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A mystery surrounding a mermaid-like creature that was donated to the Clark County Historical Society in Springfield, Ohio in 1906 is finally having some light shed on it. The figure, which has a pained face, strange teeth, claws, and a fish-like lower half has been X-rayed and CT scanned for the first time in an effort to figure out what the heck it is.
Joseph Cress, a radiologist at Northern Kentucky University, says, “It seems to be a hodgepodge of at least three different species externally,” adding, “There's the head and torso of a monkey, the hands seem to be that of an amphibian almost like an alligator, crocodile or lizard of some sort, and then there's that tail of a fish – again, species unknown.” Though no one knows who “Frankensteined together” this creature, a spokesperson from the Clark County Historical Society says the oddity is a “Fiji mermaid” which was a hoax popularized by P.T. Barnum.
Read the story at Daily Mail