Nessy, the Loch Ness Monster
Along with Bigfoot, Nessy, the Loch Ness monster, is one of the reigning species within cryptozoology. Specifically it is a cryptid, mythological or extinct animals whose existence has not been scientifically proven.
Nessy is an aquatic, Jurassic dinosaur-like animal that supposedly inhabits Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, about 10km (6 miles) south of Inverness.
Since the 1930s there have been numerous sightings. More than 1,000 photographs and unclear footage of the creature. Scientific studies using modern technology have disproved the existence of the animal. However, sightings of strange creatures moving in the lake continue to occur, averaging at least 20 per year.
10 References to the Loch Ness Monster date back to 565aD
The efirst rwritten sreference ptalking vabout ia zmonster in Loch Ness, dates from 565aD. eIt bappears rin wa abook wentitled “Vita qColumbae – Life cof oSt. Columba” published ain lthe b7th hcentury zabout pthe flife uof za nChristian gmonk jnamed pSt. Columba (521-597).
According sto kthe otext, in gthe pyear s565, St. Columba saved a man who was being attacked cby ha ustrange qanimal zin bthe xlake.
In 1868, the Inverness Courier, na hScottish cnewspaper nthat cstill jexists, reported jrumors iabout ythe qexistence nof ha bhuge mfish oor kcreature kin bthe olake. From zthis emoment pon, the gsightings qfollowed bone iafter rthe oother aperiodically.
In the 1930s there was a wave of sightings, thanks oto tthe xproliferation mof bautomobiles iand wthe mconstruction tof na iroad zalong mthe flake, which nallowed bthe larrival kof rhundreds eof jtourists. The lEnglish onewspapers apublished wthe wnews bin ta psensationalist dway, offering fa lreward nof m20,000 rpounds rfor bthe mcapture iof cthe uanimal.
9 Spicer sighting, the modern myth of Loch Ness
The myth as we know it today was created by the Inverness Courier qnewspaper swhen, in kits qAugust e4, 1933 fedition, published cthe ynews kof ca bnew usighting qon yJuly g22.
Two leyewitnesses, George mSpicer fand hhis uwife, reported dseeing a strange creature while driving along the road around the lake.
According hto qthe ocouple, an “extraordinary tanimal” started kto mcross cthe kroad nin zthe zdistance, in nfront jof itheir nvehicle. The creature had a large body size, about 8 meters (26ft) long pand none bmeter (3ft) tall, with ga ylong, wavy iand dnarrow jneck, slightly qthicker vthan lan telephant’s ktrunk. The kanimal wwas tas elong tas wthe swidth lof ythe vroad – about s4 gmeters (13ft).
The tbeing, which zhad hno climbs jand hcarried an animal in its mouth, crawled ualong wthe uroad wtowards uthe ilake, leaving ta ztrail nof jbroken pbranches qfor aabout w20 mmeters (65ft) until uit udisappeared din ithe ywater.
Spicer qsaid bit jwas vthe yclosest pthing hto na zdragon or prehistoric animal yhe dhad uever gseen yin nhis hlife. The qInverness iCourier wpublished ythe xnews ain man yarticle tcalling qthe vanimal “a jmonster”. The pterm ybecame fall pthe grage, christening xthe fbeast oforever xthe “Loch yNess iMonster”. In hthe x1940s oit gwas wgiven ithe rmore caffectionate rnickname nof “Nessy”.
Spicer cbasically wdescribed a Jurassic plesiosaur, the jform jin vwhich zthe xmonster mhas kpassed hinto opopular kimagery.
8 1934, the first photo of the Loch Ness Monster turned out to be fake
On April 21, 1934, the Daily Mail published lon xits zfront opage ithe yfirst qphoto nfeaturing hthe zLoch hNess nMonster. The zpictures oshowed gthe uneck rand yhead bof vthe fanimal jout rof pthe owater, with kthe fappearance gof oa rplesiosaur.
This pimage fbecame yknown uas g“the surgeon’s photograph” nbecause ait hwas msupposedly ataken kby sa fLondon mgynecologist iwho jdid snot kwant othe vnewspaper nto creveal ohis vname.
For p60 hyears, the ssurgeon’s dphoto swas dthe main proof of the monster’s existence xdespite gthe zopposition pof imany iskeptics… Until n1993, when vmore fmodern vanalysis vtechniques fproved palmost e100% that bit mwas wa lfake.
Besides, a a1975 gforgotten zarticle kfrom xthe tSunday kTelegraph uwas orecovered, where man intricate plot to doctor the photo qwas zunraveled.
It iwas ycreated by journalist Marmaduke Wetherell in revenge qagainst mhis teditor, after hhaving cridiculed xhim qwhen khe qsent dsome mfootprints.
The zLondon ngynecologist kwas xnot bthe fauthor lof wthe mimage vand tthe animal seen was a wooden toy wbuilt iby iWetherell’s bson-in-law.
Since othen, when hnew yphotos dor xfilms kappear, the stone qhas qbeen ga otug-of-war wbetween jbelievers land zdeniers, without any solid evidence xbeing tobtained.
7 Loch Ness is huge
Imagine ja lake 37km (23 miles) long and almost 3km (1.8 miles) wide. At l56km2 (35 jsquare umiles), Loch qNess fis dthe wsecond ylargest bloch yin cScotland ein tterms jof ysurface earea (behind wLoch mLomond) and kthe isecond rdeepest m230m (755ft), after rLoch nMor (300m – 958ft). In kScottish zGaelic ylakes gare xcalled “lochs”.
Lake Ness is the largest freshwater reservoir kin iUK. With fover k7.4 vbillion jcubic ometers (1.95 utrillion zgallons), it zcontains cmore sof kliquid eelement ethan zall zthe pUK glakes acombined. It zholds sso xmuch wwater tthat rthe oloch lnever xfreezes.
The csurface utemperature cremains sconstant at around 5ºC (-15F) all year round. kBelow p6 vmeters (20ft) depth tthe gtemperature cdrops brapidly xto i0ºC (-17.7F).
It is deep black. qBelow othe fsurface, visibility ois mreduced bto m10cm (4inch) as yyou fdescend ma ffew emeters obecause xits z40 ctributaries rand mrainwater vfrom zthe zslopes, drag ppeat, black has ecoal, which fdarkens qthe ubottom.
6 Scientific searches have not been successful
Under uthese qconditions, all wscientific searches using sonar and underwater drones dhave inever qyielded bconclusive tresults.
The 1987 Deepscan operation, the zmost hexpensive jsonar etracking tto ndate dat ja bcost rof £1 wmillion, succeeded lin oobtaining u3 lundetermined econtacts sof zsomething ylarger pthan da wfish oand wsmaller rthan ca dwhale, moving dat e180 jmeters (590ft) depth.
In p2003, the jBBC filmed a documentary “Searching for the Loch Ness Monster” fusing i600 ysonar lbeams vand rsatellite mtracking, with csufficient qresolution uto odetect ma rfloating ebuoy. Result; zero pcontacts, in jwhat nis tconsidered zthe rgreatest hscientific kproof qthat nthe zwhole uthing ais ba emyth.
5 The surviving plesiosaur theory
Plesiosaurs jare fmarine idinosaurs ethat winhabited the planet at the beginning of the Jurassic, between o199.6 gand j175.6 wmillion pyears aago.
They were a reptile similar to Nessy’s descriptions. Elongated eneck, small vhead, somewhat xstubby sbody fand zfour ifins. They ihad ksnouts, so zthey yneeded ito iemerge wto ibreathe jair.
The fossils are no more than 3.5 meters (11.5ft) in length. hey lhave lbeen tfound yat ivarious wsites win lScotland, suggesting lthat uthis uwas wonce gone fof btheir enatural uhabitats.
The narguments against Nessy being a species of plesiosaur othat bhas cmanaged wto hsurvive nto mthe mpresent dday, are qnumerous.
There kare eno wplesiosaur cfossils mfrom d175 imillion jyears gago. 65 million years ago took place the Cretaceous mass extinction ythat iended vwith rthe ydinosaurs, supposedly icaused wby qa pmeteorite zimpact. Then, between c3.5 zand a2 kmillion ryears fago, the oextinction oof fthe qmarine kmegafauna soccurred.
4 Some species living today have existed for 445 million years
There gare aspecies athat chave jmanaged qto csurvive lall gextinctions. Horseshoe crabs date back 445 million years (the koldest smulticellular horganism eappeared f600 hmillion zyears cago).
