A study estimates that the discovery of an ancient dinosaur feeds the observation of Loch Ness

The reports on the Loch Ness monster date back to the 6th century, but in recent years there has been a resurgence of sightings of the supposedly legendary beast.

In 1934, the famous "surgeon's photograph" was published, fueling even more speculation about what the Scottish monster nicknamed "Nessie" is actually.

A study by the History of Earth Sciences Society published in April suggests that the discoveries of the Loch Ness monster in the 19th century may have been influenced by the discovery of dinosaur fossils, according to a summary.

"Over the past 200 years, there has indeed been evidence of a decrease in reports of serpentiform snakes and an increase in the proportion of reports with necks, but nothing is happening. indicates an increase in the proportion of mosasaur type reports ", summed up the study said. "However, witnesses only began to unequivocally compare sea snakes to prehistoric reptiles in the late nineteenth century, some fifty years after the suggestion made by naturalists.

"After the notoriety of the Mesozoic reptiles, stories of sea snakes, previously directed towards the serpentine, began to describe the monster as more and more resembling a Mesozoic marine reptile such as a plesiosaur or a mosasaur", according to the report. # 39; abstract. Plesiosaurs are a type of marine reptile with a long neck.

The mosasaurs are large reptiles resembling fish without long necks, while the plesiosaurs are amphibious and have a long neck.

William Buckland of the United Kingdom was the first to find dinosaur fossils in 1819.

Specific details

Sci-fi writer L. Sprague De Camp was the first to suggest that dinosaur fossils could have fueled the sightings of the Loch Ness monster, Fox News reported.

In 1968, he wrote: "After the notoriety of Mesozoic reptiles, stories of sea snakes, hitherto serpentine-oriented, began to describe the monster as resembling more and more of a Mesozoic marine reptile as a plesiosaur. or a mosasaur. "

There has been speculation that the Loch Ness monster could be a plesiosaur surviving an event similar to that of extinction that killed other dinosaurs millions of years ago.

Dinosaur fossils have changed the Loch Ness monster image https://t.co/YREYzDCger pic.twitter.com/7srtyjMHSj

– New York Post (@nypost) April 25, 2019

"The discovery of long-necked marine reptile fossils in the 19th century seems to have had an influence on what people think they saw in the water," said Charles Paxton of the University of St Andrews, quoted by Fox.

The paleontologist Darren Naish of the University of Southampton and Paxton examined 1,500 presumed Nessian sightings dating back to 1801. From 1801 to the time of the "surgeon's photograph" in the 1930s, observations of long-necked creatures , like the plesiosaurs, went from 10% to 50%, according to Fox.

The earliest sighting of the Loch Ness monster was reported in the 6th century when St. Columbia "ordered one of his monks to swim on the lake to fetch a boat," says the Vintage. News.

However, the Irish saint told the monster to stop and not touch the monk and return to the bottom of Loch Ness. The monster then obeyed.

Surgeon's photograph

In 1934, the "surgeon's photograph" was published by the Daily Mail, but many now think it was a false hoax.

"Christian Spurling, son-in-law of the flamboyant filmmaker and big game hunter," Duke "Wetherell, admitted that he had fabricated the" monster "with plastic and a metal submarine, toy," according to the Museum of abnormal history. He gave an interview in 1993 on this subject.

According to Spurling, Wetherell "created a plastic head and neck and attached them to a toy submarine, took pictures and asked Wilson to deliver them to the courier," BT reported.