Monsters and Myths

The remains of a Loch Ness-style creature that lived in the English Channel 200 million years ago have been found on a beach.

Archaeologists have spent months piecing together dozens of old bones found encased in limestone on Britain’s Jurassic Coast by a fossil hunter.

After nearly completing the jigsaw-like puzzle they have disclosed that the skeleton, which is 70 per cent complete, is that of a 12ft long plesiosaur.

The marine reptile resembled the Loch Ness monster with its long thin neck and tail, four large flippers and razor-sharp teeth.

Plesiosaurs existed during the Jurassic period 150 to 200 million years ago when what is now the Channel was a shallow, tropical sea.

Detailed examination of the bones revealed teeth marks from where a predatory dinosaur would have feasted on the carcass of the “lake monster”.

Richard Edmonds, science manager for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, said: “They are rare. There are only 10 known examples of complete or even partial skeletons of this species.

“I have been doing this for 30-odd years and I have only ever found the odd bone.”

The remains were discovered by Tracey Marler under rocks on Monmouth Beach near Lyme Regis, Dorset.

She first found a single bone in limestone. She and partner Chris Moore, an expert in fossils, returned to the scene and they found four more bones.

After further excavation about 150 vertebrae bones and parts of its skull and jaw which had one tooth in it were uncovered.

“It came out in pieces but you could clearly see how it looked. The tail bone was in position,” said Mr Moore.

“Some of the back bones were completely in place where they should be and the neck bone was there as well. You could see some of the bones had actually been chewed up a bit.

“There are teeth marks and you can see how the skeleton had been torn apart by some other nasty marine reptile.

“Plesiosaurs lived in shallow, warm tropical seas. They had long necks and sharp teeth and would have chased after and eaten fish.

“Their predator would have been the ichthyosaur which was carnivorous.”

Natural England worked closely with the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team to carefully extract the fossils.

It is hoped the skeleton will go on public display at the Lyme Regis Museum.

Source: sanfranciscocronical

Fifty years ago sightings of the Loch Ness Monster or ‘Nessie’ were common and few Scottish locals doubted the presence of an exotic water creature in their locale which might have been the last living member an isolated relic Plesiosaur population. Sightings of Nessie have decreased over the last few years and extensive and thorough scanning of the Loch Ness by scientists and researchers have failed to produce any evidence of Nessie. This has led many to believe, sadly, that this gentle, secretive creature had passed on. Now, astonishingly, frequent sightings are being reported of a creature living in the English Channel that appears, judging by images (picture above, video below) captured by astonished witnesses, to be similar in form to Nessie. This cryptid has been dubbed ‘The Channel Creature’.

Many are now asking: Is Nessie the Channel Creature? Is it possible that a hidden water passage exists linking the Loch Ness to the ocean? Perhaps Nessie instinctively realises that open knowledge of her presence would jeapordise her existence and has thus moved out to sea. UFO activity in the area is fairly frequent and a UFO is reported to have crashed in the region some five years ago. Was Nessie placed in the lake by extraterrestrials and then moved by them for her own safety?

Some Nessie researchers claim that scientists are aware of the Loch Ness Monster’s presence and the existence of a secret underwater tunnel leading to the sea ‘She goes out to mate, thus perpetuating the elusive species. But she always returns home to the Loch Ness’ one told us.

THE fossil of a ‘Loch Ness monster’ has been discovered on the Lyme Regis coast.

Hundreds of miles away from its usual home in the Scottish lakes, the fossil of a four-metre plesiosaur has been unearthed on Monmouth Beach.

The extinct marine reptile lived in Dorset’s Jurassic seas around 150 to 200 million years ago, although in popular culture it has been likened to ‘lake monsters’, including the Loch Ness monster.

Local fossil collector Tracey Barkley discovered a number of bones from the creature in the ammonite pavement within the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve (NNR).

Richard Edmonds, science manager with the World Heritage Site Team, said: “They are very rare. There are only 10 or 12 known examples of complete or even partial skeletons of this species. I have been doing this for 30-odd years and I have only ever found the odd bone or two.”

The remains of the elusive reptile were extracted and Charmouth fossil expert Chris Moore is now preparing the specimen for display.

Mr Edmonds said: “From what has been done so far we can already see it has actually been chewed up a bit. Some of the back bones are completely in place where they should be and some are missing.

“There are teeth marks and you can see how the skeleton has been torn apart by some other nasty marine reptile.”

But the decision to remove the fossil plesiosaur from the ammonite pavement was not an easy one. “The specimen could not have been in a more sensitive location, in the famous and iconic ammonite pavement, and there was a risk that we could damage the pavement by the act of removing the fossil,” said Mr Edmonds.

Because of the potential scientific importance of the fossil, it was decided the specimen would be extracted. If left in place, it could potentially have been destroyed by novice collectors or eventually washed away and eroded by the sea.

Tom Sunderland of Natural England, who manage the NNR, said: “There are restrictions on collecting fossils in the NNR, particularly the removal and sale of specimens but we need to work with collectors and the general public in order to strike the right balance and ensure scientifically important fossils are not lost.”

Mr Edmonds said this latest find would not have been possible without the help of local fossil hunters.

Source: bridgeportnews.uk

The first recorded sighting of a “monster” in Loch Ness was nearly 1,500 years ago. Apparently, a huge, ferocious beast leaped out of a lake near Iverness, Scotland, and ate a local farmer. Since then, the lore of Nessie has grown and grown.

A photograph, taken in 1934 by a London doctor, seemed to show a dinosaur-looking creature with a long neck emerging from the water, and it fueled the Nessie obsession.

Then a home movie shot in 1960 showed a family picnicking near the water, but the movie also shows a strange figure swimming nearby.

British intelligence analyzed the film and concluded it was probably “something animate.”

