The carcass of a humpback whale that washed up in the Amazon jungle has biologists befuddled, but Godzilla: King of Monsters director Mike Dougherty took to Twitter to offer up one possible explanation:
Attn: @MonarchSciences #MonarchSightings //t.co/FwzXYjT8cz
โ Mike Dougherty (@Mike_Dougherty) February 27, 2019
For a little context: The humpback whale (believed to be a 12-month-old calf) was found 50 feet from the ocean shore, in the jungles of Marajo island, Brazil. The two biggest questions biologists are now looking at are:
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- How did the whale get so far inland from the shoreline?
- What was a humpback whale doing in that region at this time of year.
As marine specialist Renata Emin told Newsweek:
“We’re still not sure how it landed here, but we’re guessing that the creature was floating close to the shore and the tide, which has been pretty considerable over the past few days, picked it up and threw it inland, into the mangrove. Along with this astonishing feat, we are baffled as to what a humpback whale is doing on the north coast of Brazil during February because this is a very unusual occurrence.”
Sadly, the scenario that scientists have landed on is that this whale is a calf traveling with its mother, who got separated during the whale pod’s migratory cycle. As for the unusual placement of the corpse, it’s believed the calf may have ingested plastic or other harmful substances, was washed inland by waves that later receded.
Moving away from that tragic fate, Mike Dougherty and the Godzilla: King of Monsters PR team have done a good job connecting the film’s premise of a world being overrun by Kaiju (or “Titans” in this case) to real-world occurrences. In addition to this whale corpse, the recent mysterious blue light flash over NYC was sourced back to Godzilla, demonstrating that Dougherty’s movie has indeed penetrated the pop-culture zeitgeist.
Synopsis: “The new story follows the heroic efforts of the cryptozoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient superspecies, thought to be mere myths, rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.”
Godzilla: King of the Monsters will be in theaters on May 31st.