Gambo
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- For other meanings of Gambo see Gambo (disambiguation)
"Gambo" is the name of an alleged unidentified carcass of a large marine animal that washed up on Bungalow Beach in The Gambia. The 15-year-old Owen Burnham and his family came across the carcass on the morning of June 12, 1983 while several villagers were in the process of decapitating it. Owen, a wildlife enthusiast, decided to take measurements and then make sketches since he did not have a camera at the time. According to later testimony, he did not think to take a sample until after he realized he could not identify it in any books. The villagers succeeded in cutting the head off and eventually sold it to a tourist. According to Owen, they called it a "dolphin", but he assumed it was only because of the superficial similarity. Its body was eventually buried and attempts to relocate it have failed.
After Owen mentioned the carcass in a newspaper article three years after the event, it caught the attention of cryptozoologist Karl Shuker who requested more information on the carcass. According to Owen, the carcass showed little or no signs of decomposition and measured around 15 feet in length. The coloration was brown on top and white below, and the skin itself was smooth. The most specific measurements were taken on the head, which was 4.5 feet in length. It had a beak measuring 2.5 feet long, 5.5 inches tall, and 5 inches wide with 80 uniform and conical teeth. A small pair of nostrils were present at the tip of the beak. The somewhat domed head measured 10 inches tall and 1 foot wide, and had small eyes. The front pair of flippers measured 1.5 feet long by 8 inches wide. One of the rear flippers was badly damaged and nearly torn off, revealing some intestine. The waterlogged and bloated body was around 6 feet long with a 5 foot girth. No fin was present on the top of the animal. The tail was long and pointed, and measured around 5 feet in length.
There has been a great deal of speculation as to what the carcass could have been in life. Paleontologist Darren Naish expresses doubt that the carcass was even real, and finds it suspicious how no sample was taken. Cryptozoologist Chris Orrick proposed that it was a severely mangled Shepherd's Beaked Whale that was twisted so that the dorsal fin and genital slit lined up, giving the appearance of a torn off limb. Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe speculated that it may be an unknown form of Beaked Whale. Another common suggestion is that the carcass is some sort of surviving prehistoric reptile. Shuker proposed initially that it was either a pliosaur or a thalattosuchian crocodile, but later referred to it as "the last of the mosasaurs". Other proposed candidates are Askeptosaurus, primitive ichthyosaurs such as Cymbospondylus or cetaceans such as Basilosaurus.
A 2006 expedition by the Centre for Fortean Zoology failed to uncover any remains of the creature at the alleged burial site. They also learnt from local people that the carcass was most likely that of a dolphin.
"Gambo" has sometimes been connected to sporadic reports of crocodile-like sea serpents.
[edit] References
- There are Giants in the Sea. Bright, Michael. Robson Books, London, 1989.
- In Search of Prehistoric Survivors. Shuker, Karl P.N. Blandford, London, 1995.
- The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep. Coleman, Loren and Huyghe, Patrick. Jeremy P. Tarcher Publishing. November, 2003
[edit] External links
- Darren Naish, "How to approach a winged humanoid": "If there is a Mesozoic reptile buried on a Gambian beach, I'd expect to see it written up in Nature by a bunch of people with Ph.Ds."
- Gambo rides again: the beaked beast of Bungalow Beach and the prehistoric survivor paradigm
- Marozi, "Gambo" (in German)
- Karl P. N. Shuker, "Bring Me the Head of the Sea Serpent!" from Strange Magazine, no 15 (Spring 1995).
- American monsters article
