A plesiosaur was found by a Japanese trawler (Talk.Origins)

Response ArticleThis article (A plesiosaur was found by a Japanese trawler (Talk.Origins)) is a response to a rebuttal of a creationist claim published by Talk.Origins Archive under the title Index to Creationist Claims.

Index

Claim CB930.2:

In 1977, a plesiosaur carcass was netted by a Japanese trawler.

Source: Swanson, R., 1978. A (recently) living plesiosaur found? Creation Research Society Quarterly 15(1): 8.

Morris, John D., 1999. Dinosaurs, The Lost World, and You Master Books, p. 38

CreationWiki response:

Even if the carcass was that of a plesiosaur the mistake was not made by creationists but by the people on the Japanese trawler. It needs to be noted that most creationists do not use this argument any more.

Even if this carcass was that of plesiosaur, there are two main problems that eliminate it as a useful argument.

1. The carcass was too badly decomposed to make positive identification based on the pictures.
2. The carcass was thrown overboard, and as such it is unavailable for examination.

Further reading:

• Live plesiosaurs: weighing the evidence
• Letting rotting sharks lie