Scientists said Thursday that they think Scotland’s fabled Loch Ness monster is most likely a giant eel based on DNA they have analyzed from the Loch’s waters.
“Eels are very plentiful in the loch system – every single sampling site that we went to pretty much had eels and the sheer volume of it was a bit of a surprise,” Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from New Zealand’s University of Otago told Reuters after explaining to reporters that their results ruled out the possibility of Nessie being a dinosaur. (RELATED: Police Take Parrot Into Custody After It Tries To Help Drug Dealers Escape)
The supposedly shy creature with a snake-like head and a long, green body might just be an eel, scientists say. https://t.co/zzpdClMdkT
— ABC News (@ABC) September 5, 2019
“We can’t exclude the possibility that there’s a giant eel in Loch Ness but we don’t know whether these samples we’ve collected are from a giant beast or just an ordinary one – so there’s still this element of ‘we just don’t know,'” he added. (RELATED: Cruise Line Buys Loch Ness Monster Insurance)
Despite the evidence scientist have discovered, Gemmell admitted that regardless of the idea of a giant eel being able to exist in the Loch for decades, no one has ever even caught a giant eel in those waters.
The most famous photo of the Loch Ness monster has long been discredited as a hoax, but scientists have come up with a new explanation for other sightings of the elusive beast — it could be just a giant eel. https://t.co/7r1AlsudyC
— CNN (@CNN) September 5, 2019
The so-called environmental DNA (eDNA) samples were collected last year in June.
According to the report:
This DNA can be captured, sequenced and then used to identify that creature by comparing the sequence obtained to large databases of known genetic sequences from hundreds of thousands of different organisms.
The record of the “water monster” goes all the way back to the 6th century when an Irish Monk, Saint Columba, was said to have reportedly banished a “water beast” to the deep waters of the River Ness.
The picture most connected with the Loch Ness monster, known as the “surgeon’s photo, ” comes from 1934 and it showed a head attached to a long neck coming out of the water. However, sixty years later it was revealed to be nothing but a hoax.
I guess we will just have to wait and see still.
