Sea Monsters (2 page)

Long ago, huge sea creatures swam in the oceans. A team of scientists in Canada has found the complete fossil remains of a sea reptile that was seventy-six feet long! That’s twice as long as a
Tyrannosaurus rex
!

This animal swam in the oceans more than 25 million years ago. That was long after the dinosaurs had disappeared.

We are beginning to learn more about creatures of the deep. With modern underwater devices, scientists today have new ways of knowing what lies deep within the ocean. And with enough research, they may find out about the animals people call “sea monsters.”

This map of Iceland from the 1500s shows what people 400 years ago imagined the ocean to be like—full of sea monsters!

In December 1872, a ship called the
Challenger
sailed from Britain. It was starting a long three-year voyage. The ship carried a group of scientists. They planned to do the first large study of the ocean. They wanted to see if there was life in the deep sea. At that time, many people did not believe there was.

Two men were in charge of the trip. One was a scientist named
Charles Thomson.
The other was Captain
George Strong Nares, a naval officer who was an expert in mapmaking.

The men turned the ship into a floating lab. They brought along microscopes, thermometers, chemicals, and hundreds of bottles to hold samples. They also carried gear to collect material from the ocean floor.

During the trip, the men took thousands of samples of sea plants and animals. They mapped the ocean floor. They also learned about water temperatures and how salty the water was in different places.

The
Challenger
came back with lots of research material. The voyage proved that the deep ocean had many living creatures. Life in the ocean was richer than anyone had ever dreamed.

In 1934, Dr.
William Beebe was the first person to dive deep into the sea. He went down 3,000 feet in a vessel called a
bathysphere
(BATH-uh-sfeer). A strong cable lowered it into the water. Since there were no underwater cameras, Dr. Beebe wrote down all he saw. Later, an artist drew pictures of what he described.

Things have changed a lot since the
Challenger
and Dr. Beebe. In 1960, a better
bathysphere was invented. For the first time, people could dive down to the deepest part of the ocean. They dove seven miles down to the
Marianas Trench. No one has ever gone that deep in the ocean before or since.