tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/loch-ness-monster-27002/articlesLoch Ness Monster – The Conversation2023-11-10T17:27:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2174752023-11-10T17:27:16Z2023-11-10T17:27:16ZWhy the search for the Loch Ness monster (and other beasts) continues 90 years after that first blurry photograph<p>Hugh Gray was taking his usual post-church walk around Loch Ness in Scotland on a November Sunday in 1933. His amble was disrupted when he saw something bobbing above the water two or three feet from him. </p>
<p>He quickly snapped several pictures of what he described to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/21/loch-ness-monster-photos-scotland-hugh-gray/">Scottish Daily Record</a> as “an object of considerable dimensions”.</p>
<p>A few months earlier, in April 1933, local hoteliers Aldie Mackay and her husband had described a whale-like beast to the Inverness Courier. Then, in the summer of 1933, a man called George Spicer stated: “I saw the nearest approach to a dragon or prehistoric animal that I have ever seen in my life.” </p>
<p>He described a creature between two and three metres long carrying “a lamb or animal of some kind” for its supper.</p>
<p>Since the first sightings, recorded in the latter half of the <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Loch-Ness-Monster/">sixth century</a>, the beast was considered a folk tale. However, when Gray captured the bobbing mass with an animal-like tail it was considered the first photographic proof of “Nessy” and inspired a sort of monster mania. </p>
<p>It’s 90 years since this picture and the beginning of the obsession with finding the Loch Ness monster. As a paleobiologist, I want to explore whether the type of monster we believe Nessy to be could exist and if we should continue looking.</p>
<h2>An elaborate hoax?</h2>
<p>There are a lot of fish in the loch, so there is enough food. There is also lots of space. Loch Ness is huge, with a volume of <a href="https://www.wildernessscotland.com/blog/loch-ness-moster/">7.4 billion cubic metres and a depth of 227m</a>. There is a lot of water to hide in, which accounts for more than all the fresh water in all of the lakes of England and Wales.</p>
<p>Our idea of what the Loch Ness monster looks like is founded on an iconic picture taken a year after Gray’s. This image showed a long neck stretching from the black waters. </p>
<p>It is the source of the idea that the Loch Ness monster is a living relic from the time of the dinosaurs, eeking out a lonely existence in the depths. However, this image was not what it claimed to be and was found, decades later, to have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/weekinreview/loch-ness-fiction-is-stranger-than-truth.html">an elaborate hoax</a>.</p>
<p>But there is evidence to support the existence of three-metre long beasties that looked a bit like the Loch Ness monster. These reptiles are known as plesiosaurs and they were wiped out in the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667122001744">Discoveries of plesiosaur fossils</a> suggest they may have lived in freshwater. The fossils included bones and teeth from three-metre long adults and an arm bone from a 1.5 metre-long baby. However, it’s unlikely that the Loch Ness monster is a plesiosaur.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the truth comes down to biology. There might be enough food and enough space in the loch but what there is not enough of is other living Loch Ness-like monsters to make a viable population of animals to support Nessy’s existence.</p>
<h2>So why look for Nessy or other monsters?</h2>
<p>In August this year, Inverness played host to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/21/loch-ness-monster-enthusiasts-gear-up-for-biggest-search-in-50-years">monster hunters</a> scouring the loch with drones equipped with hydrophones and boats pinging sonar, all in the hope of proving the existence of Nessy. They didn’t find anything, which strongly suggests that Loch Ness remains monster-free. </p>
<p>Monster hunting mania is not reserved to the Loch Ness monster alone. The Mokele-mbembe is another a mythical water-dwelling beast that supposedly lives in the Congo River Basin and looks like a dinosaur. Like Nessy, I doubt it exists. </p>
<p>But I’m not a total party-pooper and I think people should continue their searches for seemingly extinct creatures. Take the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/science/tasmanian-tiger-sightings.html">thylacine</a>, or Tasmanian wolf, for example. The last Tasmanian wolf was believed to have died in captivity in the 1930s. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723014948">recent research</a> found that it’s possible the Tasmanian wolf went extinct much later than first thought and maybe hung on until the 2000s. In fact, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/science/tasmanian-tiger-sightings.html">researchers</a> report that small groups of thylacines may have survived.</p>
<p>And sometimes animals we thought were extinct did come back to the modern world. The <a href="https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/fish/coelacanth">coelacanth</a> is perhaps the most famous example.</p>
<p>This fish has a very long fossil record, from the Devonian period through to the end of the Cretaceous period. Then they were gone, thought lost in the same event that destroyed the dinosaurs and plesiosaurs. Not one fossil coelacanth has been described from Paleogene period sediments to today.</p>
<p>But in 1938 a single specimen, caught by fishermen, was found in a South African market by ichthyologist (a marine biologist who studies different fish species) <a href="https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/leading-figures/marjorie-courtenay-latimer-fossil-fish-coelacanth/">Marjorie Courtney Latimer</a>.</p>
<p>There followed a hunt for the next 20 years to find the population (do read the excellent <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/a-fish-caught-in-time-samantha-weinberg?variant=32117649997858">A Fish Caught in Time</a>) and we now know of two Latimeriid coelacanths in populations <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC23015/">around Indonesia and southern Africa</a>.</p>
<p>The take home message of this is: don’t let anything put you off looking for excitement, or even monsters. You might just find something amazing.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil J. Gostling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is the beastie lurking in the watery depths of Loch Ness?Neil J. Gostling, Associate Professor in Evolution and Palaeobiology, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973382023-02-27T13:23:43Z2023-02-27T13:23:43ZIs the Loch Ness monster real?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505952/original/file-20230123-10548-gxlc1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C10%2C6862%2C5131&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This is the famous – and fake – photograph of the Loch Ness monster, taken near Inverness, Scotland, on April 19, 1934. The photograph was later revealed to be a hoax. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-loch-ness-monster-near-inverness-scotland-april-news-photo/3422579?phrase=Loch%20Ness%20Monster&adppopup=true">Keystone/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
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<p><strong>Is the Loch Ness monster real? – Landon, age 10</strong></p>
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<p>An amazing and wonderful thing about people is our imagination. Indeed, it’s one of the qualities that makes us human.</p>
<p>Every invention that led to our advanced civilization – cars, planes, TV, computers and millions of other things – came from someone’s imagination.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The photograph shows a blue sky, white clouds, highlands and the murky waters of Loch Ness." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505965/original/file-20230123-5198-yykqto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">This is Loch Ness, a body of fresh water in Scotland; no monster in sight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/loch-ness-with-dramatic-sky-and-secret-frog-royalty-free-image/680669548?phrase=Loch%20Ness%20Monster&adppopup=true">Ivan/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>At the same time, the human mind imagines all sorts of things that are not real: gremlins, leprechauns, fairies, trolls, <a href="https://theconversation.com/mermaids-arent-real-but-theyve-fascinated-people-around-the-world-for-ages-150518">mermaids</a>, zombies and vampires. This also includes imaginary animals, like dragons, unicorns, werewolves, sea serpents and centaurs. </p>
<p>Through stories passed down from generation to generation for hundreds or even thousands of years, these <a href="https://theconversation.com/dinosaur-bones-became-griffins-volcanic-eruptions-were-gods-fighting-geomythology-looks-to-ancient-stories-for-hints-of-scientific-truth-162071">mythological creatures have become legends</a>. In modern times, movies, television and books have spread these stories to millions or even billions of people.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/anthropology/faculty/profile.html?id=mlittle">As an anthropology professor</a>, I have spent my life studying human behavior, biology and cultures. And I have studied the evolution of animals and humans. I work in reality, not fantasy. </p>
<p>Yet I understand why these creatures fascinate us; they are intriguing, magical and sometimes frightening. Yet they all have one thing in common. They appeal to the imagination. People wish for them to exist. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Under a sky of blue and gold, the Loch Ness monster surfaces the dark blue water to show its small head and elongated neck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505975/original/file-20230123-17-oypzha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An artist’s concept of the Loch Ness monster at sunset.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/loch-ness-monster-in-the-lake-at-sunset-royalty-free-image/817420168?phrase=loch%20ness%20monster%20illustration&adppopup=true">Khadi Ganiev/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<h2>The Loch Ness legend</h2>
<p>One legend is from northern Scotland in the United Kingdom, where a cold, murky and mysterious freshwater lake called Loch Ness is located. “Loch” is pronounced as “lock.” The word means “lake” in the Scottish language. </p>
<p>Loch Ness is quite large – roughly 23 miles long (37 kilometers), a mile wide (1,600 meters) and very deep (788 feet, or 240 meters, at its deepest). Legends about the lake <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lochness/legend.html">date back nearly 1,500 years</a>, when an Irish monk, St. Columba, encountered a beast in the river that flows into Loch Ness. Supposedly, he drove the creature away when he made the sign of the Christian cross.</p>
<p>In modern times, more than 1,000 people claim they’ve seen “Nessie,” the name locals gave to the creature decades ago. Descriptions vary. Some say the creature resembles a salamander; others say a whale, or a seal. </p>
<p>Typically, visibility during these sightings was not good. In most of these cases, the witnesses were familiar with the Loch Ness legend. </p>
<p>So far, no one has ever found any physical evidence of an unusual or prehistoric creature living in the loch. Good physical evidence might be capturing the creature, or a clear photograph, or an encounter where a biologist has an opportunity to examine the creature. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration of a long-necked marine dinosaur, chasing prey in the turquoise water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505973/original/file-20230123-7861-vzbh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An artistic illustration of a plesiosaur, an ancient marine reptile that resembled the fake 1934 photograph of the Loch Ness monster. But the plesiosaur went extinct more than 65 million years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/plesiosaur-marine-reptile-hunting-royalty-free-illustration/932732444?phrase=plesiosaur&adppopup=true">Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Nessie is not a plesiosaur</h2>
<p>Over the years, some people have conjured up fake evidence – such as footprints, photographs or phony floating objects – to trick others and “prove” the existence of the monster. </p>
<p>The best known of these is a 1934 photograph of what appears to be a creature with a long neck and small head. </p>
<p>The image in the photo looks like a plesiosaur, a long-necked and long-extinct marine dinosaur that resembles descriptions of Nessie. </p>
<p>The phony photograph was really a crude molded figure of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/4/21/8459353/loch-ness-monster">a plesiosaur floating on top of a toy submarine</a>. </p>
<p>Yet many people believed – and still believe – the photo is real. </p>
<h2>Why Nessie isn’t real</h2>
<p>Here are four reasons the Loch Ness monster, like a walking mummy or howling werewolf, is an imaginary creature.
