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takyon writes:

The "real life Nessie" is finally being examined:

Half a century after it was first discovered, the fossil of an ancient Scottish ichthyosaur – a creature that ruled the seas some 170 million years ago – is finally being studied. On Monday, the specimen dubbed the Storr Lochs Monster was unveiled to the public by National Museums Scotland, but only after sitting on a shelf for 50 years waiting for her day in the spotlight. [...] Researchers have been well aware of her existence since she was discovered by the lone power station worker for the Isle of Skye in 1966, and her bones have been lovingly preserved and cared for. Researchers just didn't have the means to study her – until now. [...] It took half a century for the right confluence of circumstances – new techniques for extracting tricky fossils and a critical mass of interested researchers, Brusatte included – to free the Storr Lochs Monster from her rocky tomb.

[...] "There's a good chance it's a new species just because it's from a part of the world and a place in time where very few fossils are known," he explained. Very few fossils have been hunted down and studied in Scotland, and in the rest of the world fossils from the Middle Jurassic Period, when this creature lived, are exceedingly rare.

Also at Phys.org (AFP) and National Geographic.

Original Submission