In fact, during this period of time, there was also a very interesting thing in Japan, that is, on April 25, 1977, an ocean-going trawler "Rui Dangan" of the Japan Ocean Fishing Company was fishing in the sea more than 50 kilometers east of the city of Krastacture, New Zealand. When the crew pulled up the net, which had sunk 300 meters below the sea, an unexpected behemoth was pulled up along with the net. Inside the net was the corpse of a monster that had never been seen before.

Although it has begun to decay, the entire body is well preserved, and it can be clearly seen that it has a long neck, a small head, a large belly (the abdomen is empty, and there are no internal organs), and it has 4 large fins. The results measured with a tape measure showed that the monster was about 10 meters long, with a neck length of 1.5 meters, a tail length of 2 meters, and a weight of about 2 tons, and it was estimated that it had been dead for a month (after research and analysis, it was believed that it had been dead for half a year to one year).

It is neither a fish nor a sea turtle, and no one in the crew who has been fishing at sea for many years knows it. Everyone wondered: "Isn't this the same as the plesiosaur in Loch Ness?" "It's the monster of Loch Ness, Nissi, isn't it?"

The captain, who had heard the news, was furious when he saw that everyone was admiring a rancid monster, and he was worried about the loss of the fish in his cabin, and ordered the crew to throw it into the sea immediately! Luckily, Michihiko Yano, who was on board, thought the discovery was unusual, and took a few photos and recorded the monster before it was thrown into the sea.

When the news reached Japan, it immediately caused a sensation throughout the country, especially zoologists and paleontologists, who looked at the photos, analyzed them, and thought, "This doesn't look like a fish." It must be a very precious animal. "It's amazing! This is a great discovery of the century that is not inferior to the discovery of speartails. "The greatest discovery of the century - a living plesiosaur".

The news also spread all over the world at once, and newspapers and magazines in various countries quickly reprinted the photos and sent the news. This incident has aroused great interest and concern among well-known biologists from all over the world, and they have all expressed their thoughts and conversations about it.

The fact that the monster's corpse was thrown back into the sea sparked deep regret and strong condemnation. In particular, some biologists in Japan were so angry at this move that they were "furious". They accused the captain of ignorance and stupidity. Professor Tokio Kama, an authority on biology in Japan, said: "Why shouldn't you throw it away, it seems that Japanese education is too poor for such a thing to happen." It is a big joke in the world to throw away a national treasure for the sake of 200 million yen of goods. ”

Although Ocean Fisheries immediately ordered all fishing boats in New Zealand waters to rush to the scene to re-harvest the monster carcasses, even ships from some countries, including the former Soviet Union and the United States, rushed to the scene to fish. However, since the day of the announcement (July 20th) and the day the monster was discarded, it was 3 months later. Although they tried every means to find it, no one was able to recover it in the vast sea. The best chance that humans could have had to get to know a new animal was unfortunately missed.

What exactly is it? Scientists are still debating this. Since the news was reported in 1977, the controversy has largely gone through the process of saying that plesiosaurs say sharks say reptiles say they don't know.

Originally, some thought it was a whale or shark, while others said it was a seal or turtle. But these kinds of speculations. According to the three pieces of evidence left behind, they were all denied one by one: the whale's neck bone was shorter than that of the monster; The fat of the shark is hidden in the liver, while the monster is in the superficial layer; The largest seals are 5 to 6 meters long. The largest turtle is 2 meters long, which is much smaller than a 10-meter monster and has a different skeleton. The spotlight is now on suspicion that it is a descendant of plesiosaurs, which went extinct 70 million years ago. One of the main reasons for this is that it has such a long neck.

Around its long neck, people debated, and many scholars happily declared that it was a "living plesiosaur". Professor Tokio Kama of Yokohama National University in Japan believes: "Judging from the photos. It is limited to reptiles, but it can be considered that the plesiosaurs that lived in the primeval period can be said to have found a veritable living fossil. Ikuo Kojima, the third paleontology laboratory at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Japan, said, "Judging from the photos, it seems to be a descendant of plesiosaurs." There are two types of plesiosaurs, one with a small head and a long neck. One is a slightly larger head and a short neck; This seems to be a form of short neck...... 'Ms. Bao Xue, deputy director of the French Natural Museum, and some New Zealand biologists agree.

