RE: Loch Ness

[Jeffrey Martz <jeffmartz@earthlink.net>]

I think the idea that made the most sense to me was of the giant fish, 
or someone's over-active immagination. The idea of giant prehistoric 
life in the loch was neat but...there's hardly any evidence for it...
But still, the topic of extinct life surviving to today is 
interesting...

[Jeffrey Martz]  
     I hate to drag out the subject of the Loch Ness monster, or even 
plesiosaurs out on this list longer, but it may be worth mentioning that it 
there IS some kind of large animal that lives in the loch or visits the loch 
that looks something like a plesiosaur, convergent evolution may be a more 
plausible solution then plesiosaurs surviving since the late Cretaceous without 
any traces at all in the fossil record.  If a long necked, small headed, round 
bodied  design worked for plesiosaurs, they may have worked at a much later 
time for some mammal group.
     Thanks again to all who sent me the measurments I requested on the 
Niobrara birds, and for reminding me about Padian and Chiappe's Biological 
Review paper.

LN Jeff