When it comes to the land of cryptozoology, few kryptides get more attention than the Loch Ness Monster, a Scottish beast allegedly stalking the waters of one of the country’s freshwater lakes. Now, a new discovery suggests that such a monster – or rather a dinosaur – would in fact be scientifically “reasonable.”
Although dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago, a group of researchers at the University of Bath in the UK says a recent fossil discovery says that dinosaurs like plesiosaurs weren’t able to live only in salt water bodies. No, the study says the fossils were found in the Cretaceous river bed of Africa, which suggests that dinosaurs could live in freshwater bodies as well.
“They are scattered things, but isolated bones tell us a lot about ancient ecosystems and the animals in them. They are more common than skeletons, and they give you more information to work with Dr. Nick Longrich, corresponding author on the paper and He said in a university press release.
“Bone and teeth were found scattered and in different places, not as a skeleton. So every bone and every tooth is a different animal. We have more than a dozen animals in this group.”
This is where the plausibility of the Loch Ness monster comes in. Researchers say the fossils confirm that the Loch Ness monster-like dinosaurs were, in fact, capable of living in freshwater. The only problem is that the plesiosaurs also died when the rest of the prehistoric monsters died.
Lead author Georgina Bunker added, “We don’t really know, frankly. That’s how paleontology works.” People wonder, how can paleontologists know anything with certainty about the life of animals that became extinct millions of years ago? The truth is, we can’t always do that. All we can do is make informed guesses based on the information we have. We’ll find more fossils. Perhaps they will confirm these guesses. Maybe not.”
Cover image by Keystone / Getty Images
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