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Sunday, February 19, 2023

Antarctic Godzilla

 Antarctic Godzilla

By Cole Herrold

In the Wake of the article, I did on Kabagon I stumbled across this other giant aquatic cryptid reported by another Japanese vessel. Japan seemingly is the master at chronicling the strange colossal cryptids that exist on our planets from the Pinniped like Kabagon to the humanoid like Ningen they seem to be ahead when it comes to chronicling unique marine cryptids. Specifically, those that seem to be mammals as in this case which might be the oldest of the mammalian marine monsters. The cryptid here in question was not imaginatively named but it does get the point across that what the crew certainly saw was huge.

During the ships second Antarctic expedition at 7 o’clock pm on February 13, 1958, The Antarctic Research ship Soya was out near Barton Island when they noticed a large form in the open icy Antarctica waters. The ships captain Matsumoto and at least 4 other individuals who were aboard the vessel noticed a large form bobbing in the open water. This object was about 500 meters from Barton Island and 300 meters from the Soya and extremely large so it drew the attention of several members of the ship namely the chief navigator, chief engineer, the officer on duty, and the helmsman all of who were on the bridge at the time. One of the members of the crew was unimpressed by this thinking that what they were seeing was a barrel that had come from Barton Peninsula. Yet Matsumoto dismissed such a claim as whatever this object was it clearly was living as if this was a barrel or can how could it stay upright in the water when the wind was blowing so severely. Yet Matsumoto was surprised for if this was an animal it seemed much too big to be simply that. As the Soya approached the creature or vice versa all those aboard noticed that the object began to turn and as it did so there appeared a giant face staring back at them. This is when they knew for sure that what they were looking at was some sort of colossal unknown animal. The officer aboard the vessel lifted his binoculars and stared at the being and confirmed that indeed this object had large eyes and a noticeable face as well as two large ears. An exact size of the creature was never precisely specified, and some sources claim the creature to be 70-80ft long. The creature though while size was unspecified was clearly something mammalian in form it had features similar to a cow from the front, but the top of the head was round and reminded the crew of that of a monkey’s. The creature was covered in dark brown hair which seemed to cover the full body. The crew could also see that the creature had large noticeable shoulders that reached out from the form indicating that whatever this creature was it was definitely strong. Outside of these shoulders, the creature had a set of large, serrated fins on its back. During the time of the creature’s frolic into the sea, the chief engineer remembered he had a camera in his cabin and ran to go grab it as a way of documenting the strange animal they bore witness to. The rest of the crew watched as the creature approached the ship and looked as the creature began to submerge under the ship much to the chagrin of the engineer who returned camera in hand. After the creature vanished from sight the crew proceeded to run to the man who they felt would certainly know the answer to what they bore witness to, a biologist by the name of Dr. Yoshii. Upon telling the story the doctor was skeptical of just what the crew was telling him but at the same time wished he was up there at the time to see the marvel but clearly had no idea as to what his fellow crewmembers had seen. Yet he did have one pull away that the crew shared and that was whatever this creature was based on its morphology it appeared to be as ridiculous as it sounded terrestrial in origin. The account of this creature stayed among the crew until Captain Matsumoto released his book Antarctic Transportation wherein he coined the beast uncreatively Antarctic Godzilla. Matsumoto obviously named the creature after the classic Kaiju which was released on the world some four years prior yet it bore only some similarities in appearance.  Since then, the creature has appeared in a multitude of books in Japan as well as been made into a toy/statue that depicted the creature in more of a classic Godzilla/Baragon style as opposed to just what the witnesses reported.

Now with all this said what are we to do with this case. Instinctively I want to call this whole case a joke or some fish story and there’s no reason to totally dismiss this. The fact that we have a colossal creature called Antarctic Godzilla seems to point towards some sort of tongue-in-cheek reference to begin with it would be to me like calling saying the Pensacola Sea Serpent the Pensacola Jason Voorhees. It immediately draws the attention of away from the encounter and to this pop icon that were all familiar with. Now, this added with the few details of the creature one could imagine a colossal kaiju that’s more realistic than whatever they say or however ambiguous.  Now with that said while this could straight away being a hoax my problem with this much like many ambiguous cryptid sightings is why not go all out or describe it more realistic or wackier. This case has the right amount of ambiguity with the description that seems to imply that they were seeing something but just what they were unsure of.

Now with the possibility of a hoax being unlikely perhaps what the crew was seeing was some sort of misidentification. As experienced Seamen, it seems unlikely that they would misidentify say a whale yet a whale in a state of decomposition could appear monstrous. This hypothesis was used to explain away the hair reported on the Trunko carcass which was merely collagen or other tissues that gave the appearance of hair. Perhaps this is what the crew was seeing some whale carcasses badly deteriorated either blue or grey whales that due to decomposition gave off the appearance of having hair or were so mangled that it seemed to have ears. Now for a skeptic, this might seem like a nail in the coffin yet there are obvious problems with this. For one thing, this creature was seemingly intact it was not mangled or led to interpretation like a globster or the Zuiyo Maru Carcass plus there were obvious signs of intelligence with its ability to submerge and turn seemingly on its own accord.

