Scientists have begun studying the mummy of a creepy “mermaid” that was brought to the United States from Japan in 1906.
Early scan results suggest that the mysterious and sinister-looking mermaid mummy brought to the US more than a century ago is likely a combination of fish, monkey and lizard parts, all stitched together like some kind of Frankenstein's monster.
The approximately 11.5-inch (29-centimeter) long mummy is known as the “Fiji mermaid” due to its resemblance to an object of the same name supposedly purchased in Fiji by the controversial showman P. T. Barnum in the 1840s. That mummy was purchased in Japan by an American naval officer, who donated it to the Clark County Historical Society in Springfield, Ohio, in 1906. Documents accompanying the mummy suggest it dates to the mid-1800s.
Now, for the first time, researchers have been able to determine the mermaid's identity by performing X-rays and CT scans of her crumbled remains.
“This gave us the ability to study [the mummy] in almost every dimension with the hope of seeing what was inside,” project leader Joseph Kress, a radiologist at Northern Kentucky University, told Live Science.
Scientists carefully examined the mermaid from all sides.
Initial examination revealed that the mummy likely consists of the head and body of a monkey sewn onto a headless fish body, and that the mermaid's hands are the clawed feet of a lizard, most likely a Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), Kress told Live Science.
Kress added that the scans also revealed the presence of a pair of wooden stakes in the mummy – one running from head to tail and the other across the shoulder blades – which were presumably added to support the creature's integrity.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
