Course Seven: Lore 325
The “Iceman”Nessie head from
underwater photo
taken 6/20/75 by
Academy of
Applied Scienceally display shy, benign curiosity in contacts with hu-
mans, and they seem to be basically nocturnal, for
which they have been designated Homo nocturnus
(“night man”), a name originally set aside by Carolus
Linnaeus (1707–1778) for just such a creature.
Although the main evidence for the existence of
bigfoot has been in the form of footprints, there are
also a few photographs, some video footage, hair
samples, and—most compelling—a detailed examina-
tion of a frozen corpse viewed in 1968 by Ivan T.
Sanderson (then presi-
dent of the Society for the
Investigation of the Unex-
plained) and Dr. Bernard
Heuvelmans (president of
the French Center of
Cryptozoology). Sander-
son’s drawings and Heu-
velmans’s photographs of
the so-called “Iceman”
have been widely pub-
lished. Shortly after this
examination, however, the
specimen was withdrawn
from public display, and it
has since vanished.Loch Ness Monster
The large and as-yet-unidentified creatures inhab-
iting the murky depths of Loch Ness, Loch Morar,
and other peat-filled lakes and bogs of Scotland, Ire-
land, Canada, and other countries have aroused both
interest and controversy since 565 CE, when St.
Columba, the first Christian missionary to Scotland,
had a legendary encounter
with “a certaine water mon-
ster” on the banks of Loch
Ness. In 1975, the official
name of Nessiteras rhom-
bopteryx (“Ness wonder
with diamond-shaped fins”)
was bestowed upon these
creatures by Sir Peter Scott.
Popular conceptions
of the phylogenetic identity of “Nessie” have invari-
ably been based on plesiosaurs (long-necked Creta-
ceous marine reptiles). But any similarity between re-
ports and photos of modern lake monsters and fossil
forms is superficial at best. These creatures must
breathe underwater, since surface appear-ances are rare. This ability is re-
stricted to fish, some amphibians,
and many invertebrates. However,
they move in vertical undulations
rather than horizontal, as do only
mammals, birds, and invertebrates.
The long neck for which they are
noted precludes gills, which are an in-
tegral part of the skull and jaw struc-
ture; no gilled vertebrate has ever had
a neck. Also, both eye-witness reports
and underwater photos of the head
have revealed extensible horn-like an-
tennae similar to those of snails and slugs. Therefore I
think that “Nessie,” “Chessie,” “Champ,” “Morag,” and
the like are probably giant aquatic slugs, long-necked
like the common garden snail. The small diamond-
shaped fins for which they are named would be gill
covers for openings in the normal position for slugs.The Greek word pteras (“fin”) also means “wing,”
suggesting a basis for legends of winged dragons.
And ancient dragon lore frequently mentions that the
bodies of slain orms or worms “melted away,” leaving
nothing but the teeth; thus explaining the lack of fossils
or bones in the lochs.Mokele-Mbembe, Sirrush
Are there still living dinosaurs in Africa? From
the jungles of the central African countries of Congo,
Cameroon, and Gabon come reports of a bulky animal
with a long neck, a long tail, and rounded tracks with
three claws. People of the Likouala swamp region call
it Mokele-mbembe (“stopper of rivers”). When na-
tives draw a representation of Mokele-mbembe in the
dirt it looks like a sauropod dinosaur. Then when they
are shown a picture of a sauropod dinosaur they say
that is Mokele-mbembe. Its body size is somewhere be-
tween that of a hippopota-
mus and an elephant.
The hairless skin is
predominately r e ddish-
brown ranging
to grey. It’s been
reported to be
15’–30’ long, with
the neck and tail
each being a third
of the length.Photo taken Feb. 1976 by Mary F. on Falmouth Bay, Cornwall.
She described the creature as 15–18’ long at the waterline.Nessie fin photographed
underwater 8/9/72 by
Academy of Applied ScienceSketch by Margaret Munroe of the
animal she saw on Borham
Beach, Loch Ness,
on 6/3/34Sirrush- Lore.p65 325 1/15/2004, 9:37 AM