Section:GDN 1N PaGe:4 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 19:26 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^4) News
The study found no
evidence of plesiosaurs –
which could grow up to 15
metres in length. It
suggests Nessie could
have been a giant eel
Giant crocodiles and
large fish such as
sturgeon have also
been discounted
No DNA evidence
was found for
otters or seals
Average
human
to scale
Source: Otago University, New Zealand
Could the
Loch Ness
monster
be a giant
eel? Well,
maybe ...
Matthew Weaver
The Loch Ness monster could be a
giant eel, scientists have said , after
one of the largest ever studies of the
deep waters of the Scottish loch.
A team of scientists from Otago
University in New Zealand examined
traces of DNA in the water and found
the presence of about 3,000 species.
Most of the creatures were very
small, and while they did detect DNA
from pigs, deer, sticklebacks and
humans, there were no monsters. But
Prof Neil Gemmell, who led the study,
said he could not rule out the theory
that eels in the loch have grown to an
extreme size.
“It is possible there are very large
eels,” Prof Gemmell told a packed press
conference at the Loch Ness Centre
at Drumnadrochit yesterday , “but it
depends how big you think large is”.
The eel theory resurrects a possible
explanation for “sightings” of the mon-
ster, which date back to 1933, when
the Inverness Courier fi rst reported
a “strange spectacle on Loch Ness”.
In the decades since, there have
been dozens of high -profi le attempts
to prove the existence of the monster.
In 2003, the BBC funded an extensive
search using 600 sonar beams, which
turned up nothing.
Prof Gemmell said the sheer volume
of eel DNA surprised him and his team.
And, maintaining a straight face, he
added: “We don’t know if the eel DNA
we are detecting is from a gigantic eel
or just many small eels.”
Looking more sceptical, he outlined
the theory: “The notion is that these
eels would normally migrate to repro-
duce, but they, for whatever reason,
don’t. And they continue to grow to
a very large size, forgoing reproduc-
tion for growth.”
He pointed out no giant eels have
ever been caught. And when it was
suggested that the record catch for a
European eel was 11lb 14oz (5.38kg)
Prof Gemmell said: “It doesn’t sound
like a monster, does it? But based on
the evidence we’ve accumulated, we
can’t exclude it as a possibility.”
One of the favourite theories is that
the monster is an elasmosaurus or ple-
siosaur that somehow survived the
extinction of the dinosaurs.
Prof Gemmell was more certain
about ruling this out. “Is there a ple-
siosaur in Loch Ness? No. There is
absolutely no evidence of any reptil-
ian sequences. So I think we can be
been talking about science the entire
time and we’ re using the monsters as
bait.” He said he hoped interest in the
Loch Ness legend would raise the pro-
fi le of environmental DNA research.
“I came into this with a view that
there probably wasn’t a monster,” he
said. “I wanted to understand the bio-
diversity of Loch Ness and we’ve done
that very well.”
Gemmell said the study would
eventually provide a publicly availa-
ble database of all the species in Loch
Ness, which could help gauge changes
in biodiversity and the impact of inva-
sive species such as pink salmon.
“We’ve communicated science in
a way which has been more compel-
ling than perhaps most of the science
I’ve been involved in my prior career.
More people now know about envi-
ronmental DNA than ever before, I
would imagine, and I think that’s a
good thing. Because we need these
tools to be able to document what is
living in places as, slowly but surely,
our world becomes less special.”
Gemmell was asked why the study
had failed to detect the presence of
otters or seals in Loch Ness. He said:
“We may have missed things. But we
found all the species we know are res-
idents in Loch Ness in respect to fi sh.”
He added: “ More and more studies
providing more and more negative evi-
dence cast more and more doubt on
the possibility [of a monster], but we
can’t prove a negative.”
He denied he had totally killed off
the legend of the Loch Ness monster.
“There’s still some level of uncertainty
there, so there’s still the opportunity
for people to believe in monsters. Is
it front-page news? I don’t know. But
we’ve captured some imaginations.”
That will come as a relief to the tour-
ist industry that has thrived on the
banks of the loch , to the extent that
nearby Drumnadrochit can support
two competing Loch Ness attractions
- Nessieland and the Loch Ness Cen-
tre and Exhibition.
▲ A scene from the 1985 German
fi lm Nessie, das Verrückteste
Monster der Welt (Nessie, the
Craziest Monster in the World)
PHOTOGRAPH: AVIS-FILMVERLEIH/ALLSTARSightings, hunts and hoaxes dating back to AD
1933 The earliest recorded sighting
was in AD565 by S t Columba but
the modern phenomen on starts
when the Inverness Courier reports
a Strange Spectacle on Loch Ness.1934 “The surgeon’s photo” by
RK Wilson is taken. It shows a
plesiosaur-like head and neck
emerging from the water.1960 Tim Dinsdale captures on
fi lm what he claims is the monster.
However, analysis of the footage in
1984 proves it was a fi shing boat.1962- 72 The Loch Ness
Investigation Bureau spends a
decade Nessie-hunting. They
make unexplainable sonar contact
with an object in 1962 and in 1968.August 1975 The monster features
in Doctor Who, where it is revealed
to be an alien called a Skarasen.
Four years earlier, The Goodiestried hunting the beast to capture it
for London Zoo.December 1975 Sir Peter Scott and
Robert Rines give the creature
a scientifi c name in the journal
Nature. It takes a while for people to
spot that Nessiteras rhombopteryx
is an anagram of “Monster hoax by
Sir Peter S”.1987 Operation Deepscan surveys
the loch with sonar. It is unable to
explain the strong contacts it makes.1990- 93 Project Urquhart takes a
hydrographic survey of the loch. It
fails to turn up a monster but does
discover a new species of nematode.1994 “The surgeon’s photo” is
exposed as a hoax created using a
toy submarine and fake snake head.1996 There are 17 sightings of the
monster – a record at the time. It
is also the same year that the Loch
Ness monster movie is released.2003 The BBC funds an extensive
search using 600 sonar beams.
It turns up nothing.2009 A mysterious shape is spotted
in a Google Earth image of the loch.2016 Sonar fi nally locates a monster
but it is a sunken prop of Nessie
from the 1969 movie The Private
Life of Sherlock Holmes.
Martin Belam▲ ‘The surgeon’s photo’, taken in
1934, was exposed as a hoax in 1994fairly sure that there is probably not a
giant scaly reptile swimming around
in Loch Ness.”
His study sequenced DNA from
250 samples of Loch Ness water at a
range of sites and depths. The near-
est it found to dinosaur DNA was very
distantly related amphibians such as
toads and frogs. “We didn’t fi nd croco-
diles. We didn’t fi nd lizards. We didn’t
fi nd adders,” Gemmell said.
The press conference was called
under slightly false pretences, Gem-
mell admitted. “If you like, this has
been a great big science con. We’veRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws