Sea Monsters (8 page)

We know by their teeth that
Megalodon
were three times bigger than great white sharks. It’s possible they reached over fifty feet long! Their jaws could open over seven feet high and six feet wide.

An animal this size could wolf down a whole cow in one gulp! It could eat a class of third graders in three gulps! But we know that
Megalodon
ate
whales instead.
Fossils of whale skeletons have been found with cut marks on their ribs and fins. The cuts match
Megalodon
teeth. And right next to the whale fossils were
Megalodon
teeth!

People have believed in
sea monsters for thousands of years. Prehistoric people painted strange sea creatures on the walls of caves. Later, the ancient Greeks had a sea-monster goddess named
Keto, who ruled over all the other sea monsters.

Over the years, hundreds of people worldwide have reported spotting sea monsters. Even today, crowds visit
Scotland trying to see Nessie, a famous sea monster who is said to live in a lake there.

People who say they have seen sea monsters describe them in different ways. Some say they looked like awful sea serpents. Others say they had long arms to drag ships to the bottom of the sea.

One man reported seeing a huge monster with lots of feet and long hair growing out of its nose.

Some sailors spotted a monster with “glaring eyes” and a body like a lion.

In 1734, the missionary
Hans Egede was on a boat headed for Greenland. Suddenly he heard people shouting. Hans looked up and saw “a terrible sea-animal.” He wrote that the monster had a lower body “like a snake” and “blew like a whale.”

The monster’s head was taller than the sails.
When it slipped back into the water, Hans saw that it was as long as the boat.

About 500 years ago, a writer described monsters living off the coasts of Norway and
Iceland.

He called them
kraken.
The writer claimed kraken were as big as islands. They were so strong, they could pull warships down to the ocean bottom.

There are many other stories about kraken attacks on ships and people. Sailors claimed the kraken created deadly whirlpools when they dove down into the water.

Some said the kraken looked like giant lobsters or crabs. Others reported the kraken were large
whales. Then everyone seemed to agree that the kraken looked like an octopus. Kraken legends spread all over the world.

Today scientists think that maybe the kraken were really
giant
squids. They wonder if the squids mistook the boats for prey. Imagine being a sailor long ago in a small boat. If you saw the mighty
tentacles of a giant squid, you might call it a sea monster.

A long time ago,
Jules Verne wrote a book about a giant squid attacking a boat. The book was called
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Jules Verne also wrote a book about a race called
Around the World in Eighty Days.
Both books became very famous.

In 2003, a sailboat was in a race around the world. The race was called the Jules
Verne Race. Suddenly the crew felt something hit the boat. They looked down. To their horror, they saw huge
tentacles pulling at the bottom of the boat. One sailor said the tentacles were as big as a man’s leg. They belonged to a
giant squid!

Quickly, the crew stopped the boat. The squid slipped back into the water. Everyone was in awe that this happened in a race named after Jules Verne. Could a squid like this be what
Hans Egede saw as well?

People in the
Caribbean
(kare-uh-BEE-un)
Islands
tell tales of a sea monster called the lusca. It is said to be half-shark, half-octopus. Some stories say it is
over seventy-five feet long. According to legend, the lusca makes its home in underwater caves in the ocean.

People believe that the lusca’s breath creates underwater currents. When it breathes in, water fills the caves. When it breathes out, fresh water rushes to the surface. Some stories say the lusca can change color.

Many scientists wonder if the lusca might really be an octopus. They say its ability to change color is like that of an octopus. They also know that
octopuses eat animals that often live in underwater caves.

In 1817, the town of Gloucester (GLOSS-tur), Massachusetts, was in an uproar. Everyone was alarmed about a strange sea serpent swimming in the harbor. Many who saw it
described the monster as brown and about forty feet long. Its head was bigger than a dog’s but looked like a turtle’s. It had a horn on its head. It swam the same way a caterpillar moves.

The sea serpent returned many times. As many as 200 people gathered on the shore to see this amazing sight.

Finally, the sightings stopped. Life returned to normal. But no one ever knew what the creature really was.