It resembled the Loch Ness monster.
Many people compared it to the fabled Loch Ness monster after a perplexed British beachgoer posted photographs of a peculiar creature they discovered washed up on the shore. The odd flotsam was purportedly discovered in November, but it has only now surfaced on Reddit, where users are attempting to make sense of it.
“It looked like a sea monster,” Poole, Dorset resident Lindsay Freeman told Pen News of the bizarre piece of debris she saw while “walking on the beach.”
“It drew my attention because of its odd appearance and size,” Freeman said of the beast. “I could not think of an animal with a shark-like tail and turtle-like legs. It also appeared to have small arms and a peculiar skull.”
The spotted creature appears to have four flippers, a long neck, and a tail resembling a plesiosaur – the extinct dinosaur that inspired the legend of the Loch Ness monster.
The finding was made by Lindsay Freeman, who stated, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Lindsay Freeman/Pen News is attributed.
She emailed a photograph of the mystery creature to her family in the hopes that they could provide a “explanation.”
Unfortunately, no one in her immediate circle could identify the creature, but Reddit’s commentariat was quick to run with the Loch Ness hypothesis.
“Brother, it’s obviously a tiny Loch Ness monster,” joked a cryptozoologist with no credentials.
Another jokester on social media stated, “Baby Loch Ness monster for sure,” while a third added, “Baby plesiosaurus! Your invention will become famous!”
Some Redditors even claimed it was a liopleurodon, a marine predator that roamed the oceans during the Jurassic period hundreds of millions of years ago but is now extinct.
Realists were eager to refute this hypothesis, with many suggesting that the monster was actually the mutilated remains of a marine thornback, a stingray native to the United Kingdom.
“It’s a thornback ray with wings,” theorized one Reddit user. “It does not appear to have been winging appropriately; the snout should be clipped so that the two wings remain attached. We referred to the wings as handbags.”
Another remarked, “The ray appears to have been preceded. The fins were consumed.”
“Line caught, wings removed, corpse left,” bemoaned a scientist in the passenger seat. “Hopefully, fishermen killed fish prior to slaughtering them.”
The supposed plesiosaur-like appearance of the creature evoked similarities to the iconic Loch Ness monster.
Lindsay Freeman/Pen News is attributed.
This infamous photograph of the Loch Ness monster, purportedly shot decades ago by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson, was eventually revealed to be a forgery.
The shore near Poole, Dorset where the unknown creature was discovered.
This is not the first time that a discovery has reignited Loch Ness monster theories.
In September, an Irishman who watches newly placed, high-resolution webcams around Loch Ness in Scotland claimed to have photographed “huge eel-like objects” that constitute Nessie.
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