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Sea Monster

October 11, 2011 by · Comments Off on Sea Monster 

Sea MonsterSea Monster, In the world of pre-historic oceans, the leviathan known as the ichthyosaur was thought to be king. It was an aspiration of air, bus-sized monster with a mouth full of sharp teeth. However, the Mount Holyoke College paleontologist Mark McMenamin believes it was a fearsome creature roaming the seas of the Triassic: A great Kraken, or something.
Like the mythical giant octopus fishermen’s tales of old, cephalopods may have been killing and eating giant ichthyosaurs. The theory is based on an old puzzle, held at the Nevada State Park Berlin ichthyosaur. The park is the ancient tomb of the nine 45-foot ichthyosaur remains.

“Camp Charles baffled by these fossils in the early 1950,” McMenamin said in a news release from the Geological Society of America. “In his articles kept referring to what is peculiar to this site. We agree, it is peculiar.”

The remains seemed oddly stacked in an investigation could not explain. Camp, a U.C. Berkeley professor, thought the death of ichthyosaurs toxic plankton blooms, which requires shallow water. However, the most recent survey suggests that the region was actually a deep-sea environment. Also, the engraving on the bones suggest that not all animals were killed and buried at the same time.

McMenamin knew something strange was happening.

“I was aware that every time there is controversy about the depth, is likely to be something interesting,” said McMenamin.

The bones also appeared to be deliberately reorganized. This led to the conclusion McMenamin who like monsters giant kraken swam in the sea itself. Modern octopuses are known to leave piles of bones and shells in their dens. Has also been observed to reorganize these remains. Octopus’s reputation as a murderer was consolidated into a video of an octopus killing a shark at the Seattle Aquarium.

“We believe that this cephalopod in the Triassic was doing the same,” said McMenamin. “It was one of them drowned or breaking their necks.”

What is even more surprising is these piles of bones may be the first example of self-portraits by history. Ichthyosaurs vertebral discs were arranged in a linear double line patterns perhaps resembling the sucker discs krakens themselves.

“It’s the perfect crime, because octopuses Triassic are mostly soft-bodied and do not fossilize well,” said Christa Stratton, spokesman for the GSA, as their peaks are the only difficult part of your body.

That means there is no strong evidence for the theory. But McMenamin is ready to defend his theory against the skeptics.

“We are ready for this,” said McMenamin. “We have a very good case.”

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