20th Century Dinosaurs PAGE 3

Pterosaurs Over Guantanamo Bay

The drawing on the right is by artist Eskin Kuhn--drawn from an actual sighting as a Marine on Guantanamo. For Eskin's complete story and additional photos please select Eyewitness Accounts from the menu at the far left.

Click and drag photo to resize. Script from The Java Script Source

The vast majority of the earth's oceans and seas are unexplored. Is it really hard to believe that there are creatures that live so far down or in such remote areas, that they are rarely, if ever, seen by humans.

The waters of this planet go mostly unexplored. It is very easy to hypothesize that we have not come close to cataloging all the creatures that dwell in these waters. There has been many a sailor who has told stories of seeing strange creatures while on the high seas.

Are these just ramblings or are they actual eye witness accounts of creatures yet unknown to science? Click and drag photo to resize. Script from The Java Script Source

The giant squid was thought of as a creature of myth and legend until recently, when scientist found corpses of just such a creature as recently as October 1997.

Many of these "sea serpents" descriptions are similar to creatures that are thought to be extinct. If the coelocanth could survive all those years undetected, why can't other prehistoric giants have done the same thing.

Every year unknown animals or animals that were thought extinct are discovered. Because most of these animals don't fall Click and drag photo to resize. Script from The Java Script Source

into the "monster" category, there is very little written about them that a lay person would see.

New species of water creatures that were discovered recently include the Japanese beaked whale (1958), the cochito porpoise (1958), Megamouth Shark (1976), and Prudes Bay killer whale (1983).

Isn't it safe to assume that since creatures are discovered or rediscovered all the time, these sea serpents and lake monsters are just waiting their turn to be identified properly.......Shadowlands

Left:A rancher holds up what appears to be a dead Rhamphorhynchoidea [long-tailed] pterosaur. This photo is from an old believe it or not type magazine from the 1950's its thought.Click Here for Larger, Comparison photo with Rhamphorhynchoidea pterosaurs

An unknown and still unidentified beach washup covered with body armor in South Africa in 1922.

Creature Washes Up On Nova Scotia

"They let it go as a basking shark and the site where the creature came a shore, was in front of a International Camp Grounds.

So like all tourists, they could see that it was NO Basking Shark, and chopped it up and took home specimens that should have been in a museum.

A SAD TIME FOR CANADA.... A scientific team should have been established, and sent to cover this amazing event. This is a sad time for Canada, but a worse loss for all the world! I have put in so much time, effort, etc. to bring about an answer.

The Discovery channel will probe this angle, and I will be part of this. I would like you to come here, and see what we have, and help make these authorities do what is right".

A scientist who prefers to remain anonymous for the time being has this to say:

"DFO people should know the elementary fact that no fish has a neck -- the pectoral fins come off the body immediately behind the head in all fish species. The basking shark also has a relatively massive head, five pairs of gills, and small pectoral fins.

The evidence from all these photos and your sketch does supports similarity of the carcass to the cryptozoological marine entity named and figured superficially by Heuvelmans (1968) as the "long-necked sea-serpent".

The small pair of tube-like "horns" on the head may be diagnostic. This large marine species has never been formally described in the scientific literature because no specimen, or good photograph of a specimen, existed. Now we have one. At all cost, the bits and pieces that have been taken away, especially the head and skull which is diagnostic of the species and higher classification categories, should be rescued and assembled in one place....GUST

Mexico

Click and drag photo to resize. The photo on the right was taken from a plane in Mexico back in 1956.

The pilot claims that this was a large animal but within the photo itself there is nothing to give it scale--plus it's blurry. This photo has been analyzed over and over--some think its an elephant, but no elephant should have been there either. Color was added to the background to aid the contrast between the object and the background in this faded image.

The Giant Oarfish

This rare, giant oarfish was discovered washed ashore by navy seals off Coronado Island near San Diego in September 1996. This particular specimen was about 25 feet long and up to 4 feet in circumference. They are thought to grow up to 50 feet in length and are thought to be relatively harmless, feeding on Click and drag photo to resize. Script from The Java Script Source

other small fish. It has been suggested by some that the Giant Oarfish may be responsible for some of the reports of sea monsters in the past. In my humble opinion, anything as large as 50 feet long and more than 4 or 5 feet around---is a sea monster!

These things grow at great depth in the ocean and seas and there's no telling how big they get.

Is it possible that like other animals, this one grew much larger in the past? See a recent US Navy video of a Oarfish, here.

Champ

Joseph W. Zarzynski, founder and head of the Lake Champlain Phenomena Investigation Group, is considered the foremost authority on the elusive Lake Champlain Creature (he also prefers "Champ Creature" or USO: Unidentified Swimming Object).

He has catalogued well over 300 creature sightings dating back to 1609. Here are some examples of multiple-witness sightings, when many people reported exactly the same thing:

In July 1870, everyone on a steamship excursion saw the monster near Charlotte, Vermont. The name of the vessel is lost, but the story of the startling event lingers like a ghost.

In July 1873, the crew and passengers of the steamer W.B. Eddy watched the monster near Dresden, New York.

In 1945 , people aboard the S.S. Ticonderoga observed the creature cavorting somewhere near the middle of the lake. Then, on July 30, 1984, the largest mass Champ sighting in history occurred aboard a sightseeing boat called The Spirit of Ethan Allen. It was near Appletree Point.

A private party was in progress. The time: about six o'clock in the evening. Between Click and drag photo to resize. Script from The Java Script Source

seventy and eighty-six passengers were aboard. The creature remained for about three minutes. Three to five humps surfaced, each about 12 inches out of the water. They estimated the creature was about 30 feet long. I

t was green-brown and slimy-looking like a frog. It swam parallel with the boat for 1,000 yards until a speedboat approached. Then the creature turned 90 degrees and submerged....excerpt from book by Joseph A. Citro. (Champ photo by Sandra Mansi)

'Champ' Sighted On Lake Champlain 16 Times In 2000 - Mystery Remains By Lohr McKinstry - Staff Writer, Press Republican

WILLSBORO - A sighting of Champ - the legendary Lake Champlain monster - this fall in Willsboro Bay startled a woman as she ate breakfast at her summer home.

Seasonal resident Elizabeth Wilkins told the Press-Republican this week that she saw a large humped, crocodile-like creature swimming in the lake Nov. 26 and quickly grabbed a pair of binoculars to get a better look.

"It appeared to be about 30 or 40 feet long," Wilkins said. "After about 20 minutes, it slowly began to move northward, leaving a fine wake behind."

Wilkins took a photograph of the creature that shows a long, dark outline in the water, with a duck swimming off to one side.

"A large group of seagulls flying overhead were very disturbed by this, as were the ducks attempting to swim near it," she said.

"When it got in front of Klein,s Marina, it slowly disappeared underwater." The 7 a.m. sighting was one of 16 this year, with the other 15 tracked by Champ Quest, the Panton, VT-based non-profit group that monitors Champ's activities.

The first sighting was June 12 off Panton, VT. Other sightings were around Port Henry, Westport and Port Kent on the New York side and Ferrisburgh, Charlotte, Savage Island and Isle la Motte on the Vermont side of the lake.

Champ Quest Director Dennis Hall said he personally saw Champ while investigating the July 23 sighting near Panton, VT. "I was conducting the search from Button Bay around 5 p.m. My eye picked up movement between Rock Island and the shore," Hall said.

"The movement, quick and distant, still stood the hairs up on my neck. I quickly began to videotape. Over a four-minute period, a single Champtany, stuck its neck straight out of the water and remained on the surface long enough for me to zoom in while the camera was on a tripod.

"It bent its neck and looked like its neck was contracting in a vertical manner, like trying to swallow something. The animal, after a few minutes, quickly disappeared under the water."

There was another sighting two days later, Nov. 28, by the Essex-Charlotte ferry crew. It's not that unusual to see Champ so late in the season, Hall said, although he does believe the creature hibernates in the winter. "It was quite a warm period for late in November," he said.

"The past few years, the lake has cooled to below 50 and then warmed back up, only to cool down again. Maybe in anticipation of such an event, Champtany isn't going into a full hibernation as quickly as they were able to before global warming."

There is something in the lake, Hall believes, or so many people wouldn't report seeing it. "Since 1609, there have been over 600 reported sightings. Samuel de Champlain, while on his voyage of discovery, reported seeing a large animal in the lake," he said.

"The most frequently asked question is: What is Champ? I have described what I,ve seen as a lizard-like, long-necked animal with four legs and feet, a forked tongue, omits a hissing noise, loves the shallow waters, eats small fish and is about 12 inches at birth and 20 feet or more full-grown. And very ugly."

Wilkins said the creature she saw astounded her.

"What startled me first was the commotion all the seagulls were making out there," she said. "I thought, "What's going on here?", and I looked out. "Then I saw it. Our camp is directly on the water. It's elevated; that's how I could see it so well. He lay there sort of still in the water for at least 15 minutes."

The ducks nearby would not approach the shape, she said.

"The thing moved northward in a straight line. It humped up in the middle. Its skin looked just like crocodile skin; it was rough. As it moved, it left a little wake behind it.

"I've never seen anything like it."

See Also:Two More Champ Stories Plus the Sound of Champ

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 NEXT>>>