A “severed finger” that washed up on a Darwin beach and had police stumped as to its origins has been revealed as a humble local sea squirt.



The item was found last week by a man walking his dog on Lee Point beach. He quickly handed it in to Casuarina police, fearing he had stumbled on the remains of a murder victim.

The item, which strongly resembled a somewhat decayed human finger, was logged and sent to the police pathology department for testing.

“In the meantime, the attached photo did the rounds amongst Casuarina Police Station officers attached to Patrol Group 5 (PG5), with officers evenly split during debate at the end of shift as to whether the finger was real or not,” watch commander Brendan Lindner told the ABC.

The forensic test determined it was definitely not human, but there was no clue beyond that. Delays in further testing sparked numerous theories, including that it was a species of coral known as “dead man’s finger” which is only found in the northern hemisphere.

On Friday, “due to significant interest”, NT police donated the mystery item to the natural science department of the Museum and Art gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), where it was received by marine biologist and curator of molluscs, Dr Richard Willan.

“It was examined by Dr Richard Willan and Ms Suzanne Horner and determined to be a dead solitary sea squirt (technically called an ascidian or tunicate), a type of sea-dwelling animal native to the Darwin region,” the MAGNT’s report concluded.

“The individual would have been living on the reef off Lee Point and it would have become dislodged during the rough weather caused by the north-westerly monsoon on, or about, 1 January. It has lost many of the objects that would have been encrusting its exterior as the result of washing ashore, so it appears whitish externally and not typical of its species.”

The Top End’s monsoon season began on New Year’s Eve, with Darwin receiving more than 134mm of rain by noon the next day.

Before handing the item to the the MAGNT, NT police conceded on Friday that the guess of a piece of coral a long way from home was “likely incorrect”.

“NT Police are just relieved that ‘the finger’ is not of human origin,” it said in a statement.