The Exmoor Beach Beast, the Croyde beach carcass, the Beast of the Bay, or the Cadaver of Croyde, whatever you wish to call it, from the beginning more of a media monster than a real one, has been identified to the satisfaction of authorities in the U.K.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology, Jon Downes and his chaps, recovered the skull and other evidence, and then attempted to get it identified as quickly as possible, from the beginning.

For more photos, see the CFZ slideshow here.

The CFZ, I think, properly took the skull from the beach before it disappeared into some eBay auction or was thrown away to keep the media mystery going. They also shared what they found, via “uploading and linking to the pics” with Darren Naish of the Tetrapod Zoology blog and a vertebrate palaeontologist.

Naish has this to say on the CFZ’s blog about the case:

“Your photos demonstrate without doubt that it is a Grey seal after all….Short nasals and a deep nasal cavity are both characteristic of Halichoerus, the grey seal. The skull definitely belongs to that taxon, case closed.”

Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus

As Jon Downes mentions:

“So, the story is solved. It was a seal which may have had slightly abnormal nasal cavities. However, we are now on the position to be able to state this as incontrovertible fact. The CFZ went out and got the skull, and will be keeping it in our museum because of the minor position which it will always hold in the history of cryptozoology.”

Rest of posting can be accessed here.

Job well-done by Darren Naish (with his detailed reasoning, here) and the CFZ. Congratulations.