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It’s time for another of my monster-themed mega-threads, wherein we examine the backstory to photos (or other bits of evidence) said to be evidence for a given #monster. This time, we’re going to look at the so-called #LochNessMonster FLIPPER PHOTOS of 1972. Here we go… 
During the late 1960s/early 70s it was believed by a large group of people – affiliated as the Loch Ness Phenomenon Investigation Bureau or LNIB (it went by other names over the years) – that camera-led vigils at #LochNess would lead to definitive proof of Nessie’s existence...
During the early 70s, the LNIB joined forces with another group: the US-based Academy of Applied Science (AAS), led by inventor and lawyer Robert Rines (whose name is very often wrongly written ‘Rhines’). Rines died in 2009. In the photo here, Rines is on the far left…
At this point, I've reconstructed about a million fossil birds (and other vertebrates) and it pains me that this stuff is sitting in my files, UNPUBLISHED. It's because I >>can't<< make time to finish my textbook, not yet anyway. Let's talk about Paleogene birds. So.... (thread)
How do you reconstruct Paleogene #birds? The good news is that some of the relevant taxa - eg, those from Messel - are known from articulated skeletons, sometimes with plumage preserved and even feather patterns and melanosomes revealing colour... [pic Gerald Mayr/Volker Wilde]
Based on the skeleton, you take a load of measurements and get a skeleton scaled about right. My drawings at this point are really sketchy and look pretty goofy... This is the tiny Gracilitarsus, a hummingbird-sized relative of hoopoes.
