MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scientists Baffled by Sea Creature

Chilean scientists are seeking international help to identify the remains of a gigantic sea creature found on a beach in southern Chile.

ern ChileSamples of the 13-yard-wide remains will be sent as early as Monday to specialists in France and the United States for tests, said Elsa Cabrera of the Chilean Center for the Cetacean Conservation.

She said the creature was found one week ago on Los Muermos beach, 680 miles south of Santiago, the capital.

"Apparently, (it) is a gigantic octopus or squid but that's just our initial idea, nothing definite," she said. "It has only one tentacle left."

Cabrera said it's also possible that "this is a new species or the remains of a whale."

She anticipated "a very interesting international debate on this subject" and described the texture of the mass as "similar to jelly."

Samples of the 13-ton mass were brought to Santiago but no DNA tests were immediately possible because the samples had been tainted with formaline for preservation, she said.

New samples of the decomposed creature will be brought and sent to France for analysis by specialist Michel Raynal and to a university laboratory in southern Florida.