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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
Previous Claim: CB930.1   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CB930.3

Claim CB930.2:

In 1977, a plesiosaur carcass was netted by a Japanese trawler.

Source:

Swanson, R., 1978. A (recently) living plesiosaur found? Creation Research Society Quarterly 15(1): 8.
Morris, John D., 1999. Dinosaurs, The Lost World, and You, Master Books, p. 38

Response:

  1. The carcass was a partly decomposed basking shark, according to tissue samples and descriptions and sketches by witnesses. Reports that it was a plesiosaur were based on a superficial resemblance caused by the pattern in which sharks decay and were spread and exaggerated by news media hype (Kuban 1997).

  2. Even if the carcass were a plesiosaur, the find would not have been a challenge to evolution. The theory of evolution does not demand that species go extinct after a certain amount of time.

Reference:

  1. Kuban, Glen J., 1997. Sea monster or shark? An analysis of a supposed plesiosaur carcass netted in 1977. Reports of the National Center for Science Education 17(3): 16-28. http://paleo.cc/paluxy/plesios.htm

Further Reading:

Kuban, Glen J., 1997 (see above).
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created 2001-2-17