Hydrargos sillimani    One can well imagine the sensation that ensued when in 1845, Albert C. Koch, a German fossil collector, claimed that he had found the skeleton of a one hundred fourteen foot sea serpent in situ in Alabama.       It was available for viewing at the Apollo Saloon on Broadway in New York city for the modest price of 25¢.   There mounted in a posture calculated to suggest  the sea serpent was the skeleton Koch had had the presumption to name Hydrargos sillimani (Silliman’s Master of the Seas) as a “tribute” to Benjamin Silliman’s faith in the existence of sea serpents.         That it was a hoax, for hoax it was, was revealed when Professor Jeffries Wyman the anatomist who would later would publish the first scientific description of the gorilla, examined the skeleton and determined that it was not a reptile at all, but a mammal as evidenced by the teeth.  Identification of the teeth proved that it could not possibly be one creature as the teeth came from an extinct whale - Zeuglodon (a.k.a. Basilosaurus) which grew to only 45 feet in length.     Benjamin Silliman, not in the least amused, demanded to have his name removed.  Unabashed, Koch simply packed up his monster and headed over to Europe where he continued to exhibit the “sea serpent” renamed Hydrachos harlani.