Nature
PUBLISHED
On March 21, 2022, Alexander Tan was taking a walk along the shore on Maroochydore Beach, in Queensland, Australia when he came across something rather unusual.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.At first glance, Tan thought it might have been a dog lying down in the sand, but upon closer inspection, it was far more peculiar.
“It was very odd,” Tan told Storyful. “Humanlike hands, long lizard tail, nose like a possum, and patches of black fur.”
The creature was very strange, with what appeared to be human-like hands and a reptilian skull. Tan posted his video to social media saying he would purchase a chicken parmigiana for anyone who could identify the corpse. While social media users were quick to jump in with their suggestions, from wallaby to alien, a professor from the University of Queensland agreed with Tan.
"After consultation with my colleague Heather Janetzki from the Queensland Museum we are pretty sure that it is a swollen, waterlogged brushtail possum who has lost its fur," he told the Courier Mail.
Brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) are the second largest possum species, mainly active at night; they live in trees and are common across urban areas of Australia. These marsupials eat mainly leaves, including eucalyptus, which makes up most of their diet.
The experts think the possum might have been washed out to sea after flooding in the area.
This is far from the only unusual creature to wash up and confuse people. In Taiwan, a bright green worm flummoxed a group of tourists.
