The Tasmanian Globster
In 1960, a huge hairy mass with no eyes, no head and no bones washed up on a beach in Tasmania. The newspapers called it a globster.
What was reported
In August 1960, cattlemen on a remote beach in north-western Tasmania found a huge lump of flesh, about 6 metres long, covered in what looked like fine hair, with no visible eyes or bones. Because the beach was so hard to reach, it wasn't examined by scientists until 1962.
The 'Tasmanian globster' became a worldwide story, and gave its name to every shapeless sea carcass since.
Explanations offered
Scientists who studied it concluded it was a large mass of decomposed whale blubber, whose fibres look like hair once the skin and other tissue have rotted away. Later DNA tests on other globsters have found the same.
- When
- Found in 1960
- Where
- Near the Interview River, Tasmania, Australia
- Witnesses
- Ranchers, scientists and journalists
- Status
- Explained
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.
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