Some More From the Mailbag III

"Know Your Sea-Serpents" a chart illustrating the types of Bernard Heuvelmans and Bruce Champagne, By "Pristichampsus" again.



Incidentally, two pror blog entries before this one deal with the other statistical analyses of other sea-serpent categories. This blog examines Bruce Chamagne's alternative classification scheme for Sea-Serpents and including some of my identifications of some of those categories as "Known" animals (Particularly some kinds of whales)
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/repost-dale-drinnon-possible.html




While this older blog posting evaluates the remaining Heuvelmans "Sea-serpent" categories:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/repost-dale-drinnon-modifications-to.html



This chart leaves off Heuvelmans' Marine Saurian while I find it useful to speak of a Crocodylian Marine Sauruian more closely conforming to Bruce Champagne's description and a lager Mosasaurian Marine Saurian (Dr. Shuker's Leviathan) following Heuvelmans. The chart also leaves off Gambo. This more complete chart includes a "Seamonkey" (Digited) category which is probably not justified by the reports it is meantr to cover, and while Heuvelmans speaks of at least two forms of Super-Eels (see the second link above for my reconstructions), the more complete of Champagne's categories also includes a more elongated "Serpentine" category-which in effect once againyields a short and stocky eel and a much larger, more elongated one (2C and 9). Bruce Chamapgne's categories which I identify as whales are in a neat cluster here, Eel-like 2A and 2B, Sailfinned 4A and Carapaced 5, the last one I count as a humpback whale turned turtle since the 15 foot foreflippers are diagnostic. Many-Humped and Multi-humped are both mistakes based on observations of standing waves in the wake, as is the Super-Otter: and the Many-finned and Multi-Finned are mistakes based on small schools of cetaceans being taken to be the same animal. Heuvelmans' Merhorse also has a tail although large seals (elephant seals) are routinely counted in with the other reports and give a false impression of a seallike body and fins, and a shorter neck, to the type.





Best Wishes, Dale D.