The Tasmanian Globster was a large unidentified carcass that washed ashore north of Interview River in western

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, in August 1960. It measured by and was estimated to weigh between 5 and 10

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s. The mass lacked eyes and in place of a mouth, had "soft, tusk-like protuberances". It had a spine, six soft, fleshy 'arms' and stiff, white bristles covering its body. The carcass was identified as a

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

by L.E. Wall in the journal ''Tasmanian Naturalist'' in 1981.Pierce, S., S. Massey, N. Curtis, G. Smith, C. Olavarría & T. Maugel 2004. ''Biological Bulletin'' 206: 125-133 The term ''

globster A globster or blob is an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water. A globster is distinguished from a normal beached carcass by being hard to identify, at least by initial untrained observers, ...

'' was coined in 1962 by Ivan T. Sanderson to describe this carcass, and another journalist dubbed the corpse ''Sea Santa'' that same year.

References

{{coord, -41.56, 144.87, display=title Globsters History of Tasmania 1960 in Australia August 1960 in Australia Individual cetaceans