Tooth of Loch Ness Monster Found!

A real-life 60-foot creature lurking in the depths of Loch Ness. A 4-inch shed tooth, found in a mutilated deer carcass along the banks of these legendary waters. A 1500 year old mystery, finally resolved by. . . a fictional thriller?

In March of 2005, a story appeared out of the Scottish Highlands that a Loch Ness fisherman and two American college students had discovered a 4-inch barbed tooth (roots intact) lodged in the exposed ribcage of a mutilated, half-eaten deer carcass found along a deepwater shoreline known to locals as a “kill zone.” The tooth was later confiscated by a water bailiff, along with some of the students’ footage. One video tape was salvaged, accessible at : www.LochNessTooth.com

Three months later, N.Y. Times best-selling author Steve Alten’s THE LOCH hit bookstores. The LOCH is a fictional modern-day thriller about the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster, incorporating the latest scientific evidence that reveals what the creature is, how it came to be trapped in Loch Ness, and why the Highland Council has been deceiving the public about its true identity. When the book’s publisher (Tsunami Books, a new independent) learned of the tooth story, they invested monies earmarked for publicity to obtain the rights to the students’ video, funded a reward for the missing tooth (later identified by marine biologists to be a palate tooth of an immense species indigenous to the Sargasso Sea) and offered a $10,000 bounty to deep sea fishermen to capture a live specimen. A smaller specimen was captured in September, its skull enlarged until the replica’s teeth matched photos of the tooth found by the students. The result: a 6 foot skull!

In January 2006, the publisher was notified by the students' attorneys that the tooth had turned up at a British laboratory for testing. A settlement was made, reportedly paying the two students an undisclosed sum (enough to cover 3-years worth of law school tuition for one of the boys). A settlement was also made with Tsunami Books, which will receive the first option to publish any data resulting from testing of the tooth. In addition, the publisher received a brass mold made from the actual tooth. Based on these new turn of events, Tsunami has decided to re-release The LOCH in trade paperback in mid-April.

“We’re obviously very excited about this,” said Edward Davidson, CEO at Cooperative Entertainment Services, the corporate entity that owns Tsunami Books. “The LOCH had great reviews and an impressive 90% sell-thru at Borders, but we made the mistake of reworking, then delaying our publicity plan because of this amazing story, which appeared to validate all of Steve's research. With the skull replica and now with an actual mold of the real tooth, we decided to re-issue the book in trade form, hoping to take advantage of the publicity.”

According to forensic expert William McDonald, who consulted with Alten during the writing of The LOCH, the monster is not an extinct plesiosaur, but a deepwater amphibious species. “In December of 2004 I met with no less than a dozen locals who told me about land sightings along the shoreline,” says McDonald. “Two eyewitnesses led me to frozen slide tracks of an animal that had to be at least fifty to sixty feet long, weighing upwards of eight tons!”

The re-release of The LOCH is scheduled in mid-April. More information and links to the student’s video footage can be found at www.TheLoch.com.