First, a large air-breathing animal would have to surface frequently. That means many more people would have seen it. </p>
<p>Second, many people have searched for Nessie, with scuba divers and sonar, all without success. A 2019 study of DNA samples collected from the lake <a href="https://www.cnet.com/science/scientist-reveals-loch-ness-monster-hunt-results/">did not suggest the presence of a dinosaur or large reptile</a>. </p>
<p>Third, the Loch Ness body of water has existed for only 10,000 years, since the end of the last glacial period on Earth. But the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. So a prehistoric dinosaur could not have ever lived in the lake. </p>
<p>Finally, and perhaps most critical: For the Loch Ness monster to exist and persist through time, a population of these animals must reproduce themselves. Single animals live only for their lifetimes, and not for hundreds of years, as the legend suggests. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists investigate the Loch Ness mystery.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Science finds answers</h2>
<p>Scientists can usually show that something exists, whether it be a plant or a planet. It’s often very difficult to demonstrate that something – like a monster in a lake – does not exist.</p>
<p>And it’s understandable that many people are intrigued with the Loch Ness monster. Fantastical beliefs and mythmaking seem to be a part of the way human beings like to think. </p>
<p>But by using logic, experimentation and research, scientists can explore the mysteries of the world and find answers. </p>
<p>And there’s more than enough scientific evidence to show that the Loch Ness monster lives only as a creature of our imagination.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael A. Little does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea of a creature like the Loch Ness monster fascinates people. But does the scientific evidence say it’s a prehistoric beast or total fake?Michael A. Little, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1825462022-05-12T15:12:19Z2022-05-12T15:12:19ZThe Loch Ness monster: a modern history<p>Reports of Loch Ness monster sightings keep coming. The <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10768561/Couple-claim-video-Loch-Ness-shows-legendary-monster-swimming-beneath-waters.html">latest report</a>, accompanied by a video, is of a 20-30ft long creature occasionally breaking the water’s surface. Although the video clearly shows a moving v-shaped wake it does not reveal the underlying source. The witnesses certainly saw something, but what? </p>
<p>There have been over 85 theories of what the <a href="https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/a-checklist-of-historical-hypotheses-for-the-loch-ness-monster(1064e85c-4c94-4672-8b32-a1eec2307fb6)/export.html">Loch Ness monster</a> is, ranging from the prosaic (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0011747168900521">wind slicks</a>, reflections, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-30053585">plant debris</a> and boat wakes) to the zoological implausible (anacondas, killer whales and the ocean sunfish) to the frankly bonkers (ghost dinosaurs). The people who came up with these theories were not necessarily that familiar with the loch. </p>
<p>Many early suggestions by foreign zoologists implied they thought the loch was saltwater, which explains suggestions of sunfishes, whales, sharks and rays. Some theories have been reinvented independently, showing the ingenuity of each generation of Nessie inventors. For example, the idea that the Loch Ness monster was originally a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11718476">swimming elephant</a> from a visiting circus, resurfaced three times, in 1934, 1979 and 2005. Each time, the person claimed the idea was original. </p>
<h2>Nessie the reptile</h2>
<p>However, it was the notion of the Loch Ness monster as a prehistoric reptile that really captured the public’s imagination in the 1930s. Nessie’s modern genesis really started in April 1933. The first eyewitness reports of a strange animal in the loch started in 1930. </p>
<p>Yet it would only be in August of 1933 that witness George Spicer, who saw Nessie on land, first suggested that the creature was a reptile. Until then informed commentators assumed that if there was an animal in the loch, it was some sort of vagrant freshwater animal like a seal that had made its way from the Moray Firth. Spicer just described it as a prehistoric reptile. He claimed it had a long neck which allowed a journalist five days later to suggest it was a plesiosaur, a type of long-necked marine reptile from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. One (but not the only one) popular image of the Loch Ness monster was born. </p>
<p>The fact that the plesiosaur image of Nessie arose in August 1933 casts doubt on <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/abominable-science/9780231153201">Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero’s</a> (2013) theory Nessie originated with the highly popular 1933 King Kong film with its portrayal of a man-eating, long-necked, swamp-dwelling reptile. It’s more likely that King Kong <a href="https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/nessie-daughter-of-kong(47a4c3ab-c0b2-42c4-8502-061d97cad14f).html">only influenced</a> rather than created the modern Nessie. The very first sightings of the Loch Ness monster were in 1930 and although there were more sightings in 1933, they started in April before King Kong was screened in Scotland. </p>
<h2>She’s complicated</h2>
<p>Most reports of the Loch Ness monster don’t feature long necks. Biochemist (and Nessie investigator) Roy Mackal said in 1976 there were over 10,000 reports of the Loch Ness monster but gave no evidence to back this, and a table in his book Monsters of Loch Ness only contains 251 reports. I know of <a href="https://www.nhbs.com/journal-of-cryptozoology-volume-4-book">1,452 distinct encounters</a>. Only about 20% of the reports mention a neck of any length, so it is not the monster’s normal form. Also less than 1% of creatures in the reports are described as reptilian or scaly. So I think it reasonable to assume that whatever the reported phenomena of the Loch Ness monster is founded on, it is not based on glimpses of a prehistoric reptile. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Artist's impression of the Loch Ness Monster" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462463/original/file-20220511-22-9dc37j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sticker-nessie-loch-ness-monster-on-1542775262">Yulia Bogomolova/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In reality, the Loch Ness monster has multiple identities. It may not be a walrus, moose, camel or visiting extra-terrestrials, as <a href="https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/a-checklist-of-historical-hypotheses-for-the-loch-ness-monster(1064e85c-4c94-4672-8b32-a1eec2307fb6)/export.html">some have suggested</a>, but could be a myriad of anthropogenic (boats, wakes, debris) and natural (animals, vegetation mats) and physical phenomena (wind effects, reflections). The Loch Ness monster can vary in colour from pink to black, it can be matt or glossy, furry or scaly. It can have humps and manes, it can have horns and travel at great speed or not move at all. No one identity captures the variety of Nessie’s reported features.</p>
<p>This suggests that Nessie is a function of human psychology rather than nature. And perhaps it is human psychology rather than nature that has sustained the idea of Nessie since the 1930s. </p>
<p>So what did the latest witnesses see? The reality is we have too little information to reach a firm conclusion about what was happening in the video footage. The problem with the vast majority of Nessie reports, is that they simply lack details you need to identify an animal. And any details that are reported may be misinterpretations. The fact that the visible wake moves indicates it was an actual animal (rather than snagged vegetation). But was it a 20-30ft animal or some waterfowl or an otter under the water that created a large wake in smooth water? We will simply never know.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Paxton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent sightings of the Loch Ness monster have led to renewed speculation about its originsCharles Paxton, Research Fellow, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1644842022-01-02T18:45:04Z2022-01-02T18:45:04ZA medical scan reveals the secrets of New Zealand’s extinct marine reptiles, almost 150 years after the fossils’ discovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437083/original/file-20211213-25-4mt7eh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C900%2C486&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vukaddin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New Zealand’s fossil record of land dinosaurs is poor, with just a few bones, but the collection of ancient extinct marine reptiles is remarkable, including shark-like mosasaurs and long-necked plesiosaurs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/plesiosaur">Plesiosaurs</a> first appeared in the fossil record around 200 million years ago and died off, alongside dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. </p>
<p>They are best known for the fanciful but appealing idea, suggested by British scientist Sir Peter Scott, that the fabled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster">Loch Ness monster</a> was in fact a plesiosaur that somehow outlasted all other giant reptiles and remained undetected throughout human history. </p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2021.1923310">research project</a>, we used medical CT imaging to scan plesiosaur fossils collected in New Zealand back in 1872. </p>
<p>The scans reveal a new level of detail, confirming that plesiosaurs swam mostly with their heads down, in contrast to the Loch Ness creature, and showing a close link between the New Zealand fossils and South American specimens from 70 million years ago.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/newly-discovered-mass-extinction-event-triggered-the-dawn-of-the-dinosaurs-146248">Newly discovered mass extinction event triggered the dawn of the dinosaurs</a>
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<h2>Beds of saurian fossils</h2>
<p>In 1872, the Canterbury Museum director <a href="https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/johann-franz-julius-von-haast/">Julius von Haast</a> employed self-taught Scottish geologist <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2m12/mckay-alexander">Alexander McKay</a> to undertake geological surveys and collect fossils. </p>
<p>Von Haast had heard that explorer and amateur scientist Thomas Cockburn-Hood had discovered significant reptile fossils in the upper Waipara Gorge, in the Canterbury region. Cockburn-Hood described the area as “the saurian beds”, and we now know the marine sediments preserved fossils from 70 million years ago. </p>
<p>McKay went to the Waipara during the winter of 1872, and he was spectacularly successful, collecting several partial skeletons of marine reptiles and hundreds of bones. </p>
<p>Among this material were two rather unimpressive, compressed, semi-spherical groupings of bones. These sat in Canterbury Museum’s storerooms, unidentified and stuck inside the concretions they were excavated in, for over 120 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An artist's impression of an elasmosaur" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411372/original/file-20210715-25-19opo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An artist’s impression of an elasmosaur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Peter Montgomery</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>South American link</h2>
<p>It would take until the late 1990s to realise the importance of the fossil. Museum preparator and famous fossil collector Al Mannering and his colleagues prepared these two unloved fossils, chipping away the stone to reveal the bones contained in the rocks. </p>
<p>Visiting English scientist <a href="https://cpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristol.ac.uk/dist/5/537/files/2019/07/2012Cruickshank.pdf">Arthur Cruickshank</a> believed these fossils were remarkable and possibly similar to plesiosaur material he had seen from South America. </p>
<p>In 2004, Canterbury Museum’s geology curator Norton Hiller and Mannering published a paper, in which they suggested the two groups of bones, the size of soccer balls, were actually the two sides of the skull of the same animal — one remarkably similar to plesiosaurs from South America.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ammonite-the-remarkable-real-science-of-mary-anning-and-her-fossils-151296">Ammonite: the remarkable real science of Mary Anning and her fossils</a>
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<p>In 2014, internationally renowned marine reptile experts Rodrigo Otero (Universidad de Chile) and Jose O’Gorman (Argentina’s Museo de La Plata) visited New Zealand and examined the specimens. They concluded Hiller and Mannering were correct. The two halves were indeed from the same animal and the Waipara fossil was most similar to a group of plesiosaurs hitherto only known from Chile and Argentina. </p>
<p>They described the Canterbury Museum specimens fully and gave them the scientific name <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2015.1054494?journalCode=ujvp20"><em>Alexandronectes zealandiensis</em></a>, Latin for Alexander’s swimmer from Zealandia.</p>
<h2>A hospital checkup</h2>
<p>Science and technology move on and O’Gorman’s team wanted to confirm the evolutionary relationships of <em>Alexandronectes zealandiensis</em>, using the latest technologies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="CT scan images of the skull (left) of Alexandronectes zealandiensis" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411374/original/file-20210715-25-y0cgze.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CT scan images of the skull (left) of Alexandronectes zealandiensis (the scale bar is 40mm).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jose P. O'Gorman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2019, I took the two fossils to hospital to be CT scanned, using the latest dual energy CT scanners at <a href="https://pacificradiology.com/clinics/christchurch-st-georges">St George’s radiology in Christchurch</a>. The results were extraordinary, showing previously unseen features of the anatomy. </p>
<p>Without the CT scanning technology, these details could only have been seen by destroying the fossil. We examined the creature’s inner ear and concluded, based on the orientation of the ear, that it maintained a posture where its head was habitually held either perpendicular to the body or just slightly below the body (not like Loch Ness monster fans would maintain, up in the air like a sock puppet). </p>
<p>We also saw a feature known as the stapes, also unseen in plesiosaurs up until then. The stapes is a small umbrella-shaped bone in the middle ear which transmits vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The reconstructed skull of an elasmosaur, found on Vancouver Island." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=69%2C56%2C2774%2C1422&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411365/original/file-20210715-13-1xmu4wk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The reconstructed skull of an elasmosaur, found on Vancouver Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plesiosaur_skull.jpg">Wikimedia/Roland Tanglao</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2021.1923310">work</a> allowed us to conclude that <em>Alexandronectes zealandiensis</em> was an unusual plesiosaur. </p>
<p>It belonged to a unique group of southern-hemisphere plesiosaurs now called the Aristonectinae. This group was part of the Plesiosaur family known as elasmosaurs. They were the last experiment in plesiosaur evolution, with the longest necks of all plesiosaurs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Scofield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The latest medical scanning technology revealed details of a plesiosaur’s inner ear, showing the extinct marine reptiles swam with their head slightly lowered – unlike the Loch Ness ‘sock puppet’.Paul Scofield, Adjunct professor, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505182020-12-14T13:19:59Z2020-12-14T13:19:59ZMermaids aren’t real – but they’ve fascinated people around the world for ages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373403/original/file-20201207-21-12cp4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C2690%2C1775&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Superstition or wishful thinking could trick you into thinking you saw one of these mythical creatures.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MermaidParade/0154fe6abe4e4c2cae3ccf829c03c60d/">AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
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<blockquote>
<p><strong>Are mermaids real? – Verona, age 9, Owensboro, Kentucky</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Mermaids – underwater creatures that are half fish and half human – do not exist except in people’s imaginations. Scientists who study the ocean for the United States have investigated their possible existence and <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html">say no evidence of mermaids has ever been found</a>. </p>
<p>You might wonder why government scientists looked into this question. There are many stories about mermaids on TV, the internet and in magazines that pretend to be real science news. They try to fool people into believing mermaids are real, without any true evidence. This is called “cryptoscience” or “cryptozoology,” but it’s not real science. Don’t let intriguing stories deceive you about mermaids and other fun but made-up creatures, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. </p>
<p>But just because mermaids are not real does not mean they are not meaningful. Mermaids, or merfolk as they are sometimes called because not all of them are female, have a long history and are known all over the world – the same way dragons, fairies and unicorns are.</p>
<h2>More than one kind of mermaid</h2>
<p>Some of the earliest <a href="http://mermaidsofearth.com/on-the-origin-of-mermaids/">mermaid stories are part of ancient Greek mythology</a> from over 3,000 years ago. The Greeks imagined lots of creatures that were part human and part animal, like harpies (bird and human) and centaurs (horse and human). </p>
<p>Sometimes their mermaids were good, like the Greek goddess Atargatis, who protected humans, but others were dangerous, like the Sirens, who sang beautiful songs that made sailors crash their ships into rocks and sink. <a href="https://darkemeraldtales.wordpress.com/2018/04/03/merrow-seducers-of-the-irish-seas/">Irish mermaids, called “merrows</a>,” which date back 1,000 years, were also considered a sign of bad luck. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bronze statue of a mermaid with two tails. She is holding a tail in each hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373414/original/file-20201207-17-13pdqdf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A two-tailed mermaid from Padua, Italy, made in the first half of the 16th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mermaid-italian-padua-first-half-16th-century-italian-padua-news-photo/1277896003">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mermaid bodies have been imagined differently in different places. There’s a legendary <a href="http://yokai.com/ningyo/">Japanese mermaid called a “ningyo</a>,” which is mostly a fish, but has a human face. Maybe you’ve seen the <a href="https://movies.disney.com/ponyo">animated film “Ponyo</a>,” about a goldfish with a little girl’s face? In Europe, there were mermaids called <a href="http://symboldictionary.net/?p=1153">“melusines” who had two fish tails</a>. </p>
<p>Stories about mermaids also varied depending on where and when they were told. Only some are about mermaids falling in love and wanting to be human, like Ariel and Ponyo. In the storybook “<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/mermaids-on-mars/9781614486701">Mermaids From Mars</a>,” for instance, mermaids have used up all the water on Mars and come to Earth to help people learn the lesson of water conservation. </p>
<p>In a lot of places, mermaids were used as symbols of power and wealth. For example, the city of Warsaw in Poland has a legend of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.21463/shima.12.2.13">mermaid who is considered to be the protector of the city</a>. There’s a huge statue of her there, and she is even featured on the city’s coat of arms. Many castles in Europe also have mermaid symbols to demonstrate royal power and wealth – <a href="https://www.dieriegersburg.at/geschichte/">even in countries with no oceans, like Austria</a>. </p>
<h2>Why mermaids?</h2>
<p>You may wonder how mermaids came to be. Why did so many people around the world imagine them throughout history? It’s an interesting question that probably has more than one answer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Period drawing of a Viking wooden ship surrounded by evil looking mermaids." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373421/original/file-20201207-17-x1yjye.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Danish Viking ship under attack by mermaids, circa 1200.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-1200-a-danish-viking-ship-beset-by-mermaids-news-photo/51241447">Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Superstitious sailors, <a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/10/12/mermaids/">including Christopher Columbus</a> and others, reported seeing mermaids on their travels, but scientists and historians think they probably saw real animals, like manatees or seals.</p>
<p>Throughout time, people have often created stories to help explain all kinds of things they couldn’t understand at the time. Stories also <a href="https://lithub.com/how-mermaid-stories-illustrate-complex-truths-about-being-human/">help people understand their own dreams, desires and fears</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever the reasons, people still clearly love mermaids. You can buy mermaid dolls, coloring books and costumes. You can find them on flags, coins and Starbucks coffee. At some aquariums and water parks, real people perform as mermaids and have to practice holding their breath and keeping their eyes open underwater for a long time. There’s even a brand of <a href="https://www.funslurp.com/mermaid-farts-cotton-candy">cotton candy called “Mermaid Farts,”</a> which is described as “sweet and fluffy!” </p>
<p>Even though mermaids are not really real, they can feed your imagination and creativity. Mermaids are also important because they are a shared idea that has linked people together around the world for a very long time.</p>
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<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Goggin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mermaids are not real, but are meaningful to people around the world.Peter Goggin, Associate Professor of English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230752019-09-06T13:28:33Z2019-09-06T13:28:33ZHave scientists finally killed off the Loch Ness Monster?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291252/original/file-20190906-175691-17kvpqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C853%2C1997%2C1640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/night-landscape-mountains-nessie-loch-ness-1274600659?src=-1-1">Jerryko/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientists claim to have finally found a “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49419989">plausible theory</a>” for sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. She’s not an aquatic reptile left over from the Jurassic era or a circus elephant that got in the water to bathe with her trunk aloft. If Nessie ever existed at all, she was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49495145">most likely a giant eel</a>, according to a new scientific survey of the loch.</p>
<p>Starting with an <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle-2-15039/on-this-day-in-565-st-columba-spotted-the-loch-ness-monster-1-4209419">Irish missionary’s report</a> of a monster in the River Ness in 565AD, repeated sightings in the modern era have kept Scotland’s greatest myth alive. The most famous of which is a grainy photo from 1934 which appears to show the shadowy outline of a long-necked creature, bobbing on the water’s surface. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291243/original/file-20190906-175705-cjptgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hoaxed photo of the Loch Ness monster taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Wilson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hoaxed_photo_of_the_Loch_Ness_monster.jpg">Robert Kenneth Wilson/Wikipedia</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Until now, such glimpses were all people had to go on. But a new technique allows scientists to sample all the life contained within Loch Ness by <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/loch-ness-monster-how-edna-helps-us-discover-what-lurks-beneath/?utm_content=buffer98e27&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">gathering environmental DNA</a>, or e-DNA as it’s known. This is genetic material that’s present in the cells of organisms and shed into their surrounding environment. Finding and identifying e-DNA can tell scientists what organisms are living in a habitat without them having to observe or capture them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/full-video-otago-uni-professor-reveals-findings-plausible-loch-ness-monster-theory">Speaking from Drumnadrochit</a>, a village on the loch’s western shore, scientists announced the results of their e-DNA survey of Loch Ness. The team took well over 200 one litre samples of water from throughout the loch – including the surface and deep water – and compared them with 36 samples from five “monster-free” lochs nearby. Their census provides a list of all the species that call Loch Ness home – from bacteria to plants and animals.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/monster-hunt-using-environmental-dna-to-survey-life-in-loch-ness-98721">Monster hunt: using environmental DNA to survey life in Loch Ness</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>What did they find?</h2>
<p>The study detected over 500m individual organisms and 3,000 species. According to <a href="https://gemmell-lab.otago.ac.nz/our-team/16-team/group-leader/12-professor-neil-gemmell">Neil Gemmill</a> of University of Otago in New Zealand, who led the study, there are no DNA sequence matches for shark, catfish, or sturgeon. That rules out a large exotic fish in the loch. </p>
<p>There are DNA matches for various land-living species that you would expect to see around Loch Ness, including badgers, deer, rabbits, voles, and different birds. Sheep, cattle and dogs appear on the record alongside humans too. This suggests that the sampling is pretty good at picking up species that would only rarely visit the water – so it should be able to detect a monster living permanently in the loch.</p>
<p>The most popular representation of Nessie is as a <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2156370-this-is-the-oldest-fossil-of-a-plesiosaur-from-the-dinosaur-era/">plesiosaur</a> – an ancient long-necked marine reptile that died out alongside the dinosaurs in the last great mass extinction 65m years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291239/original/file-20190906-175682-1h9z7gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The most popular theory of Nessie – that she is a plesiosaur that somehow survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs – may finally have been put to rest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2017/02/plesiosaur-palaeoart-thoughts-for.html">Mark Witton</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Scottish geologist Hugh Miller discovered the first British plesiosaur bones on the Scottish Isle of Eigg in 1844. But according to Gemmill, there’s “not a single reptile in our vertebrate data, and nothing that sat in the expected place that a plesiosaur [DNA] sequence might be predicted to lie – somewhere between birds and crocodilians”. </p>
<p>The most likely candidate for Nessie that has surfaced in media reporting of the research is a giant eel. This appears to be based simply on the fact that <a href="https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Anguilla-anguilla.html">eel DNA</a> was detected at “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49495145">pretty much every location sampled</a>” in Loch Ness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291247/original/file-20190906-175673-1miuoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A large, but not monstrous, European eel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel#/media/File:Anguilla_anguilla.jpg">GerardM/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plenty of eel DNA doesn’t confirm that Nessie is a giant eel – only that there are lots of eels. Scientists don’t have monster DNA to compare with anything they found in the loch and so no one can say for sure if there is or isn’t a monster there. But the absence of anything unusual in the DNA record of Loch Ness suggests there’s nothing to get excited about - and that includes a giant eel.</p>
<h2>What next for Nessie?</h2>
<p>If Nessie doesn’t exist, why do eyewitness accounts of the Loch Ness Monster persist? The answer is likely to be a psychological phenomenon called “expectant attention”. This happens when people who expect or want to see something are more likely to <a href="http://tetzoo.com/blog/2019/4/27/sea-monster-sightings-and-the-plesiosaur-effect">misinterpret visual cues</a> as the thing that they expect or want to see.</p>
<p>This likely also happens with recently extinct animals. The last known <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/02/the-obsessive-search-for-the-tasmanian-tiger//https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-06/tasmanian-tiger-sighting-claimed-by-trio/8877598">tasmanian tiger</a> died in 1936 and exhaustive scientific surveys have failed to turn up any evidence that they’re still out there. Even so, people often still report seeing them.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-wont-scientific-evidence-change-the-minds-of-loch-ness-monster-true-believers-97307">Why won't scientific evidence change the minds of Loch Ness monster true believers?</a>
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<p>Still, Gemmell acknowledges that there is uncertainty. Seals and otter – two species known to appear in the loch at least occasionally – weren’t detected, while 20% of the DNA collected was “unexplained”. That’s normal for an e-DNA study, but it does leaves room for a monster.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1169512850790002688"}"></div></p>
<p>A YouGov poll in August 2018 found that 24% of Scots <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/opi/surveys/results?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=daily_question&utm_campaign=question_3#/survey/193afead-a77c-11e8-8abf-cd74e8917bdd/question/8b96a927-a77c-11e8-8d6b-4344130c8a7a/region">believe that Nessie exists</a>. </p>
<p>Science being science, we can never say with total confidence that there is no Loch Ness Monster. The Loch’s <a href="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/scotland/highlands-and-northern-islands/loch-ness">thriving tourism industry</a> can still count on a little mystery to attract true believers. Rest easy, monster hunters. Nessie <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2yH0Zh99Qw83VF9q63cCGQh/why-you-should-take-the-loch-ness-monster-more-seriously">lives on</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scientists are left with two conclusions. Either Nessie is an eel, or she never existed at all.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/987212018-06-26T19:49:41Z2018-06-26T19:49:41ZMonster hunt: using environmental DNA to survey life in Loch Ness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224548/original/file-20180624-26576-1k61oxw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With the help of environmental DNA, scientists are compiling a census of life in Loch Ness, which should establish if there is any scientific basis to the centuries-old legend of the Loch Ness monster.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reported sightings of the Loch Ness monster go back to the Dark Ages, but now our <a href="https://www.lochnesshunters.com/">Super Natural History team</a> is using the 21st-century technology of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/23/scientists-dna-hunt-loch-ness-monster-scotland">environmental DNA to survey all life</a> in the famous Scottish lake. </p>
<p>The premise of environmental DNA (eDNA) is simple. Life is messy, and living things leave behind skin, hair, feathers, poo, bark, pollen and spores as part of their day-to-day activities. </p>
<p>These traces result in a potpourri of organic material in our soil and water from which DNA can be extracted and sequenced. Our aim is to produce a census of life in Loch Ness and to establish if there is any scientific basis for the centuries-old monster legend.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-wont-scientific-evidence-change-the-minds-of-loch-ness-monster-true-believers-97307">Why won't scientific evidence change the minds of Loch Ness monster true believers?</a>
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<h2>Sampling a legend</h2>
<p>There have been more than 1,000 <a href="http://www.lochnesssightings.com/">registered sightings</a> of the Loch Ness “monster”, including two in the last month. They have sparked various theories. Some say the loch is home to a prehistoric relic, while others believe it’s a giant sturgeon, catfish, or just a log or a boat wake.</p>
<p>Obviously, the hook here is that if Nessie is present in the deep, dark and mysterious waters of Loch Ness (for the record I am not a believer, but open to being wrong) then we might find DNA sequences that will help us figure out its biological basis.</p>
<p>We have now finished two weeks of field work for this project, having collected 259 water samples from various parts of the loch, including its chilly depths, more than 200 metres down. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224573/original/file-20180625-152137-3o1ltj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The team took water samples from several sites on the lake, as well as from deep waters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kieran Hennigan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Miraculously, for the Highlands, the wind stayed light and the rain stayed away which meant we were able to send teams out to sample right around Loch Ness by car and small boat, as well as several nearby lochs as controls. We have also used the <a href="http://www.lochness.com/exhibition.aspx">Loch Ness Centre</a> boat to sample up and down Loch Ness, particularly targeting the loch’s depths. </p>
<h2>Decoding life</h2>
<p>Our days were long, frequently starting as early as 6am and finishing as late as midnight. Our project was also hard on equipment – we broke two of our three sampling devices deploying to depth. Now, with sample collection behind us, we are onto the next phase of work. </p>
<p>The DNA is currently being extracted from our filtered water samples at the <a href="https://www.hull.ac.uk/faculties/fse.aspx">University of Hull</a>. From there it will go to French and Swiss laboratories to be metabarcoded and sequenced.</p>
<p>What will we find? Well undoubtedly there will be DNA sequences derived from bacteria, protists, algae, invertebrates, and the traces of fish, birds and other vertebrate life known from the loch. </p>
<p>What we’ll get is a comprehensive survey of the biodiversity of Loch Ness, but whether we’ll find anything unusual, such as a giant catfish, sturgeon or eel, or a species unknown to science, who knows. Nessie believers will have to wait a few more months for the final results.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bigfoot-the-kraken-and-night-parrots-searching-for-the-mythical-or-mysterious-75695">Bigfoot, the Kraken and night parrots: searching for the mythical or mysterious</a>
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<h2>It all started with a tweet</h2>
<p>About two years ago <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/darren-naish/">Darren Naish</a> had just published a book, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/my-new-book-hunting-monsters-cryptozoology-and-the-reality-behind-the-myths/">Hunting Monsters</a>, which included a section on Loch Ness. Over a few tweets I asked him if, in his research for the book, he had stumbled on anyone who was using eDNA to search for evidence of Nessie. The answer was no, but we both thought it a splendid idea.</p>
<p>I was becoming increasingly enamoured with the power of eDNA as a means to monitor the natural environment. Our team at the <a href="http://www.otago.ac.nz">University of Otago</a> was undertaking <a href="http://sustainableseaschallenge.co.nz/programmes/dynamic-seas/quantifying-marine-biodiversity">eDNA work</a> that demonstrated amazing accuracy at identifying the species that resided in the marine ecosystems we studied.</p>
<p>Based on this, I was already thinking about how we might use eDNA to search for and identify the creatures that live in areas of our planet that are hard to investigate using traditional approaches – deep oceans, subterranean water systems and the like. Loch Ness seemed a perfect fit for that sort of project.</p>
<h2>Career killer or opportunity?</h2>
<p>As with many science ideas, that tweet ended up going into the “this is quite interesting” basket and there it sat until I got an email from Scottish journalist <a href="https://www.sundaypost.com/author/johnpaulbreslin/">John Paul Breslin</a>. When his <a href="https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/so-what-really-does-lie-beneath/">article</a> appeared in early April, many took it for an April Fool’s joke, but the story rapidly spread from Scotland to the rest of the world.</p>
<p>The media interest was overwhelming but I wasn’t sure if this was something I really wanted to do. At the time I was the head of a large department at a respected university, with an international reputation for doing quality work in the areas of molecular ecology and evolution. Some colleagues suggested the idea might be a career killer. </p>
<p>The turning point arrived one morning when I was dropping my son off at school. A large posse of eight- and nine-year-olds told me they thought the idea of hunting for the Loch Ness monster was the coolest thing ever. It resonated with me and led to this opportunity to engage the public, particularly kids, in the scientific process. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224549/original/file-20180624-26564-txw910.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Loch Ness expert, Adrian Shine (right), had dredged the deep lake many times and is now helping to sample DNA traces of life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kieran Hennigan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>One of the first stops was Loch Ness expert, <a href="http://www.lochnessproject.org/">Adrian Shine</a>, who had dredged Loch Ness many times with nets and other devices and agreed to provide a boat and skipper. Several other <a href="https://www.lochnesshunters.com/team/">colleagues</a> all agreed to join the project and the team grew as we realised the Loch Ness monster hunt would describe the biodiversity of the lake in unprecedented fashion, add information about the movements of migratory fish species such as salmon, eels and lamprey, and be a hell of a science communication platform. </p>
<p>So, our <a href="https://www.lochnesshunters.com">project</a> is not a simple monster hunt (although wouldn’t it be amazing if we did find something extraordinary during our investigation). Rather it is an amalgam of basic science, linked to major current initiatives, with a strong science communication aspect. Ultimately, we may find no DNA evidence that explains the monster myth, but I doubt that will ever dent belief. As Adrian Shine quips, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and those that wish to will continue to believe in monsters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Gemmell works for the University of Otago</span></em></p>Scientists are using environmental DNA to compile a census of life in Loch Ness and to establish if there is any scientific basis for the centuries-old monster legend.Neil Gemmell, Professor of Reproduction and Genomics, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/973072018-06-06T10:37:54Z2018-06-06T10:37:54ZWhy won’t scientific evidence change the minds of Loch Ness monster true believers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221867/original/file-20180605-119860-172rye3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=248%2C237%2C1907%2C1303&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you're convinced Nessie's real, would science unconvince you?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/AP-I-XSC-TRV-TRAVEL-TRIP-SCOTLAND/1c47fcab2710db11af9f0014c2589dfb/17/0">AP Photo/Norm Goldstein</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may have noticed a curious recent announcement: An international research team plans to use state-of-the-art DNA testing to establish once and for all <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/search-monster-dna-will-help-survey-life-loch-ness-180969151/">whether the Loch Ness monster exists</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of the results, it’s unlikely the test will change the mind of anyone who firmly believes in Nessie’s existence. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WnCX7AcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As a philosopher</a> working on the notion of evidence and knowledge, I still consider the scientists’ efforts to be valuable. Moreover, this episode can illustrate something important about how people think more generally about evidence and science.</p>
<h2>Discounting discomfiting evidence</h2>
<p>Genomicist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XGE4mdAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Neil Gemmell</a>, who will lead the international research team in Scotland, says he looks forward to “<a href="https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago686785.html">(demonstrating) the scientific process</a>.” The team plans to collect and identify free-floating DNA from creatures living in the waters of Loch Ness. But whatever the eDNA sampling finds, Gemmell <a href="http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-loch-ness-monster-dna-20180523-story.html">is well aware</a> the testing results will most likely not convince everyone.</p>
<p>A long-standing theory in social psychology helps explain why. According to <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html">cognitive dissonance theory</a>, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=3850">first developed by Leon Festinger</a> in the 1950s, people seek to avoid the internal discomfort that arises when their beliefs, attitudes or behavior come into conflict with each other or with new information. In other words, it doesn’t feel good to do something you don’t value or that contradicts your deeply held convictions. To deal with this kind of discomfort, people sometimes attempt to rationalize their beliefs and behavior.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221870/original/file-20180605-119888-ah4zjv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">It’s hard to stop waiting for an expected UFO.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/july-2017-hastings-mesa-ufolike-sunset-1090442363">Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>In a classic study, Festinger and colleagues <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10030-000">observed a small doomsday cult</a> in Chicago who were waiting for a UFO to save them from impending massive destruction of Earth. When the prophecy didn’t come true, instead of rejecting their original belief, members of the sect came to believe that the God of Earth changed plans and no longer wanted to destroy the planet.</p>
<p>Cult members so closely identified with the idea that a UFO was coming to rescue them that they couldn’t just let the idea go when it was proven wrong. Rather than give up on the original belief, they preferred to lessen the cognitive dissonance they were experiencing internally.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp">Loch Ness monster true believers</a> may be just like the doomsday believers. Giving up their favorite theory could be too challenging. And yet, they’ll be sensitive to any evidence they hear about that contradicts their conviction, which creates a feeling of cognitive discomfort. To overcome the dissonance, it’s human nature to try to explain away the scientific evidence. So rather than accepting that researchers’ inability to find Nessie DNA in Loch Ness means the monster doesn’t exist, believers may rationalize that the scientists didn’t sample from the right area, or didn’t know how to identify this unknown DNA, for instance.</p>
<p>Cognitive dissonance may also provide an explanation for other science-related conspiracy theories, such as flat Earth beliefs, climate change denial and so on. It may help account for reckless descriptions of reliable media sources as “fake news.” If one’s deeply held convictions don’t fit well with what media say, it’s easier to deal with any inner discomfort by discrediting the source of the new information rather than revising one’s own convictions.</p>
<h2>Philosophy of knowledge</h2>
<p>If psychology may explain why Loch Ness Monster fans believe what they do, philosophy can explain what’s wrong with such beliefs.</p>
<p>The error here comes from an implicit assumption that to prove a claim, one has to rule out all of the conceivable alternatives – instead of all the plausible alternatives. Of course scientists haven’t and cannot deductively rule out all of the conceivable possibilities here. If to prove something you have to show that there is no conceivable alternative to your theory, then you can’t really prove much. Maybe the Loch Ness monster is an alien whose biology doesn’t include DNA.</p>
<p>So the problem is not that believers in the existence of the Loch Ness monster or climate change deniers are sloppy thinkers. Rather, they are too demanding thinkers, at least with respect to some selected claims. They adopt too-high standards for what counts as evidence, and for what is needed to prove a claim. </p>
<p>Philosophers have long known that too-high standards for knowledge and rational belief lead to skepticism. Famously, 17th century French philosopher René Descartes suggested that only “clear and distinct perceptions” should function as the required markers for knowledge. So if only some special inner feeling can guarantee knowledge and we can be wrong about that feeling – say, due to some brain damage – then what can be known?</p>
<p>This line of thought has been taken to its extreme in contemporary philosophy <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ignorance-9780198244172?cc=us&lang=en&">by Peter Unger</a>. He asserted that knowledge requires certainty; since we are not really certain of much, if anything at all, we don’t know much, if anything at all.</p>
<p>One promising way to resist a skeptic is simply not to engage in trying to prove that the thing whose existence is doubted exists. A better approach might be to start with basic knowledge: assume we know some things and can draw further consequences from them.</p>
<p>A knowledge-first approach that attempts to do exactly this has recently gained popularity in epistemology, the philosophical theory of knowledge. British <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IH-44VwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">philosopher Timothy Williamson</a> and others <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.12111">including me</a> have proposed that evidence, rationality, belief, assertion, cognitive aspects of action and so on can be explained <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/knowledge-and-its-limits-9780199256563?q=Knowledge%20and%20its%20Limits&lang=en&cc=us">in terms of knowledge</a>.</p>
<p>This idea is in contrast to an approach popular in the 20th century, that knowledge is true justified belief. But counterexamples abound that show one can have true justified belief without knowledge.</p>
<p>Say, you check your Swiss watch and it reads 11:40. You believe on this basis that it is 11:40. However, what you haven’t noticed is that your typically super reliable watch has stopped exactly 12 hours ago. And by incredible chance it happens that, now, when you check your watch, it is in fact 11:40. In this case you have a true and justified or rational belief but still, it doesn’t seem that you know that it is 11:40 – it is just by pure luck that your belief that it’s 11:40 happens to be true.</p>
<p>Our newer knowledge-first approach avoids defining knowledge altogether and rather posits knowledge as fundamental. It’s its own fundamental entity – which allows it to undercut the skeptical argument. One may not need to feel certain or have a sensation of clarity and distinctness in order to know things. The skeptical argument doesn’t get off the ground in the first place.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221868/original/file-20180605-119867-1og6e43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When it comes to science versus skeptic, evidence doesn’t always matter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Loch-Ness-Monster/8380914232b04eba885c495dc2f946c4/2/0">AP Photo, File</a></span>
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<h2>Knowledge and the skeptic</h2>
<p>The eDNA analysis of Loch Ness may not be enough to change the minds of those who are strongly committed to the existence of the lake’s monster. Psychology may help explain why. And lessons from philosophy suggest this kind of investigation may not even provide good arguments against conspiracy theorists and skeptics.</p>
<p>A different and, arguably, better argument against skepticism questions the skeptic’s own state of knowledge and rationality. Do you really know that we know nothing? If not, then there may be something we know. If yes, then we can know something and, again, you are wrong in claiming that knowledge is not attainable.</p>
<p>A strategy of this kind would challenge the evidential and psychological bases for true believers’ positive conviction in the existence of Nessie. That’s quite different from attempting to respond with scientific evidence to each possible skeptical challenge.</p>
<p>But the rejection of a few true believers doesn’t detract from the value of this kind of scientific research. First and foremost, this research is expected to produce much more precise and fine-grained knowledge of biodiversity in Loch Ness than what we have without it. Science is at its best when it avoids engaging with the skeptic directly and simply provides new knowledge and evidence. Science can be successful without ruling out all of the possibilities and without convincing everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Artūrs Logins receives funding from Swiss National Science Foundation (project "New Direction for Epistemic Normativity" n. 171464, <a href="http://p3.snf.ch/project-171464">http://p3.snf.ch/project-171464</a>). </span></em></p>If you’re committed to a belief, it’s hard to let go. Psychology and philosophy provide different ways to think about how skeptics respond to counterevidence.Artūrs Logins, Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/940182018-03-29T01:05:00Z2018-03-29T01:05:00ZEssays On Air: Monsters in my closet – how a geographer began mining myths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212064/original/file-20180326-188632-hifuab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1329%2C11%2C2520%2C2796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Loch Ness Monster and other folk tales might not be pure fiction, but actually based on memories of events our ancestors once observed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>So you think the Loch Ness Monster never existed? Think again.</p>
<p>The science of “geomythology” is breathing new life into such stories. The Loch Ness Monster and other folk tales might not be pure fiction, but actually based on memories of events our ancestors once observed.</p>
<p>On today’s episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/Essays-On-Air">Essays On Air</a>, the audio version of The Conversation’s Friday essay series, I’m reading <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-monsters-in-my-closet-how-a-geographer-began-mining-myths-85596">my essay on the geographical truths behind some of humankind’s most mysterious myths</a>. </p>
<p>Traditional stories about age-old events might actually reveal clues about the geological history of the Pacific.</p>
<p>Through research of ancient oral knowledge, we have opened up opportunities for understanding the minds of our ancestors, more than we ever thought possible. </p>
<p><em>Today’s episode was recorded by Michael Lund and edited by Sybilla Gross. Find us and subscribe in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/essays-on-air/id1333743838?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.</em></p>
<p><strong>Additional Audio</strong></p>
<p>Snow by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/Cinematic/Snow">David Szesztay</a></p>
<p>Scenery by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/The_Run/Kai_Engel_-_The_Run_-_06_Scenery">Kai Engel</a></p>
<p>Brand New World by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/Sustains/Kai_Engel_-_Sustains_-_01_Brand_New_World">Kai Engel</a></p>
<p>August (Summer Nights) by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/Chapter_Three__Warm/Kai_Engel_-_Chapter_Three_-_Warm_-_07_August_Summer_Nights">Kai Engel</a></p>
<p>Lake waves by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/67884/">Benconcan</a></p>
<p>Rumble by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/unfa/sounds/258341/">Unfa</a> </p>
<p>Cinematic deep rumble by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/mmasonghi/sounds/321812/">Mmasonghi</a></p>
<p>Low rumble by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/tec%20studios/sounds/386556/">Tec studios</a></p>
<p>‘Monster’ rumble by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/ecfike/sounds/132870/">Ecfike</a></p>
<p>Chanting (scary) by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/theartisticfellow/sounds/132072/">theartisticfellow</a></p>
<p>Thunder by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/101948/">Justkiddink</a></p>
<p>Single wave breaks by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/dobroide/sounds/78922/">Dobroide</a></p>
<p>Explosion by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/tommccann/sounds/235968/">tommccann</a></p>
<p>Hawaii volcanoes by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/e__/sounds/172630/">e__</a></p>
<p>Fiji Island Singing by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh2RaYVf85c">Joseph Galea</a></p>
<p>College campus ambience by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Relebogile/sounds/328232/">Relebogile</a></p>
<p>Fiji Coup Latest: Journalists by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOF-MjCpl1A">AP Archive</a></p>
<p>Fiji: Ethnic Indians Flee the Unrest by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlcAAEycifM">AP Archive</a></p>
<p>Boots marching by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/stib/sounds/240732/">stib</a></p>
<p>Military sounds by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/182052/">qubodup</a></p>
<p>Pages turning by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Zamazan/sounds/408312/">zamazan</a></p>
<p>Pottery sounds by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Tumbleweed3288/sounds/381548/">Tumbleweed3288</a></p>
<p>Didgeridoo by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/sandyrb/sounds/85777/">sandyrb</a></p>
<p>Native American style flute in A by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Wood_Flutes/sounds/333996/">Wood_Flutes</a></p>
<p>Hissing gas by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/Taberius/sounds/327534/">Taberius</a></p>
<p>Library by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/artemis_ch/sounds/202044/">artemis_ch</a></p>
<p>Celtic tin whistle by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/luis_audp/sounds/250972/">luis_audp</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick D. Nunn receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, Région Pays de la Loire (France), the University of the Sunshine Coast, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>So you think the Loch Ness Monster never existed? Think again. Traditional myths from our ancestors might actually reveal important clues about the geological history of the world.Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Geography, Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/855962017-12-07T19:20:08Z2017-12-07T19:20:08ZFriday essay: monsters in my closet – how a geographer began mining myths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198049/original/file-20171206-31528-1my5vem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mount Mazama, a volcano in Oregon. Indigenous stories preserve tales of its eruption more than 7,000 years ago. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>So you think the Loch Ness Monster never existed? That the story is a cunningly cobbled-together fiction intended to boost tourist interest in an otherwise unrelentingly dull (only to some) part of mid-Scotland? Think again.</p>
<p>The embryonic science of geomythology is breathing new life into such stories, legitimising the essence of some and opening up the possibility that other such folk tales might not be pure fiction but actually based on memories of events our ancestors once observed. </p>
<p>Lacking the scientific understanding available to us today, people in the past contextualised such observations in ways that made sense to them. Keen that their descendants should know what had happened, not least should it happen again, many such stories were passed on (commonly orally) from one generation to the next. Invariably cloaked in multiple layers of embellishment, some stories have survived until today.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198053/original/file-20171207-31517-4fiud7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Nessie’ may not be a real being, but the stories about the Loch Ness Monster may contain a kernel of geological truth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loch_Ness_Monster_02.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Science has long vilified those who argue for the existence of giant saurians lurking in the depths of Loch Ness, but there has been some rehabilitation of these “monster sightings”. The geologist Luigi Piccardi, who has done much to make the novel field of geomythology respectable, has argued that observations of “Nessie” are no more than the unusual agitation of the lake’s water surface during an earthquake. </p>
<p>The first written mention of the Loch Ness Monster, in the seventh-century Life of St Columba, notes that the “dragon” appears <em>cum ingenti fremitu</em> (with strong shaking) before disappearing <em>tremefacta</em> (shaking herself). And Piccardi <a href="https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001ESP/finalprogram/abstract_7279.htm">has noted</a> that the most seismically active sector of the Great Glen Fault, along which periodic earthquakes occur, runs along the axis of Loch Ness.</p>
<p>Piccardi also argues that many temples built during the Classical period in the eastern Mediterranean were intentionally built over geological fissures from which escaping neurotoxic gases might cause those sitting above them – like Pythia in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-secrets-of-the-delphic-oracle-and-how-it-speaks-to-us-today-61738">Oracle at Delphi</a> – to go into a trance in which they could reputedly foresee future events.</p>
<p>The Pacific Islands, the focus of most of my research over the past 30 years, has stories about past natural events – massive eruptions and earthquakes, giant waves, for instance – that have traditionally been regarded as largely apocryphal. I have focused on <a href="http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-5246-%209780824832193.aspx">some of the stories from Pacific Island cultures about “vanished islands”</a>, stories that come from almost every part of this vast region – nearly one-third of the earth’s surface. The idea of an entire island disappearing suddenly seems instinctively implausible, the stuff of Atlantean fantasy, yet there are many such stories in the Pacific that seem quite believable at their cores.</p>
<p>Take the example of Teonimenu, which probably disappeared some 400 years ago, between the islands of Makira and Ulawa in the central Solomon Islands. While most local traditions remember its disappearance as the act of a vengeful cuckold, the details about the accompanying series of tsunami waves and the location of Teonimenu on the crest of a steep underwater ridge suggest this might really have happened as a result of an earthquake-induced landslip. </p>
<p>Similar stories have been collected from central Vanuatu, where an island named Vanua Mamata abruptly disappeared about 1870. This was probably a result of an eruption-linked landslide on the underwater flanks of the giant Ambae Island volcano (which today is once again threatening to erupt). With great difficulty, it is said, the survivors saved themselves, paddling north to settle on the island of Maewo where today they recall the loss of Vanua Mamata <em>bifo bifo yet</em> (long long ago).</p>
<p>Of course, there is a limit. And that limit has been crossed when you confront many of the stories about “sunken continents” in the Pacific, perhaps Mu or (Pacific) Lemuria dreamed up by some of its early European explorers who struggled to rationalise the existence of such a large, almost landless, ocean. Some of them, like Dumont d'Urville and the geologist Jules Garnier, were convinced there had once been a continent spanning the Pacific that had sunk, leaving only the former mountaintops poking above the ocean surface. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198044/original/file-20171206-31517-18xmqsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lost continent of Mu as proposed by James Churchward in 1927.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_lands#/media/File:Book_map1.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This theory allowed 19th-century Europeans to deny the manifestly extraordinary maritime abilities of Pacific Islanders who were portrayed as the fortunate survivors of the cataclysm, stranded on their isolated islands. Yet stories suggesting the entire Pacific (or indeed the entire Indian Ocean or the entire Atlantic) were once occupied by a single continent are demonstrably false. We’ve looked.</p>
<p>That said, there is plenty to stoke the imagination – and even a few disingenuous geoscientists happy to add fuel to the fire. Take the “sunken city” off the coast of Yonaguni Island in southwest Japan, which numerous people will assure you was once part of the continental empire of “Mu” that spanned the entire Pacific. There is no shred of real evidence of human structures off the Yonaguni coast (any more than there is of Mu), but for those untutored in the ways that sandstones and shales weather, it might appear there are giant “carved” steps and suchlike.</p>
<h2>True legends</h2>
<p>My involuntary introduction to geomythology came in mid-2000 when I was working at the international University of the South Pacific, based at its main teaching campus in Suva, Fiji. Having won some research funding and engaged three research assistants to accompany me to the Lau Islands of eastern Fiji, there was a coup; by far the nastiest of the four I have survived.</p>
<p>It seemed the wrong time to do fieldwork so I set the research assistants to work in the university library’s Pacific Collection, searching for any published stories about Pacific Islander traditions of memorable geological events. The haul they recovered astonished me and turned my attention to how oral traditions might illuminate the geological history of the Pacific.</p>
<p>One early example of this concerned myths about the formation of Nabukelevu (or Mt Washington), a striking volcano at the western end of Kadavu Island in Fiji. Long regarded by geologists as having last erupted tens of thousands of years ago, a legend from the people of nearby Ono Island suggested otherwise. Their story goes that the chief of Ono, who was accustomed to watching the sun set from a beach on the island, found one day a mountain (Nabukelevu) had appeared at the end of Kadavu to the west and blocked the view. </p>
<p>Livid, he flew to western Kadavu and battled the chief of Nabukelevu but was overwhelmed. The appearance of Nabukelevu suggests the growth of the volcano within human memory, which means about 3,000 years in Fiji. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198045/original/file-20171206-31532-qccdn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nabukelevu, or Mount Washington, a volcano in Fiji. Fijian legend suggested the volcano erupted in human history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia/Jaejay77</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So did the legend invalidate the science? It seems it did at the time for, years later, when a road was cut around the foot of Nabukelevu, a section through the volcano’s flanks was exposed and showed buried soil with pottery fragments (a sure sign of human occupation) overlain by freshly deposited scoria. Clearly the legend was a more accurate indicator of the age of this volcano than science had once been.</p>
<p>Most Pacific Islanders who have shared such stories with me are surprisingly indifferent to the news that they may be true. It was never a concern to them that Western science might have once judged these stories to be fictional; they always knew otherwise. </p>
<p>In the last 15 years, my interest in geomythology and respect for many oral traditions have burgeoned. Moving from the Pacific Islands to Australia in 2010 inevitably led me to educate myself more about Australian Aboriginal stories. What I found was beyond my wildest dreams.</p>
<p>It began in the library of the University of New England where I read many works by linguists who had studied Australian Aboriginal languages. While focused on the structure of the languages, many of these linguists also recorded – generally as illustrations of how language was used in storytelling – ancillary details of the oral traditions of many tribes. </p>
