Beached Whale Has Gigantic Swollen Tongue

By Alex in Animals & Pets on May 23, 2009 at 1:29 pm

A 40-foot finback whale that washed up on Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts, has a very unusual anatomy: a gigantic swollen tongue!

What really stands out is the whale’s swollen tongue, which looks like a giant balloon sticking out of its mouth.

C.T. Harry of the International Fund for Animal Welfare told the Cape Cod Times the tongue was swollen by gas created in the decomposition process.

Marine biologists may do a necropsy, but not so soon:

"You don’t want an open carcass on the beach on a busy weekend," Harry told the paper.

Link

(Photo: David G. Curran/SatelliteNewsService)

Tags: tongue, whale

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

Kalel
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
That is one whale of a whale tongue.

And just in case someone has missed it, here is the infamous exploding whale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4
SydneyClaire
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
No thanks, Kalel!
Ajan
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Wow, Alex.. Good find…
And Kalel, will check out the link..
quinnnchick
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
maybe he is allergic to shellfish.
seefish3
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Giant tongue…Provincetown…naaah, too easy !

(For those outside my tiny Massachusetts orbit, Provincetown’s primary population is supposedly gay. Now you can laugh.)
seefish3
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
@Kalel

Great vid! Slight overkill on the dynamite, eh?
SydneyLeach
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
The whale also had retard strength…even for a whale.
Big Sur Real Estate
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I saw a dead whale on the beach in San Francisco once, the city dug a hug pit behind it and let the high tide push the creature into the pit.
Dude
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I bet humans did it.

You know, how we’re careless about chemicals?
ViveCanta
May 24th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Eek.
Gauldar
May 24th, 2009 at 12:31 am
I wonder if I can write in my will that when I die my corpse be exploded. If ya gota go, go out with a bang!
constanza
May 24th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Maybe its twin is growing in there.
Flux
May 25th, 2009 at 4:17 am
If I lived out there, I’d give a random kid $20 to pop that tongue while I taped it in slow-mo.

Keep track of the comments with

Comment RSS

Lijit Search

The latest from NeatoBambino: