The first time Nessie appeared allegedly in 565. The Spiritual Abdoman of Iona reported how a monster in Loch Ness attacked a man. He was saved only with God's help. Over the next 1500 years, there were repeated reports of sightings of a monster in the Scottish freshwater lake.
There are plenty of theories about Nessie: it is a surviving dinosaur, sometimes a tree trunk, a fish, a waders, or simply waves that are towering. Now researchers want to have found another answer to the puzzle.
Over the past few months, they have been collecting lots of DNA traces in the Scottish lake, hoping to capture all the species living in the lake. New Zealand biomedical scientist Neil Gemmell's researchers analyzed more than 500 million genomic sequences and compared them to existing databases.
Nessie is an eel
The result: Nessie is in all likelihood not a monstrous sea monster, but rather a huge eel - if there is a monster at all.
"There is a very large amount of eel DNA," Gemmell said. "Our data does not give any indication of their size, but given the sheer volume of material we can not rule out that huge eels are in Loch Ness."
According to Gemmell researchers assumed in 1933 that it is the alleged sea monster an eel. Divers would have reported "eels as thick as legs" and presumably up to four meters in length.
Ets @ProfGemmell @LochNessCentre @ProfColinBean @jacobitecruises @IainAMalcolm @KJMillidine @ChrisDNessDSFB Lets be honest - when you see a large, the first thing you think of is #lochnessmonster pic.twitter.com/9wgnBnNGGh
- Ness Fishery Board (@FishtheNess) September 1, 2019However, the researchers did not find evidence of a dinosaur-like beast. According to one theory, Loch Ness survived at least one plesiosaur. Also possible giant catfishes, sturgeon or Greenland sharks exclude the researchers. Eels remained the only plausible explanation.
However, the scientists acknowledge that probably not all the animals in the lake could be detected by the samples. The analysis relies on so-called eDNA. It analyzes the smallest traces of genetic material left by living things in the environment. However, these usually resolve themselves after a short time.
It was not until the beginning of the week that a video had caused a stir, showing the shadowy outline of an elongated object winding through the River Ness.