For more than 1,000 years, people have spared no effort to find the Loch Ness monster, but nothing was found. So why are people still persevering and unwilling to give up?
Does Loch Ness Monster really exist?
For thousands of years, witnesses have repeatedly claimed that they have seen the Loch Ness monster, and they have said so. In summary, it is a large aquatic reptile, and it does not belong to any of the animals currently known to humans. It is probably a prehistoric reptile that humans have never known. From a scientific point of view, what is the probability of a large prehistoric aquatic reptile living in the depths of Loch Ness?
First of all, from the perspective of biological body temperature, the climate in northern Scotland is cold. The average water temperature of Loch Ness is 5°C, and reptiles are generally cold-blooded. Under such low temperatures, it is difficult for a huge aquatic reptile to survive. But there is one exception. Turtles are also aquatic reptiles. Some are large and weigh more than 200 kilograms. They can survive in cold waters such as Iceland and Alaska.
However, the turtle is definitely not a Loch Ness monster. Legend has it that the Loch Ness monster has a long neck, which is very similar to the plesiosaur, the marine overlord of the dinosaur era. Plesiosaurs are also large aquatic reptiles, which ruled the oceans throughout the world during the Jurassic period. In 2010, scientists studied the oxygen isotopes in plesiosaur fossils, and unexpectedly discovered that plesiosaurs are likely to be warm-blooded animals, and they have the ability to control their body temperature. If so, it can survive in cold waters.
Secondly, from the perspective of biological breathing, the Loch Ness monster is either a certain kind of fish or does not exist. Only fish can use the dissolved oxygen in the water to breathe, and can expect to stay deep in the lake for a long time. Reptiles use their lungs to breathe, and it is impossible to use dissolved oxygen. They must go to the water to breathe regularly. Therefore, the figure of the Loch Ness monster should often appear on the water surface, but in fact it does not.
In the South Australian Museum, there is a restored plesiosaur model with a long neck and a small head at the top. This may explain how the Loch Ness monster breathes. The long neck makes it easy to hide its body in the depths of the lake, only revealing its small nostrils, and it can breathe on the surface of the water.
Finally, from the perspective of biological reproduction, it is impossible for the Loch Ness monster to survive alone in the lake for thousands of years. If the Loch Ness monster really exists, it must belong to a certain animal population, and it has continued to mate and multiply, and it has survived to this day. Population biology tells us that only two animals mate, which is not enough to maintain a biological population. Taking a step back, even if it is crossed with other animals, its offspring are not fertile.
Therefore, there must be more than one Loch Ness monster, but why are other “water monsters” hard to find? Are they all dead? At least 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, Loch Ness was cut off from the Atlantic Ocean. The Loch Ness monster can only and must stay in the lake, so why hasn’t a corpse or remains been found so far?
Or maybe it is a known, but “extinct” biological species? For example, the ancient fish species coelacanth, 400 million years ago, was thought to have been extinct as early as 60 million years ago, but a live one was caught off the coast of South Africa in 1938; there is also a living fossil megamouth shark, which is also considered extinct. , But was discovered in 1976 still living in the ocean. Perhaps, the Loch Ness monster is also some kind of animal like this.
The power of unknown and curiosity
Of course, analysis and analysis, in fact, there has never been real evidence that the Loch Ness monster exists for so many years. So why are people looking for it so eagerly?
Because people are always fascinated by the unknown, especially the things that may be known but uncertain, seemingly known and unknown, deeply sulking people’s appetite. This characteristic of humans has existed since ancient times, and the earliest written record of “water monsters” in the world can be traced back to the 7th century AD. However, the relevant records of the European Middle Ages often contain supernatural creatures and various monsters, which is of little significance in terms of the value of biological research. It was not until the 19th century that the British paleontologist William Konibil was the first to record the fossil skeleton of a plesiosaur. This is the first record of plesiosaurs by humans. After that, prehistoric animals gradually became popular with humans. This also makes the Loch Ness monster more and more like a plesiosaur in the legend.
Not only the Loch Ness monster, but many other “unknown” animals also deeply attract people’s curiosity. Such as the snowman in the Himalayas in China, as early as the 4th century BC, various legends about it were circulated among the people. It was not until 1898 that someone started tracking the snowman’s footprints. However, more than a century has passed since the tracking, and no actual evidence has been found. In 2002, scientists at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom conducted DNA analysis on a bunch of hair collected in the Himalayas and found that it did not belong to any established animal DNA. This discovery seems to be a real evidence of a snowman. It once again shook people’s appetite for searching for a snowman, but there have been no new discoveries since then.
In addition, the North American Bigfoot and the Australian savages have similar situations. There is no biological evidence of existence, but witnesses continue to appear. This situation deeply attracts people to keep searching, exploring and discovering.
