A couple was taking a lovely walk along the beach when they stumbled across a giant hand with long bony fingers on the shorelines, most definitely interrupting the mood. Leticia Gomes Santiago and her boyfriend, Devanir Souza, came across this body appendage on the coastline of Ilha Comprida, Brazil, and automatically thought that it "looks like ET's hand." But, according to a marine biologist, Eric Coomin, it does not belong to an extraterrestrial creature, and instead, he offered his own explanation...
Upon finding the appendage buried in the sand, the couple was startled by their bizarre findings and quickly thought there was no way it could belong to a human or animal on this earth. The couple shared a video of their findings and placed a flip-flop next to the hand to understand how large its size was. "It's very big. We don't know what animal it is, even worse if it's an alien," Santiago shared. However, Eric Coomin was able to confirm that the body part belonged to a cetacean (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), not an alien, that died around 18 months prior. However, the alien-like features belong to whales that walked on land about 50 million years ago.
Comin later confirmed the bones most likely belonged to a dolphin due to the region it was found in. Underneath the interdigital flesh of the cetacean flippers are five finger-like appendages, otherwise known as the pentadactyl limb, which is typically found in a range of animals and humans, which could explain the striking resemblance. Dr. Mark D Scherz, assistant professor of vertebrate zoology and curator of herpetology at Statens Naturhistoriske Museum, directed a beaked whale that washed ashore last year in order to further examine the strange alien hands."Flippers have evolved repeatedly in various lineages of mammals and reptiles, each time in a different way; the fundamental structure is the pentadactyl limb, but the specific structure [of the limbs] differ very strongly," he explained to IFL Science.
A skeletal hand appendage washed up in Brazil’s shore this week and a horrified couple was sure it was “alien bones.”
— (IG) Hallesblogafrica (@hallesblog) November 27, 2022
Leticia Gomes Santiago and her boyfriend Devanir Souza were taking a romantic stroll on the beach when they happened upon it.
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Folks what do y’all think it is⁉️ pic.twitter.com/Ih06EPDvos
It was understood these creatures once roamed the earth until they became fully aquatic, further explaining their flipper-like hands. For the future, Comin advises anyone who finds animal remains on the beach or anywhere should notify the environmental agency where they are in order to not interfere with the ecosystem.
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