The Loch Ness Monster is not a whale's penis! But these sea monsters could be...

The Loch Ness Monster is one of the most mysterious creatures in the world, and there are endless speculations about it. Recently, there is even a view that the Loch Ness Monster is actually a whale's penis!

Even whales would disagree with this view... because there are no whales in Loch Ness! However, many legendary sea serpents - the culprits that are thicker than a barrel and have infinite strength, causing huge waves and capsizing ships in countless sailing stories, may actually be whale penises.

Not long ago, British ecologist Michael Sweet said on Twitter that many legendary sea monsters are actually whale penises, and he attached a picture of the Loch Ness Monster in Figure 2. This made many people think that the Loch Ness Monster is the whale's genitals, but Sweet later clarified that he just wanted to use the picture of the Loch Ness Monster to illustrate the image of these sea monsters and did not want to cause misunderstandings. | Twitter: @Prof. Michael Sweet

The famous sea monster "Sea Serpent"

Sea serpents are the most common type of sea monsters, and their legends are widely spread. In addition to word of mouth among seafarers in history, there are also many written records and illustrations.

As early as the time of Aristotle, his "History of Animals" recorded a sea monster that looked like a sea serpent. Witnesses called this mysterious creature the "fallen dragon". It was 30 meters long and so huge that the cavalry standing on either side of it could not see each other, and its jaws were even so big that people could ride horses into it.

1555: The History of the Northern Peoples depicts a sea serpent that overturns ships and devours humans | Olaus Magnus

In 1741, Danish missionary Hans Egede also recorded and drew pictures of sea serpents in his book. He relayed the experience of others who saw sea serpents in Greenland, calling it "a most terrible monster":

"It was such a huge creature that its head reached the boat's arms, its body was as thick as the boat and three or four times as long. It had a long, pointed snout and blew air like a whale. It had large, broad flippers, and its body was covered with a carapace, and its skin was wrinkled and rough. When it dived, it would lift its tail out of the water, a boat's length away from its body."

Hans Egede's Sea Serpent

The length of the ship at that time was 21 to 24 meters. According to Egede's estimate, the sea snake was 60 to 90 meters long, which was definitely a terrifying monster. However, estimating the length of marine creatures with the naked eye on the ship is obviously not very reliable. Moreover, Egede only relayed the story of encountering the sea monster, and the real details may have been changed in the secondary creation; the witnesses may also deliberately add fuel to the fire and exaggerate in order to add a legendary color to the experience.

A sea serpent from an illustration of the book Natural History of Norway, 1755 | Bishop Erik Pontoppidan

Regardless of whether it was true or not, Egede's description laid a solid foundation for the sea serpent. After that, people continued to claim to have encountered sea serpents, and they frequently appeared in the news.

But the descriptions of sea serpents by eyewitnesses are similar. They are basically a huge snake-like creature, and the illustrations always show its tail sticking out of the water (make a note of this, you will be tested on this later).

Illustration of a sea serpent from 1817. This time the sea serpent has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and has scales on its body | Ellis, R. 1994

The sea serpent is actually the whale's penis!

However, from these outrageous records, we can still find some clues and try to analyze what the true form of the sea serpent is.

In 2005, based on the texts and illustrations left by Egede and his son, British researchers came to an unexpected conclusion - the sea serpent is the male external genitalia of a whale!

The picture above is the tail of a sea serpent that emerged from the water, as painted by Egede. The picture below is the penis of a gray whale photographed in the 1970s. They are very similar. | Reference [2]

That’s right, the sea serpent’s tail that people see at sea may be the penis of a whale that emerges from the water when it is excited.

When whales mate, there are often several male whales surrounding a female whale. When one male whale is mating with a female whale, the other male whales will be "on standby" and try to take the female whale for themselves. At this time, their penises are likely to be upright and occasionally stick out of the water.

Egede's record also mentioned that the sea serpent's tail was a boat's length away from its body. Perhaps there was more than one male whale present at the time, and the witnesses accidentally mistook one whale's penis for another whale's tail, imagining a super sea serpent.

Three male right whales compete for the right to mate with a female | Mariano Jedrzejewski

The penis of a whale is huge, and when it is exposed to the water, it really looks like a huge sea snake. The penis of a North Atlantic right whale is at least 1.7 meters long, and the penis of a gray whale can reach 1.8 meters long.

