While a lot of people think that the Loch Ness Monster might be some sort of eel, long necked seal, invertebrate, or perhaps just some debris in the lake such as a log, many people believe it is an evolved plesiosaur. These dinosaurs were carnivorous aquatic reptiles with the body shape of a turtle without a shell and a long neck. They were first found in England, so it is possible that they survived through the ages; however, the plesiosaur’s neck wasn’t designed to bend upward to the degree that they could left their heads above the water as most Nessie pictures show. Even if they could, gravity would have tipped their body forward which would keep most of their neck in the water. It is possible for their head to reach the surface, but not in the typical “Nessie pose” captured in most pictures of the animal.

Loch Ness is the largest body of fresh water in Britain. It’s 754 feet deep, 22.5 miles long, and 1-1.5 miles wide. It is said that the loch never freezes, which could account for how the dinosaur survived through the ages. Below 100 feet, a thermocline keeps the temperature of the water at 44 degrees Fahrenheit. There is a large cavern system deep in the lake that could be where Nessie lives and avoids detection.

The Loch Ness Monster has been a popular myth since at least 1933, but there have been reported sitings since as early as 565 by Saint Columbia, who wrote that a beast rose from the loch and attacked a man swimming out to retrieve a boat. There was another notable siting in the 1600’s and many in the 1800’s and 1900’s.

Over the past 4 years, people have debated the monster’s existence on a picture I took of a statue at Eccles Dinosaur Park near Ogden Utah of a Plesiosaur. The picture is located in my photo gallery at The Lens Flare. On this page, I ask the question, “Could this dinosaur be the ancestor of the Loch Ness Monster?” People have misinterpreted my question as “Is this the real Nessie?” and hundreds of people have commented. It’s been a fun debate to see what people’s opinions are of the matter.

The picture recently reached 100,000 views and is the first image on The Lens Flare to do so largely due to the fact that it often shows up on the first page of Google’s image search for phrases like “Loch Ness Monster” and other variations, and the number of visits to this picture per week has dramatically increased since the show “The Water Horse” hit the big screen putting Nessie back in the spotlight. I invite you to take part in the conversation of The Loch Ness Monster on my picture at TLF.