Loch Ness Monster - A World Traveler?

by Libby Pelham | More from this Blogger

26 Jul 2006 08:42 AM

He got his name from the freshwater loch he supposedly inhabits in the Scottish Highlands, but scientists now think reptiles similar to the Loch Ness Monster were in the Australian Outback as many as 115 million years ago.

Palaeontologist Benjamin Kear from the University of Adelaide conducted a team that studied the fossils of the mining town Coober Pedy in southern Australia. The creatures, Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes, are part of the same group from the Jurassic period that contains the other creatures such as a killer whale type creature.

Most of the fossils found were on juvenile creatures, but others led the team to believe that the Umoonasaurus was about 7 feet long with three ridges on his head while the Opallionectes was more than twice as large at 18 feet.

Like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster is a part of cryptozoology. Cryptozoology is the study of animals that are believed by many to exist, but of which there is no concrete proof. The Loch Ness Monster legend goes back for many centuries, although the real interest started with the 1934 photograph known at the "Surgeon's Photo." Marmaduke Wetherell liked to hunt big game and was hired by the Daily Mail newspaper to search the loch for a rumored creature existing there. He found out the rumor was false, but was ridiculed by the Daily Mail. To get his revenge, he came up with the most famous photo of the Loch Ness Monster. He asked surgeon Robert Wilson to submit the photo, thus it became known as the "Surgeon's photo."

Problem is, this photo was an admitted hoax. Wetherell had his son-in-law Chris Spurling help him make the "creature" using clay attached to a toy submarine. Spurling made a deathbed confession that the photo, which sparked much interest in "Nessie," was indeed a fake. Although others were involved in the hoax (including Wetherall's son Ian and insurance agent Maurice Chambers), no one else ever confessed to the hoax. Even Wilson himself never claimed to have not taken the photo.

Despite the confession, the debate over whether the Loch Ness Monster really exists continues. So what do you think? Is there a Loch Ness Monster?

Learn more about Libby Pelham

Libby Pelham is a work-at-home mom located in Jacksonville, NC. She has a beautiful little boy, Will, born in July of 2004.

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