Nessie's Kin?
A STRANGE sea creature, said to resemble the Loch Ness Monster, has been reported off the coast of Cornwall in south-west England, according to London's Daily Mail.
The first documented sighting of such a creature was in 1876, when local fishermen reported seeing it. Sporadic claims of sightings have taken place since then, but probably the most convincing is the account from teacher-turned-author Sheila Bird.
According to the Daily Mail, Sheila was walking with her brother, an eminent scientist, along the cliffs of the Cornish coast at Gerrans Bay in 1985. Her brother suddenly asked 'What's that?', and pointed to a giant sea creature which had a long neck and a small head.
'As it came nearer', Sheila said, 'we could see a huge hump. At the end of the trunk there was a wide, flat area, and an enormous long tail which could have been as long as its body. It must have measured 40 feet in all.'
Other walkers watched the creature through binoculars with Sheila and her brother, until it submerged vertically 'like a submarine'.
Sheila consulted two paleontologists, who said that from her descriptions the creature seemed to be a descendent of the supposed extinct Plesiosaurus. 'The ocean is the last unchartered wilderness', Sheila said. 'If the experts can prove what this creature is, then science must be rewritten.'