| Lariosauro | |
| Grouping: | Legendary creature |
| Sub Grouping: | Lake monster |
| Country: | Italy |
| Region: | Lake Como |
| Details: | Found in water |
| First Attested: | 20th century = |
In Italian folklore, Lariosauro is a lake monster said to live in Lake Como in Italy, about 30miles north of Milan. Como is one of the deepest European lakes, at about 410sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 at the deepest location.
In 1946, eyewitnesses allegedly reported seeing a reptile-like animal swimming in the waters of the lake. It was called lariosauro, the same name used a century before to name a prehistoric reptile whose fossilized remains were found by the lake (Lariosaurus balsami). A weekly of Como, a week after the first article, wrote it was a sturgeon, but the sturgeon as well as the monster appear to be more simply a hoax invented by the press.
There were other sightings, or alleged sightings, in Lake Como.
Skeptic researcher Giorgio Castiglioni, who studied these cases, thinks that the animal of 1954 was an otter, the monster of August 1957 a hoax, the beast of September 1957 possibly a pike, and the 2003 eel was a group of fish swimming together.