Crocodile keepers in Australia were shocked to discover a surgical plate in the tum of one of their dead crocs and hope the piece of metal could assistance solve a cold missing person case.

MJ the crocodile died recently at Koorana Crocodile Farm in Queensland, well-nigh the coast of eastern Australia. To make up one's mind why the four.7 meter long reptile passed away, its owners sliced open its gut, they explained on Facebook. Within, they discovered a handful of stones—which crocodiles use to grind upwardly their food—and a piece of metal lined with holes, and six screws.

"Imagine our surprise when we opened upwards the gut on this large croc and establish what looks to be an orthopaedic plate!" the keepers wrote. "No staff and no pets are missing here! So, for now it'due south a mystery..."

Possessor John Lever told the Australian Associated Press he has contacted the farm where he bought MJ to ask whether they tin can provide any clues about the plate's origin.

He told Newsweek he sent photos of the plate to a surgeon who concluded information technology was more likely to be from a human being rather than an animal. "My promise is that the plate may assist in the solving of a cold example," he said. Since the news broke, several people take contacted the keeper to tell of missing persons cases in North Queensland, he told Newsweek.

Koorana Crocodile Farm bought MJ six years ago, John Lever told Australian broadcaster WIN News Central Queensland. Earlier that, the reptile lived in the wild.

John Lever, who has worked with crocodiles since 1972, told Newsweek MJ brutal sick later on fighting with another crocodile terminal December, and stopped eating for 6 months before he died in mid-June.

Three members of staff were there at the time when MJ's stomach contents were inspect on the solar day he died, he said. "Someone immediately identified it as a surgical plate—we were all stunned at the detect."

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A stock epitome of a Saltwater crocodile in Commonwealth of australia. The owners of Koorana Crocodile Subcontract are stumped after a surgical plate was plant in a crocodile's stomach. Getty

MJ's owners don't know much almost the plate as it isn't numbered, but they think information technology was fabricated in Eastern Europe, WIN News reported.

"Obviously any bone he'd taken in that had had the operation performed on information technology, had been eaten away by the crocodile's stomach juices and simply left the stainless steel plate with the six screws in it," John Lever told ABC.

"I've never seen annihilation like this before and I'd just love to find out where it came from," he told WIN News.

Judging past MJ's size and estimated historic period, John Lever told WIN News he thinks the plate could have been saturday in the croc'southward tummy for as long as 30 to 40 years.

Adam Lever of Koorana Crocodile Farm explained it'southward not unusual to discover "random things" in the stomachs of crocodiles. During their lives, many reptiles like crocodiles every bit well as some birds and mammals similar seals and whales swallow rocks. Known every bit gastroliths—or breadbasket stones—they help the animals digest food.

"Yous notice stones, normally, you find hairballs, you observe basic. Simply then there are also things that take you completely sideways," Adam Lever told WIN News.

"It is quite surprising only at the same time yous're sort of half expecting random things to exist in their stomach anyway," he said. "I mean, this is an animal that is the keeper of its homes and its waterways and of course if you're the keeper y'all're the cleaner as well."

John Lever has sent photos of the plate to the U.K. in the hope experts tin determine its original use. He and then intends to pass it on to law.

This article has been updated with annotate from John Lever.