The mummified mermaid of Fiji has been a phenomenon since the 19th century, although its composition continues to intrigue science.
In the 1840s, the new inventor of the circus, PT Barnum, made a big purchase. The thing that came into his hands is a mystery, it seems to be a mummified mermaid and it was offered to him as such. Although Barnum is looking for a specialist who can confirm the origin of the strange body, He found nothing that could give an accurate statement about its nature.. Hey, almost 200 years agowe have more clarity on his identity.
A Fijian mummy
Also called the ‘Fiji mermaid’, this mummified body traveled from Japan to the United States to be part of Barnum’s circus exhibits. According to the documents traced, The mermaid left Japan for the United Kingdom where she stayed for a while until finally arriving in the United States., where it is kept to this day. Despite the historical journey, there are those who claim that the specimen we know today is not the same one that was recovered 200 years ago from the waters of Japan.
The mummified mermaid is really…
The investigation of the body showed that this Japanese mythical creature was actually a mix between salmon, monkey and iguana. like a stranger collage of animal partsthe composition is so convincing that its mysterious origin can only be revealed by X-rays.
“It allowed us to look at the mummy in almost every dimension in hopes of seeing what was inside,” project leader Joseph Cress, a radiographer at Northern Kentucky University, told LiveScience.
This study is still preliminary, as the research team plans to take DNA samples and send them to different zoos around the world to make appropriate genetic classification of its parts.
