SEA SERPENTS—The Facts!

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

SEA SERPENTS —The Facts!

some reason everyone wants to believe that somewhere in the ocean depths there are strange creatures, survivors of the Age of Reptiles, still living. The facts are these, says a contribuA°n .i .? Xew York " He rald Tribune." AH the sea serpents" that have come ashore or been examined have proved to he some already known fish or animal. here is not a shred of scientific evidence to show that any of the great monsters of the Age of Reptiles still exist. No one could ask for a belter sea serpent than the 30ft mosasaur, but unfortunately it has been extinct for about 50.000,000 years. Why thev died out no one knows, but their fossilised bones are never found above the beds of the upper Cretaceous age. liien sharks, whales and seals

became the dominant giant nsarine types, and it is these that give rise to most of the sea-serpent dories that are not pure fabrications. faulty observation by untrained observers is responsible in most cases. An animal at sea as a rule gives only a brief glimpse of itself. Probably it is a whale or a shark or a seal that is unknown to the observer. He 6ees it for a second or two and only part of the body at once. His imagination can make it look like anything and he really Ixdieves that he kiv something he never saw at all. Every lawyer will tell you that eye-witness testimony is the most unreliable of all. Lntil we have the actual body or skeleton of a sea serpent that does rot prove to be some already known form, the creatures must remain mythical and in a class with the "hoop snake tu r as scientists are concerned.