New findings about a centuries-old mummified “mermaid”, which scientists recently discovered to be a terrifying dummy made of animal parts, reveal that this mummy is more bizarre than previously thought.
In 2022, researchers discovered a nearly 30-centimeter-long “mermaid” lying inside a sealed wooden box at a Japanese temple in Okayama Prefecture. At the time, researchers thought that the object they found was made from the body and head of a monkey stitched to the body of a decapitated fish.
Resembling the Ningyo (a human-headed fish-like creature said to help cure disease and prolong life) from Japanese mythology, this strange hybrid was displayed in a glass display case in the temple for people’s worship more than 40 years ago, before being placed in a box. Although a letter inside the mummy box claims this specimen was caught by a fisherman between 1736 and 1741, it was probably created decades later as a hoax to sell to wealthy people who wanted to improve their health or live longer.
In early February 2022, researchers from Kurashiki University of Science and Arts (KUSA) in Japan, with the permission of the temple priests, began to examine the mermaid using a range of techniques, including X-ray and CT scanning, radiocarbon dating, electron microscopy, and DNA analysis. started. In fact, his first findings gave an idea about what this mermaid was made of.
But in the final report, what they revealed about the mermaid was far stranger than they had anticipated.
Not a monkey body
The results showed that the body of the mermaid did not belong to an ape, but was instead made of cloth, paper and cotton held together by metal pins running from neck to waist. It was also painted with a paste made from a mixture of sand and charcoal.
The trunk was covered with components collected from other animals. Fish skin and mammal hair, possibly belonging to a puffer fish, covered parts of the arms, shoulders, neck, and cheeks. The mermaid’s jaw and teeth were also probably taken from a predatory fish, while her claws were made of keratin, meaning it probably came from a real but unidentified animal. The bottom half of the mermaid was also taken from a fish.
The researchers were unable to identify any complete DNA from the mermaid, but radiocarbon dating of the stamps showed they could date back to the early 1800s.
The new analysis suggests that the mermaid was most likely created to convince people that Ningyos and their alleged healing abilities are real, the researchers write. But the way this false entity came about suggests that it takes much more effort than originally thought.
There are 14 more “mermaids” in Japan, and the team aims to compare these samples with new analyzes.
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