Fossils found by Norwegian scientists were dismissed today as being remnants of ancestors of the Loch Ness Monster. Norwegian researchers on a remote Arctic island recovered rare fossil remains of two giant marine reptiles, one of which was said to be reminiscent of the fabled Nessie.The well-preserved fossils of the extinct ichthyosaur and plesiosaur were found on the Svalbard islands, north of the Norwegian mainland.Team member Hans Arne Nakrem said: “The find is really quite unique. What is completely new is that we have the cranium of an ichthyosaur for the first time.”Plesiosaurs were adapted to life in the ocean, with very long necks and tails, plump bodies and legs that had evolved into flippers. They could be up to 50ft long.“They look like we imagine Nessie of Loch Ness,” said Joern Hurum, a dinosaur expert who led the team.He said that with their huge jaws they were at the top of the food chain and were the killing machines of the sea.“Their jaws could cut anything else into small pieces,” Hurum said.Ichthyosauria, which is Latin for “fish reptiles”, looked like fish, with a dorsal fin, tail fin and legs that worked like paddles.The animals lived roughly 160 million years ago, and became extinct about 65 million years ago.Adrian Shine, who runs the Loch Ness project in Drumnadrochit on the banks of the famed loch, dismissed the idea that either was related to Nessie.He said: “They possibly have found the most northerly of the Jurassic fossils.“The Loch Ness Monster could be an amalgam of many different things, cemented by our wish for there to be something there.
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