Another Little Gold-Something or Other

 I was researching the Sinu culture of ancient Colombia, one of the sources where Ivan Sanderson would always be finding "Little Gold Airplanes" and such. I came across a couple of photos showing gold objects in the collections of the American Indian at the Smithsonian and not identified any further than that on their internet source (which was a catalogue of the collection)

The object at the top reminded me of a thresher shark with its long pectoral and tail fins, but it is unlike any known thresher shark in its very long dorsal fins also. This could represent a new Cryptid shark that lives in the Caribbean, but it is possible that it might live in the Pacific and tales travelled over the mountains.

This other gold statuette has a human face and an undefinable sort of a body. It just so happens that a tradition exists that the first ancestors of some Colombian peoples were a pair of Sea Serpents that emerged from Lake Maricaibo (Which is a large saltwater bay.) The tradition possibly means nothing more than the Ancestors arrived in a pair of boats with Seaserpent figureheads. In this case, the piece is interesting because the middle (actual body part) strongly resembles a Plesiosaur, and there are reports of Longnecked Plesiosaur-shaped Sea-serpents in the region that are also said to have fanned tailfins (the Hope On sighting is one example) So possibly this little gold whatsit represents a wereplesiosaur, and the first direct representation of such a thing that I have ever encountered (Although you do get stories where Merfolk can transform into Sea-serpents also)

Best Wishes, Dale D.