The story of the Loch Ness Monster, a huge, long-necked creature that would live in the depths of a Scottish lake, is a very old legend and spread throughout the world. However, recently some scientists have claimed that this whole tale may be more plausible than we thought.
In the past, the discovery of plesiosaur fossils suggested that these sea creatures might have lived in fresh water — which is a big revolution compared to what I knew until then. Soon, many came to believe that the mystical beast of Loch Ness belonged to this order of marine reptiles. Understand more about the subject in the next paragraphs!
Plesiosaurs in freshwater
(Source: University of Bath/Disclosure)
The theory that the Loch Ness Monster was actually a plesiosaur has gained traction in recent years. This creature was a small-headed, long-necked reptile, extinct about 65.5 million years ago. However, this concept was always discarded because plesiosaurs only survived in salt water — or so we believed.
However, small fossils of this order of reptiles have been found in a river system of 100 million years in the current Sahara desert, in the region of Morocco. This fact not only suggests that plesiosaurs may have lived in fresh water, but also in inland regions such as Loch Ness.
The first time a plesiosaur was discovered was in 1823 by the fossil hunter Mary Anning. The recent finding made by scientists from the University of Bath and the University of Portsmouth, in the United Kingdom, also revealed teeth that give some clues about what these animals ate in their time.
Existence of the Loch Ness Monster
(Source: University from Bath/Disclosure)
As pointed out by the researchers, the discovery of plesiosaur teeth showed a level of of heavy wear. This is an indicator that these creatures fed on the so-called “armored fish”, exotic animals that lived in the rivers of Africa 96 million years ago.
In official testimony, the leader of the study, Nick Longrich, was surprised by recent events. “The bones and teeth were found scattered and in different locations, not as a skeleton. Thus, each bone and each tooth is a different animal. We have more than a dozen animals in this collection”, he said.
According to the researcher, finding isolated bones can seem confusing, but it says a lot about ancient ecosystems and the animals that inhabited them — not to mention that they are much more common than complete skeletons. But what does all this data mean about the Loch Ness Monster?
According to the University of Bath, the new discovery showed that the myth is “on some level, plausible”. As plesiosaurs have long been extinct, however, the information consequently remains unboxed and there is nothing that can put an end to this story at the moment.
