8. The Mann Hill Monster Sea monster stories don't always end with the inconclusive despair of "the one that got away." There are frequent instances of these unknown beasts getting caught or discovered, although generally these captured specimens ultimately turn out not to be so mysterious. In November 1970, a huge, rotting corpse washed up on the shore of Mann Hill Beach in Massachusetts (as shown on this page). About 20 feet long and weighing several thousand pounds, the carcass had a long neck and what appeared to be flippers. One observer described it as resembling a camel without legs. To many, the creature looked very much like a plesiosaur, and therefore might be evidence that the supposedly extinct prehistoric species was alive and well in Loch Ness and elsewhere. But scientific analysis showed that the monster was in fact the badly decomposed body of a basking shark. Although commonly found in the oceans, the basking shark has a strange, oddly shaped body that is unfamiliar to the average person. Their dead bodies tend to rot away in such a manner that the remains roughly resemble a plesiosaur, and match the popular conception of a Nessie-type creature. Unidentified marine corpses like the Mann Hill Monster are sometimes called "globsters," being basically globs of barely recognizable flesh and bone. The original globster washed up on a beach in western Tasmania in August 1960, and was eventually identified as the partial corpse of a whale. But on the whole, basking sharks are the guilty party in globster cases more often than any other aquatic species. Next: The Zuiyo-maru Monster Back to Cryptozoo Entrance Paranormal message board: Share your views