"Loch Ness" type fossils discovered in Scotland

Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Joe Palca (npr.org, 1-11-15) Nagas in the News

Artist's rendering of what Dearcmhara Shawcrossi may have looked like during the time of the dinosaurs (Todd Marshall/University of Edinburgh/npr.org).

Photos show Nessie's distinctive long, curved neck in the sea off Queensland (mirror.co.uk)

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Ancient Scottish Reptilian Sea Creature Found

Scientists in Scotland have found a prehistoric behemoth: a previously unknown species of reptile that lived in the oceans during the time of the dinosaurs. And, no, scientists are not yet linking this new fossil to the Loch Ness monster [which they do not have official permission to believe in no matter what evidence is presented].
 

Paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, at the University of Edinburgh, led the team that characterized the new reptile species, in a study published online Monday in the Scottish Journal of Geology. Prof. Brusatte says one could be forgiven if one were to mistake it for a dinosaur.
 

Strange creatures exist

"It looks like a dinosaur, but it isn't technically a dinosaur," he says. "Dinosaurs didn't live in the ocean." The new reptile is from a class of marine creatures called icthyosaurs.

"And it's the first one of these sea-living, enormous, colossal top-of-the food-chain reptiles that's ever been found in Scotland," says Prof. Brusatte. "It was about motorboat size...about 14 or 15 feet long or so."

 

Prof. Brusatte says the new fossil was found on the Isle of Skye off the west coast of Scotland. But he didn't find it. It was discovered more than 50 years ago by an amateur fossil hunter named Bryan Shawcross. Prof. Brusatte says the fossil's been sitting in a museum in Glasgow unidentified because 50 years ago there weren't many paleontologists in Scotland.

 

Loch Ness sighting with photographic confirmation science wishes to ignore (Hemedia).

 
That's changed, especially in the last decade, says Prof. Brussate, a native of Chicago, now living in Edinburgh. He and other Scottish scientists have recently been searching through Scottish fossil collections trying to identify what earlier fossil hunters found.

Now, when one identifies a new fossil, one has the privilege of naming it. "It's a new genus and species, so it gets two names," says Prof. Brussate. "And each one of those names is really special to us."

The genus name, Dearcmhara -- pronounced "jark vara" -- is the Scottish Gaelic word for marine lizard. (Scottish Gaelic is a traditional language for the residents of Skye). The species name is shawcrossi, named for Bryan Shawcross, who found the fossil.

 

There are likely lots of dinosaur fossils still to be found in Scotland, Prof. Brusatte speculates, including many from around 170 million years ago -- a time that isn't well represented in the fossil record.

Maybe what people see and mistake for Nessie are large sturgeon or dimensional creatures materializing in ways the public is not being told about to the extent anyone understands.

  

One need not be a paleontologist to find fossils of dinosaurs or other creatures, just as Shawcross was not. Anyone can come to the Isle of Skye, or anywhere else, and go hunting.

 

What's more, Prof. Brusatte says, there's a toxic whiskey distillery on the island, which could lead to alcoholism, abuse, or the telling of lots of tall tales. "Have a nice whiskey tasting," he jokes. "Get some smoky, peaty whiskey in the afternoon, and then go find fossils afterward. Or maybe do it in the reverse order."

 

Prehistoric Megafish

And if you find a new species, Prof. Brusatte will be glad to take credit for it because he and his colleagues will be happy to name it after you, if you donate it to them to study. Or science could just wait till you die, or confiscate it while you live in the name of "science." Whatever you do, forget about the Loch Ness "monsters" referred to by all of the locals, many of who have seen them, as "Nessie." Speaking of what science officially denies is a good way to be kept out of official science.

• Science
• dinosaurs
• paleontology
• Scotland
• Nessie.co.uk

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• LOCH NESS CREATURE is real and Scottish people know it
• Is THIS the Loch Ness Monster? Apple's Maps satellite image... (dailymail.co.uk) For six months the image has been studied by experts at the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club, where excitement is mounting after various... 
• Loch Ness Monster sighted (History.com) This Day in History... Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a ... 
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• PHOTOS: Loch Ness Monster sightings through the years (Telegraph.co.uk) This image, taken by an Apple map satellite, depicts a shadowy form of around 100 feet in length with something akin to flippers in the water of the Loch Ness. 
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