Loch Ness Monster a Possibility
Paleontologist says the many sightings can’t all be dismissed
Paleontologist Dr. Darren Naish reckons there have been too many Nessie sightings for the fabled Loch Ness monster to be a hoax or a fantasy.
Speaking at the Cryptozoology: Science or Pseudoscience? conference in London, England, Dr. Paxton said: “The huge number of sea monster sightings now on record can’t all be explained away as mistakes, sightings of known animals or hoaxes.”
He noted that the sheer size of Loch Ness, which measures 22.5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide by 754 feet deep, makes it quite possible that some undiscovered animal lurks there.
“Large marine animals continue to be discovered,” he said. “And various new whale and shark species have been named in recent years. The idea that such species might await discovery is, at the very least, plausible. At least some of the better [sightings], some of them made by trained naturalists and such, probably are descriptions of encounters with real, unknown animals.”
Some experts have suggested that Nessie is a plesiosaur – a reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. But Dr. Naish disputed that possibility.
“If there are prehistoric animals alive today, it would imply that there’s something very wrong with our understanding of the fossil record,” he said.