warning: i just wanted to be sure that you could say to yourself, “dave, you post some stupid shit on your blog“…okay, yeah, so even the brightest researchers sometimes get it wrong…when i read this blurb in the ‘feedback’ section of new scientist, i nearly wet my pants laughing…apparently, some ancient mariners (circa 1730’s, guy named Hans Egede) spotted “dreadful monsters” off the coast of greenland and talked all about it…

per the feedback bit, “Accounts of the sighting said the creature’s body was as thick as the boat, and three to four times as long. Although it had broad flippers and spouted water like a whale, Egede didn’t recognize it as one. But he was quite specific about one distinctly un-whale-like detail. The beast had a “snake-like tail” that stuck up from the water.”

…what could it mean? well, dr. charles paxton of the University of St Andrews Observatory, Scotland, in Archives of Natural History (vol 32, p 1) proposed that it was likely a giant whale penis…per Charles, “Egede might not have recognised whales that were rare in the North Atlantic, such as right whales or the now extinct Atlantic population of grey whales. The penises of these whales are snake-like and normally retracted, but when the whale’s are aroused they can extend to 1.8 metres...”…sounds like the premise of a farrelly brothers movie, doesn’t it?

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