Indeed, the monster bears a striking resemblance to the plesiosaur. Monster skeletons have been compared with the fossilized bones of plesiosaurs, and the entire skeleton structure is similar, as well as the fins, tails, and necks. In particular, it should be pointed out that Yano's monster skeleton diagram was drawn based on his visual inspection and speculation, and is not entirely accurate, but its structure is so similar to that of the short-necked plesiosaur that it cannot but be said to have a certain basis. Plesiosaurs were a marine reptile that lived from the late Flotian to the Brilian period, and its thin neck was very long. The land sauropod dinosaur similar to it also had an elongated neck at first, but in the late Florentian, this elongated dinosaur gradually died out, and was replaced by a vegetarian dragon in the early Cretaceous period (such as Swollen Octosaurus, Cangsaurus, etc.), which had a relatively short neck.

The plesiosaur also developed in the direction of a short neck, and if so, the monster found in Japan can also be said to be more evolved, right? So the newspaper announced: "This is the greatest discovery of the century!" Soon, however, the Tokyo University of Fisheries conducted a protein analysis of the only physical evidence, the monster whiskers, and found that its composition resembled the fin whiskers of a shark, so the newspapers and news turned to the shark and said, and for a time the words "giant shark" and "a shark that had never been seen" were filled with newspapers again. At this time, biologists in some countries in Britain and the United States also held this view.

Owenne at the Natural History Museum, London, England. "The prey was probably a shark, and many other monsters had been found near the world's seashores, but when it turned out to be dead sharks," Wheeler said. Sharks are a class of cartilaginous fish. They do not have a hard skeleton. When the shark dies and the carcass gradually decomposes, the head and gills first prolapse from the body, forming an elongated neck that ends like a tiny head. Many Japanese fishermen, and even more knowledgeable people, were fooled by the plesiosaur-like shape...... which seemed plausible, and for a time many people who held the plesiosaur theory also abandoned their original claims. Monsters are equal to sharks, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

However, after testing the beard again, it was not certain that it was a shark, and some scholars insisted on the reptile theory, and the shark theory began to falter again. Indeed, according to the on-the-spot investigation by scientists and Japanese journalists, various grounds have been put forward to deny that it is a shark: first, the flesh of the shark is white, the flesh of the shark is pink, and the monster is red.

Second, when the crew of the "Rui Projectile" fished it up, no one at the scene suspected that it was a shark, why? Journalists investigated the issue. It turns out that sharks do not have urinals, and the urine accumulated in their bodies is excreted from their whole body by using the soaking pressure of seawater; As a result, shark meat has a peculiar smell of urine, which will be smelled by experienced fishermen. It is because of this that the fishermen of the "Ruidanjiu" deny that it is a shark.

Third, if it is really a shark, then a shark with a cartilage will never be lifted by a crane after half a year of death. Because the corpse began to decompose, the cartilage also began to decay, and the cartilage of the corpse could definitely not withstand the dead weight of about two tons. In this regard, many ichthyological authorities consider this to be an important argument to disprove the shark theory.

Fourth, monsters have a thick layer of fat that wraps around the muscles of the body, while sharks only have fat in their livers.

So, from sharks to reptiles. Another important argument to prove that the monster may be a reptile is that the head of the monster is triangular, which is a unique feature of reptiles, and the famous Japanese science cartoonist Shotaro Ishimori drew a reconstruction of the monster based on a sketch of the skeleton, and if you look at this picture, it really looks like a reptile.

On September 1 and 19, 1977, two symposiums on the identity of monsters were held in Tokyo, Japan, with 19 participants from fish, fossils, whales, paleontology, comparative anatomy, biochemistry, and serum. They studied photographs, sketches, and tissue sections of the fin whiskers, had serious discussions, and wrote nine papers. On the afternoon of December 15 of the same year, the moderator of the conference and president of Tokyo Fisheries University, Tadayoshi Saki, published to the press the conclusions of the Japanese academic community:

1. Judging from the chemical composition of the fin end whiskers of the monster, it is impossible to conclude that it is a shark; 2. Judging from the characteristics of the monster's two pairs of pelvic fins, long body, long tail, and the surface of the body are fat, it is a completely different animal from the fish known so far; 3. Taxonomicly, it is likely to represent a completely new species of animal unknown to humans (marine reptiles?). ）。

Now, it is hoped that the monster will one day reappear in the place where the body of the monster was recovered at 43 degrees 53 minutes south latitude and 173 degrees 48 minutes east longitude. Perhaps it is the prehistoric reptile that people are looking for. (To be continued.) )