NESSIE IS A SEA TURTLE, SAYS PROFESSOR
A LEADING scientist believes the Loch Ness Monster is an ancient species of sea turtle.
Professor Henry Bauer’s says Nessie may have been trapped in the loch as its waters receded at the end of the last Ice Age.
The US academic, from Virginia, rubbished the notion that Nessie is a form of dinosaur. He said creatures lurking in Loch Ness are “yet to be properly discovered”.
The professor, 89, said: “The most popular attribution of identity for Loch Ness Monsters is a relationship with the extinct plesiosaurs but this is difficult to square with the rarity of surface sightings, let alone occasional sightings on land.
“On the other hand, everything described for Loch Ness Monsters is known among the many species of living as well as thought-to-be-extinct turtles – such as air breathing but spending very long periods in deep water, ventures on to land, very fast movement in water, ability to be active in very cold water and relatively long necks.
“Loch Ness Monsters are a yetto-be-properly-discovered and described variety of large sea turtle.”
Bauer is sure the monster is real. He said: “Film taken in 1960 is the conclusive proof but there are also innumerable contacts by sonar, some excellent underwater photographs and a few plausible surface photographs.
“Everything points to creatures that spend most of their time in the deepest parts of the Loch.
“None of the evidence supports the idea that these are monstrously large eels.”