A mysterious bone discovery in Sardinia is causing a stir. Opinions vary widely as to which animal it could be.
Cagliari – Beach walks can lead to exciting discoveries. Whether living sea creatures, shells or precious stones, there is always something to discover. However, sometimes beachgoers come across rather eerie finds, as an example from the Baltic Sea shows.
Even in southern regions there are objects that cause confusion for those who find them. This is what happened to a vacationer in Italy who found what she was looking for on the beach on the holiday island of Sardinia.
Curious discoveries: Beach visitors come across unusual finds - even in Sardinia
Mark Benecke, a forensic biologist, is very familiar with mysterious finds. He regularly shares strange discoveries sent to him with his large online community. These are often finds from familiar surroundings, such as your own garden. However, recently a woman discovered a strange object on the beach in Sardinia.
A skull found in Italy?
“Hello Mark, this skull? “We found it on the beach in Sardinia and are wondering what kind of animal [it could be]?” The woman turned to the criminal biologist with this question. “The weight is very light and the structure on the top is easy to feel. I put a lighter next to it to compare the size. Love and sunny greetings from Sardinia: Steffi,” she wrote in a post shared by Benecke on his Facebook page.
She also added images of the mysterious find, which actually indicate bones. The bone is barely larger than a lighter and is covered in many small holes on one side. Another man discovered a dinosaur bone while on a walk.
As with many beach finds that at first glance reveal little about their origin, users share their opinions about the object. “Could it possibly be the pelvis of a living creature? I recently discovered a piece of bone in the field, at first I thought it was a skull, it looked like it had eye sockets and vertebrae,” one person wrote in the comments. Other users suspect that it could be a pelvic bone or a sternum. Still others, like the finder herself, believe that it could be the skull bone of an animal.
Of skulls and bones: Mysterious finds on a beach in Sardinia
A debate quickly arises among the more than 120 comments: Is it a skull bone or the breastbone of an animal? “What's wrong with your pelvis or sternum? You can wonderfully see the boundaries between the cover bones of the skull roof as bright lines. “You wouldn’t have that with a pelvis or sternum,” writes one user.
“Really hard to say, it could be the upper part of a skull, or the breastbone of a bird. A shark falls flat because they have a cartilage skeleton,” commented an interested Facebook user. Suggestions that it could be a crocodile, a snake or an octopus seem unlikely.
Mysterious beach finds: bone puzzles in Sardinia – debate online
The discussion about the peculiarity of the find is becoming quite heated among some commentators. “This is the parietal bone of a bony fish. No pelvic bone. Maybe something like the American bowfin, unfortunately I don't know what species there are in Sardinia, but I suspect something like that - a predatory fish," writes a woman who says she is a biologist and has experience working with bones to have.
Another user, who says he also has experience with bones as a masseur, disagrees: “I also know what different bones look like... so I can see similarities between different animal bones.... For me it's clearly an os sacrum [sacrum, Note] of a bird…”. The forensic biologist Benecke himself does not comment on the find. Regardless of which animal and which bone it ultimately is, one thing seems certain, according to one user: “Definitely mausedoud, as you would say in Monty Python.”
Recently, a sensational fossil that was discovered by a walker became the “Find of the Year”. But even far from the beach there are always incredible finds, for example when clearing out apartments.