The existence of Scotland’s legendary Loch Ness Monster has been hotly-debated for nearly a century.
Affectionately referred to as Nessie, the large marine creature is said to inhabit the freshwater loch south of Inverness – and be a species as yet unknown to science.
Now a leading scientist claims to have finally put the nail in its coffin.
Tim Coulson, a professor of Zoology at Oxford University, says it is a ‘biological impossibility’ for the Loch Ness Monster to exist.
The fact that no skeletal remains of Nessie have been found in the region – and no-one has caught such a creature in their fishing nets – proves that the animal is not real, he claims.
And regarding purported photos of the beast by locals and tourists alike, there is a simple explanation, according to the expert.
‘In the case of the Loch Ness Monster they are either seeing bits of floating debris, or a bird such as a cormorant with a longish neck that sits low in the water,’ he told MailOnline.
‘You might think that sounds unlikely, but I am always amazed at how bad people can be at judging size – particularly when they are hoping to see a particular animal.’
Surgeon’s Photograph: For 60 years this celebrated photograph of a long necked creature helped keep afloat the legend of the Loch Ness Monster
Famously, the legendary marine creature is said to inhabit the freshwater loch southwest of Inverness
Just like Bigfoot and the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid – a creature whose existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, with little to no scientific evidence.
The earliest report of a monster in Loch Ness is AD 565, but ‘Nessie’ became a global phenomenon in 1934 upon the publication of Surgeon’s Photograph, which purported to show the beast (although doubts surrounding the snap’s authenticity remain).
In the near-century since, many visitors have taken blurry photographs of what they think to be the beast in the 23-mile loch – but none offer convincing evidence.
‘The absence of skeletal remains and any credible photos are strong and reliable indicators that Nessie, Bigfoot and the Yeti don’t exist,’ the academic says in a piece for The European.
‘I apologise to all cryptozoologists for placing this big and very final nail into cryptids’ coffins but it’s time to find another hobby.’
Some alleged snaps of the Loch Ness Monster that do exist suggest the animal has a long neck and a small head – similar to a giant marine reptile called a plesiosaur.
Plesiosaurs first appeared about 215 million years ago, but died out with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago when an asteroid hit Earth.
However, Professor Coulson rules out any possibility that Nessie is a plesiosaur, because there are no plesiosaur fossils dating to any sooner than 66 million years.
Tim Coulson, a professor of Zoology at Oxford University (pictured), says it is a ‘biological impossibility’ for the Loch Ness Monster to exist
Plesiosaurs first appeared about 215 million years ago, but died out with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago when an asteroid hit Earth (artist’s depiction of a plesiosaur)
Experts weigh in on why people are so obsessed with finding the Loch Ness Monster, hundreds of years after the beast was first referenced. This photo was taken at Loch Ness by Charlotte Robinson in August 2018
What is Surgeon’s Photograph?
In 1934, The Daily Mail published a picture by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson of what appeared to be the Loch Ness Monster.
For 60 years this celebrated photograph of a long necked creature helped keep afloat the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.
It became known as the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ as Lieutenant Wilson was a Harley Street gynaecologist.
However, this photograph was actually of a modified toy submarine. Now it’s alleged he was part of a plot to perpetuate the myth of the monster which began as a joke.
‘It is a biological impossibility for a single individual of a long extinct species to live in Loch Ness, and if there were many hundreds, we would surely have caught some in our fishing nets,’ he said.
Regarding Bigfoot – the hairy creature said to inhabit forests of North America – Professor Coulson says supposed witnesses are actually ‘seeing black bears’.
‘There was a paper not long ago to show that the spatial distribution of bigfoot sightings completely overlaps with the distribution of black bears,’ he told MailOnline.
Dr Jason Gilchrist, an ecologist and lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, said the mystery of cryptids such as Nessie, Bigfoot or the Abominable Snowman are ‘self-perpetuating’.
‘People want to see or find something rare or special – it’s a part of human nature – and it doesn’t get any more rare or special than the Loch Ness Monster,’ Dr Gilchrist previously told MailOnline.
‘The legend of the Loch Ness Monster brings people to the loch and they want to see a monster.
‘They may therefore see or give attention to evidence that they would otherwise, at any other loch or location, not get too excited about.’
There is, however, a ‘good possibility’ that aliens exist, according to Professor Coulson, because the universe is ‘absolutely vast’ and we have only explored a ‘very tiny fragment’ of it, so there’s bound to be some other form of life out there.
This statue of the Loch Ness Monster, on the banks of Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland, is based on descriptions from supposed witnesses
No life beyond Earth has ever been found and there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited our planet. But this may be due to extraterrestrial life being too scared of ‘dangerous’ and ‘violent’ humans (artist’s impression)
‘Unlike the forests where Bigfoot is supposed to live, or the mountainous home of the Yeti, we have only explored a miniscule corner of the places where aliens may be found,’ Professor Coulson said.
‘The problem we have at the moment is we don’t know how to explore more of our universe quickly and easily.
‘If that problem faces all intelligent species, we may never encounter aliens, even if they are quite comment across the vast tracts of the cosmos.’
According to estimates from Erik Zackrisson, an astrophysicist at Uppsala University in Sweden, there are 70 quintillion planets in the universe – that’s 7 followed by 20 zeroes.
So the very fact we exist here on Earth would make it incredibly unlikely that nowhere else in the universe has some kind of concious life too.
However, Dr Gordon Gallup, a biopsychologist at the University of Albany, thinks aliens may be too scared of ‘dangerous’ humans to visit Earth.
What IS the Loch Ness Monster?
Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.
One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.
On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen ‘an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface’.
Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.
It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.
Other sightings James Gray’s picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray’s blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.
Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 – however it was later proven to be a fake
The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.
But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings – although in 2019, ‘Nessie expert’ Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.
An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com.
So what could explain these mysterious sightings?
Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.
Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.
Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur – like an elasmosaur – that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.
Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.
While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.
Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.
