What about the body of the Pacific monster?

On April 25th, 1977, an ocean trawler "Ruiyang Maru" of Japan Marine Fisheries Company fished in the sea area more than 50 kilometers east of Crateschurch, New Zealand. When the crew pulled up the net that sank 300 meters at the bottom of the sea, an unexpected monster was pulled up with the net. In the net is the body of a monster I have never seen before. Being caught in the net, they couldn't see the whole picture of the monster, so they tied the rope in the middle of the monster and hung it with a crane. A strong rancid smell emanated from the body, and the fat and a small part of muscle on the body fell on the deck with long sticky silk. There was a commotion in the boat, and now people can clearly see that it is a reptile-like body. Although it has begun to rot, it is well preserved. You can clearly see that it has a long neck, a small head, a big belly (the abdomen is empty and there are no internal organs), and four big fins ... The results measured with a tape measure show that the monster is about 10 meter long, the neck is10.5 meter long and the tail is 2 meters long. It is neither a fish nor a turtle, and no one among the crew who have been fishing at sea for many years knows it. Everyone made an amazing comment: "Isn't this the same as the plesiosaur in Loch Ness?" "Is it the monster of Loch Ness?" ..... The captain who heard the news was furious when he saw that everyone was enjoying a rotten monster. He was worried that the fish in his cabin would be lost and ordered the crew to throw it into the sea at once! Fortunately, Mr. Yano Daoyan, who was on the boat at that time, thought this discovery was a bit special, so he took some photos and made relevant records before the monster was thrown into the sea.

When the news reached Japan, it immediately caused a sensation throughout the country, especially among zoologists and paleontologists. They looked at these photos and analyzed them. They thought, "This is not like a fish. It must be a very precious animal." "It's amazing! This is no less than a century-old discovery of pike fish. " "The greatest discovery of this century-the living plesiosaur" ... the news spread all over the world immediately, and newspapers all over the world reprinted photos and sent messages. As soon as it came out, it aroused great interest and concern from famous biologists all over the world, and they expressed their feelings and talked about it one after another.

Throwing the monster's body back into the sea caused deep regret and strong condemnation. Some biologists in Japan, in particular, are "gnashing their teeth" and "furious". They accused the captain of being "ignorant and stupid". Professor Shikama Tokio, a Japanese authority on biology, said, "Under no circumstances should you throw it away. It seems that the education in Japan is so poor that this will happen. It is an international joke to lose a national treasure for a commodity of 200 million yen. " Although the marine fishing company immediately ordered all fishing boats in New Zealand waters to go to the scene to catch the monster's body again, even ships from some countries, including the former Soviet Union and the United States, rushed to the scene to fish. However, since three months have passed since the news release, the monster was abandoned. Although they tried their best to find it, no one was able to salvage it in the vast sea. It's a pity that mankind missed the best opportunity to know a new animal.

Fortunately, this discovery finally left biologists with three pieces of evidence: one is four color photos of the monster, the other is forty or fifty fin whiskers (fibrous whiskers at both ends of the fin), and the third is a sketch of the monster skeleton drawn by Mr. Yano Daoyan on the spot.

These photos were taken from three different angles. Two of them were taken when the fishing net was just dragged onto the deck. The net was a monster wrapped in white fat. The other two were taken when the monster was lifted by a crane, one was taken from the side of the monster and the other was taken from the back of the monster. It can be clearly seen that this monster has a huge back and four large symmetrical fins. You can also see that its abdomen is empty and its muscles are intact, but its head is exposed with white bones, and there are red muscles under the monster's white fat. Judging from its size, only whales, giant sharks and giant squid can compare with it in the ocean. But from the photos, its head is very small, which is very different from the skulls of all existing whales, and its neck is particularly long, especially with four symmetrical large fins, so no other marine animals or fish can compare with it.

Fin must be the only valuable physical evidence and the most practical reference. This is the whisker-like horniness at the fin end of the monster. It is 23.8 cm long and 0.2 cm thick. It is beige and transparent, and its top is divided into three thin strands, much like the root of ginseng.

On the top left of the skeleton sketch, it says: "10: 40 Hoist, Nishi (monster in Loch Ness)? Took a photo. " This is Mr Yano's record at that time. He drew this sketch based on field observation and general measurement. The monster's skeleton is10m long, and its head and neck are about 2m long, of which the head is 45cm, the neck is 20cm thick, the tail is 2m long, the root is12cm thick, the tail is 3cm thick, and the body part is about 6.5m long. According to him, bones belong to cartilage.

Although these records and evidence are very valuable and become the basis for scientists to study, identify and discuss, there is still a lack of fundamental basis to rely on them to determine which animal the monster belongs to. Because there is no physical object, it can't be compared with the known fossil bones of various animals and paleontology, so it can't be compared and identified. So the Japanese biologist said, "Even if you bring back a small tooth skeleton!" However, this is a pity after all. ...

What is it? Scientists are still arguing about this, and there are different opinions. 1977 after the news was reported, the debate generally went through such a process, from plesiosaur to shark to reptile to unknown animal.

