Case file · Cryptid
St. Augustine Monster
In November 1896 boys found a huge decaying carcass on Anastasia Island near St. Augustine, Florida, which a Yale zoologist announced as a giant octopus.
1896 CE · 29.86, -81.27 · status: explained
The account
Local physician DeWitt Webb measured and photographed the mass and sent samples to Addison Verrill, who named it Octopus giganteus.
The sceptical view
Later analyses of preserved tissue in the 1990s and in 2004 found it was collagen-rich whale blubber, the usual source of 'globsters'.