Nov 22, 2008

Mummified Mystery Antique

Liz is working part time at an antique shop. Naturally, she comes across some oddities when new (well, not new at all) merchandise shows up for her to sort through. Imagine her surprise when she was met with this.

Not you everyday find! It's some sort of mummified something (I think I know what it is). Leave your guesses in the comments. Whatever it is, I'm sure it can be ground up and sold as an aphrodisiac somewhere in Asia. Top dollar, too.





23 comments:

Mitch said...

It's a Jenny Hanniver!

Anonymous said...

It's a stingray

Adrian said...

I think its a skate

Unknown said...

My guess is Guitarfish

Denita TwoDragons said...

Aw, Mitch beat me to it! :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_hanniver

Old-time sailors used to make these as "novelties" to give to their family. I guess that's the kind of weird thing you do when you don't have an iPhone to play with...

--TwoDragons

Anonymous said...

At first, I thought it was a male longnose skate-
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/race/media/photo_gallery/fish_files/Longnose_skate.htm

However, some details (say, dorsal fins at the end) don't match up. Whatever it is, I CAN say with a high degree of confidence that it is a skate and that it is a male.

Anonymous said...

I still stand by my theory of deep sea aliens.

Anonymous said...

$95!! 2 years ago I bought a box of them (8 or 10) here in L.A.
at $4 each! They almost always smell awful

Anonymous said...

Wow! Those are really neat and yet another thing I have never heard of before until this site. Thanks for posting that link, Denita, very interesting read. I want one!!

Anonymous said...

it's a ray or skate with deep slashes in it and chunks of fin removed...sometimes theirs sold as aliens or devils.

Anonymous said...

neat! My sister took a picture of a fresh one of these she'd seen in Mexico and I was never able to figure out what it was.

Elusis said...

Cuttlefish cuttlefish cuttlefish!

Anonymous said...

Guitar fish :)

Zanna said...

Is this same thing sometimes called a "Sea Bishop", or is that perhaps another type of skate/ray? It seems like I've seen that in a very old woodcut image, perhaps fancifully pictured holding a trident...

morgan said...

Everyone else has beat me to it, but I can tell you 100% that this is some kind of skate and not any type of cephalopod!

Anonymous said...

It's a stingray. I saw this thing before in Ripley's/

Scythemantis said...

I knew of these from my childhood because one of the "monster in my pocket" toys was based on them and they appeared in countless books about sea monsters, cryptozoology and hoaxes :p

Anonymous said...

Cthulhu!

Anonymous said...

Umm. has anyone heard of a giant squid (real tecnical naming i know but) it looks alot like a young or small one. it looks like the preserving or age has browned it, but the 'spear-like' head and the position of what appear as the eye holes a couple inches under it really give me the impression of this elusive sea crature...

Scythemantis said...

Sorry Dhemigod, but as has already been said, this is a dead stingray. They are commonly dried out and cut into these monster-like shapes as souvenirs. You can see the tail fins and everything.

Anonymous said...

It is an dried out Angel Shark (lat. squatina). Nothing was cut or altered. They used to be sold as mummies of angels (does not really advertise heaven if you ask me).
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatina

Alexander said...

It is definitely an alien. That there is 100% legitimate extraterrestrial. You should sell it to NASA for three million dollars.

Anonymous said...

Chupacabra