Researchers may have finally solved the long-running mystery of the Loch Ness Monster.

Scientists took hundreds of water samples and analyzed 500 million DNA sequences, many of which were eels.

So maybe Nessie is an unusually large eel. There could even be more than one.

What she is not is the thing that is in the picture you’ll most likely see when you search for “Loch Ness Monster” on the internet.

That picture comes from 1934 and was sold to the newspaper the Daily Mail by a doctor, R. Kenneth Wilson, who said he noticed a commotion in the lake.

The picture appears to show the head and neck of some kind of aquatic dinosaur-looking thing jutting out of the water.

Decades later, a man came forward to say that he and two relatives had staged the picture – they’d built a head and neck and attached it to a toy submarine, which they then put into Loch Ness and photographed.

They had been part of another monster story, so they recruited Wilson to pose as the photographer. After all, why would a prominent, respectable fellow like him take part in a hoax?

There are still people who don’t believe the confession and say the picture may not be a hoax after all.

Of course, if the creature itself came forward and gave a press conference to say what it was, there would be people saying they wouldn’t believe it, right?

And if discovering the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster isn’t spooky enough, let’s wrap up today’s show by going inside the head of a T. Rex.

A group of scientists from three universities has been looking at two holes in the top of the dinosaur’s skull.

Scientists have long thought there were muscles in there – but this group has looked at alligators and found the holes in their skulls are filled with blood vessels which help them regulate body temperature.

In other words, T. Rex probably had an air conditioner built into its head.

The Legend of Loch Ness (Nova)

Loch Ness monster might actually just be a giant eel, scientists say (USA Today)

T. Rex had an air conditioner in its head, study suggests (Science Daily)

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Loch Ness photo by David McKelvey via Flickr/Creative Commons