Well this...thing is certainly unpleasent
 

no.

This has to be one of the strangest things I have seen in a long while. What is it, though? Looks like the lovechild of a pig and some sort of bird, but that's just me.

After reading through some of the comments on the link, I am most willing to believe that this is some form of turtle without the shell.

Although, I really would like to know for 100% what it actually is.

IN the words of Black Mage (and I think Im getting this right):

"Anything that ugly wants to die"

That looks too mammalian to be a shell-less turtle...Have we found something that connects reptiles to mammals? Zomg.

I'm throwing in on it being not only a hoax but NSFW.

I'm thinking, based on the source, that this is some sort of sick joke. The site is littered with a melange of real news items and blatant tomfoolery.

You're probably correct. I just did some quick look-ups of other sites that reported the story and found them to be of questionable accuracy. Looks like I should do a little bit better fact-checking next time.

If it is real, it would have been nice to throw some coins down for size comparison.

Well you can see some shells and some of the sand texture which would lead me to believe it's about dog sized. Like a small-medium kind of dog.

The arm and...hand looks vaguely human Edit: Actually upon review, it looks dog-like. The beak looks turtle-ish. The rest looks canine.

But the neck seems to have some kind of beard or mane thing...

I'm on the fence as to whether its real or not. Could be.

Edit: Aside from the beak thing, it looks pretty much like a hairless dog of some kind. Look at the...well, I assume they are ears.