We briefly describe the arguments of various hypotheses:

At first, some people thought it was a whale or a shark, others said it was a seal or a turtle. However, these conjectures were rejected one by one according to the three evidences left. The whale's neck bone is shorter than the monster's, the shark's fat is hidden in the liver, and the monster is on the surface. The largest seal is 5-6 meters long, and the largest tortoise is 2 meters long, which is much smaller than the monster with a length of 10 meters, and its bones are different. The focus now is that people suspect that it is a descendant of plesiosaur that died out 70 million years ago. One of the main reasons is that it has such a long neck Around its long neck, people argue endlessly, and many scholars happily declare that it is a "living plesiosaur".

Professor Shikama Tokio of Yokohama National University said: "From the photos, it is limited to reptiles, but we can consider the plesiosaur, which once lived in Taikoo. It can be said to be a veritable living fossil." Kojima Yu, from the Third Laboratory of Paleontology of the National Museum of Science, also said, "From the photos, he seems to be a descendant of plesiosaur. There are two kinds of plesiosaurs, one with a small head and a long neck, and the other with a slightly larger head and a shorter neck. This seems to be a short neck ... "Ms. Bao Xue, deputy curator of French natural history, and some New Zealand biologists agree with this statement.

Indeed, monsters are very similar to plesiosaurs. People compare the monster skeleton map with the fossil skeleton of plesiosaur, and it is very similar in both the overall skeleton structure and the local fin, tail and neck. In particular, Yano's monster skeleton map was drawn according to his visual observation and speculation, which is not completely accurate, but its structure is so similar to that of short-necked plesiosaur that it cannot be said that this plesiosaur is based on some facts.

Plesiosaur is a marine reptile that lived from the late Jurassic to the Cretaceous, and its thin neck was very long. Terrestrial sauropods with similar appearance originally had a slender neck, but in the late Jurassic, this kind of dinosaur with a slender neck gradually became extinct, and was replaced by vegetarian dragons in the early Cretaceous (such as Pachycephalosaurus and black dragon). ), the neck is shorter. Plesiosaurs also developed in the direction of short neck. If so, this monster found in Japan can be said to have evolved a little more. So the newspaper announced: "This is the biggest discovery of this century!" "

But soon, the only physical evidence-the monster's beard-was analyzed in protein at Tokyo Fisheries University, and it was found that its composition was similar to shark's fin, so newspapers and news turned to sharks, and said that the statements of "giant shark" and "an invisible shark" flooded the newspapers again. At this time, biologists in some countries in Britain and America also hold this view.

Owen Wheeler of the Natural History Museum in London, UK, said: "This prey is probably a shark. Many other monsters have been found near the coast of the world before, but they are all dead sharks after clarification. A shark is a cartilaginous fish. They have no hard skeletons. When the shark's body gradually decays after death, the head and gills first hang down from the body, thus forming a slender' neck' with a small head at the end. Many Japanese fishermen, even more knowledgeable people, were fooled by the shape similar to that of plesiosaur ... "This statement seemed reasonable, and many people who held the plesiosaur statement gave up the original idea at that time. A monster equals a shark, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

However, after testing the tentacles again, it is not certain that it is a shark. In addition, some scholars insist on the reptile theory, and the shark theory begins to waver again.

Indeed, according to the field investigation by scientists and Japanese journalists, various reasons for denying that it is a shark are put forward:

First of all, the shark's meat is white, while the monster is latosolic red.

Secondly, when the crew of Ruiyang Pill fished it out, no one at the scene was sure it was a shark. Why? The reporter investigated the problem. It turns out that sharks don't have urinals, and the urine accumulated in their bodies is excreted from the whole body by using the osmotic pressure of seawater. Therefore, shark meat smells like urine, and experienced fishermen will smell it. It is precisely because of this that the fishermen in Ruiyang Maru denied that it was a shark.

Third, if it is really a shark, then a shark with a soft skeleton will never be hung by a crane six months after death. Because the body begins to rot and the cartilage begins to rot, the soft skeleton of the body can never bear the weight of about two tons. In this regard, many ichthyology authorities believe that this is an important argument to deny the shark theory.

Finally, the monster has a thick layer of fat around its muscles, while the shark's liver has only fat.

So, from sharks to reptiles. There is also an important argument that monsters may be reptiles, that is, the monster's head is triangular, which is a unique feature of reptiles. Shotaro Ishinomori, a famous Japanese science cartoonist, drew a monster restoration picture based on the skeleton sketch. If we look at this photo, it really looks like a reptile.

1977, 1, 19 September 10, two academic seminars were held in Tokyo, Japan, attended by 19 scholars, involving fish, fossils, cetaceans, paleontology, comparative anatomy, biochemistry and serum. They studied the photos, sketches and tissue sections of fin whiskers, had a serious discussion and wrote 9 papers. Based on the discussion opinions of the two symposiums, Sasaki, the moderator and president of Tokyo Fisheries University, published the research conclusions of Japanese academic circles to the press on the afternoon of June 5438+February 65438+May 5 of the same year:

First, from the chemical composition of the fin-tip whisker of the monster, it is impossible to draw the conclusion that it is a shark; Secondly, judging from the fact that the monster's two pairs of ventral fins, long body, long tail and body surface are all fat, it is a completely different animal from the known fish so far; Thirdly, taxonomically, it is likely to represent a brand-new animal (marine reptile? )。

Now, people are looking forward to the place where the monster's body is salvaged at 43 south latitude and 48 east longitude, and the monster will reappear one day. Maybe it's the expected prehistoric reptile.