Here’s a pointer to the Archives of Natural History, where the sea serpent paper by 2002 Ig Nobel Prize winner Charles Paxton, Sharon Hedley and Erik Knatterud is scheduled to be published this week. (Knatterud is, among other things, the keeper of the Database of Norwegian Sea Serpents and Paxton of the history-packed Aquatic Sea Monsters web site.) Several readers asked for details after we mentioned it in mini-AIR. To recapitulate, the study is:
"Cetaceans, Sex and Sea Serpents: An Analysis of the Egede
Accounts of a ‘Most Dreadful Monster’ Seen Off the Coast of
Greenland in 1734," C.G.M. Paxton, E. Knatterud and S.L. Hedley,
Archives of Natural History, vol. 32, no. 1, 2005, pp. 1-9. The
authors report that:
[T]here is an alternative explanation for the [reported
sighting of a] serpent-like tail. Many of the large baleen
whales have long, snake-like penises. If the animal did
indeed fall on its back then its ventral surface would have
been uppermost and, if the whale was aroused, the usually
retracted penis would have been visible. The penises of the
North Atlantic right whale and (Pacific) grey whale can be
at least 1.8 metres long, and 1.7 metres long respectively,
and could be taken by a naive witness for a tail.