Scientists make discovery on dinosaur that some believe may be related to the Loch Ness monster, #Scientists #discovery #dinosaur #related #Loch #Ness #Monster Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
The Plesiosaurus — an aquatic dinosaur once thought to have lived exclusively in saltwater — is now believed to have spent much of its time in freshwater, according to one new study. The discovery is likely to fuel believers of the Loch Ness Monster in their quest to prove the legend is real, as some argue that “Nessie” was a descendant of the Plesiosaur.
“As a scientist, I can never say that something is impossible,” paleontologist and lead author of the study, Nick Longrich, told CBS News correspondent Dana Jacobson. “All hypotheses are on the table at some level until proven not to be true.”
He said a team of paleontologists from the University of Bath, the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom and the Université Hassan II in Morocco discovered “a bunch of different plesiosaur fossils” in a 100-million-year-old river system that’s now part of Morocco’s Sahara Desert. desert. The findings, he said, were “a little surprising.”
“It indicates that this group specialized in exploiting freshwater environments,” Longrich said.
The fossils found include bones and teeth from both adults and a baby plesiosaur scattered around several places, indicating where the animal died and where the animals lived, scientists said.
“We’ve found a lot of fossils that indicate these things were routine there and probably spent much of their lives, if not their entire lives, in freshwater,” Longrich said.
Some believers of the ancient folktale of the Loch Ness Monster say the creature was last seen alive in the freshwater body of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. But some scientists doubt that an ancient dinosaur would have survived in the dark and icy waters of the lake, given that it was formed during the Ice Age just 10,000 years ago.
The recent discovery of fossils also suggests that the last plesiosaurs went extinct around the same time as the rest of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, contradicting the claims of some believers of the Loch Ness monster who say the creature was last was seen alive in 1975.
“We could find the Loch Ness Monster tomorrow. It could be a plesiosaur,” Longrich said. “However, I think that’s extremely unlikely, given the evidence we have at the moment.”
Nevertheless, the study’s paleontologists said the possibility that the so-called Loch Ness monster is related to a plesiosaur is “plausible.”
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Tori B. Powell