An Australian man has made international headlines after discovering a bizarre-looking animal corpse during his morning walk.
According to CBS News, Alex Tan was taking a stroll on Maroochydore Beach last week when he came across a large, unidentified creature he described as “extraterrestrial.”
“I’ve stumbled across something weird,” he said in an Instagram video, before pointed his camera to the animal. “This is like one of those things you see when people claim that they’ve found aliens. Look at it. How weird is that?”
The hairless, swollen creature had short limbs, claws, a rat-like tail, and an exposed skull. Though Tan said the animal was unlike anything he’s ever seen, he suspected it was a deerhead possum. He then invited his followers to chime in with their own theories.
“Genuinely keen to figure out what creature little buddy is,” he wrote in the caption.
People immediately took to the comment section to share their thoughts; some believed the animal was a dehydrated wallaby or kangaroo, while others were convinced it was an extinct marsupial or the folklore creature Chupacabra. Days after Tan’s video went viral, several experts came forward in an attempt to identify the animal—and at least two of them agreed with Tan’s possum theory.
Stephen Johnston, an associate professor at the University of Queensland, said the creature appeared to be a swollen “water-logged” brushtail possum that had been de-haired.
“The skull and hindlimb give the clues,” he told the Courier Mail. “The animal was probably washed down into the ocean during the floods.”
Dr. Sandy Ingleby, manager of the mammals collection at the Australian Museum, offered a similar explanation, telling the Science Times that the animal appeared to be a “brushtail possum, Tichoraurus Vulpecula.”
Tan, like many others, is still waiting for solid confirmation. He has since taken to Instagram to ask Robert Irwin, son of late wildlife expert Steve Irwin, to weigh in on the mystery.
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