Mystery creature washes up on Qld beach: ‘Exactly like a mermaid’

A “shocking” discovery on a Queensland beach has left scientists scratching their heads and set social media ablaze with conspiracies.

Photos of a creature — resembling a “mermaid alien” — washed ashore on an Australian beach have sent the internet into a collective tizzy online as viewers scramble to guess the mystery critter’s identity.

The macabre-looking flotsam first came to light via a post in the Marine Biology Facebook group that’s currently making waves online.

“It was exactly like a mermaid shape,” said uploader Bobbi-lee Oates, 34, of the skeletal remains, which she stumbled across while walking along the beach in Keppel Sands, Queensland.

“We were driving along the beach looking for a campsite, and we couldn’t help but notice how much the skull looked to be in the shape of a human’s,” the Aussie recalled.

“So we instantly stopped from the confusion as to what the hell could this be, and why does this look like a human skull?”

Accompanying photos show the apparent oceanic enigma, which indeed boasts a dome-shaped humanoid skull, and splayed out ribs that evoke the alien’s locks in Predator.

Scientists believed the remains belonged to a marine mammal of sorts. Bobbi-lee Oates/Pen News

Oates, who estimated that the critter was 2m-long, said: “It had a human-shaped skull with an elongated jawline, and hair similar to the colour of a cow or kangaroo, but with hair missing in many places due to decomposition.”

She continued: “It was exactly like a mermaid shape, but hairy, because it seemed to have a tail or limb of some sort.”

The beachcomber said that she initially thought she’d discovered a “miracle new species”.

Hoping to identify the apparent cryptozoological marvel, Oates turned to the Facebook commentariat, inquiring: “Wondering if anyone has any idea what it is or who I could possibly get to find out exactly what it is.”

“We were shocked because it looked human to start with,” said Bobbi-lee Oates. Picture: Bobbi Lee Oats/Pen News

The mystery prompted several guesses. Bobbi-lee Oates/Facebook

Armchair biologists were willing to lend their theories with one positing, “Doesn’t look like a marine animal. It’s got a leg. It’s also very hairy.”

Others wrote, perhaps in jest, that the creature was a “mermaid” or “siren”.

“Contact local police man that looks human,” suggested one viewer.

However, some realists suggested that it was a normal, non-mythological creature. “Looks like a dead seal/sea lion,” postulated one commenter, while another theorised, “Likely a dolphin of some sort”.

“The head is twisted back on the body, snout tucked under neck,” they wrote.

“Highly decomposed, but not completely. Concerned that the flukes look cut off in straight line.”

“That is a one-legged kangaroo carcass,” suggested a third.

Meanwhile, animal experts believed that the remains belonged to a marine mammal of some sort.

“Definitely looks like a small cetacean to me,” theorised Rob Deaville, project manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme at the Zoological Society of London, after reviewing the photos.

For Oates, the search continues. “I still have not found out what it was,” she lamented. “I was hoping someone would comment saying what it was, but the comments were all so different.”