henry@hutto.uucp (Henry Melton) (10/16/90)
Can anyone tell me about a possible pleisosaur snagged near Christchurch, New Zealand on April 10, 1977? I have a multi-generation xerox of a photo of the beast being hauled out of the water with a crane and I have no idea where the photo and accompanying text came from. Supposedly, it was investigated by the National Science Museum of Japan? Email is fine, I just want information, not speculation. Don't tell the people over on sci.skeptic about this :-). Henry Melton ...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!hutto!henry 1-512-8463241 Rt.1 Box 274E Hutto,TX 78634
horvath@granite.cr.bull.com (John Horvath) (10/16/90)
If the pictures is the same one I've seen in another book, the story was that the remains of a creature were picked up by a Japanese fishing boat. The remains appeared to be more like an ancient reptile than a fish. The people on board took a picture of it, that's been reprinted so many times. Then because the creature smelt so bad, they tossed it back into the ocean. Sounds like just the kind of incident to build wild stories on. In similar incidents, these mysterious dinosaur remains turn out to be creatively eaten remains of whales.
freeman@argosy.UUCP (Jay R. Freeman) (10/17/90)
In article <794@hutto.UUCP> henry@hutto.uucp (Henry Melton) writes: >Can anyone tell me about a possible pleisosaur snagged near >Christchurch, New Zealand on April 10, 1977? I have a multi-generation >xerox of a photo of the beast being hauled out of the water with a >crane and I have no idea where the photo and accompanying text came >from. I remember that photo. At the time, I asked a friend who was a paleontologist. She said that the consensus among the knowledgeable people she knew, who had seen the photo, was that it was a badly decomposed and perhaps also badly mauled carcass of a large shark, such as a whale shark. -- Jay Freeman <canonical disclaimer -- I speak only for myself>
JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET (Josh Hayes) (10/17/90)
In an interesting book titled "In the Wake of the Sea Serpent", Bernard Heuvelmans shows that basking sharks usually decay in such a way as to look very much like a plesiosaur, due to the structure of their skeleton and their relatively tiny braincase. I suspect that's what this was, which would also explain why it smelled so bad they had to chuck it or upchuck.... Bernard, by the way, believes in sea "monsters", I tend not to, but the ocean is such a damn big and alien place I refuse to rule it out categorically. After all, the giant squid is a scientifically recognized species (in a monotypic genus, Architeuthis). Who knows? Josh Hayes, Zoology Department, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056 voice: 513-529-1679 fax: 513-529-6900 jahayes@miamiu.bitnet, or jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu I'm back, I'm back! I've been to ancient Greece -- I have proof, look at this grape!
schumach@convex.com (Richard A. Schumacher) (10/18/90)
In <720@argosy.UUCP> freeman@argosy.UUCP (Jay R. Freeman) writes: >decomposed and perhaps also badly mauled carcass of a large shark, >such as a whale shark. This was featured on an episode of "Arthur Clarke's Mysterious World". Photos, and sketches by a marine biologist of the decay of a whale shark made a pretty convincing case for this prosaic explanation.
henry@hutto.UUCP (Henry Melton) (10/19/90)
As soon as I received email from New Zealand, I figured the original message had finished its journey. So now to sum up all the replies I received: Japanese fishers snagged something big and rotting, and took a picture of it. It SMELLED BAD, so they threw it away. All we have is the photo which MAY suggest a dead pleisiosaur but also could easily be a badly mangled large shark such as a whale shark. No one has any first hand info. Just not a very interesting incident. Thanks to all who replied. -- Henry Melton ...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!hutto!henry 1-512-8463241 Rt.1 Box 274E Hutto,TX 78634