Scientists marvel at the fossilised head of an underwater 'killing machine' from the Jurassic.

The skull of a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast.

It belongs to a pliosaur, a ferocious marine reptile that terrorised the oceans about 150 million years ago.

The 2m-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its type ever discovered and is giving new insights into this ancient predator.

The skull will be featured in a special David Attenborough programme on BBC One on New Year’s Day.

  • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
    12·
    11 months ago

    For a loch ness monster type creature to exist it would truly need to be supernatural.

    If there were only one it would need to be practically ageless and have survived since these creatures roamed the earth millions of years ago.

    Otherwise you’ll have to have at least two creatures in Loch Ness for the entire time to maintain a lineage throughout that time, making it twice as likely to have been discovered

    If you follow the rules of genetics the creature would likely be horribly deformed and riddled with genetic diseases if that were the case.

    To avoid that you would probably need a population of 50-100 creatures within the loch ness in order to sustain a somewhat viable population.

    It’s very unlikely that with how much attention has gone on, 50-100+ of those creatures would go undiscovered, let alone the sustenance needed to sustain that size of population.

    So no, unless it’s a single supernatural creature it’s pretty much impossible I would say.

    • tygerprints@kbin.social
      3·
      11 months ago

      We’re finding more and more bizarre sea creatures in the ocean depths all the time. The thing is, the ocean’s environment (until recently) hasn’t changed that much over millions of years. So a prehistoric creature COULD theoretically still exist without having to evolve much at all down there.

      Look at the Coelecanth…scientists really believed it was extinct for millions of years, and then a live specimen was caught by African Shark hunters not too long ago. And that thing really LOOKS primitive. I saw the specimin in a preservation tank at a museum in San Francisco, and it was jaw-dropping. I’ve never seen a creature that primitive, with hairy fins and scales the size of dinner plates. It was truly awesome and kind of scary.

      So it’s healthy to be skeptical but also I think it’s important to be a little unsure and open minded.

    • tygerprints@kbin.social
      31·
      11 months ago

      Oh yeah I realize that, I mean I’m not saying I truly believe (or do I) that there is such a thing as a Loch Ness creature. I guess I’d have to be nuts to believe there could by cryptozoological oddities out there like a Mothman or a Yeti.

      I guess I would pull a Mulder and say, “I want to believe.” Or do I. I’ve been in places where I’ve seen some things I couldn’t and wouldn’t ever try to explain. And I know others wouldn’t believe it anyway. Until it happens to you, and you see it yourself, you can’t believe such things could exist…

      But it’s the same way with Santa, if you think about it. I believe it because, I want to believe. And I get what you’re saying about population probability - if one such creature exists, others like it must also exist (and we’d probably have more proof by now).