Stronsay Beast

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The Stronsay beast was a mysterious, decomposing corpse of a sea-creature that stranded at Stronsay, Orkney Islands, Scotland, in 1808. The carcass measured 55 feet in length, with the "neck" 15 feet and the circumference of the body 10 feet.^[1] The zoologists at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh could not identify the snakelike animal, and they agreed that it must have been an unknown species of sea serpent that met its fate there. However, later the anatomist Sir Everard Home in London asked if he could get a sample of the evidence. After analysis of a couple of vertebra, he concluded that the Stronsay beast was just the remains of a very large basking shark. Many Scots protested in vain against this interpretation and in 1849 the Scottish professor Goodsir in Edinburgh also concluded that it was in fact just that large species of shark. It is worth noting, however, that the largest recorded basking shark was 40 feet in length. At 55 feet in length, the Beast of Stronsay still constitutes something of a cryptozoological enigma, and may even be an unknown species of mammoth shark.

[edit] See also

• Zuiyo Maru
• Basking shark
• Sea serpent
• Sea monster
• Globster
• List of Scottish loch-monsters

[edit] External links

• [1]
• Bring me the Head of the Sea Serpent!
• Monsters of the Deep - the Stronsay Beast
• Scotsman - Unexplained Monster Mysteries from the Sea
• Stronsay Beast at American Monsters

[edit] References

• Sjögren, Bengt, Berömda vidunder, Settern, 1980, ISBN 91-7586-023-6 (Swedish)

1. ^ Newton, Michael. (2005). "Stronsay Beast". Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide: 442-443. McFarland & Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-7864-2036-7.