'Alien' Creature Discovered In South Africa Is Actually A Misshapen Baboon, Vet Says (PHOTOS)
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A strange discovery in Africa recently had locals questioning if there was an alien in their midst.
Several photos taken by national park ranger Llewellyn Dixon show what appears to be an alien creature in South Africa. However, the questions surrounding the unusual-looking carcass were disbanded when a local veterinarian performed an autopsy and confirmed the creature is not an alien as some suspected, The Herald reports.
"Anyone could see it was baby baboon," Dr. Magdalena Braum of The Crags Veterinary Clinic said, according to Times Live.
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Dixon's 17-year-old son discovered the "alien-like" remains near Nature's Valley, a southern resort town neighboring Plettenberg Bay.
While the elongated carcass may not closely resemble a living baboon, Braum further explained that the corpse appears misshapen because the baboon was carried around by the mother after the baby's death.
"We have seen it quite often in baboon research troops, when females carry the deceased infants sometimes for as long as three to four weeks on their tail section before finally discarding them," Braum told Algoa FM.
Indeed, researchers have documented recurring incidences of primate mothers refusing to let go of deceased offspring.
In 2010, a team of scientists studying a community of chimpanzees in Guinea witnessed this behavior, relating it to the strong mother-infant bond often seen in primates.
"[P]rimate infants are born completely helpless and undergo a slow process of maturation during which time they are completely reliant on the mother," zoologist Dora Biro of the University of Oxford told LiveScience in 2010. "So the fact that dead-infant-carrying is seen in other species of primates is not so surprising."
(Hat tip Arbroath)
See more photos of the alien-like creature below.
Several photos taken by national park ranger Llewellyn Dixon show what appears to be an alien creature in South Africa. However, the questions surrounding the unusual-looking carcass were disbanded when a local veterinarian performed an autopsy and confirmed the creature is not an alien as some suspected, The Herald reports.
"Anyone could see it was baby baboon," Dr. Magdalena Braum of The Crags Veterinary Clinic said, according to Times Live.
SCROLL FOR PHOTOS
Dixon's 17-year-old son discovered the "alien-like" remains near Nature's Valley, a southern resort town neighboring Plettenberg Bay.
While the elongated carcass may not closely resemble a living baboon, Braum further explained that the corpse appears misshapen because the baboon was carried around by the mother after the baby's death.
"We have seen it quite often in baboon research troops, when females carry the deceased infants sometimes for as long as three to four weeks on their tail section before finally discarding them," Braum told Algoa FM.
Indeed, researchers have documented recurring incidences of primate mothers refusing to let go of deceased offspring.
In 2010, a team of scientists studying a community of chimpanzees in Guinea witnessed this behavior, relating it to the strong mother-infant bond often seen in primates.
"[P]rimate infants are born completely helpless and undergo a slow process of maturation during which time they are completely reliant on the mother," zoologist Dora Biro of the University of Oxford told LiveScience in 2010. "So the fact that dead-infant-carrying is seen in other species of primates is not so surprising."
(Hat tip Arbroath)
See more photos of the alien-like creature below.
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Space Alien?
