A discovery of plesiosaur fossils in Morocco suggests that a Loch Ness monster could have once lived in an environment akin to Loch Ness.
The study, published in the journal Cretaceous Studies, discovered scattered fossils of grown and juvenile plesiosaurs in a 100-million-year-old freshwater environment, something long thought impossible. The study was written by two students from the University of Bath, one from the University of Portsmouth, and one from Universite Hassan II. The University of Bath put out a press release connecting the study with the world-famous cryptid, also known as Nessie.
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“But what does this all mean for the Loch Ness Monster? On one level, it’s plausible. Plesiosaurs weren’t confined to the seas, they did inhabit freshwater,” a press release from the university reads.
However, the statement also puts a damper on the mood by dismissing the modern existence of such a creature. “But the fossil record also suggests that after almost a hundred and fifty million years, the last plesiosaurs finally died out at the same time as the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago,” it says.
Though cryptid enthusiasts might be disappointed to hear that the discovery isn’t the smoking gun they were hoping for, the study does shed new light on the cretaceous period, or 100 million years ago. The fossils suggested that plesiosaurs were living and hunting alongside a famous aquatic dinosaur, the spinosaurus.
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“What amazes me,” co-author Dave Martill told Bath University, “is that the ancient Moroccan river contained so many carnivores all living alongside each other. This was no place to go for a swim.”