A gray whale's penis sticks out of the water during mating | James Felton / Twitter

The blue whale, the largest cetacean, can reach a penis length of up to 3 meters when standing upright.

A blue whale penis is preserved in Iceland's penis museum | Richard Gould / Wikimedia Commons

Other descriptions of sea snakes in the original records are also consistent with the characteristics of whales: "blowing like a whale", indicating that it does have the breathing method of whales; "the body is covered with shells", and "shells" may refer to the barnacles and whale lice on some whales, which we often see on right whales and humpback whales. In the illustration, the sea snake has a pair of pectoral fins. If this is the only paired fin on its body, it further confirms the possibility that it is a whale - because most fish have two pairs of fins (pectoral fins and pelvic fins), while whales have only one pair of fins.

Barnacles and whale lice on a gray whale | Joe McKenna / Wikimedia Commons

Hundreds of years ago, people had very limited knowledge of cetaceans, and knew nothing about how they mate. It is understandable that people mistook a whale's penis for a mysterious sea monster that they had never seen before. Interestingly, in 1875, a British captain claimed to have seen a sea serpent and saw a sea serpent and a sperm whale fighting on the sea surface - the snake entangled the whale tightly, and the fight lasted for 15 minutes. In the end, the snake dragged the whale to the bottom of the sea.

Illustration of a sea serpent fighting a whale | Wikimedia Commons

He probably didn't expect that it was a whale with its erect penis rolling in the sea... (Whale: I didn't expect my mating to be so shocking to humans.)

Who is the Loch Ness Monster?

As for the famous Loch Ness Monster, since there are no cetaceans in Loch Ness, it definitely has nothing to do with whales. But, what exactly is it?

Reconstruction of the Loch Ness Monster, Scotland | A Obeidat / Wikimedia Commons

Loch Ness is located in the north of Scotland, UK. The rumor of a monster in the lake dates back to the 6th century. According to the legend, the Loch Ness monster was attacking a swimmer when the monk Columba happened to pass by and reprimanded it, thus stopping its evil deeds. It is said to have a long neck, so some people speculate that it is a plesiosaur or a creature similar to a sea serpent.

In 1934, a doctor in London claimed to have taken the first photo of the Loch Ness Monster and published it in the Daily Mail. In this photo, the "monster" is a black shadow, like a long neck sticking out of the water. This photo caused a global sensation at the time, but it was later proved that it was just a hoax and the photo was deliberately posed by the photographer.

This famous photo of the Loch Ness Monster is a fake | Wikimedia Commons

So does the Loch Ness Monster really exist?

In 2003, people tried to search for the Loch Ness Monster using sonar, but found nothing. In 2018, researchers collected 250 samples of water from Loch Ness and analyzed the trace DNA in the samples. The results showed that more than 3,000 species live in and around Loch Ness, including fish, birds, mammals, and microorganisms. Researchers believe that if the Loch Ness Monster is real, it should be a large reptile according to the legendary description. However, there are no reptiles in this lake at all - not to mention the marine reptile plesiosaurs that disappeared as early as the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

"You're less likely to find a living plesiosaur in a lake than a pink unicorn," said Neil Gemmell, who led the research team.

Neil Gemmell, head of the research team, at the edge of Loch Ness | University of Otago

However, this study provides another explanation for the Loch Ness Monster. Eel DNA was found in the lake water samples, indicating that eels live in the lake, and there are no natural enemies of eels here, which is very suitable for their growth. Researchers speculate that the monster may be a large eel, but there is no direct evidence at present, and they are still more inclined to believe that the monster does not exist. If the legendary sea serpent is a misunderstanding of the whale Tintin, the Loch Ness Monster may be a complete hoax.

References

[1] Paxtona, C., Knatterud, E. & Hedley, Sharon. Cetaceans, sex and sea serpents: an analysis of the Egede accounts of a “most dreadful monster” seen off the coast of Greenland in 1734. Archives of Natural History (2005). DOI: 10.3366/anh.2005.32.1.1

[2] https://www.livescience.com/loch-ness-monster-not-a-whale-penis

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_serpent

[4]https://www.livescience.com/loch-ness-monster-dna-study.html

Author: Cat Tun

Editor: Mai Mai

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