On July 10, 2013, a South African park ranger, Llewellyn Dixon, took several photos of a dead creature near the resort town of Nature's Valley. Some speculated the animal was an alien. But after a local veterinarian performed an autopsy on the carcass, it was confirmed as a baby baboon. Next slide shows a close-up of its head.Hippo Goes to the Dentist
North Carolina Zoo Chief Veterinarian Dr. Mike Loomis recently returned from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, where he helped perform a dental procedure on a 3,000-lb. old friend. Loomis, along with veterinarians and keepers from the Parque de las Sciencias museums in Bayamon, conducted dental surgery on "Tomy," a 39-year-old male hippopotamus that the N.C. Zoo veterinarian has been treating on a semi-regular basis for two decades.Kayaker Snags Shark -- Sept. 2011
This is the jaw-dropping moment a canoeist landed a 6-foot shark after it dragged him through the water for 10 minutes. Brave Rupert Kirkwood, 51, had paddled a mile off the United Kingdom's Devon coast when he suddenly felt a snag on his line. The 70-pound beast nearly pulled him overboard, before pulling his 16-foot canoe through the water as he desperately clung on. After 10 minutes of wrestling with the beast, he eventually hauled the massive fish on board.Boy Finds Whale Vomit Worth $63,000
Charlie Naysmith, 8, found this hunk while walking on a beach in Great Britain. He thought it was a rock, but it turned out to be a piece of whale vomit worth $63,000.Woman Punches Bear to Save Dog
Brook Collins holds her dog, Fudge, at her home in Juneau, Alaska on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011. Collins punched a black bear in the snout after the bear attacked Fudge on Sunday, Aug. 28.Painted Roadkill
This photo provided by Sean McAfee from Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012, shows a dead raccoon that McAfee saw with the road dividing line painted over it before he stopped his motorcycle to take the picture on Franklin Rd. in Johnstown, Pa. According to PennDOT traffic engineer John Ambrosini, paint crews know to avoid such animals and usually have a foreman on the job to clear any dead animals off the road before the paint-spraying truck equipment passes by. This crew didn't have a foreman that day, and the equipment was too big to turn around in traffic on the curvy, narrow road so the line could be repainted without the carcass in the way.Gorilla check-up -- Oct. 2011
Yakini the gorilla received a medical check-up from vets at Melbourne Zoo before being moved to a new multimillion-dollar exhibit at Werribee Open Range Zoo, on Oct. 28, 2011, in Melbourne, Australia.Horse plunges into crowd
In this May 5, 2011 image provided by Animals Australia, a riderless horse plunges into a crowd of spectators after jumping a fence at the Warrnambool Grand National Steeple Chase at Warrnambool, Australia. An 80-year-old woman and a two-year-old boy are in stable condition in a hospital while 5 others were also injured.Giant Cod
An angler is celebrating after breaking the record for catching the world's biggest ever cod. The mighty fish weighed in at 103lbs, smashing the previous and long-held world record by nearly 5lbs. And the biggest specimen of Britain's favourite eating fish to be pulled out of the water by rod and line was caught by a German. Michael Eisele was on a fishing trip to Norway - the so-called El Dorado of cod fishing - when he snared the whopper.Sheep Dog
This is a lamb in China that looks just like a dog. Farmers in Fugu County, in western China's Shaanxi Province, were left open-mouthed when they saw the young animal running around their field. The lamb has a mouth, nose, paws and tail which look very similar to a dog's features - but still has a white woolly coat.World's Longest Cat
Robin Henderson stretches her cat, Stewie, outside of her home in Reno, Nev. Stewie, a 5-year-old Maine Coon, has been accepted by Guinness World Records as the world's longest cat at 48.5 inches long. Unfortunately, Stewie passed away in February, 2013. He was 8.
In this Aug. 18, 2012 photo provided by Jody Bright, Molly Palmer poses with her catch_ a 12-foot marlin that took more than four hours to get on her teamRhino Cow
A bizarre three-horned cow has proven itself to be a cash cow for a farmer in Baoding, in China's Hebei province. Farmer Jia Kebing said the 2-year-old cow was born with a small bump on its head that has grown to be nearly 8 inches long and now resembles a rhino's horn. "My farm has fame in this region for this cow, and people came in just paying a visit to this cow," said Jia.Silverback Strut
Ambam, a silverback gorilla at the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, England, shows off the stance that's turned him into a viral video sensation. Ambam doesn't do the typical ape walk -- he stands and struts like a person.Rebecca Reichart, Leroy Nunez, Nicholas Coutu, Claudia Grant, Kenneth Krysko
