Darwin beach stroll uncovers 'dead man's finger'
When a man went for a leisurely stroll on a Darwin beach, the last thing he expected to find was a severed human finger, or at least that's what he thought it was.
The mysterious ‘finger’ was in fact a rare type of coral found usually only in the Northern Hemisphere known as 'dead man's fingers'.
The man, who had been walking his dog at Lee Point, immediately contacted NT Police fearing he had found human remains.
Watch Commander Brendan Lindner said the police treated the report seriously.
"They played it safe and treated it as though it were human remains," he said.
After forensic examination of the object, preliminary testing proved inconclusive and it was sent to pathology for further analysis.
"None of us on PG5 are botanists or marine biologists, so the best we can come up with is Alcyonium digitatum, otherwise known as 'dead man's fingers'," Watch Commander Lindner said.
It's not the first species to blur the line between human and plant.
A tree found in the rain forests of Central and South America, Psychotria elata, blooms with bright red bracts making it appear to be puckered human lips, earning it the famous name of 'Hooker’s lips'.
It is commonly given as a gift between partners and used for various ailments.
For now NT Police are left baffled by the find with no one really sure of what the plant species is.
Watch Commander Lindner said the investigation was now finalised and the suspicious finger-like find would be disposed of.
