Free Republic

First, there’s the extremely significant fact that the plesiosaur surfaced around 250 million years ago and died out around 66/65 million years ago. Plesiosaurs, the fossil record has conclusively shown, lived in saltwater environments: our planet’s oceans. Loch Ness, however, is a freshwater loch. Yes, there is evidence of the occasional plesiosaur in a freshwater environment all those millions of years ago, but the bulk of the cases are not suggestive of entire colonies of the beasts inhabiting freshwater bodies. It’s far more likely and plausible that they wandered into them and died there. And, yes, there are both a...

FULLERTON – Rumors swirled around Laguna Lake for 40 years that a vicious snapping turtle named "Old Bob" lurked beneath its water lilies. Turns out the talk was not some exaggerated fish tale. On Thursday, dredging company workers snared the 100-pound snapper near a park dam in the north-central part of the city. A Santa Monica contractor, hired to scoop out fish during a $2 million restoration of the 7-acre lake, netted the 50-year-old, 36-inch alligator snapping turtle along with catfish, crappie and bluegills.