what is it?

[anotheranon]

In my meanderings re: an old pet subject, the Loch Ness Monster, I found this picture (2nd one down) that the researcher claims could possibly be a monster carcass lying ~300ft down on the floor of the loch.

While I'm ready to admit that that lump looks very much like a felled plesiousaur, I am very skeptical - the researcher, Rines, may be accomplished and educated, but he has no background in biology, and no physical samples were taken. Besides, even my own limited knowledge tells me that submerged carcasses typically float to the surface.

Tempting though it would be to contemplate alternatives, I suspect that it's a conveniently shaped pile of mud or rotting wood pictured. Any chance to prove otherwise has been effectively blown by not grabbing it as soon as it was found.

Any thoughts from the more scientific of y'all out there?

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Considering that the whole monster story was deliberately relocated from a sea-connected loch (the name of which escapes me at the moment ... possibly Loch Hourn?) to Loch Lomond, just because it was prettier and more attractive to tourists, I tend to sprinkle extra scepticism on top of my regular healthy supply when it comes to this particular bit of folklore. ***grin*** (plus I read something not too long ago about the taker of the most famous photo eventually confessing how he had been talked into helping fake it ... durned if I remember where, but I've got more book indexes to check through yet ...)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Really? I've never heard of anything being in Loch Lomond - and Ness is almost on the ocean (~1 mile, connected by canal).

And yes - the most famous photo WAS a fake, and one of the fakers confessed on his deathbed - I think there's actually mention of it at the plesiosaur link.

I don't think that the guy who took this photo is a hoaxter - he's got too many credentials/expensive equipment on the line to waste his time that way. However, I suspect with that particular photo his wishful thinking/lack of expertise in the field got the better of him!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

LOL!!!! at self. Sorry ... I thought my brain quit functioning at 1:00 p.m. today, but obviously it really shut down sometime last night. The legend was relocated from another loch to Loch Ness; I've obviously heard/sung "Loch Lomond" far too many times in my life (I can also plead that my paternal grandfather's clan IS Clan Lamont, a.k.a. Clan Lomond, and that I'm under the evil influence of my Clan Lamont mousepad ***grin***)

P.S. I'm SURE I've got the legend relocation information somewhere in my library ... I just can't remember which book it's in. Will try to check a few indexes tonight.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to hear the legend of Loch Lomond (or, at any rate, Loch Not-Loch Ness). I think most of the modern "Nessie" fuss traces back to the 1930s at the earliest, anyway - people started seeing strange things when the woods around the lake were cleared to make a freeway.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

As I recall, the legends about that other loch are older, but they make more sense because it was open to the sea ... can just imagine something developing out of part of a giant squid carcass washing up on shore. ***now wondering if that whole thing isn't in the sea serpent chapter in "Willy Ley's Exotic Zoology", which has a crummy index ... hmmmm***