How a local sea monster' spawned a century of myth, mystery and scientific discovery

"In May 1925, a strange decaying corpse washed ashore on Moore's Beach, now known as Natural Bridges State Beach, in Santa Cruz. Locals who swarmed out to investigate the specimen described elephantine legs, a fish-like tail and a long neck stretched across the sand. It was quickly dubbed a sea monster. Photographs published at the time reveal that much of the monster's carcass had collapsed, leaving only the head mostly intact."

"Sensational accounts were plastered across newspapers from California to Texas. The story of this monster reveals how genuine scientific mysteries feed fear of the unknown, spawning myths and misinformation. The rotting corpse has, over the last 100 years, stoked arguments between creationists and evolutionary biologists. But together with the remains of stranded marine animals more recently found on the beaches of California, the long-ago discovery has also helped scientists understand the biology of an elusive deep-sea whale."

"Barton Warren Evermann, then director of the California Academy of Sciences, visited the specimen on the beach and identified it as a beaked whale a little-studied group of whales with dolphin-like heads and had the specimen sent to the academy. Scientists there later confirmed the creature was a Baird's beaked whale, Berardius bairdii, publishing their findings in 1929 in the Journal of Mammalogy."

In May 1925 a decaying carcass washed ashore at Moore's Beach (now Natural Bridges State Beach) in Santa Cruz, prompting locals to call it a sea monster. Photographs show a collapsed body with an intact head featuring small eyes, a bulbous forehead and a duck-like beak. Barton Warren Evermann identified the specimen as a beaked whale and sent it to the California Academy of Sciences; later confirmation named it Baird's beaked whale (Berardius bairdii) and findings were published in 1929. Decay processes like the formation of a tubular "whale sock" can dramatically alter whale morphology, causing misidentification and fueling myths, while strandings have aided scientific understanding of deep-sea whales.

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