FOLKLORE REIMAGINED

Scientists Say New Evidence Suggests Loch Ness Monster’s Existence Was ‘Plausible’

Fossils of small plesiosaurs found recently in the Sahara could indicate the creature lived in freshwater.

Is this finally proof that the Loch Ness Monster is real? Well, the elusive creature’s existence is at least “plausible,” according to British researchers who have studied new fossils found in a 100-million-year-old river system that is now Morocco’s Sahara Desert. The fossils belong to small plesiosaurs, a lanky marine reptile from the dinosaur age that Loch Ness believers have maintained could be the same creature. Until now, though, there’s been little evidence that plesiosaurs could have roamed fresh water like the Loch Ness in Scotland. “What amazes me is that the ancient Moroccan river contained so many carnivores all living alongside each other,” David Martill, who co-authored the study in the journal Cretaceous Research, told The Telegraph. “This was no place to go for a swim.”