Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-02
NO LONGER SC0RNED
NaturaIists Coming to Believe
in the Sea Serpent.
SURVIVORS OF PAST AGES
Probably Remnants of Great Zeuglo-
don Family.
THE COLOSSAL SEA LIZARDS
Possibilities of Ocean Depths Awful
to Contemplate-Noted Hoaxes
at Expense of Scientists.

Copyright. 1906, by John Elfreth Watlzins)
One sign of the times is the increasing
number Of we'll credited naturalists willing
to openly admit the possibility OF the "sea
serpent" None Of this category does but
scott however, at the old notion that the
monster Is a serpent" in our understand
ing Of the term. In substance, what they
do believe is that some Of the many sea
serpents' reported by travellers of high re-
pute and abstemious compartment may be
real, living, colossal, terrifying monsters of
the deep-survivors of past geologic ages.
"Other species have survived these same
ages, so why not these?" ask our honest
and progressive savants.
Most Probably a Zeuglodon.
That our serpent is none other than
the great zeuglodon of old is the most pop
ular Of these theories. The zeuglodon, an
ancient mammal related to our modern
seals is generally supposed to have re-
manned extinct since long before mans ad-
vent upon earth. Yet some animals whose
bones are found together with those of this
creature, and which therefore lived at the
same time. are still surviving and flourish
ing upon earth today-notably the Aus
tralian Ceratodus and our own gar pike.
II these two have survived the stress of
dons?
This ancient sea serpent answering to all
important specifications of the modern
monster, was sometimes seventy feet long
and eight feet in greatest diameter. 1t had
an enormously long tail. propelling 1t prob
ably from twenty to thirty miles an hour,
and proportionately small, painted head
four or five feet long Its long neck could
be reared some twenty or twenty five feet
out OF the sea when ii wished to take a
comprehensive view Of Its surroundings. and
alongside this neck were arranged in pairs
a number OF large, bony. scale-like plates.
IL carried in front two powerful swimming
nlppers not unlike those of the fur seal
Its jaws were armed with grasping and
cutting teeth. and it seems to have fero-
clously preyed upon other animals. The
species was once numerous in the shadows
OF the old seas of southern Europe and of
the Gulf of Mexico its bones being found
now and then scattered along our southern
coasts. 1t has been called the "whaIe-like
king of lizards yet was IN reality a man.
mai and not reptile. II Is generally
thought to have been an ancestor of the
whale. although some naturalists claim that
1t died without issue The best skeleton of
Zeuglodon known to the scientific world
was obtained by the National Museum,
Washington. some time ago from our south
ern seaboard. Mixed with these bones were
the shell of a turtle three feet long and part
OF the backbone of a water snake which in
life had measured twenty-five feet from
head to tail. Frederick A Lucas former
curator OF zoology in the National Museum
but now director OF the museum of the
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences,
ana VINO admits that he 'inclines rather to
belief than to unbeuef I'm the monster''-the
sea serpent-says that the zeuglodon corre-
spends perfectly to the sea serpents of pop
ular tradition. But he adds that no one can
deny that with the zeugIodon there NAV vet
survive in the depths of the ocean such
monsters as the ichtyosaur, plesiosaur
mosasaur or hadrosaur. Other naturalists-
no less than Prof. Louis Agassiz and Prot
spencer Bayard, former secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution-have admitted this
possibility.
Or Perhaps the Awful Mosasaur.
That the ferocious mosasaur stin turks in
the unfathomed caves OF the sea is a theory
In support OF the sea serpent" probably
next in popularity 10 that concerning the
zeuglodon.
The mosasaur was a fierce. carnivorous
eeI-hke lizard. forty feet long with fiat
and pointed head and laws armed with
large and fierce teeth, the lower law having
an attachment OF cartilege like that of the
modern serpent by which il could open its
mouth to an enormous extent. The vast
tall was fat and deep, like that of a colossal
eel, and with this II whipped through the
water at tremendous speed accelerated also
by It's pair OF swimming paddles From
snout to tail IL was covered with scales
OF an almost impervious armor. Ten spe-
Giles Inhabited the United States millions
OF years ago, during the chalk-forming
81 loh. when the interior basin OF this con-
waters the Rocky mountains were begin
ming 10 emerge. Six species have been
found in New Jersey alone
Even more terrible was the elasmosaur
the most colossal OF those sea lizards. It
had a whale-like body. long and flexible
neck, short paddles. serpent-like head and
tan, and Vertebrae as large as those OF the
elephant
Plesiosaur Lately in California Cuff
And then there is the terrible piesiosaur
few OF whose kind may still survive 10
terrify mariners. II is held that II is Just
as possible for the plesiosaur to survive as
for some OF our sharks which dated back
TO the same geologic period. This huge
marine lizard, which fed on fishes had
combi1ed with its huge lizard body the
elongated. tapering neck of monstrous
duck, the fiat head of serpent. teeth in
distinct sockets. the paddles of a turtle
and comparatively short tail Some sup
pose that the largest specimens were 100
feet long and had eyes OF the size of a
town clock or three feet in diameter Mr..
Lucas has the story of thu captain of the
British ship Fly who. while becalmed in
the Gulf of California. in twelve fathonlS
OF remarkably clear water. few years ago.
saw crawling over the bottom an extra
ordinary nzard-like animal. with long ser
pent-like neck. short tail and four iippers
like those OF turtle. Mr.. Lucas regards II
as remarkable that this skipper who doubt
less had never heard OF piesiosaur, thus
describe with amazing accuracy, both
as to form and probable habit. The pie
siosaur had companion and reiative-an-
other OF those possible sea serpcnts' OF
today-tthe ichthyosaur. whose name re-
member as an old standby at spelling bees
when we were children.
Perhaps IT'S the Ichthyosaur.
This ichthyosaur. or fish lizard was a
great creature, often forty feet long. clear
~ built for speed. with powerful vertical