Orkney beast 'similar to Nessie'

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: A mystery creature washed up on Orkney almost 200 years ago was "strikingly similar" to descriptions of Nessie, the Highlands Science Festival will hear. Geneticist Dr Yvonne Simpson, who hails from Orkney, has researched the Stronsay Beast.

Its carcass, which some said was that of a basking shark, was found off Stronsay in 1808. Dr Simpson said the descriptions of its long neck were along the lines of those of the Loch Ness Monster.

View: Full Article | Source: BBC News

Creepy photo! Anyone know where I can find more? It really does look dinosaurish, doesn't it?

What is the photo accompanying this article of? It's not on the BBC site from where the article was sourced and I doubt the Stronsay Beast was photographed considering it was discovered in the early 19th century!

Curiously, according to this site, the Stronsay Beast was a hexapod!!!

The photo is pulled from this thread. However, that is not the first thread in which I've seen these photos. They've been cycling around for at least three or four months, probably longer. The general consensus is that it's a badly decomposed whale carcass. It looks to me like a microwaved muppet or the bad guys from The Dark Crystal. Pretty damn creepy either way.

Yeah the creature in the pic was shown to be a kind of small whale, by tooth and skull comparisons. It does look really creepy.

...or the bad guys from The Dark Crystal

that was my initial thought too! great movie.

I have to say, if creatures like Nessie exist, it would be nice to finally see remains that aren't so badly decomposed. This is a whale carcass, but its decomposition gives people the perfect opportunity to make it whatever they want it to be.

When this story first came out it was proven to be a hoax. The skull is actually that of a certain specie of gator or croc. My apolgies I can not remember what specie. It has to do with the arc mid way on the maxilla. This is the defining feature of the certain specie of croc or gator. Also the teeth were filed and reshaped to hide the skull's true identity. The rest of the body is parts of other animals. The sea weed "cleverly" hides most of the body so not to be immediatly identified and dismissed.