Globster

koala · Site Admin Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 712

A globster, or blob, is an unidentified mass that washes up on the shore of an ocean or other body of water. It is distinguished from a normal beached carcass by lacking bones or other recognisable structures. In the past these were often described as sea monsters, and myths and legends about such monsters may often have started with the appearance of a globster.

The term globster was coined by Ivan T. Sanderson in 1962 to describe the Tasmanian carcass of 1960, which was said to have "no visible eyes, no defined head, and no apparent bone structure."

Many globsters have initially been described as gigantic octopuses, although they later turned out to be the decayed carcases of whales or large sharks. As with the "Chilean Blob" of 2003, most are masses of whale blubber which have been released from decaying whale corpses. Others remain unexplained. Giant and colossal squid may also explain some globsters, particularly those which are tentatively identified as monster octopuses.

Some Globsters are supposed to be the victims of pathological skepticism, because the scientific community has refused to look at them until after they have decomposed too much to ever possibly be good enough as evidence for a new species, or has outright destroyed them, as happened with the famous "Cadborosaurus willsi" carcass, found in 1937.

The final scene of the 1960 film La Dolce Vita depicts a group of partygoers discovering a globster on the beach at sunrise.

In the 2004 book Der Schwarm or The Swarm by Frank Schaetzing, globsters are proclaimed to be another intelligent life form, known as the Yrr.