Dolphin With “Remains of Back Legs”

Not cryptozoological, but considering what’s been discussed today, it seemed worth sharing:

Japanese researchers said Sunday [November 4, 2006] a bottlenose dolphin captured last month has an extra set of fins that could be the remains of back legs, providing further evidence ocean-dwelling mammals once lived on land.

Fishermen captured the four-finned dolphin off the coast of Wakayama prefecture in western Japan on Oct. 28 and alerted the nearby Taiji Whaling Museum, said museum director Katsuki Hayashi.

Fossil remains show dolphins and whales were four-footed land animals about 50 million years ago and share the same common ancestor as hippos and deer. Scientists believe they later transitioned to an aquatic lifestyle and their hind limbs disappeared.

Though odd-shaped protrusions have been found near the tails of dolphins and whales captured in the past, researchers thought it was the first time one had been found with well-developed, symmetrical fins, Hayashi said.

"I believe the fins may be remains from the time when dolphins’ ancient ancestors lived on land…this is an unprecedented discovery," said Seiji Osumi, an adviser at Tokyo’s Institute of Cetacean Research, at a news conference televised Sunday.

The second set of fins – much smaller than the dolphin’s front fins – are about the size of human hands and protrude from near the tail on the dolphin’s underside. The dolphin measures 2.72 metres and is about five years old, the museum said.

A freak mutation may have caused the ancient trait to reassert itself, Osumi said. The dolphin will be kept at the Taiji museum for X-ray and DNA tests, Hayashi said.

Thanks to Cryptomundo reader youcantryreachingme, we now have the following photo of the dolphin.

AP / Taiji Whale Museum via Kyodo News
In this undated photo released by Taiji Whale Museum, divers hold a bottlenose dolphin which has an extra set of human palm-sized fins near its tail in Taiji, Wakayama prefecture (state) in western Japan.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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