Page 107 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysterious Creatures 87

that annihilated their cousins more than 60 marine monster is known to have survived
million years ago? Supporting such specula- into the Miocene Epoch, just over 30 million
tions were the discoveries of numerous coela- years ago. If the coelacanth has survived for 70
canths (crossoptergian fish) off the coast of million years, it seems possible that the rela-
southeast Africa in 1938. The coelacanths tively young Basilosaurus could still be inhab-
that were dragged from the ocean by the nets iting the seas.
of fishermen had survived almost unchanged After years of researching Nessie in Loch
for 70 million years—from a time even before Ness and similar long-necked lake creatures
the Age of Reptiles. Then, after nearly 200 of all around the Northern Hemisphere, Dr. Roy
the supposedly extinct “living fossils” had Mackal has come to believe that rather than
been discovered on the southeast African beholding “monsters” in the waters, people are
coast, the fourth coelacanth, a female almost witnessing small, remnant bands of Zeu-
five and a half feet long, was caught off the glodons. In Mackal’s theory, the creatures
coast of Madagascar in March 2001. If a num- migrate from oceans to lakes, following such
ber of coelacanth, whose species preceded the prey as spawning salmon. Lake Champlain is
dinosaurs, have survived, why not some aquat- linked to the Atlantic Ocean by the Richelieu
ic descendants of the giant reptiles? and St. Lawrence Rivers of Quebec. Loch
A popular theory to explain the existence Ness is connected to the sea, and so is Lake
of sea monsters is that they may be survivors Okanagan in British Columbia, where Ogo-
of one of the giant reptiles of the Mesozoic pogo is frequently sighted.
Age. Philip Gosse, the famous nineteenth- Smaller than the Basilosaurus, a later
century naturalist, was an avid exponent of development on the evolutionary ladder, Zeu-
the possibility that plesiosaurs could still be glodons bear little resemblance to modern
thriving in the Earth’s oceans. While the whales. Mackal said that the fossil remnants of
Mesozoic Age ended tens of millions of years the creature at the Smithsonian Institute
ago, he argued, there was no a priori reason “looks like a big anaconda [a large semiaquatic
why some of the descendants of the great sea boa constrictor] with a ridge down its back.”
reptiles could not have survived. Other
marine zoologists favor the unverified exis- M Delving Deeper
tence of an aquatic mammal related to the Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America. New York: Par-
whales as their candidate for the mantle of sea aview, 2002.
monster. They maintain that the horselike ———. “Top Cryptozoological Stories of the Year
mane often reported on the so-called sea “ser- 2001.” The Anomalist, January 4, 2001. [Online]
pents” would be an unlikely appendage for a http://www.anomalist.com/features/topcz2001.
reptile—and, they argue that only a warm- html.
blooded mammal would be able to survive in Heuvelmans, Bernard. On the Track of Unknown Ani-
the cold water of the North Atlantic where so mals. New York: Hill and Wang, 1958.
many sea monster stories originate.
Mackal, Roy P. A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-
Still other marine researchers have Mbembe. New York: E. J. Brill, 1987.
expanded the theory of the monstrous sea ———. Searching for Hidden Animals: An Inquiry into
mammal and combined it with another candi- Zoological Mysteries. Garden City, N.Y.: Double-
date for survival from prehistory. They day, 1980.
hypothesize the survival of an ancient species
of whale known as Zeuglodon or Basilosaurus,
whose fossil remains are well-known. Well- Dragons
equipped for the role of a sea monster, One of the most universal monster myths is
Basilosaurus was a huge beast with a slim, that of the dragon. The awesome, reptilelike
elongated body measuring over 70 feet in beasts appear in the folklore of nearly every
length. Its skull was long and low, and the country. And the fact that the creature was
creature propelled itself by means of a single truly regarded as an actual monster rather
pair of fins at its forward end. This massive than a myth can be demonstrated in several

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained