Loch Ness Monster enthusiast outbid for Plesiosaur skeleton at auction

Gary Campbell who raised funds to buy a skeleton of "Nessie" (Peter Jolly)

THE skeleton of a 205 million-year-old Plesiosaur – the prehistoric creature most commonly believed to be the Loch Ness Monster – has been sold for £92,000 at auction.

Gary Campbell, the recorder of the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register, had hoped to crowdfund a bid to buy the skeleton, while Adam Da Silva, of the Loch Ness-side Dores Inn, had offered a site for it.

Gary said: “It would be like returning Nessie home – because the most commonly held view of what she is, is a plesiosaur, or a descendant of a plesiosaur.”

But a telephone bidder won with a price of £72,000, which, with the buyer’s premium, totalled £92,280.