Whether it’s a long-standing hoax or a genuine ancient creature, the Loch Ness Monster has been a puzzling subject for scientists and fantasy enthusiasts since 1933.
And now a data analyst claims that if there is a Loch Ness monster, it’s not a giant snake.
Using fisheries data, Flo Foxon calculated the probability of a European python being taller than 20 feet (six meters) in a Scottish bay.
Although he found it “essentially zero”, he admitted that “it might be a snake if it were real, but it’s not a very big snake.”
For years, experts have argued that the “lake monster” sightings were simply the result of naturally occurring bubbles or a “collective illusion” inspired by dinosaur finds.
The so-called monster-like dinosaur fossils found in freshwater bodies such as Loch Ness suggest that it may have lived 66 million years ago.
In 2019, Professor Neil Gemmell of the University of Otago conducted an extensive DNA study of the notorious house monster from 250 water samples.
His team searched for tiny genetic remnants left behind by life in Loch Ness, which they used to create a detailed list of all the life forms that inhabit its waters.
They identified 15 different species of fish and 3,000 species of bacteria, but found no evidence of prehistoric marine reptiles associated with the “monster.”
The researchers also found no evidence of large fish such as sturgeon, catfish and Greenland sharks, but did find “a significant amount of eel DNA.”
Professor Gemmell said: “Eels are abundant in Loch Ness, and eel DNA was found almost everywhere it was sampled – lots of them. Our data doesn’t show their size, but the bulk of the material says we can get eels from eels.” We cannot rule out the possibility of Giant snakes in Loch Ness, so we cannot rule out the possibility that what people see and think of as the Loch Ness monster could be a giant snake.”
European pythons typically grow between 2 and 2.6 feet (60 to 80 cm), although there are recorded exceptions.
Mr. Foxon calculated in his new study that there were more than 8,000 snakes in Loch Ness at one time.
Based on this number, the odds of finding an eel approximately 3.3 feet (1 meter) long are one in 50,000.
But the odds of finding a snake longer than 20 feet (six meters) are “essentially zero.”
According to Foxon, this suggests that if a “lake monster” exists, it probably won’t be a giant sea serpent.
“Some snakes may be responsible for the alleged incidents of relatively large animals appearing on the surface of the lake,” he wrote.
A one meter snake is expected to last for several generations. But this is not what the “animal” thinks.
Foxon, who is studying physics at the University of Nottingham but currently lives in Pennsylvania, concluded that sightings of the Loch Ness monster could be explained by “wave freaks” or “occasional stray mammals.”
The scientist’s accounts, along with a similar study on Bigfoot, were published on bioRxiv as a pre-print that has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Arabic RT
