Thursday
July 3, 08:02 PM
Chilean scientists observe what may be a giant octopus that washed
up on a chilean beach last week near Puerto Montt on Tuesday. Scientists
said on Thursday they would send samples of the specimen to foreign
scientists to sort out if it is a rare giant octopus or part of a
whale carcass. REUTERS/Jose Luis Saavedra
03 Jul
2003 18:55:40 GMT
Chileans to send "blob" samples to foreign labs
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SANTIAGO, Chile, July 3 (Reuters) - Chileans who found a huge blob
of flesh washed up on a remote Pacific beach said on Thursday they
would send samples of the specimen to foreign scientists to sort out
if it is a rare giant octopus or part of a whale carcass.
Scientists
have been boggled by the 40-foot-long (12-metre) mass of gray, gelatinous
flesh that was first spotted over a week ago near Puerto Montt, about
600 miles (1,000 km) south of the capital, Santiago.
The
specimen, which remains on the beach, looks like a huge lumpy piece
of slippery rubber in the shape of a squashed elephant.
Whale
conservationists went to see it last Sunday, thinking it was a beached
whale, but quickly concluded it was an invertebrate, appealing to
international experts for help.
Since
then, theories have emerged of a rare giant octopus that is feared
by fishermen in some parts as the "Bermuda Blob," while
skeptics say it may be a piece of whale blubber.
Italian
and French zoologists have said the Chilean find matches the description
of a bizarre specimen found in Florida in 1896 that one scientist
at the time named as "octopus giganteus." Others have disputed
his conclusions.
"We
are working on sending the samples to laboratories that have different
opinions on it," said Elsa Cabrera, director of the Center for
Cetacean Conservation.
Cabrera
and her team have been flooded with calls from around the world by
people eager to know more about the "blob" or offering help.
She plans to send tissue samples next week to laboratories in the
United States, France and Italy.
"We're
very pleased with the find because it has generated a huge amount
of interest internationally," she said.
DNA
sequencing is the best bet for identifying the specimen, but underfunded
researchers in Chile said the samples taken so far were insufficient
and new ones were needed.
"This
is a very important find for science. We need to get down there as
fast as possible so we don't lose the specimen," said Sergio
Letelier, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in Santiago.
"But
we don't even have money for the bus, let alone a plane fare. It's
pathetic," he added.
The
Bermuda Blob
In
May 1988, Teddy Tucker found another strange carcass, but this time
in the Mangrove Bay of Bermuda. It was soon named the Bermuda Blob.
The carcass was about 8 feet long. Tucker described the carcass as
"2 1/2 to 3 feet thick ... very white and fibrousÉwith
five 'arms or legs,' rather like a disfigured star." (20)
It had
no bones, cartilage, visible openings, or odor. It, like Octopus giganteus
and the first Tasmanian globster, was very hard to cut. Fortunately,
Tucker preserved specimens of the carcass. Shortly after he removed
these pieces, the carcass floated back out to sea. It has not been
seen since.
All
of these carcasses have several things in common. All of them were
"hairy" or fibrous. They were white or a similar color.
If they were cut, this was very difficult. If any tissue samples were
ever analyzed, they were found to be made of collagen.
However,
it is impossible to imagine the drawings of the first Tasmanian globster
as coming from a creature even remotely resembling an octopus. However,
the drawings might not be accurate, the carcass might have decayed
significantly, the carcass might not be related to the Florida specimen,
or the Florida specimen might not be from an octopus, either.
The
results of another study of the tissue of globsters, this time of
Octopus giganteus and the Bermuda Blob, were published in 1995 by
Sidney K. Pierce, Gerald N. Smith, Jr., Timothy K. Maugel, and Eugenie
Clark. To study the tissue, they determined its amino acid content,
and looked at it through an electron microscope. Both methods indicated
that both carcasses were composed largely of collagen. Collagen fibers
are banded. The banding patterns of both of the globsters were the
same as that of rat tail tendon collagen. The banding pattern of Octopus
giganteus collagen was identical to that of whale blubber, but very
different from that of octopus collagen. However, they prepared all
of these samples with different methods, and the banding patterns
could have been altered.
Where
the collagen fibers were located within the carcass was also important.
They say, "The organization of the collagen fiber bundles in
the two relic samples is typical of dermis from a number of vertebrate
groups, including fish, amphibians, and reptiles ... A similar layering
pattern of the collagen fibers was nowhere to be found in the octopus
mantle tissue we examined here. Instead, the octopus mantle is composed
mainly of a complex network of muscle fibers containing only small
amounts of widely dispersed collagen fibers, as might be expected
of an animal so capable of shape-changing. We found absolutely nothing
in the octopus mantle morphology that was comparable to the collagen
fiber arrangement in the two carcasses, nor has anything similar been
reported in squid or cuttlefish mantle ... In contrast, the similarity
between the layering pattern of the collagen fiber support matrix
of the humpback whale blubber and the fiber pattern in the carcasses
is quite obvious. In addition, unlike the octopus mantle, but very
much like the Florida and Bermuda tissues, collagen fibers are the
main component of the blubber." (21)
It is
interesting to note that they say that blubber has a lot of collagen
in it, while Mackal said that it does not have very much. Although
they used different species, Pierce, Smith, Maugel, and Clark say
that whale blubber is 32.6% glycine (the amino acid typical of collagen),
while Mackal says that it is 14.2% glycine.
They
also say that the collagen fiber diameters of both carcasses are similar
to those of mammals and birds.
The
Octopus giganteus has an extremely high level of proline--16.8%. This
is another amino acid characteristic of collagen. However, invertebrate
collagen does not have as much proline as endothermic (warm-blooded)
vertebrate collagen. (For example, collagen from squids is 9.6% proline,
while collagen from humans is 12.8% proline.) The proportions of various
amino acids in the Bermuda Blob are characteristic of ectothermic
(cold-blooded) vertebrate collagen. Pierce, Smith, Maugel, and Clark
conclude that the Octopus giganteus carcass is whale blubber and that
the Bermuda blob is the skin of some fish, possibly a shark. They
say, "Altogether, and with profound sadness at ruining a favorite
legend, we find no basis for the existence of Octopus giganteus."
(22)
However,
Richard Ellis points out difficulties in this explanation. It would
be difficult for the entire coat of blubber on a whale to come off
in one piece. (When whales would remove the blubber from a dead whale,
they would peel it off in strips.) Also, no fish skin is thick enough
to form anything the size of the Bermuda Blob.
It should
also be said that the amino acid composition of tissue could be changed
after being kept in formalin for nearly 100 years. Even for the short
time that the Bermuda Blob had been in preservatives, its composition
could also have been changed.
In conclusion, it can be said that we are still uncertain what the
globsters really are.
