Con Rit, the Giant sea Centipede?

Another creature not recently seenis the giant sea centipede or Con Rit.

Over the years there have been sightings of Con Rit. One of the earliest recorded accounts was in the second century in the book, “On The Nature Of Animals”, Aelian the Greek reported that these serpents were known to beach themselves. He went on to say that witnesses at the time reported that the creatures had lobster like tails and large hairy nostrils.

Then Mr. Tran Van Con, reportedly discovered and touched a dead, beached con rit on the shore of Along Bay Vietnam in 1883. It was , he said, sixty feet long and three feet wide, dark brown on top and yellow below. The body was made of segments three feet wide and two feet long. These segments were hexagonal in shape, with a 2'4" filament protruding from both sides of each segment. The tail segment was similar, but two extra filaments protruded from the bottom corner .. When Mr. Tran Van Con touched the segments, they were hard and produced a metallic sound, similar to the sound produced by the shell of a horseshoe crab. Unfortunately the head of the creature was missing. The carcass was later towed out to sea and dumped because of the stench it gave off!

.One well documented encounter was in 1899 in which the crew of the HMS Narcissus spotted a giant creature near Cape Falcon in Algeria: The sailors reported sighting a sea monster that possessed lots of fins, and measured about 45 metres (150 feet) in length. The creature propelled itself forward with its fins with enough speed to keep pace with the ship. The sailors were able to observe it for about half an hour.

The latest observation was said to be by some students on Hong Kong in the 1960’s and is mentioned by Coleman and Huyghe, in their book on sea serpents but there are no other details.

So where is the Con Rit? Has the last of it’s kind died out or are there others to be discovered in the depths of the ocean? Intriguing story.