In an Aug. 10, 2012 photo provided by the University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History researchers, from left, Rebecca Reichart, Leroy Nunez, Nicholas Coutu, Claudia Grant and Kenneth Krysko examine the internal anatomy of the largest Burmese python found in Florida to date, on the University of Florida campus. The 17-foot-7-inch snake weighed 164 pounds and carried 87 eggs in its oviducts, a state record. Following scientific investigation, the snake will be mounted for exhibition at the museum for about five years, and then returned for exhibition at Everglades National Park. (AP Photo/University of Florida, Kristen Grace)Feline Elvis Dies At Age 9
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=726326990716438&set=a.561893947159744.145379.100000174321818&type=1&theater" target="_hplink">Elvis,</a> a Savannah cat, who weighed 24.8 pounds and measured 40 inches from tip to tail, recently died from a tumor in its sinus cavity.Monkey Photographs Self
One of the photos that the monkey took with Davids camera. These are the chimp-ly marvellous images captured by a cheeky monkey after turning the tables on a photographer who left his camera unmanned. The inquisitive scamp playfully went to investigate the equipment before becoming fascinated with his own reflection in the lens. And it wasnt long before the crested black macaque hijacked the camera and started snapping away sending award-winning photographer David Slater bananas. David, from Coleford, Gloucestershire, was on a trip to a small national park north of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi when he met the incredibly friendly bunch.Illegal snake colleciton
Thomas Cobb with his son Caiden show off several of his exotic reptiles that he keeps in a special basement room of his home Friday, April 26, 2013 in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Cobb has been ordered by police to get rid of all but one of his 29 exotic boa constrictor snakes because he doesnPiggyback Monkey
Miwa, a baby monkey, rides a young boar named Uribo in the Fukuchiyama City Zoo, in Kyoto, Japan, on Oct. 19. Both have been sheltered by the zoo since June after losing their mothers21-lb Lobster
This photo released by the New England Aquarium, in Boston Tuesday, July 24, 2012, shows a 21-pound lobster caught July 14 off Cape Cod, and donated to the aquarium where it will be displayed after a 30-quarantine period.Lion Tries to Eat Baby Dressed as Zebra
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Of course she's unhappy. Who likes getting weighed right after the holidays? This is Agathe, a cane toad, and she's sitting on a toy scale during an annual animal inventory at the Hanover Zoo in Germany on Jan. 5. Agathe weighs a slight hop over 4 pounds.Ride Cow Like a Horse
When Regina Mayer's parents refused to buy her a horse, the 15-year-old German girl trained Luna the cow to be a top-class riding companion. Not only do the two regularly go on long rides together through the picturesque southern German countryside, they even do jumps.Space Alien Really A Baboon
This close-up of the head of the animal shown in the previous slide, was, according to a local veterinarian, a baby baboon photographed by park ranger Llewellyn Dixon. The animal was found near the South African resort town of Nature's Valley.Tyrannosaurus Bataar
The U.S. attorneys office sued Heritage Auctions of Texas in June to force it to return a Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton to the Mongolian government.Pink Kitty
This kitty isn't naturally pink. The cat's owner, Natasha Gregory of Britain told The Sun that she wanted her pet "to match my hair." The 22-year-old also has a shocking dye job.Lip-Syncing Monkey
A female monkey lip-syncs during a show by the monkey drama troupe Prakit Sitpragaan in Bangkok in September. Prakit Sitpragaan has been performing traditional stories adapted from Asian classical novels and folklore in Thailand for more than 30 years.Moose In A Pool -- Oct. 2011
This New Hampshire moose was swimming a little too deep, forcing nine rescue workers to help remove it from the pool.Camel in the Family
Charlotte Anderson-Dixon pushes her 18-month-old son Reuben on the swing as Joe the camel watches.Kangaroo On The Loose In Washington State
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John Huntington poses with one of his chickens on a lead in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 15, 2011. Mr Hungtington's 'City Chicks' are chickens for those living in an urban enviroment, complete with small walking leads and harnesses and elasticised nappies. 'City Chicks' will be showcased at Sydney's ABC Gardening Australia Expo.Elephant Votes in Thailand
Elephant puts a ballot in ballot box during campaign to promote the general election in Ayutthaya province on June 21, 2011. The July 3 general election will be the first since Thailand was rocked by its deadliest political violence in decades last year, when more than 90 people died in street clashes between armed police and opposition protesters. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul, AFP/Getty Images)Ranger Shoots Deers Whose Antlers Are Stuck
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Kabang, a dog in the Philippines, had her snout and upper jaw sheared off when she jumped in front of a speeding motorcycle, saving her owner's daughter and niece from serious injury or death, according to newspaper reports in the Philippines. After completing six weekly intravenous chemotherapy infusions, Kabang appears to have beaten the cancer she was suffering from.Big Brutus
Brutus, a giant crocodile, was photographed leaping out of the water in Australia by picture-taker Katrina Bridgeford. The 18-foot long croc is a fan favorite among tourists who take cruises along the Adelaide River as he is known for making a big splash while jumping for buffalo meat.Twitter Helps Find Dog
Patch, a Jack Russell terrier, got separated from his owner on an Irish Rail train to Dublin, but was reunited by Twitter users who helped locate the pet.Charlie the Cat
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? No, it's Charlie -- an unlucky cat who happens to look just like the evil Lord Voldemort from the "Harry Potter" films. Charity workers are trying to find a new home for the British kitty, who lost his nose and ears to skin cancer.Booie, The Smoking Chimpanzee, Dies At 44 -- Dec. 2011
Booie, a chimpanzee that kicked a smoking habit and used sign language to beg for candy, died at the age of 44 at a California animal refuge in mid-December.Dog With World's Largest Eyes
Bruschi, a four-year-old black and white Boston Terrier, who lives with his owner, Victoria Reed, in Grapevine, Texas, holds the Guinness World Record for "dog with the largest eyes" -- a whopping 1.1 inch in diameter.Insect with Singing Penis
A small water boatman of the species <em>Micronecta scholtzi </em> is seen in this photo from the University of Strathclyde Glasgow. The insect has been found to use its penis to perform a very loud mating call. Scientists say the "singing penis" -- relative to its body size -- is the loudest animal on Earth.Shortest Roadworthy Car
The "Mirai", which means 'future' in Japanese, measures 17.79 inches from the ground to highest part of the car. It was created by students and teachers of The Automobile Engineering Course at Okayama Sanyo High School in Asakuchi, Japan.Spider With Human Face
A rare spider with a human face, known as a lichen crab spider, has been spotted at a nature reserve in Wareham, Dorset, England.Gemini, The Two Faced-Kitten
Sadly, Gemini, a kitten from Rhode Island, had a short life.Lucy: World's Smallest Working Dog -- Nov. 2011
Lucy, a mini Yorkshire terrier from Absecon, New Jersey, is now in the Guinness Book of World Records. Weighing just 2 1/2 pounds, Lucy was named the world's smallest working dog last week, bumping out a 6.6-pound police dog in Japan.Antarctic penguin swims to New Zealand
An emperor penguin that arrived on June 21, 2011 at New Zealand's Peka Peka Beach, more than 2,000 miles from its native Antarctica, will not be transported home.Smokey the LOUD Cat
Pet cat Smokey is believed to have the loudest purr in the world -- with piercing purrs as loud as a lawnmower. Most cats purr at around 25 decibels but Smokey's powerful purrs average an amazing 80 decibels. Owners Ruth and Mark Adams, of Northampton, Britain, say Smokey's deafening purrs make it impossible for them to hear the television or radio when she is in the room and they struggle to have telephone conversations.Off-Road Alligator
The flattened and preserved reptile is at the center of possible legal action against three area men charged with it's theft and subsequent display on a Ford pickup at a nearby mud-bogging party in Michigan.Is This A Woolly Mammoth In Siberia? -- Feb. 2012
This newly released video taken during the summer of 2011 allegedly shows a living woolly mammoth crossing a river in Siberia. There is much speculation and debate as to whether this is, indeed, a living specimen of prehistoric elephant-related animals that were thought to be extinct.Rare Lobsters
The odds of seeing these three together are roughly 1 in 900 quintillion -- but a series of timely donations has allowed Connecticut's Maritime Aquarium to put together one of the most unusual lobster displays ever. While the blue lobster is a 1 in a million catch, the orange and calico are even rarer -- with the odds of finding them roughly 1 in 30 million.Mass For Animals -- Oct. 2011
Gil Florini, of Saint-Pierre-d'Arene's church, blesses donkeys with holy water after a mass dedicated to animals on Oct. 9, 2011, in the southeastern French city of Nice.Elvis Bug
Is it Elvis... or Bert from "Sesame Street"? This stink bug photographed in Singapore seems to be a fan of one of them -- but it's not clear which one.
