Found: Loch Ness Monster, but it died 200m years ago.
June 3, 2009 – 7:45 am
The Loch Ness monster - that lived in the English Channel.
The Loch Ness monster (or at least the Plesiosaur that was found) existed during the Jurassic period about 150 to 200 million years ago when what is now the English Channel was a shallow, tropical sea.
The remains were discovered by fossil hunter Tracey Marler under rocks on Monmouth Beach near Lyme Regis, Dorset.
As experts examined the bones in detail, they were surprised to see teeth marks from where a predator dinosaur would have feasted on the carcass of the ‘lake monster’.
Mr Moore added: ‘Their predator would have been the ichthyosaur which was carnivorous.’
Natural England worked closely with the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team to carefully extract the fossils.
The alternative of leaving it could have led to it being destroyed by ill-informed collectors or eventually being washed away and eroded by the sea.
Richard Edmonds, science manager for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, said: ‘There was a risk that we could have damaged the pavement by the act of removing the fossil.
‘Plesiosaur remains are rare. There are only 10 known examples of complete or even partial skeletons of this species.
‘I have been doing this for 30-odd years and I have only ever found the odd bone.
‘The specimen could not have been in a more sensitive location, in the famous and iconic ammonite pavement.’
It is hoped the skeleton, which is 70 per cent complete, will go on public display at the Lyme Regis Museum.
Source: Daily Mail
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