Nessie could well be defined as an aquatic predator who has adapted himself to mild water and salmons. Nevertheless, this definition is cut too short and incomplete. We do not know yet if it is an amphibian, a reptile, a mammal or a fish? His characteristics really make it an extraordinary animal.
The Loch ness monster cannot be assimilated to an amphibian. Amphibians do not have to breathe
often. They hibernate and reproduce under water. Unfortunately, aquatic amphibians do not exist,
and the fossils show it too, they have never existed.
But Nessie comes without doubt from the sea.
We are left with only three hypotheses, which are whether the creature is
a mammal, reptile or a fish? The possibility of ‘reptile’ is the most
popular. However there are some
arguments against it.
First of all, the temperature of the water is too low for a reptile to
live in. Second, a reptile must
come to the surface to breathe. And
third, it must come on land to lay its eggs. Make
note however that there are same exceptions: tortoises in North America can swim
under the icebergs that cover the lakes. Another
type of tortoises can maintain their temperature above the one of their
surrounding. Certain specimens of
these tortoises had been captured along the western coast of Scotland…
The fact that Nessie is a mammal is easier to believe though.
Seals can be active in water even if it is at a very low temperature. Why
is Nessie not a sort of seal with a long neck then? The only problem against
that is reproduction. Seals come on
land to grow their small ones. Moreover,
they must make surface regularly to breathe.
The only possibility left is it being a fish.
After all this can explain the rare times that Nessie comes to the surface and its
quiet method of reproduction. Unfortunately,
most of the sightings do not describe the monster as a fish, not even a giant one. As for the inhabitants of the region, they say
that it can be a huge eel of an unknown species. And
the echoes recorded by the sonar can suggest the movements of an eel.
We had also noted that the apparitions were made particularly when the water was hot: this can perfectly match the habit of a fish. In fact, each clue which can leads us to the truth brings new questions and problems.
The
Loch Ness is special because of the extraordinary steadiness of its water’s
temperature. In such waters, food should be
rich: plants, organic wastes, plankton
and particularly, many fish.
Lack of sunlight prevents
aquatic plants to grow more than 3 metres under the surface of the Loch Ness. Thus, if the monster is an herbivore, it can
only find food very near the bank of the lake. But
very little apparitions near the bank had been recorded.
Moreover, all herbivores need a large quantity of plants to live. So we can conclude that
Nessie is not an
herbivore.
Does he eat organic wastes then? Once again,
we know that cold lakes are generally not abundant in them.
Many dives had been organized to search for these kinds of wastes until 30 meters
from the surface. Unfortunately no results
had been obtained except the fact that organic wastes are very rare at this depth. But it is also true that researchers had found
aquatic invertebrates that live on wastes at more than 200 meters from the surface.
The third
possibility for food is planktons. An aquatic
animal eating planktons must have the ability to swim a very long time on the surface,
where his food is abundant. Specifically, most
of the sightings reported that Nessie appeared only for a short while. Moreover, plankton-eating animals are physically
capable of filtering their prey in their mouths. The
physical characteristics of Nessie are very much different from them.
The last possible food of Nessie is the fish. Biologists think that the lake is more or less
sterile. Salmons and other kinds of fish feed
on planktons, which are rare as said before.
But the Loch ness monster must eat! There is a habit of salmons that can help to solve
the mystery. We know that salmons lay their
eggs in rivers, which go into the Loch ness and stay there until they weight about 250
grams.
Then, the salmons go into the sea. Three
years later, they come back in the Loch ness to spawn.
As salmons eat practically nothing during this period, the lack of planktons is not
important. Thus, the Loch ness monster can
more of less feed on salmons only.
There is another proof. We have noticed that some salmons, going to the
sea, do so at a speed of record. This can be
explained by an urgent necessity: the one to escape from a bigger predator.
The ancestor
The animal that resembles Nessie the most is surely the plesiosaur. This reptile is
considered to have been extinct for more than 70 million years from now, as no fossils had
been found. Nevertheless,
one of its descendants, the coelacanths still live in some gulfs of the Indian Ocean. It is believed that
the plesiosaur might be the ancestor of the famous Loch ness monster too, due to their
physical resemblance.
Outline of a plesiosaur (click to enlarge)