The Loch Ness Monster may have been a freshwater dinosaur, say boffins.
Fossils of small plesiosaurs – long-necked marine reptiles from the dinosaur age – have been unearthed from a 100million-year-old river system that is now Morocco’s Sahara Desert.
Dr Nick Longrich, who helped produce the new study at the University of Bath, said plesiosaurs would be able to live in Scotland’s Loch Ness.
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“It might work in terms of plesiosaur biology,” he said.
Plesiosaurs were found in freshwater so you could probably get one in a lake theoretically.
“But the fossils suggest an asteroid killed the last plesiosaurs 66million years ago.
“So maybe it doesn’t work.”
Scientists from the universities of Bath, Portsmouth and Hassan II in Morocco studied the fossils, which included neck, back, bones and teeth from 12ft-long adults and an arm from a 5ft baby.
They hint the creatures routinely lived and fed in freshwater alongside frogs, crocodiles, turtles, fish, and the huge aquatic dinosaur spinosaurus.
Dr Longrich added: “It’s scrappy stuff but isolated bones actually tell us a lot about ancient eco-systems.
“Who’s to say that because we have always called them marine reptiles they had to live in the sea? “Lots of marine lineages invaded freshwater.”
The theory is one of many recent ones, including one from a paranormal investigator who has a theory – and it involves Netflix show Strangers Things.
Legendary Loch Ness Monster may live in Stranger Things-style parallel universe
Ron Halliday, who is actually Scottish, said: “Scientists have suggested there could be other universes.
"And somehow our world interacts with these other worlds through portals.
"With the Loch Ness monster, people could be seeing a dinosaur that existed in the past.
“They may see something that looks solid but isn’t actually in our world.
“That can spread across a whole range of things, such as UFO sightings.”
Stranger Things revolves around evil beasts living in an alternative universe known as the Upside Down, and (spoilers ahead) the big boss is known as Vecna – which could very well be the Loch Ness monster.
Ron, 72, added: “Some people are more psychic than others.
"They can pick up these experiences while others may not.
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