Even after centuries of exploration, the ocean still holds its mysteries. Although we know more today about the world's oceans and creatures living in them than ever before, every once in a while the sea brings up something so strange, so unexpected, that makes the world wonder what it could be.

Such was the case when the currents (水流) of the Mediterranean Ocean recently washed a 13­foot­long, smelly body onto the shores of the village of Villaricos in Andalusia, Spain. An early report in the Spanish publication Lavante described the strange, horned (带角的) body as what might seem like a big fish, but it was already in pieces. Locals joked that it was some kind of Loch Ness Monster.

The media jumped right on the creature, of course. Some sites called it a horned sea monster. The popular newspaper Boing Boing called it a dragon. Some people guessed that it might be an oarfish, which is actually a rarely seen kind of big fish that can grow up to 55 feet long.

But now the experts have weighed in and we're sorry to report that it's not a dragon, a Loch Ness Monster, or even an oarfish." That is actually a shark skeleton (骨架)，" Professor Grubbs from Florida State University told NBC News." The parts toward the back were confusing me, but those are the lower caudal fin (尾鳍) supports. The 'horns' are the scapulocoracoids which support the pectoral fins (胸鳍)." Scapulocoracoids are backbones common to many animals.

So there we go, another mystery solved. Well, the ancient maps that once described areas of the ocean as places of dragons have yet to be proven true. But it's good to know that the ocean still has a few surprises for us, even in cases where they're just dead, smelly bodies.

Nicola MacFarlane, 41, and her daughter Lucy, four, from Portobello, near Edinburgh, were playing on the Portobello Beach when they came across an old glass bottle sticking out of the sand containing a note inside written in Chinese.

It is unclear when the letter was sent off, but it was written on Chinese Valentine's Day, or Qixi Festival as it is more traditionally known, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Whether the message has traveled thousands of miles from China or whether it was penned by a love­struck pair much closer to home may remain a mystery. But for Nicola it doesn't matter — she is still excited to read about the Chinese love story after having it translated. She said, "I really do hope that it is from China but even if it is from someone nearer to home, it's still a lovely gesture and an inspiring find. It's a love story regardless of where it came from."

"We saw the bottle sticking out of the sand and just thought it was junk that someone had left behind. But after picking it up I noticed there was a piece of brown paper rolled up inside and there was some foreign writing on it. We quite excitedly took it home, carefully opened the bottle and took out the sheet of paper using some tweezers (镊子). We knew it was Chinese, but we had no idea what it said."

Unable to read the Chinese text, Nicola turned to the Internet and her Australian friend, Julie Gould, whose daughter attended a Chinese school in Sydney. Several hours later Julie returned with the news that it was in fact a love letter.

Nicola said, "It sounds to me like the couple are in love but cannot be together so they have sent the message to tell the world of their love. I'm blown away by it to be honest — it's incredible that it has traveled all this way."

It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, the forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.

Then one day, some visitors from a city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog's legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.

This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were on no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the frogs and hand over the money. For the first time. the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn't last long.

The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.

The villagers decided that they couldn't just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides (杀虫剂) and medicines. Soon there was no money left.

Then the people realised what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn't been useless. They had been doing an important job — eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.

Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to the sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.