Fishermen caught a “dinosaur” off the coast of New Zealand
(ORDO NEWS) — Almost half a century ago, off the coast of New Zealand, fishermen caught the carcass of an unknown sea animal, which was initially thought to be an extinct plesiosaur, reported by the Daily Star.
It happened on April 25, 1977, when the crew of the Japanese trawler “Dzuye-maru” caught a mysterious creature 50 km from the city of Christchurch. The fishermen were convinced that it was an unknown animal that could interest scientists.
However, Captain Akira Tanaka ordered the carcass to be thrown back into the sea because he did not want to risk the fish he had caught. Before that, the crew took several pictures of the creature, which was nicknamed “New Nessie”.
According to the crew members, they found a smelly corpse weighing 1.8 tons and about 10 meters long. Fishermen claim that the creature had a neck 1.5 meters long, four large red fins and a tail about 2 meters long. She had no dorsal fin, and no internal organs remained.
Before the carcass was disposed of, some measurements were taken of the carcass and a number of samples of the skeleton, skin and ribs were collected for further examination by experts in Japan. This event provoked a whole wave of “plesiosauromania” in Japan. The management of the shipping company generally ordered all their fishing vessels to try to find the discarded corpse, but all efforts were in vain.
One of the few who believed that fishermen had found the carcass of a plesiosaurus was a Japanese researcher from the University of Tokyo, Fujiro Yasuda. However, analyzes of the preserved parts of the carcass led other Japanese researchers to believe that the carcass was probably the skeleton of a giant shark.
Their conclusions were confirmed by a scientist from the Natural History Museum in London. In his opinion, “Dzuye-maru” did not catch the remains of a plesiosaurus. It is claimed that the huge shark’s carcass, spine and brain could, due to decomposition, acquire a shape similar to that of a plesiosaurus.
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