Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Great Eels

Jon Downes on super-eels:

"The Great Sea Serpent is surely one of the greatest enigmas of zoology. For as long as men have ventured out to sea there have been stories of sea monsters, and in 1968 the renowned Belgian zoologist Professor Bernard Heuvelmans wrote a classic book; In the Wake of the Sea Serpent on the subject. His thesis was that there was no single species of unknown animal responsible for the plethora of sea serpent reports. Instead, he suggested, there were at least eight unknown species of serpentine animal living in the world`s oceans. He hypothesised five unknown giant marine mammals, two unknown species of giant marine reptile and two new species of giant fish.I had the privelige of knowing Bernard for ten years or so before his death last year and he was a fine zoologist. Recent advances in palaentology have cast doubts on some of his theorising, but is certain that he was spot on with at least one of his eight theorised sea serpent species."

And here's the rest!

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