A couple found the hand of an "alien" on a Brazilian beach (7 photos + 1 video)

The lovers were walking along the beach in Brazil when by chance stumbled upon a strange limb with long bony fingers, reminded them of the hand of a friendly alien from the Steven Spielberg movie "Alien". However, experts argue that the "hand" is most likely belongs to a whale or a dolphin.





Leticia Gomez Santiago and her boyfriend Devanir Souza were walking along the shore, when they stumbled upon a giant hand with long bony fingers. When they posted photos of the find on the net, they were noticed by marine biologist Eric Comyn, who said the "hand" belonged to representative of cetaceans - the infraorder of mammals, including whales, dolphins and porpoises. And, judging by the degree of decomposition, the marine animal died about 18 months ago.






Although the limb does look like something that could dump alien, actually cetaceans inherited it from early ancestors who walked on land around 50 million years ago. Under the interdigital flesh of the whale or dolphin flippers there are five "fingers" or a five-fingered limb. This is found in people, amphibians and a number of other animals, which indicates their common ancestor.






The skeleton of the "hand" was found in Ilha Comprida, São Paulo state, Brazil, 20 November. The couple filmed it and they even put it on wearing a flip-flop to show off how big she is. "She is very big,” Santiago said. We don't know what kind of animal it is; even worse if it's an alien."

The couple shared the discovery with locals, who joked, that the find "looks like the hand of the Alien [from the movie of the same name]" or "mermaid's hand".



Komyn said that, judging by the size of the bone, it belonged to dolphin - also because they are often found in this region. The biologist added that anyone who finds animal remains on the beach should notify the regional environmental protection agency, Kananeya Research Institute (IPEC).

IPEC spokesman Enrique Chupiy, who also said that the skeleton, probably that of a cetacean, stated: "We always we prefer to leave the bones on the beach so as not to interfere with the circulation nutrients in the ecosystem. After a while, if some scientific interest, we collect them for research. If it's recent dead animals, we collect them in order to perform an autopsy and establish cause of death."