London: A leading paleontologist claims to have proof of existence of a mythical 100-feet sea monster that ate the ocean`s biggest predators liked whales.
Prof Mark McMenamin of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, said that he has discovered markings on the remains of sea creatures which could prove an ancient, bus-
sized species of octopus -- like the mythical Kraken – was behind their demise, the `Daily Mail` reported.
He says his evidence of the Kraken, which would have been up to 30 metres long, comes from the vicious injures it inflicted on the giant marine reptile ichthyosaur, either by
drowning the creature or snapping its neck.
The researcher claims that he can tell by examining the placement and sucker markings on bones, which seems to prove the creatures were drowned or had their necks snapped by a Kraken-like creature.
His theory first surfaced when he began examining at the remains of nine ichthyosaurs from the Shonisaurus popularis species at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada.
It was suggested the creatures, which have with a porpoise-like head and a long, toothed snout and have been likened to whales, died from a toxic plankton bloom in shallow water.
Prof McMenamin said that though the markings on the bones suggest the creatures weren`t all killed at the same time, but an octopus-type creature like the Kraken had indeed drowned the ichthyosaurs or broken their necks.
"It became very clear that something very odd was going on there. It was a very odd configuration of bones," he said.
Prof McMenamin also noticed, because of the arrangement, that they had been carried away from where they were killed, leading him to think they had been carried to the Kraken`s lair and dumped in the pattern of the mysterious creature`s tentacles in a "midden" -- remains accumulated by the beast.
"Modern octopus will do this. What if there`s an ancient, very large sort of octopus, like the Kraken of mythology? I think that these things were captured by the Kraken and taken to the midden and the cephalopod would take them apart," he said.
PTI
