Gambo
A teenager on a Gambian beach sketched a strange carcass with a long, toothy snout and four flippers before it was buried.
What was reported
On 12 June 1983, 15-year-old Owen Burnham and his family were on Bungalow Beach in The Gambia when they came across two local men with the carcass of a large sea animal, about 4.5 to 5 metres long. Burnham, who knew the local wildlife well, said it had a long, dolphin-like snout full of teeth, two pairs of flippers and a long tail.
He sketched and measured it before the men took the head away to sell and buried the rest. His account was published in 1986.
Explanations offered
No remains were kept, so it can't be identified for certain. Suggestions include a decomposed dolphin or beaked whale, a crocodile, or, as some cryptozoologists hope, a surviving marine reptile. Most zoologists favour a beaked whale or another known animal altered by decay.
- When
- 12 June 1983
- Where
- Bungalow Beach, Kotu, The Gambia
- Witnesses
- Owen Burnham, a teenager, and his family
- Status
- Unidentified
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.