Jesus...

Well, this is unexpected.

In the world of taxidermy hoaxes, I have strolled across many oddities but the crucifix fish is one I have not heard of.

But before your faith gets tangled up like flipper in a tuna net, let's actually think about what this little piece of dried fish jerky really is.

Mermaids, Mermen, and Mormon have always drifted through common myth and legend. When live specimen could not be caught, the desiccated bodies of monkeys were sewed onto the bodies of carp and then sold to sailors as the real deal. Of course, we all know that real Mermaids live in Montana and Florida, but these amazing fakes are similar to the Jesus-on-a-Cross-fish above.

The Bishop fish is another example of a similar fish. More of a natural phenomenon than a quilting accident with simians, when skates and rays or other cartilaginous flat fish are dried the underside forms odd human-like facial features. The odd shape, which looked like a bishop, or perhaps a squat Klansman, were signs of holy domain over the sea. Of course the these fish were further mutilated to make them more human, fins and gills would be snipped to make arms and other odd human like features.

That brings us to the to our holy of hollies featured above. No fish looks like a crucifix. This skate has been snipped, molded, shaped and formed, to look like Jesus in misery.

Kind of funny when you think of it. Ah, the things we will do to sell a religion...