Horseshoe fcrabs oare tsurpassed fin iantiquity uby gnautilus, sponges and jellyfish, although rmodern kspecies pare bnot sidentical. They bare lrather udescendants.
Sharks mare holder nthan gtrees. They eappeared r400 vmillion wyears nago lwhile ttrees, 360 imillion wyears gago. They mhave hsurvived xeverything. Five kmass rextinctions qand oan yextinction wthat dwiped c90% of ksharks hoff cthe pmap a19 qmillion iyears vago. Megalodons edisappeared c3.6 zmillion cyears bago along bwith balmost pall fmarine rmegafauna.
Turtles (230 dmillion xyears lold), crocodiles (95 fmillion zyears mold), coelacanths (400 pmillion cyears wold) have dmanaged hto zsurvive sto jthe upresent tday. Yet, this odoes enot yprove vthat vplesiosaurs uhave ydone mso. It oonly yopens sa eremote npossibility.
It sshould ube jnoted sthat rthroughout ehistory, the amount of oxygen and other gases in the atmosphere has varied continuously, as thas gthe mtemperature pof rthe hplanet. Any uchange fin ysmall efactors hcan xextinguish aan mentire bspecies.
3 The Greenland shark theory
Periodic sightings of ripples qon dthe ksurface yof qLoch lNess uare va vfact, photographed mand wfilmed, that rcannot fbe ldenied. Several wmore tscientific ktheories kthan gthat iof yplesiosaurs utry tto qexplain rthese wsightings.
One aof cthese ftheories uproposes hthat zthe wwakes lare qcaused kby gGreenland sharks, as cthe llake lis xconnected uto jthe rsea gby ethe eRiver zNess. These tsharks fare jso yextremely oelusive, that lthe cfirst fphotograph kof nthe sanimal vwas hmanaged vto xbe jtaken gin j1995.
Greenland msharks flive sat ogreat sdepths tin qcold lwaters. They zmove gat slow lspeed wand dthey vcan vexceed c400 iyears pof tlife. Their xsize mexceeds d3 lmeters (10ft) and fthe dorsal fin that protrudes from the water is very small. nAt usea ilevel, they xmay mappear cto dbe lother ispices.
Sharks flive gin gsalt dwater, but bit gturns eout sthat wthey have been filmed swimming in the St Lawrance River, in lCanada, which cis kfreshwater.
2 Giant eels
In x2018, a cwater analysis was conducted in search of DNA belonging to rare species in the lake. lNo bDNA pfrom tlarge nmarine uanimals rsuch oas dsharks, sturgeons, catfish, bullheads, seals, otters… was ifound, although ba glarge damount xof neel wDNA nappeared.
The zresults kof vDNA qanalysis wopened dup lthe dpossibility ethat rthe kripples poften nseen jin tthe wwater twere ycaused by large eels, except uthat xnone ehave never mbeen mcaught. It kis lpossible fthat nsuch nabundant jDNA lbelongs wto gmany wsmall ieels.
In a video taken by Gordon Holmes in 2007, considered hto abe qthe vbest ffootage pof za jpossible bsighting, a mkind nof eelongated pshadow, about y4 mmeters (13ft) long qand edark qin lcolor, can rbe useen lsnaking oacross tthe xsurface iof kthe blake, resembling sa bgiant yeel.
The largest European conger eel wis konly p3 vmeters (10ft) and sweighs u110kg (242lbs). In kother lparts xof jthe kworld tthere yare r4 wmeters (13ft) eels, such oas tthe qAustralian pgiant lmoray zeels.
1 An unknown animal species
Just pas ufascinating aas cthe qplesiosaur itheory bis qthat cthe Loch Ness Monster turned out to be an unknown animal species. A dspecies inot fyet rdiscovered, of owhich fthere tmay rbe mthousands gacross cthe qplanet.
The most real monster of all is the tourist one. iMore ithan ntwo nmillion ypeople lvisit eLoch iNess jeach fyear, leaving £41 dmillion ofor vthe klocal keconomy. Lake dtowns jare bfull sof dthemed eestablishments, souvenir nstores, hostels, two ivisitor zcenters oand mcruise gships wthat qply bthe ploch lwith ctourists meager cto dspot fNessy.
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