Whale Skeleton Mistaken For a Sea Monster

Here is something I ran across the other day. Apparently a group of Russian soldiers working on the east coast near Japan ran across the carcass of a small toothed whale or large dolphin in an advanced state of decay, and decided it was a sea monster. Russian Special Services has hauled the carcass away for study, but, knowing the Russians, we won't hear squat from them as to what kind of whale it is.

Short article with lots of good pictures

As you can see, the Russians were good enough to take a good variety of excellent photographs from as many angles as possible.

The skull is slightly damaged with several teeth missing, and others broken , and the flesh has dissolved into a disgusting fibrous mess, but from what skeleton is exposed, one can see it is a whale, judging by the tail skeleton (note the yellowish tissue from the remains of the fluke), and by the skull.

My guess, based on the size of it (15 - 20 feet), and by the shape of the skull, is that this poor hapless beast is a false killer whale.

Nice high res photo of FKW skull
Photo of a replica FKW skull with information
Phot of head and neck of a mounted skeleton

Wikipedia entry

Dolphin skeleton (Sorry. I couldn't find a full FKW skeleton pic. This was the closest I could find.)

Previous ATS discussion:
Unknown Creature found by Soldiers

You'll see that it actually didn't take ATSers long to come to the Whale conclusion. On the plus side, this is how "mysterious creatures" should be photographed. It just shows us that if we've got a good enough picture it can easily be identified.

Just goes to show that everyone who finds a strange looking skeleton jumps to the conclusion that it is a sea monster .