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Cynics may dismiss it as just a piece of driftwood or a trick of the light. But a photograph showing what appears to be a long-necked sea creature has got marine experts scratching their heads. The 'animal' was snapped stalking a shoal of fish just 30 yards off the British coast. The fish were apparently so terrified they beached themselves just seconds later. The creature was spotted off the Devon coast at Saltern Cove, Paignton, by locals who reported a sighting of what they thought was a turtle. But pictures taken by one of the baffled witnesses, Gill Pearce, reveal...

This amazing image on Google Earth could be the elusive proof that the Loch Ness Monster exists. Sun reader Jason Cooke spotted "Nessie" while browsing the Web site's satellite photos. The shape seen on the surface of the 22-mile Scottish loch is 65ft long and appears to have an oval body, a tail and four legs or flippers. Some experts believe Nessie may be a Plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile with a shape like the Google image. "This is really intriguing. It needs further study," said researcher Adrian Shine, of the Loch Ness Project. Sightings have been claimed for centuries....

Fifty years ago sightings of the Loch Ness Monster or ‘Nessie’ were common and few Scottish locals doubted the presence of an exotic water creature in their locale which might have been the last living member an isolated relic Plesiosaur population. Sightings of Nessie have decreased over the last few years and extensive and thorough scanning of the Loch Ness by scientists and researchers have failed to produce any evidence of Nessie. This has led many to believe, sadly, that this gentle, secretive creature had passed on. Now, astonishingly, frequent sightings are being reported of a creature living in the...

The first recorded sighting of a "monster" in Loch Ness was nearly 1,500 years ago. Apparently, a huge, ferocious beast leaped out of a lake near Iverness, Scotland, and ate a local farmer. Since then, the lore of Nessie has grown and grown. A photograph, taken in 1934 by a London doctor, seemed to show a dinosaur-looking creature with a long neck emerging from the water, and it fueled the Nessie obsession. Then a home movie shot in 1960 showed a family picnicking near the water, but the movie also shows a strange figure swimming nearby . British intelligence analyzed...

A member of a disaster team monitoring flood regions on the South East Asian island is said to have captured the image while hovering over the Baleh river in a helicopter. The shot, which shows a green, wavy object floating along the meandering river, has sparked rumours that a mythical snake called Nabau has returned to the area. Sceptics have joined the debate claiming that it is nothing more than the work of photo-editing software. Rather like the myths surrounding Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, legend has it that a terrifying 100ft snake called Nabau, with a dragon's head and seven...

Accused jihadist: We were hunting Loch Ness Monster Uh huh. And then when they went to find Bigfoot, they inadvertently left some explosives in the trunk of their car... "Terror Accused: We Were Hunting Loch Ness Monster," by Paul O'Hare for the Daily Record (thanks to Twostellas): AN ELECTRICIAN accused of being a Muslim holy warrior claimed he was hunting Nessie during an alleged jihad training course. Somali-born Kader Ahmed, 20, told a court he went on a trip arranged by preacher Mohammed Hamid, 50, to Scotland at Christmas 2004. He said they visited Inverness and Loch Ness and added:...

Fewer people are reporting sightings of the legendary Loch Ness monster in Scotland, prompting concerns that skepticism about its existence could threaten tourism in the region. There have only been two reports of sightings this year, compared to three in 2006 and much lower than a decade ago, when the annual number sightings was consistently in the double digits, The Times newspaper said Saturday. "It's becoming a potential crisis," said Mikko Takala, 39, a founding member of the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club who runs four webcams on the lake's north shore.

EDINBURGH, Scotland The Loch Ness monster is back and there's video. A man has captured what Nessie watchers say is possible footage of the supposed mythical creature beneath Scotland's most mysterious lake. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45 feet long, moving fairly fast in the water," said Gordon Holmes, the 55-year-old a lab technician from Shipley, Yorkshire, who took the video Saturday. Nessie watcher and marine biologist Adrian Shine viewed the video and hoped to properly analyze it in the coming months.

Toad found deep down in Loch Ness US researchers carrying out a sonar survey of Loch Ness have been amazed to find a common toad crawling in the mud 324ft (98m) down. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been attempting to unravel the mysteries of the loch. However, MIT said it did not expect to come across the amphibian so far down. Bob Rines, a lecturer at MIT, will tell the Oceans 07 engineering conference in Aberdeen about the toad and the survey next month. Conference chairman Professor John Watson, of the University of Aberdeen, said: "They were surprised...

It has been described as a snake threaded through the body of a turtle, and some imaginative people think there's one living in Loch Ness. The plesiosaur, a marine reptile that lived 160 million years ago, looked like nothing alive today, with a neck that was some 2 metres long, the length of the body and tail combined. Why it needed such a long neck has been a mystery, but now Leslie Noè of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, UK, has an answer. Plesiosaurs used their long necks to reach down and feed on soft-bodied animals living on the sea...

A LOCH Ness Monster theory which suggests the creature is a living dinosaur has been dealt a blow by scientists. Many believe that Nessie is a plesiosaur, a long-necked marine reptile which sought refuge in Scotland's second-largest freshwater loch when most of the species died out 160 million years ago. But Dr Leslie Noe, a palaeontologist at Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum, discovered that the plesiosaur would have been unable to lift its head up, swan-like, out of the water. Most scientists believe the creatures became extinct with the other dinosaurs, but some insist it is possible that after the last...

Loch Ness in Scotland, home of Nessie, and Lake Champlain in the U.S., home of Champ, may be two of the most well-known residences of alleged lake monsters. But the Salt Lake City area has its own legendary sea serpents. Bear Lake, located northeast of Salt Lake City on the Utah-Idaho border, is a popular recreation spot for boating, fishing and camping. The stunning turquoise-colored lake, known as the "Caribbean of the Rockies," is also home to large, snake-like monsters that have been spotted for generations. The Shoshoni Indians may have been the first people to see the creature. Describing...

Herzog's epic quest for camera shy Nessie BRIAN PENDREIGH THE legend is about to take on the monster. Eccentric German film-maker Werner Herzog will shortly arrive in Scotland to pursue one of the world’s most elusive creatures. Herzog, widely regarded as one of the greatest film-makers alive because of his painstaking attention to detail, has become fascinated by the myth of the Loch Ness monster. He now intends to make the definitive documentary on Nessie for cinema release around the world. Friends say he has been obsessively collecting research material in advance of his trip to the Highlands next month....