Children Discover Mysterious Creature

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Worldview

Dumfries and Galloway Standard

The following is from an External Source:

CHILDREN from Loreburn Primary school got a shock last week when they discovered what appeared to be the remains of a crocodile in a river just outside Dumfries.

The primary six pupils were visiting the River Cairn with a teacher and staff from the Nith District Salmon Fishery Board to release Salmon fry when they made the startling discovery.

Douglas Creighton, the primary six class teacher said: “We were doing a river study. We were taking three or fours locations and their measurements when we rounded a corner.

“There was shouting, one from the front saying ‘there’s a crocodile’. We thought it would be a lump of wood.”

On closure inspection however it appeared to be the body of some form of reptile.

Debbie Parke, a staff member of the Nith District Salmon Fishery Board said: “We were releasing fry into the river and were walking down and one of the kids started going ‘there’s a crocodile, there’s crocodile’. We had a look and it was some sort of reptile. It definitely was a shock.”

Debbie later returned to the scene with a reptile expert to determine what species the body belonged too.

The mysterious reptile is believed to be 1.2m in length.

The expert suggested that the body was most likely that of an iguana.

However it was noted that the markings on the creature did not quite match those of an Iguana.

Debbie said: “It probably was an iguana that got too large for its tank and was released into the wild.

“But the markings on the back were quite different from that and the head was quite decomposed and had no jaw. So it was hard to tell if it was a crocodile or not.”

Douglas Creighton and his pupils were left just as stumped to the identity of the curious critter.

He said: “We have got a teacher in the school who keeps reptiles. She had a look at the photographs we took. On the back an Iguana has a similar appearance. It does look like a crocodile. It has the square patches like a crocodile behind the back legs.”

“The children weren’t scared though, they were very excited. It’s led to some very exciting writing in the school.”

Here is a lonk to a list of books about the subject of Cryptozoology: Books


If I find the pictures that are talked about in the article I will post them..


[edit on 6-4-2009 by tsrk30]

nithfisheryboard.org...


Here is one pic on this website.
Very cool find!

I find it interesting that such a creature would be able to survive in the waters of scotland, must have been someone pet they released into the wild because they could no longer care for it or maybe an escaped animal from an exotic rehad center. However I did find this interesting posting back from March 2005, its a poem about a crocodile in scotland.

www.authorsden.com...

The picture doesn't show an accurat estimate of size, so this reptile could have been puny and fit in the palm of your hand.

It would appear that this particular area of scotland is rich with crocodile symbols as found here.

www.cast.org.uk...
Fountain, High St (1882): Ornate fountain, the lowest basin in stone, the rest in cast-iron. The lower water is fed from crocodile mouths.

All I was able to find.

Crocodile in the Cairn

Mr Jim Henderson, Fishery Director of the Nith District Salmon Fishery Board, says: 'The most likely explanation is that an iguana, or some similar reptile, has grown too big for its tank and has been released into the wild.'

I am in total agreement with this statement from within the article.

Could be a mix of both explanations and that a crocodile grew too big and was released into the wild.

If I may be so bold, I don't know a lot about
the creatures mentioned in Cryptozoology, but I
think it's a rotting carcass of a Monitor Lizard.

I don't know the petting habits of Scotland,
but could it be that a owner of one of those
reptiles found it dead one day and should threw
it in the river?

It's probably something like that... though I know
you guys know more than myself on this stuff.