What's Poppin' with Mysterious Monster Corpses?

It's not quite hurricane season yet but already the other summer shore menace has reared its vile, bloated, and kind of sad corpse-head: the Montauk Monster 2.0 washed ashore on Long Island's Southold beach earlier this month. You may remember this hottie from last summer's ultimate internet freakout! But in case you were on a tropical island lost in time and missed it, this incident, like the last one, involves the decaying carcass of an as-yet unidentified hoofed animal of piglike proportions... and something of a beak.

Speculation and conspiracy theories abound; the ones that best reflect our deep-seated pop cultural fascination with mysterious experiments conducted by foreboding organizations on secret islands revolve around the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center, where the USDA researches animal pathogens. And though their website assures that "Not once in our nearly 50 years of operation has an animal pathogen escaped from the island," one can't help but think SWINE FLU SWINE FLU SWINE FLU!

-- JESSANNE COLLINS

Previously > Debbie Gibson vs. Special effects sea creatures