Tell us you can resist clicking on this headline from Florida's Sun Sentinel:
"Huge Eyeball From Unknown Creature Washes Ashore On Florida Beach."
It's big, it's blue and the newspaper says "among the possibilities being discussed are a giant squid, some other large fish or a whale or other large marine mammal."
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has sent the eye off for study.
On the commission's Facebook page, folks are speculating about whales, squid, swordfish, mastodons and Big Foot. What's your best guess (informed or otherwise)?
Update at 10:40 a.m. ET, Oct. 15. Mystery Solved. It Looks Like It Came From A Swordfish:
As Eyder reports, "experts from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission believe that the softball-sized eyeball that washed up in Pompano Beach, Fla. belongs to a swordfish."
And my apologies to "Jack Bertram" for mistakenly giving someone else the credit on his comment. We've corrected the post below.
Update at 3:15 p.m. ET, Oct. 12. Giant Squid Can Have Eyes The Size Of Basketballs!
According to Live Science, some giant squid that have been "caught or observed ... [had] huge, basketball-size peepers."
Update at noon ET, Oct. 12. 'National Geographic' Leans Toward Giant Squid:
"To us, it looks an awful lot like the giant squid eyeball we recently saw on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian," National Geographic's Ocean Views blog wrote this morning.
Update at 6:15 p.m. ET. Some Early Thoughts, Serious And Not-So.
From the comments thread:
-- "Swordfish. Biiig female. Anatomically wrong for giant or colossal squid. Whales have smaller eyes. Jack Bertram."
-- "My guess would be giant squid. That was what first came to mind. The Raven."
-- "Marty Feldman! Mark D."
From NPR's Facebook page:
-- " Sile Kelleher Eye of a large tortoise."
-- " Jesse Acosta The eye of the Kraken!"
-- " James Nash I have no eye-dea."
From the NPR Tumblr page:
-- " reblogged this from and added: We're gonna need a bigger boat. "
(H/T to NPR.org's Heidi Glenn.)
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