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The Loch Ness Giant Salamander


Still Waters

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Loch Ness is credited by many to be the home of an unidentified species of large, yet highly elusive and rarely seen aquatic animals. Every creature on Earth is connected through evolution to every other. There is, in the end, only a limited number of possibilities as to Nessie's place on the family tree. Herein we take one view, proposing that the most parsimonious explanation for the mystery in Loch Ness is that it is home to a rare and as yet unnamed species of Giant Salamander.

http://thelochnessgi...gray-photo.html

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Wow, interesting...

Sooo.... What they are saying is that there are 2 types of species? Loch ness and salamander?

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You know, in Australia a "beast with two backs" is a euphemism for people having sex...

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It's only the most parsimonious explanation if you start from the assumption that there is a large unidentified creature in Loch Ness. If you don't assume that, then the most parsimonious explanation is that there is no large unidentified creature in Loch Ness.

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Perhaps there will someday be an explanation for this creature. Till then, there will be many skeptics and even more theories.

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There is already an explanation for this creature: It doesn't exist.

Awww - but that explanation is obviously no fun - otherwise we wouldn't have all these lovely discussion boards ;)

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I was under the impression this picture was already explained...

It's a dog swimming back to shore with a stick in its mouth.

Woof woof! I'm a nessie! I love my master, he threw this stick and now I am going to take it back to him because I love him so - hey look, a man with a camera, I bet he would love it if I thrashed about with this stick my loving master so lovingly threw. Woof woof! SQUIRREL!!!!!!

Sorry guys....I had to.

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Generally speaking, large, cold-blooded animal, like giant salamanders would have a really hard time surviving in the cold (maximum 5-7° C) waters of Loch Ness.

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I've always had a major problem with the "dog swimming with a stick in it's mouth" based on the fact that if the little dongle bottom left is it's tail then it has an absolutely mahoosively long back! But if it's only a dog's head, and this is in the middle (big black patch the nose etc) then it perhaps looks ab it more like it. But that first picture's been doctored to bring out the contrast and suchlike hasn't it?

To me it looks more like a porpoise that's been stranded, and the tide is in around it giving the illusion that it's actually submerged. Could be a toy dolphin?

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Now I have seen the image after hearing the 'dog theory' I cannot see anything but a dog with a stick in its mouth. Before this I was open to it being an unidentified aquatic animal.

The power of suggestion is strong with this one...

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Generally speaking, large, cold-blooded animal, like giant salamanders would have a really hard time surviving in the cold (maximum 5-7° C) waters of Loch Ness.

Sorry, we don't speak Generally. :P

All I see is a crashed stealth bomber.

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As I mentioned on another thread, the Grey photo most closely resembles a grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, in my opinion. They're endemic to the North Atlantic, and have been documented as appearing occasionally in Loch Ness. Given it isn't indigenous to the loch, it's not hard to believe that the locals could very well misidentify a 3m-long, grey, flippered animal as a monster of some sort. The Grey photo looks to me like a grey seal playing in the water; having spent some time studying grey seals, I can say that if I took a still photo of one playing on the surface of the water, it would look very much like the Grey photo.

5985483777_b08a5e295f_z.jpg

Seal.jpg

7463241278_7bcf3f2715_z.jpg

Grey-Seal_03.jpg

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If you look closely at the back of the object in the photo you can see bigfoot westling an alien. :yes:

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As I mentioned on another thread, the Grey photo most closely resembles a grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, in my opinion. They're endemic to the North Atlantic, and have been documented as appearing occasionally in Loch Ness. Given it isn't indigenous to the loch, it's not hard to believe that the locals could very well misidentify a 3m-long, grey, flippered animal as a monster of some sort. The Grey photo looks to me like a grey seal playing in the water; having spent some time studying grey seals, I can say that if I took a still photo of one playing on the surface of the water, it would look very much like the Grey photo.

5985483777_b08a5e295f_z.jpg

Seal.jpg

7463241278_7bcf3f2715_z.jpg

Grey-Seal_03.jpg

Grey seal? Hmm, good call. Quite a trek for one, through all those locks, which would probably merit a bit of disbelief at actually seeing one there! Thing is it doesn't have to actually be at Loch Ness. A seal hauled out with the tide coming in around it would be enough. To be honest the picture is really awful as it is, which makes me wonder more and more that if there is a Loch Ness Monster, it must have some sort of baffling device on it that affects machinery with complex parts and chemicals. That picture has always bothered me; Some really badly taken picture of an out-of-focus blob in water that conveniently misses out all background thus rendering any notion of scale moot, and we're meant to take it as proof of something living in Loch Ness?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Generally speaking, large, cold-blooded animal, like giant salamanders would have a really hard time surviving in the cold (maximum 5-7° C) waters of Loch Ness.

Actually many amphibians fair quite well in cold water, better then most reptiles. Hellbenders prefer water around 68F (20C) but will still eat around 45F (7C).

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There is already an explanation for this creature: It doesn't exist.

And if they didn't exist in some form or the other we would not have a forum to discuss the fact. So hence they must exist as you wouldn't be here. :gun:
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The Cryptic Chameleon on the Giant Salamander thread - I like it. Where's the damn "like" button ?

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Actually many amphibians fair quite well in cold water, better then most reptiles. Hellbenders prefer water around 68F (20C) but will still eat around 45F (7C).

"Will still eat" isn't quite the same as "fare quite well". That's the low end of their ability to survive. And we're talking about a lake that's 7C at its warmest.

Edited by Clobhair-cean
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Take it from me folks, if there was a giant creatrure in that Loch it was caught and eaten three hours after first contact. Broth-pot. That's what we do here. Always have, always will.

And then we drink and tell each other tales.

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"Will still eat" isn't quite the same as "fare quite well". That's the low end of their ability to survive. And we're talking about a lake that's 7C at its warmest.

While the average temperature is around 42F (6C), during the summer water temperatures can reach near 57F (14C), and can reach higher.

At a depth of 75m, the temperature remains fairly consistent near 42F (6C) year round.

Even in the summer, it be a chilly swim, but not too bad.

Lake Superior here in the States, keeps a colder temperature in the depths, 200m, year round 39F (4C) and the surface reaches about the same max in the summer.

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"Will still eat" isn't quite the same as "fare quite well". That's the low end of their ability to survive. And we're talking about a lake that's 7C at its warmest.

Siberian newt (Salamandrella keyserlingii) can move at 1 C, so there is a precedent at least.

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