Millions of people have peered into this forbidding water, in search of the truth. One-thousand visitors have reported unusual sightings.

One woman named Val who claims to have spotted Nessie said the creature she saw was “very dark gray. Shiny, obviously, because it was wet.”

MIT professor Robert Rines was at a Scottish tea party in 1972 when he and the others spotted what they thought was the Loch Ness monster.

“It was a big tremendous thing. Like the back of an elephant,” Rines said. “It came back, right in front of us and … thuuup. Submerged!”

Rines, now 85, has returned to Loch Ness almost every summer since that first sighting, hoping to prove that he did see a monster.

Using sonar technology, he plumbed the vast, vast blackness of Loch Ness — which is 750 feet deep, 23 miles long, 380 million years old — and claimed he detected large, moving masses.

In 1975, he captured underwater photos of what appeared to be the body, flipper, neck and head of a large animal.

“This is probably a progenitor of something that should have been dead 65 million years ago,” he said.

Since the 1980s, Rines’ underwater sonar and photos have not picked up any trace of a creature. Rines’ latest theory is that Nessie might now be dead, and he wants to comb the Loch’s bottom for bones.

A recent video showed suspicious movement in the Loch. But that was actually me swimming in the inhospitable waters, demonstrating that it’s easy to fake a sighting.

The water was just a few degrees above freezing the day I went in, and it was murky and dark. There aren’t even many fish brave enough to live in here. So what sort of monster would choose to call Loch Ness home?

Some have speculated that Nessie might be a plesiosaur, a type of dinosaur that resembles other lake monsters spotted around the world, and looks a lot like Nessie.

Adrian Shine, head of the Loch Ness Project, has spent 30 years trying to prove Nessie doesn’t exist.

“I don’t happen to believe that Loch Ness is Jurassic Park. I think it’s about the last place on earth a warm water marine reptile of the Jurassic era would actually want to live,” Shine said.

Shine said certain natural phenomenon like boat wakes or unusual currents created when warm surface water meets the cold water below.

These kinds of currents can make a floating log look like it’s swimming upwind, and create visual illusions, Shine said. For science, eyewitnesses are not proof enough. But for me, they’re enough to keep my imagination running wild.

abcnews.go.com/GMA/AroundTheWorld/Story?id=7185124&page=1

A COUPLE enjoying a romantic weekend in the Highlands believe they may have had a close encounter with the Loch Ness Monster.

Experts are now investigating this latest photograph, which was taken by accident, to establish if it is in fact the Loch’s most famous resident.

Ian Monckton, from Solihull, took his fiance Tracey Gordon to a cottage in Invermoriston on the shores of the loch to celebrate her 30th birthday.

On their way back to the village at about 11pm they pulled into a lay-by. The driver’s window was wound down and before the couple stopped their car they heard a commotion in the water.

Using the car headlights and the flash from his camera to check their footing on the rocky shores of the loch, data analyst Ian unwittingly recorded this picture which he hopes could be the elusive monster.

“There is clearly a very large shape in the water that looks aquatic a few metres out from where I was standing and you just see the tips of the trees lower down the slope to the loch in the photo,” said Ian who has passed the picture to naturalist Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Project to get his expert opinion.

“Myself and Tracey were always quite sceptical about Nessie but after having had this experience I would say we now have a very open mind on the matter.

“It was the highlight of our trip. We’ll definitely be back and we are struggling to get an explanation for what we caught on camera.”

Ian said the pictures were taken from a small cliff overlooking the loch. But it was only when they got back to their country retreat and checked the images they realised they significance of the what they had on their digital camera.

Ian said it was his first visit to Loch Ness and the weather was reasonably clear with only a light breeze.

“We decided to get away for a few days to celebrate Tracey’s birthday and because it was off season we headed up to Drumnadrochit for a meal.

“On our way back to Invermoriston we stopped off at Urquhart Castle to take a few photos, but the lights that illuminate the castle were turned off, so there were no photo opportunities there.

“Then we pulled over at a parking point to let a car pass, as my fiancé doesn’t drive as fast as the locals in the dark.

“I had the passenger window open as I was smoking at the time and as we pulled into the lay-by there was an rustling and a splash. It sounded as if a Mini had landed in the water. That’s how loud it was.

“We both looked at each other and I said ‘What the hell was that’? It wasn’t a small splash like a piece of debris or a stone falling into the loch. It sounded like a car or a motorbike had rolled into the loch.

“I got out of the car and walked up to the edge using the light from the car headlights to see where the edge of the loch dropped away and taking snaps with the camera so the flash let me see we where to tread.”

The couple called out to see if anyone was there, or in trouble in the loch but couldn’t hear anything apart from the water splashing around in the loch.

“After a while we continued back to Homewood, both wondering what the hell we had heard and joking about Nessie,” Ian added.

“However, when we looked back at the photos I had taken up to and looking over the cliff we now genuinely believe there is something in this, there is clearly a very large shape in the water that looks aquatic a few metres out from where I was standing and you just see the tips of the trees lower down the slope to the loch in the photo.”

Mr Shine, who has spent years researching the natural history of the Loch and the Great Glen and is the leader of the Loch Ness Project, commented: “We have been sent material and will be doing some on site investigations. There’s not enough information on the image to hazard a guess what it could be. However, the account sounds not inconsistent with an animal such as an otter going into the loch.”

Mikko Takala, who runs a webcam network for Nessie watchers worldwide, receives thousands of “Nessie sightings” every year as photos and videos.

He too has analysed the photograph and concludes it may be a dead fish.

“Obviously this photo is taken in the dark and camera flashes can accentuate details that would otherwise be barely noticeable in daylight conditions.

“I think this is probably a dead fish – maybe a flatfish.”

highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/5121