SCIENTISTS researching famous historical sightings of sea serpents uncovered more than they bargained for when they realised that a 270-year-old sighting of a “most dreadful” monster was more likely to have been an amorous whale.

The discovery was made by a team from St Andrews University during its analysis of the incident off the coast of Greenland in 1734.

Drs Charles Paxton and Sharon Hedley, of the university’s Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, looked at four original reports of a 1734 sighting by missionary Poul Egede.

By investigating existing animals in the region and comparing their features to the descriptions of the “monster,” they believe they have a plausible explanation for the incident.

Their novel interpretation has been published in the latest issue of Archives Of Natural History, the scholarly journal published by the Society for the History of Natural History.

Dr Paxton, an expert in sea monsters, collaborated with Dr Hedley and Norwegian Erik Knatterud, a retired teacher. They considered a number of possible explanations for this encounter before coming to the conclusion that what Egede saw could have been a whale in a state of arousal.

Previous researchers have suggested the animal could have been a giant squid, a giant marine otter or a giant long-necked seal, but the St Andrews team believe Poul may simply have confused a rare species of whale for a monster and its genitalia for a tail.

The paper Cetaceans, Sex And Sea Serpents: An Analysis Of The Egede Accounts Of A “Most Dreadful Monster” Seen Off The Coast Of Greenland In 1734, by C. G. M. Paxton, E. Knatterud and S. L. Hedley is published in Archives Of Natural History (32, 1-9).