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Loch Ness Monster
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St. Columba’s legendary showdown with a “fearsome beastie” in Scotland’s Loch Ness has fueled imaginations for 14 centuries. The lake’s dark waters are famed as the home of “Nessie,” as the creature is often called. Loch Ness, 24 miles (38.6 kilometers) long, a mile and a half wide, reaching depths of 975 feet (297 meters), seems an ideal home for a monster, whether mythological or merely elusive. Underwater cameras and sonar devices have revealed large shapes and movements in the lake, and thousands of sightings have been reported, but no actual specimen has been produced. The June 1977 National Geographic article “Loch Ness: The Lake and the Legend” contains our most comprehensive coverage on the legend and scientific efforts to find the monster.

What’s In a Name?
Piecemeal descriptions and murky photographs don’t provide zoologists with enough information to properly classify the creature. But Nessie has been granted a scientific name: Nessiteras rhombopteryx or, roughly, “Ness marvel [with] diamond-shaped fin.” The name provides legal recognition needed to enforce protection of rare species. However, many scientists do not consider there to be substantial evidence that Nessie exists at all.

What is Nessie?
Believers argue about whether the creature is a surviving dinosaur species, a reptile, or a relative of animals like manatees and seals. Otherwise, a consistent composite has emerged. Of all known animals, Nessie most closely resembles plesiosaurs, aquatic dinosaurs that went extinct 65 million years ago. Most people who claim to have seen Nessie describe a creature of about 20 feet (six meters) in length, but sonar images and controversial photographs made in the 1970s suggest a creature as long as 60 feet (18.3 meters). It is described as dark in color with a small head, a long neck, blimpish body, and a long tail. The creature is said to move quickly through the water, propelled by four flippers. Some believers say Nessie has a single hump on its back that looks like a capsized boat; others say two humps. Some people claim to have seen a group of humps suggesting several creatures swimming together. Scientists speculate that at least ten of the creatures would have to exist at once in order for the species to survive.

Famous Photo a Hoax
The most famous image of Nessie, a 1934 photograph shot of its neck and head, is now known to be a hoax. Shortly before dying in 1993, Christian Spurling confessed that he and his stepfather had photographed a model attached to a toy submarine.

More Photographs
In 1965 the joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre analyzed film shot from afar of a large object in motion on Loch Ness. They determined that it was probably an animate object. High-tech devices have also recorded vague images that could be interpreted as parts of a large creature. Skeptics offer various explanations for sightings of the “monster,” including otters, floating logs and other matter, wakes of boats. Strong winds sometimes also cause large waves, which may be mistaken for Nessie, to form suddenly on Loch Ness’s usually glassy surface.

Whether they inhabit the realm of reality or fiction, Nessie and legends like Bigfoot, the Yeti, mermaids, Morag, and Mokele Mbembe all indicate an inherent human trait: a driving curiosity about the planet and its wondrous life-forms.