Dinosaurs have been extinct on the earth for more than 65 million years, but the rumors about dinosaurs have never stopped, such as the Loch Ness Monster incident in the United Kingdom, the Tianchi Monster in China, and the Congo Lake Monster, etc. It is believed that it is a plesiosaur, but it cannot be confirmed!
In 1977, the Japanese "Ruiyang Maru" trawler fished a highly suspected "plesiosaur" body in the South Pacific, because it had been corrupt and emitted a foul odor, it was thrown back to the sea by the captain on the grounds of contaminating the fish, and after returning to China, it was directly criticized by the Japanese scientific community for the bloody head of the dog, saying that it had thrown the national treasure back to the Pacific, and even reorganized a large number of fleets to go to salvage!
What exactly was fished out in the "Ruiyang Maru" incident?
On April 25, 1977, about 105 kilometers southeast of Christchurch, New Zealand, in the Pacific Ocean, the "Ruiyang Maru" belonging to Japan Sun Fisheries Co., Ltd. was operating, and at 10:40, the crew who were putting away the trawling net from the 300-deep seabed found that they had caught the big guy, but when they reached the surface, they found that it was a highly decomposed body.
Because there were still fish caught in the trawler, the body was hoisted up and placed on the deck, at which point the crew discovered that the body looked very strange, with a small head, a long neck, a longer tail, and four fins, a total length of about 10 meters, and a total weight of about 1.8 tons.
The carrion and fat on the body had fallen on the deck, leaving a thick layer of corpse oil, and just when the crew did not know how to deal with it, Captain Akira Tnaka decided to throw it back into the sea, after all, the fish in the cabin was related to the 200 million yen harvest of the sea, and such a foul-smelling corpse left in the cabin would definitely contaminate the fish.
Michihiko Yano, a student at yamaguchi Prefectural Marine School who was interning on the ship at the time, had already found some clues in the corpse's extraordinary appearance, after all, he was formally educated, and his first reaction to encountering an unknown animal was to take samples, map and record them, and of course he also had a camera, so he left extremely valuable information.
What is valuable is that Yano Michihiko took samples of some of the corpses (the beard of the monster, Which Yano thought would help identify the monster) before the captain threw it back into the sea, and took several photos of the corpses with his camera, and after a hurry, Tanaka ordered the crew to throw the corpses into the Pacific Ocean.
A few weeks later, the "Miyo Maru" returned to Japan, Yano Michihiko immediately reported the discovery in new Zealand waters to the tutor, the tutor thought it was a matter of importance, informed the Japanese press and the scientific community about the matter, the front page of the newspaper headlines were the discovery of the sea monster incident, which immediately caused an uproar, because scholars who are slightly familiar with paleontology can see that the sketch drawn by Yano Michihiko on the paper is the skeleton of a snake-necked dragon.
The Japanese paleontological community simply hates Captain Tanaka Akira who lost the body, and some reporters posted in the newspaper scolding him for actually throwing away the national treasure, but scolding, the location where the body was lost is not recorded, and then go to retrieve it is not over? For this reason, fishing companies repeatedly trawled in the waters where the bodies were lost, and nearby fishing boats also joined the salvage team, but the vast sea was no longer possible.
Fossils of plesiosaurs
Is it really a plesiosaur?
From the sketch alone, it is a living plesiosaur, but soon some scholars have raised objections that the "plesiosaur" neck on the sketch is too short, and the difference between it is a bit different from the prehistoric plesiosaur, but soon everyone believes that after such a long period of evolution, the neck is not impossible!
Plesiosaurs first appeared in the late Triassic period, peaking in the Jurassic era, plesiosaurs are diverse, large and small, not as large as you think, the number of Cretaceous declined, but still numerous, and eventually in the Cretaceous -Tertiary extinction event and most of the dinosaurs together with extinction.
So Plesiosaurs continue until now? Scientists are also a bit surprised, in 1978, Experts in various fields in Japan gathered together to study and discuss the identity of sea monsters, and experts put forward an opinion that it was basking sharks, but it was not ruled out that it was plesiosaurs or other unknown large aquatic organisms. However, Michihiko Yano also brought back some tissue samples from the corpse, so wouldn't you know if you did a test?
Scientific identification believes that it is basking sharks, but there are a large number of doubts
Shigeru Kimura, Katsuyuki Fujii, and Kenzaburo Sato tested the tissues of the sea monster's corpse that Michihiko Yano had brought back from off New Zealand, and found that its protein fibers and chemical composition were similar to those of the basking shark speculated by the scientists above, and the conclusion was published in "Mizuyo Maru に収容された未確確unifying the animal について" (Nippon Oceanographic Society, 1978. 7, pp.23-27）
Ingredient data sheet: Sea monster on the left and basking shark on the right
From the composition point of view, the two are almost the same, so scholars say that there is no doubt that basking sharks were found in New Zealand waters, but there are still a lot of doubts
1. Michihiko Yano brought back tissue samples that are part of the whiskers of some monsters, does basking shark have whiskers?
Sharks don't have whiskers, but the monsters that were caught are highly decayed, and these whiskers may be basking shark fins (assuming basking sharks), so this suspicion does not overturn the conclusion that they are basking sharks.
Second, the monster has almost the same size of fins before and after, and the size of the fins of basking sharks is different
Michihiko Yano said that the proportion of the size of the front and back fins on the sketch is basically the same, if there is a difference, the front is slightly larger, from the drawing, the front fin is close to one meter, the back is also about the same size, how big is the fin of the basking shark? According to the samples captured, it is about the same size. From this point of view, basking sharks are still possible.
Third, the skeleton proportions of the monster's sketch are very different from those of basking sharks
Judging from the bones in the sketch, the basking shark has no square bone, and the sketch is a square bone, according to which the expert asked Yano Michihiko for advice to confirm, he replied that it was not a sketch drawn on the spot, but was discarded by the captain and drawn, in addition, the skeleton was also covered by muscles, he stepped on the monster to draw by feeling, and the skeleton of the tail was similar.
Monsters have a lot of subcutaneous fat, while sharks don't
But in 1977, Shigeo Ishikawa of the Japan Shark Research Institute, which trades shark fin processing in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, confirmed that the tissue that looks like white fat on the monster's body should be the subcutaneous skin of the shark, which they call "Touf" tissue.
Sharks don't have red muscles
Mr. Shigeo Ishikawa noted that around the shark's vertebrae, there are parts of red muscle at the base of the fin
There are also sharks that do not have ribs, but they are seen on the monster, but it is confirmed that the ribs are very short, in fact, the shark is also very short. The suspicion that the basking shark's neck is not long enough is mainly caused by the crane being stretched when lifting it.
Corresponding position of the shoulder strap
Finally, from the position of the fins and shoulder straps in the monster corpse photo, they were consistent with the basking shark, and finally the Japanese scientific community characterized the found monster as a highly corrupt basking shark carcass, and some of the bones and muscles on the body had been completely detached, making it very difficult to distinguish the basking shark in appearance.
In late April 1978, several experts at Tokyo Fisheries University announced the identification of a large shark. Abe Naomi, president of the Japanese Society of Fish Science, said: "It is definitely a shark, very close to a basking shark.
Of course, in Japanese public opinion circles, the idea that it is a plesiosaur has always existed, and captain Tanaka Akira will always be the culprit who lost Japan's national treasure, although the scientific community has forgiven him.