Dinosaur Fossil Found at Scotland’s Loch Ness

Traces of a 150-million-year-old dinosaur have been found on the banks of Scotland’s Loch Ness, but they are definitely not those of the lake’s legendary monster, scientists said.

A Jurassic-era fossil of four perfectly preserved vertebrae from what is believed to have been a 35-foot plesiosaur was found by a man who plucked it from shallow water on the bank of the loch.

Gerald McSorley, 67, turned it over to the National Museum of Scotland, which is conducting tests on the rare find, the first of its kind in Scotland for more than a century.

“Chances that the fossil originated where it was found are very slim ... it was deposited there either by natural or artificial means,” said museum spokesperson Hannah Dolby.

“Borings on the fossil show it comes from a marine environment rather than a fresh-water environment like the loch,” she said.

Monster tales have swirled around the 700-foot-deep Scottish loch for centuries, often describing the creature as black with a fat body and serpentine neck.

Cameras beam 24-hour footage of the loch to Web sites, and diving teams regularly scour the chilly waters for the mythological creature.

Any hopes that the fossil find might prove the existence of the monster would be groundless. While the fossil is many millions of years old, Loch Ness was formed only 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.