Forget the leftover dinosaur theory. The legendary Loch Ness monster may be nothing more than a series of Baltic sturgeons that blundered into the Scottish lake in search of mates.
That's the conclusion of "Nessie" hunter Adrian Shine and a new study that says the lake doesn't hold enough fish to keep a full-fledged monster alive.An upcoming review of the ecology of Loch Ness discounts the possibility that Nessie is a reptilian candidate for Jurassic Park.
The last plesiosaur, or water dinosaurs, were fossilized 65 million years ago, when Loch Ness was still under a giant glacier. Nor is it a mammal or an amphibian.
About all that leaves is a large fish, the theory when Nessie was first sighted in 1868.
Thirteen research papers conclude the total fish population of Loch Ness is only about 20 or 30 tons, making it quite barren.
Any resident predator could weigh only about one-tenth of that, or 3 tons. To sustain a population of monsters, there'd have to be about 10 of them, of a maximum of 660 pounds each. That's roughly the size of a big sturgeon - a fish valued as a source of caviar.