Could the Loch Ness Monster exist and could it be a Plesiosaur?

Could the Loch Ness Monster exist and could it be a Plesiosaur?

By Bobby Gardineer

            Well, first what is a Plesiosaur? The Plesiosaur existed on Earth between 220 million years ago at the end of the Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. It was a reptile that swam in the ocean. It had a long neck, four flippers, and a short tail. We know this because fossils of these creatures have been found on every continent on the planet. But because of the variety of different fossils that were found the Plesiosaur had to be classified into two types. The first type is the long-necks with small heads and the second type is the short-necks with large-heads. How weird is that? It sounds to me like the Plesiosaur changed and evolved over those millions of years and scientists just don’t have enough information to make an accurate classification of each version of the creature.

It is believed that the Plesiosaur hunted in warm shallow coastal waters and may have lived there too. This belief is based on the fact that many of the fossils were found in those regions. Now some of the Plesiosaur fossils were preserved well enough to show stomach contents. By looking at the contents a determination might be made about what they ate. From what was found it seemed that the creature ate a wide range of foods. Some remains showed they ate belemnites and ammonites while others showed they were carnivorous. Scientists believe that the creature adapted to whatever food source was available. To me that would explain why it existed for 155 million years.

 

            Now onto the important question: Does the Loch Ness Monster exist?

            Let’s first look at some history of the monster. The first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster was in 565 AD by St Columba who said he saw a water beast attacking one of his followers. There aren’t any additional sightings again until 1933. One of the sightings in 1933 was by a Mr. and Mrs. Spicer who reported seeing a large animal crossing the road in front of their car.

 

            Since that time, there have been a number of sightings and claims by individuals that said they saw a creature. There have been reports of a single hump creature, a double hump creature, and sightings on land and in the water.

 

(The Loch Ness Monster as described

in a 1930s sighting.)

                                                                                               

         (1934 surgeon's photograph)

                                                                        (Loch Ness)

            There are many people who believe that something exists in the Loch but there is currently no real proof that there does.

            So if it does exist could it be a Plesiosaur? According to www.loch-ness.org the most popular belief is that it is. So is it possible that a species that went extinct 65 million years ago survived to become the Lock Ness Monster? To know if it is possible we will have to look at what the loch environment was like over the last 65 million years. Then we would have to figure out how it came to live in the Loch.

Well I have no information from 65 Million years ago until about 12,000 years ago. But it is believed that some 12,000 years ago Loch Ness was solid ice because the region was experiencing an ice age. So no animals, including the plesiosaurs, could have lived through it. If plesiosaurs came into the loch it would have had to happen after the ice melted and plants recovered from the ice age. That would mean that these creatures were living in the North Sea (a lot of them) for at least some of them to become trapped in the loch. If there were a lot of them in the North Sea only a few thousand years ago where are they now?

Also, why would plesiosaurs come to a barren loch (after the ice age) with no fish or animals to feed on? And lastly, the plesiosaur is believed to have lived in warm shallow seas so it seems unlikely that it could have survived in ice age seas. So It is believed by some (who look at the facts) that these conclusions rule out the plesiosaur of being the Loch Ness Monster. I am one of the believers.

http://www.plesiosaur.com

http://www.loch-ness-monster-nessieland.com

http://www.loch-ness.org/