The species that washed up on the shores of the spanish coastal village of Villaricos may never be identified, but experts said it looks like the remains of an oarfish or thresher shark according to NBC News.
"A lady found one part, and we helped her retrieve the rest," Maria Sanchez a Civil Protection coordinator, told NBC News. "We have no idea what it was. It really stank, as it was in the advanced stages of decomposition."
News of "sea serpent" swept the Internet over the last few days based on pictures from Spanish publications last week NBC News reported. The remains appeared on the Luis Siret Beach in the Andalusian Village of Villaricos according to Ideal, a local publication in the area.
"It's hard to tell," University of Miami shark researcher and marine biology blogger on Southern Fried Science David Shiffman told NBC News in a Twitter exchange, "but the official guess that it could be a thresher shark seems plausible. "Certainly the tail looks oarfish-y Shiffman said. It maybe could be a thresher shark - but nothing else."
Florida State University Ichthyologist Dean Grubbs told NBC News in an e-mail he also thought it was the remains of a shark.
"That is definitely a shark skeleton," Grubbs said. "The elements toward the back were confusing me, but those are the lower caudal fin supports. The 'horns' are the scapulocoracoids which support the pectoral fins."
Program in Defense of Marine Animals coordinator Francisco Toledano told Europa Press. the identification of the animal could only be made based on what it looked like in the animals NBC News reported.
