Comments on: More Sea Serpents

By: CryptoInformant

CryptoInformant — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 17:05:29 +0000

It really could be anything in that size range. Mosasaurs did(do) have long, narrow jaws, and the largest exceeded 60 feet. But, like most of the Squamata, they probably had forked tongues. The missing tail section really screws up identification.

By: crypto_randz

crypto_randz — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 16:01:15 +0000

It might even be a mosaurus or a basilosaurus the way that it is described it sure is a huge sea serpent. There is a possibility these serpents are still out there but out of human contact.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 15:43:26 +0000

The rationalist in me wants to say that this thing was probably a badly-decomposed Zyphiid (Beaked Whale), but I do find the size thing a bit troubling. One could just as easily say that it must be a Basilosaurus, which would account for the size, but then I would expect some mention of the teeth. Pity nobody took a picture, then at least we’d have some sort of grainy, black & white image to pore over.

By: alanborky

alanborky — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 05:23:22 +0000

Maohk Kiaayo’s point is particularly well covered by Rumi’s Sufic parable, The Elephant In The Dark, where the various blind, or blinded, (by the dark), wise men each seize upon a particular aspect of the elephant’s anatomy - its trunk, a leg, an ear, the tail, a tusk, the epidermis, etc., and interpret the nature of the beast solely in terms of that aspect, all the time emphatically deriding the idiocy of the opinions of the other wise men.

Something which I can verify can in fact occur in real life, having witnessed while at university a variety of beetle-o-philes (to fliply coin a phrase) extolling the virtues of a glass case full of these huge hideous horrendously asthmatically wheezing African beetles of some kind, each of the ‘-philes’ so wildly rhapsodic about their favourite piece of beetle anatomy, (the likes of the mandibles, the carapace, the knee joints, or some other such bollocks) that at the time I felt obliged to check they all had their hands out in the open.

By: springheeledjack

springheeledjack — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 03:36:54 +0000

And the fact is we know less about the ocean than we do the moon. There are millions of square miles with no boundaries where big things can swim and live without ever coming into contact with people.

New species are discovered in the oceans every year—last year they discovered a 20+ foot long squid hanging out near oil rigs.

I have also read that we cover less square miles on the oceans these days because of shipping lanes so that boats, ships, etc are not seeing as much of the oceans these days as in earlier times when people actually explored the oceans. So while sailors and seagoers are often the target of “oh he was just seeing a ___ (insert your favorite fish here)” I do not believe we have discovered even close to everything creeping in the depths of the ocean, and there are some big critters out there whether they are sitting in a museum yet or not.

Stepping down off the soap box now. Thank you and good niight.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:26:42 +0000

Also, the basic layman will often jump to conclusions when recounting something they saw that they could not identify especially if they don’t know much about different types of wildlife. Sometimes who saw it and their experience in these things is as important as what they say they saw.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:11:26 +0000

Well trained scientists and field biologists can make pretty accurate descriptions and I would think that seasoned sailors would be able to tell what they are looking at most of the time. I don’t think we can just discount out of hand human perception and our ability to observe things accurately. However, I do feel that under different circumnstances, the eyes will play tricks from time to time and the human mind has the unfortunate habit of embellishing, especially when emotions are running high. When looking at eyewitness sightings, I feel it is important not to be too quick to embrace nor discount what they claim, but rather carefully examine their emotional state, sighting conditions, etc.

By: OKCurious

OKCurious — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:36:15 +0000

It all boils down to the principle of perception for the witness, chronicler, etc. We can all see the same thing at the same time, but our descriptions of it will vary enough that it could seem like we’re all describing a different creature. Our eyes will fool us.

By: Maohk Kiaayo

Maohk Kiaayo — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:27:07 +0000

It seems to me that there are way too many sea serpents. Everyone that has a story describes something different. “Heck Yeah I saw a sea serpent! We’ll it looked like it had a 1965 pink corvette growing out of the top of its middle finger it also looked like it was covered in purple shag carpet that was growing tulips.” How many different sea serpents are there? How many could there really be? Do you think that they would all look some what similar? I dunno.