Theories lost in the tides of time

 The long-necked seal hypothesis 

       The pinipede family is one of the largest families in the world of vertebrates, having species as large as the elephant seal and some as small as monk seals, but this family also keeps secrets and mysteries that are still there. pending to be resolved and today we will analyze the case of the Mysterious long-necked seal, sighted for centuries by sailors on the high seas. We begin. 

              

 The beginning of the mystery 

   This creature, contrary to what it may seem, seems to have been mentioned for centuries by various indigenous cultures; According to the book Searching For Hidden Animals, the most famous mention comes from Inuit folklore, where it is said that a race of long-necked seals known as tizheruk inhabited the Bering Sea. It was said that these seals were quite aggressive and that they were usually only He saw the neck was quite long, saying that it was at least 2 m long and that the creatures were similar to seals in every aspect, generally being found in bay areas, less frequently in the open sea, although it is said that these They could also be found on islands and they attacked hunters. 

Outside of folklore, this was first reported in 1681, by the botanist Dr. Nehemiah Grew, who published a catalog of curiosities that could be found at that time in the Royal Society museum in London, entitled Musaeum Regalis Societatis, among Among the many descriptions of specimens written by Grew that it contained was a very curious one, an unidentified form of long-necked seal, based on a preserved skin of an apparently young individual of this puzzling creature, which was described on page 95 of your catalog as follows: 

 The long-necked seal, I don't find it clearly mentioned anywhere. It's much thinner than any of the first ones. But what mainly differs is in the length of its neck, because from the tip of the nose to the front legs, and from there to the tail, there is the same measurement. As well as in that instead of front feet it has rather philadeses; without having claws, like other types of seals have. 

As we can see in contrast to other pinnipeds, this was described as a large and fairly distributed animal, unlike the known pinnipeds which differ in the length of the neck, which is only about half of the total length of the animal. 

Esta no seria la última vez que está posible especie daría de que hablar, poco despues la descripción de Grew fue reiterada en un artículo sobre focas marinas publicado por Philosophical Transactions , una revista de la Royal Society, el 1 de enero de 1751, en éste se enumeró varias especies conocidas e incluyó la foca de cuello largo dentro de esta lista. Aquí está la versión ligeramente ampliada de Parsons de la descripción original de Grew:

Es mucho mas delgado y sin garras pero en lo que principalmente difiere es en la longitud de su cuello; porque desde la punta de la nariz hasta las patas delanteras, y desde allí hasta la cola, son la misma medida; como también en que, en lugar de patas delanteras, tiene más bien aletas; sin garras, como las otras especies. La cabeza y el cuello de esta especie son exactamente como los de una nutria…La antes descrita, medía 2.22 metros, siendo muy joven, apenas tenía dientes

              The rise to fame 

       But this did not stop there, with this mysterious animal having its greatest rise in fame in the 19th century, especially in the early 1890s. when the Dutch zoologist and passionate sea snake researcher, Dr. Anthonie C. Oudemans, imagined a beast as well as the answer to sea snakes, proposing in his book: the great sea snake, (whose PDF will be in the library), the theory of a huge species of seal, with a cosmopolitan distribution and morphologically differentiated from all currently known species. , even before that in 1817 an attempt was made to coin the taxonomic name Megophias megophias, but this was invalidated, although Oudemans attempted to rescue it, but this attempt failed and it quickly sank without a trace into the shadowy abyss of scientific obscurity, where it was not sought. , was almost forgotten for almost three quarters of a century, until the long-necked seal hypothesis was finally recovered, revived and reconstituted, currently gaining popularity in zoological circles. 

  Theories and search for answers 

(Illustration sheet of seals, 19th century) 

     But this does not end there, we know from the fossil record that there were seals with quite elongated necks, the best example is Acrophoca longirostris, a pinniped that lived from the late Miocene to the early Pliocene until 7-4 million years ago, whose length of its vertebrae as that of their cervical spine exceeded those of all modern seals, being 21% of the total length of their vertebral column, while in modern seals it is generally 17 to 19%. 

The truth is that this case is extremely interesting, theories continue to abound and this species is still under discussion. Although attempts continue to be made to give several names for its own identities, none have been conclusive, although the theory has arisen to explain several famous sea monsters which We will not mention here because they do not directly fit into what we want to report, the long-necked seal has transcended and has become more than just a speculation, in the end you have the last word.

 y esto ha sido todo gracias por leer, espero puedan apoyarme.

[[[links of interest]]] 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizheruk

https://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/2010/10/long-necked-seals-in-south-america.html?m=1

https://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/2010/10/long-necked-seals-in-south-america.html?m=1

https://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/09/25/longnecked-seal-described