The Loch Ness monster has a scientific name.
The scientific name Nessiteras rhombopteryx may look more or less like any other. As with many Linnaean labels, the species name rhombopteryx references the creature’s overall appearance — in this case, its diamond-shaped fins. But there’s one key difference here: The creature it describes doesn’t exist (probably). Nessiteras rhombopteryx, or “Ness monster with diamond-shaped fins,” is the proposed taxonomic moniker of the Loch Ness monster, also known as Nessie. As a brief cryptozoology refresher, Nessie is a fabled reptilian monster believed to reside in a lake called Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. For nearly a century, people have scoured the lake with binoculars, sonar, and other equipment, hoping to glimpse this anachronistic plesiosaur. Although “confirmed sightings” number more than a thousand, no specimen has ever been captured and cataloged.
And that last part is important. Usually, for a species to receive a scientific name, scientists must have a “voucher specimen” in hand for future reference. However, in a non-peer reviewed article in the December 1975 issue of Nature, U.S. researcher Robert Rines and British naturalist Sir Peter Scott put forward the name Nessiteras rhombopteryx based on only photographs and sonar data. In the article, the authors argued that “recent British legislation makes provision for protection to be given to endangered species; to be granted protection, however, an animal should first be given a proper scientific name.” In other words, the scientists had to give Nessie a name to save it (if “it” exists at all).
Although the legend of Nessie is beloved throughout Scotland (bringing in tourist dollars never hurts), not everyone was sold on giving the mythical elusive plesiosaur an air of scientific credibility. About a week after the name’s announcement in December 1975, a Scottish MP rebuffed the pseudo-scientific endeavor, saying there just might be a reason why “Nessiteras rhombopteryx” is an anagram for “Monster Hoax by Sir Peter S.”
The modern fascination with Nessie dates back to the 1930s, but the legend of a mythical creature lurking in Loch Ness is much older. Some point to first-century CE Pictish carvings of a creature resembling a swimming elephant as the first real evidence of Nessie, but the first written account of some kind of sighting doesn’t occur until centuries later. In the seventh century CE, a hagiographer wrote about the exploits of St. Columba, a Catholic missionary credited with spreading Christianity throughout Scotland. According to this hagiography, in 564 CE St. Columba had a confrontation with some kind of “water beast,” and with the power of prayer, he convinced this unknown monster to leave his disciples alone (converting scores of Scots in the process). Filled with supernatural phenomena, the tale is as hard to believe as an ancient family of plesiosaurs lurking somewhere in Great Britain’s largest freshwater lake. But the story does establish a 1,500-year-old relationship between some unknown mythical “water beast” and the Scottish people — a relationship that remains to this day.