The next option even though it seems both incredible and impossible is that what was reported was in fact a colossal unknown animal. Now the largest animals on this planet are blue whales which can reach up to 110 ft and over 190 tons. These colossal marine animals are larger than even the dinosaurs yet for the most part this can be debated as some of the largest dinosaurs can reach 90-100 feet like Argentinosaurus or Patagotitan. These prehistoric species most of which were related or are members to the sauropod group of dinosaurs are again much different to what was seen in Antarctica so for those hoping for a living relict this is not the case. Now the largest land mammal ever was Paraceratherium which bears some features similar to the Antarctic Godzilla namely its large ears and this creature was something around 21 ft in height with a length of about 25 ft. This creature had an extended muzzle which could be considered cow-like and large ears and eyes. However, there are several noticeable problems. The biggest problem is that this creature if it was a living Paraceratherium is the location. Most of these animals lived in Mongolia and China which is a far cry from the cold and southern Antarctic waters. Another problem is that Paraceratherium is believed to be built more like the rhinos which it is related to and therefore not covered in hair or semi-aquatic nature. While evolution seeks for organisms to fill and seek out every niche there is no evidence to indicate that Paraceratherium has entered or evolved to be semi-aquatic. Plus it can be said that no fossil evidence can indicate that the species entered this route so its from this that we are to indicate that Antarctic Godzilla is unique in its evolutionary history. Yet that’s a tricky subject as there are tons of new discoveries being made on the earth as well as in general how difficult it is to become a fossil an organism has to be in an ideal location at the right time.

Aquatic cryptids while not backed up by the fossil record are overly abundant. There are several cryptids are seemingly large whales or dolphins such as the 59ft Giglioli's Whale or even the Rhinoceros Dolphin. Yet one must acknowledge that such a cyrtid is more akin to what we have seen currently in our world and not some strange evolutionary fluke that one might point to as an offshoot of evolution. Yet evolution is a fickle mistress who chooses her own descendants so perhaps the creature was some species yet uncatalogued in the fossil record or some species so new so species was preserved.

Perhaps Antarctic Godzilla was a unique species. Evolution’s test to create a more terrestrial whale. Giving it more mammalian features to get the benefits of both a land-living organism and an aquatic one while still maintaining its colossal size. This could explain the seemingly more terrestrial build to a creature that could now only be at home in the water. There’s nothing truly like it and the fact that no one else has seen anything exactly like it seems to indicate to me that this natural experiment did not work and that the species that was Antarctic Godzilla is more than likely extinct or is the ancestor to the Ningen or other strange marine mammals reported that appear in the 70s and 80s.

I doubt that there is a Ufological connection to the creature, yet perhaps there might be a multidimensional one. Perhaps Antarctic Godzilla entered our world through a portal. Now many dismiss such possibilities especially when there is nothing to indicate that as in this case. One must wonder if the crew were accurate in their descriptions and that evolution did not spawn such a creature in our world then perhaps it did so on another plane of existence. Which be this another dimension or some unthinkable realm we have no scientific name for this creature somehow managed to make its way from its home to here. This could entirely explain just how it does not match with the fauna of our world. Yet again with theories like this, they are the cheap answer they require no deep thought as to what was reported for in the multiverse everything exists and it's just a matter of us finding our place.

Cryptids like Antarctic Godzilla really pull in a few ways either people declare them a hoax, a misidentification, a new species, or some entity beyond comprehension. There is truly no other possibility. Colossal Ufonauts for example while impossible make little to no sense so it literally leads to only a few outcomes. With Antarctic Godzilla, I’m at a loss the description of the creature is ambiguous enough for me to say that a hoax is unlikely yet just what they were seeing does not match any known or cryptid animal. It's from this that I tend to lean towards an evolutionary fluke.  A cryptid for certain but one that was a stepping stone to another one that either was not able to survive in its state or was related to the Ningen or Kabagon and proven to be inefficient. Yet perhaps I’m wrong and what was witnessed was some colossal cryptid creature completely unique to anything we’ve seen prior. It survived in small populations so elusive we rarely see it or perhaps mistake it for others. Time will only tell, and we can only wait and see if something similar might arise from the deep in the waters around Antarctica.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species:  Mammal

Location: Pacific Ocean, Barton Peninsula, Antarctica

Sighted: February 13, 1958

Works Cited:

“Godzilla in Antarctica” http://www2.plala.or.jp/daisinjitu/UMA/godzilla.html

“Strange Creatures Wriggling in Antarctica” NKD Scientific Research. http://ifs.nog.cc/nsrex.hp.infoseek.co.jp/documents/antarctic.html

“Large Antarctic Sea Mammal” Cryptid Wiki. https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Large_Antarctic_Sea_Mammal

Antarctic Transportation by Mitsuji Matsumoto

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