museum didn’t know what it was.
“I’ve found all sorts of things, and this one is certainly a conversation starter.”
Richmond-Smith said the museum had shown her photos of the object to its anatomists, but they admitted to being stumped.
The museum told everyone had agreed it was a chunk of a much larger animal, but that the flesh was obscuring the bones, which would be the most useful diagnostic tool.
While Richmond-Smith originally thought it might be the skull of a rare narluga whale, the museum ruled that out, as it did not have any teeth or sockets, and was unlikely to be a skull.
The museum’s best guess was a pectoral girdle or a pelvis from a dolphin or large fish, but without genetic testing the object will remain a beach mystery.
First published in the Mornington News – 11 October 2022