<p>And for several of the coastal tribes, some of the most popular stories recalled times when the ocean surface – sea level – was far lower than it is today and coastal lands were consequently far more extensive. It now seems clear that Aboriginal groups in at least 22 locations all around the coast of Australia have preserved stories <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-aboriginal-stories-preserve-history-of-a-rise-in-sea-level-36010">for more than 7,000 years</a>; in a few cases, perhaps more than 10,000 years. That is 280 to 400 generations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198051/original/file-20171207-31521-1l37p21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aboriginal stories recall a time when Fitzroy Island in northern Queensland was connected to the mainland 10,000 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now if Australian Aboriginal cultures were able to preserve stories so long, could not others of the world’s cultures also have done so? One <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7805.html">well-documented example</a> is of the Klamath tribe in Oregon, USA, which seems to have successfully preserved a story about the eruption of Mt Mazama – the predecessor of Crater Lake – for some 7,700 years.</p>
<p>Still, there are not many examples, which suggests two things. One is that <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-bullin-shrieked-aboriginal-memories-of-volcanic-eruptions-thousands-of-years-ago-81986">Australian Aboriginal society was especially adept</a> at inter-generational knowledge transmission. Undoubtedly true. The other is that in other cultures perhaps we have been too quick to discount the lingering fragments of memory for what they really are. A bit more contentious.</p>
<h2>Cities drowned</h2>
<p>Yet from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu in India, and in Gaelic cultures from Brittany (France) to Cornwall and Wales (UK), there are stories about the consequences of the ocean rising across low-lying areas of coast. Many stories recall the “drowning” of iconic cities and narrate the very human causes to which inundation was attributed. </p>
<p>For instance, there are persistent stories in parts of northwest Europe about the city of Ys that once existed on the coast, efficiently defended against the sea, perhaps in the Baie de Douarnenez in Brittany. Dahut, daughter of the ruler of Ys, King Gradlon, became possessed by a demon and wilfully opened the tide gates when the sea was high, causing the city to be drowned. </p>
<p>It is possible that this story recalls a history of sea level rising across coastal lowlands, forcing coastal cities to build and manage sea defences. Then, as sea level continued its post-glacial rise, one day, perhaps several millennia ago, the defences gave way, the ocean rushed into the city, “drowning” it and condemning its history to myth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198043/original/file-20171206-31525-rvky8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flight of King Gradlon, by E.V. Luminais, 1884, shows the ruler of the city of Ys fleeing from the encroaching sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradlon#/media/File:Evariste-Vital_Luminais_-_Fuite_de_Gradlon.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such stories, celebrated in art and literature, are often regarded as integral to cultural identity. For this reason, attempts to explain them by science are sometimes resisted. </p>
<p>Yet, viewed dispassionately, it seems possible that stories from both sides of the English Channel (<em>La Manche</em>), for example, recall times when it was much narrower than today, as was indeed the case several millennia ago.</p>
<p>Not only are there stories like that of Ys from the north coast of Brittany and parallel stories from that of Cornwall, but also folk tales from the Channel Islands about how people were once able to walk, crossing a few streams, from there to the French mainland. This is exactly what you would expect a few millennia back, when sea level was 5-10 metres lower than it is today.</p>
<p>What research is showing is that knowledge can be transmitted orally and with a high degree of replication fidelity for thousands of years. Using phylogenetic analysis, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078871">Jamie Tehrani</a> has demonstrated that many popular folktales, like Little Red Riding Hood, are at least 2,000 years old. </p>
<p>This remarkable fact does not mean of course that all oral knowledge is that old, but it does open up opportunities for understanding the minds of our ancestors that we never dreamed possible. Or did we?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick D. Nunn receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research.</span></em></p>Old stories from around the world tell of drowned islands, volcanic eruptions and upheavals to the land around them. Increasingly we are realising these tales preserve actual memory, often from thousands of years ago.Patrick D. Nunn, Professor of Geography, Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/582312016-04-28T05:33:58Z2016-04-28T05:33:58ZWhen myth meets reality: fabled beasts and real-life creatures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120205/original/image-20160426-1327-yt84sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Less unicorn, more hairy rhino</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2443092">DiBgd/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fantastic creatures have fascinated humans for thousands of years. When a new skeleton of the extinct horned mammal <em>Elasmotherium sibiricum</em> was discovered recently, its common name –<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/29/siberian-unicorn-extinct-humans-fossil-kazakhstan">the “Siberian Unicorn”</a> – quickly resurfaced. But this “unicorn” was very different to the creature of Western mythology.</p>
<p>Although the new fossil suggests these creatures roamed the steppes of Kazakhstan as little as <a href="http://thescipub.com/PDF/ajassp.2016.189.199.pdf">29,000 years ago</a>, they were more like giant hairy rhinos than the legendary white horses crowned with <a href="http://didrit.perso.sfr.fr/Anthropo/Licorne0.htm">narwhal tusks</a>. <em>Elasmotherium</em> may have lived alongside humans, but that doesn’t mean they must have been the source of our unicorn stories. Similarly, when we look for the origins of other supposedly mythological monsters, we can sometimes find parallels with real animals and sometimes we find clues they were simply products of a lively imagination.</p>
<p>Sailors throughout history brought back reports of mermaids and these were most likely based on sightings of dugongs or manatees, large sea mammals with forelimbs and <a href="http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/mermaids-manatees-myth-and-reality">turnable heads</a>. Even <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2014/11/141124-manatee-awareness-month-dugongs-animals-science/">Christopher Columbus</a> is thought to have confused them with mermaids having “masculine traits”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119659/original/image-20160421-26981-1u9ipen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Horniman Museum’s merman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/micronova/5472546900/sizes/l">Afshin Darian/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the 19th century, <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfa/researchandarticles/freakshows">fairground owners</a> claimed to have acquired specimens of mermaids and mermen that more closely appeared to match the creatures of legend. It was a heyday of belief in mythological creatures when Europeans became more aware of many extinct species and exotic animals from the rest of the world that seemed to explain the origins of many myths. </p>
<p>Of course, the fairground mermaids <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1498966?origin=crossref&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">were fakes</a>. They typically consisted of the dried, shrivelled torso of a monkey stitched to the body of a fish, probably a salmon. It is difficult to see how anyone could be convinced by such an object, even in a dimly-lit fairground tent, yet they were popular and there was a small industry based in Japan for producing these exhibits.</p>
<h2>Sea monsters and dinosaurs</h2>
<p>Other legendary marine creatures include the monster known as the kraken, which may well have been inspired by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-life-origins-of-the-legendary-kraken-52058">giant squid</a>, and various sea serpents. Philip Henry Gosse, the Victorian naturalist, described evidence of sea serpents from many sources in his book <a href="https://archive.org/details/romanceofnatural00gossrich"><em>The Romance of Natural History</em></a>. He concluded that sightings were best explained by living plesiosaurs, marine cousins to the dinosaurs, whose fossils were becoming well known in the early 19th century.</p>
<p>A similar explanation has been proposed for sightings of large reptile-like monsters in lakes, one of the most famous being in Loch Ness in Scotland. The 20th century produced eye-witness reports and a <a href="http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/pictures-discover-loch-ness-home-4976262">famous photograph</a>, but a great deal of wishful thinking is needed to view them as convincing. More to the point, the likelihood of small breeding populations of these supposed plesiosaurs for over 60 million years is tiny.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120184/original/image-20160426-1359-1jnp1lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do I look mythological to you?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarities to giant reptiles can also be seen in dragons, and the term has been applied to animals that are still alive today. But while the real-life Komodo dragon (<em>Varanus komodoensis</em>), a monitor lizard that exceeds 2 metres in length, <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Komododragon.cfm">is impressive</a>, it differs dramatically from the creatures of legend such as the one supposedly slain by St George. These are portrayed as having bat-like wings in addition to forelegs (true dragons), or the forelimbs transformed into wings (wyverns), just as happened when birds evolved from their reptile ancestors.</p>
<p>There may be paintings, sculptures and 34 separate references to dragons <a href="http://rwotton.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/biblical-birds-reptiles-and-dragons.html">in the Bible</a>, but there is no scientific evidence that anything like these animals ever existed. The same can be said for angels with bird wings or fairies with insect wings.</p>
<p>Human culture has always had mythology and we have a need to produce explanations of things that we do not understand. We like the idea that there are other worlds that can be contacted through mythological creatures but also like to feel fear at a safe distance. As a result, the line between fantasy and reality can become blurred, making it harder to know where one ends and the other begins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58231/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Wotton has received funding from NERC, NATO, The Royal Society and The Wenner-Gren Foundation. This article does not represent the views of the research councils or other public bodies.</span></em></p>Fantasy often meets reality when we try to find explanations for mythological creatures.Roger Wotton, Emeritus professor of biology, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.