SCOTLAND ASIA EUROPE ARE AFRICA Neil Gemmell MONSTERS dips a tube into Loch Ness in Scotland. He will test the water to see if it contains DNA from an unknown REAL? creature, like Nessie. Scientists are akota Frandsen was on Does something spooky really lurk animals, says Gemmell (see Cryptids: vacation in Scotland in Loch Ness? We may soon know for Myth vs. Fact on page 10). on the hunt for this past March when sure. In June, a team of 14 scientists But the truth usually isn’t Abominable the true identity something unusual from around the world traveled to as wild as the legend. In snowman, happened. As he Scotland to collect water samples 2007, a rancher in Texas or yeti of mysterious Dpeered out over a murky lake, he saw from the lake. Now they’re analyzing found a dead, hairless animal she beasts a large shape in the water. He told the samples, looking for DNA from believed was a chupacabra—a local tabloids that it was 40 feet long living things. “If there is such a thing fabled blood-sucking creature from and the color of a hippopotamus. [as the monster], then maybe we Latin America. When scientists at Before Frandsen could snap a photo, could detect it using this technology,” Texas State (GLOBE) it disappeared beneath the waves. � says Neil Gemmell. He’s a geneticist University The lake was Loch Ness, one of at the University of Otago in New examined the largest in the United Kingdom. Zealand and the leader of the hunt. the body, Frandsen, visiting from Idaho, wasn’t the first to notice something TALL TALES? mysterious there. For centuries, Nessie isn’t the only fantastical Mongolian people have reported seeing strange creature to capture the public’s death worm moving shapes in the lake’s cloudy attention. For thousands of years, waters. Many believe they’ve spotted people have shared stories about a swimming reptile-like creature mysterious unidentified known as the Loch Ness Monster, or animals—from Bigfoot in Nessie for short. North America to an Asian Last year brought a record number desert monster called of Nessie sightings, according to a list the Mongolian death kept by the Loch Ness Monster Fan worm. These animals Club in Inverness, Scotland. There that are rumored were 11 supposed glimpses of the to exist despite a monster—more than in any other lack of evidence are year in the 21st century. Although called cryptids. many people swear they’ve seen Many stories Find out more about Nessie, Nessie, there’s no scientific evidence about cryptids are Bigfoot, yeti, and VIDEO MCMAHON/MAPMAN JIM GEMMELL); (NEIL IMAGES BUCHANAN/AFP/GETTY ANDY MURRAY; JAKE BY ILLUSTRATION other cryptids. that the creature really exists. inspired by real 8 OCTOBER 15, 2018 they determined that it was a coyote FINDING PERCENT OF A NUMBER with a skin disease. Cryptids: MYTH vs. FACT A percent is a ratio that Last year, scientists from the Many sightings and stories about cryptids come from EXAMPLE: Between 2010 and 2017, there were 37 reported Loch State University of New York at mistaken identity of real animals. compares a number to 100. Ness Monster sightings. Of those, 30% took place in 2017. How many Buffalo analyzed body parts that When you know a percent sightings were there that year? supposedly belonged to yetis, or Stories about the blood-sucking beast might be and a whole, you can use CHUPACABRA: based on a diseased coyote or wolf. Percent: 30% abominable snowmen. Climbers in them to calculate the number Identify your percent the Himalayan mountains of Asia the percent represents. and your whole. Whole: 37 total sightings have claimed to see footprints and Convert the percent into a decimal by dropping remains of these large, hairy beasts. the percent sign and dividing the number by 100. Biologist Charlotte Lindqvist, led the study of the yeti parts, which 30% = 30 ÷ 100 = 0.3 were collected from homes and Multiply the decimal by the whole. museums around the world. Her 0.3 � 37 = 11.1 team carefully scraped off pieces Answer the of the specimens and extracted the YOUR following questions Round your answer to the DNA inside. Then they compared it TURN to learn more about nearest whole number. 11.1 rounds to 11 to the DNA of known animals. One cryptids. Round your answers to the nearest sample, a tooth, turned out to be a So 11 of the Nessie sightings took place in 2017. dog’s. And the rest? “All of them came whole number. Myths about unicorns likely grew from an ancient from bears,” says Lindqvist. UNICORN: description of a rhinoceros. A. Of the 11 reported A. Charlotte Lindqvist A. In 2016, pollsters 1 Nessie sightings in 2017, 3 analyzed 9 “yeti” samples. 5 surveyed 1,515 people in MONSTER HUNTERS only 55% were made in person. Of those, 44% were hair and 11% Canada about their beliefs in Gemmell’s team is also using DNA The other 45% were spotted by were bone. How many of the the supernatural and 26% of the to learn what lives in Loch Ness. But people watching an online feed samples were hair? respondents said they believe since no one claims to have a piece from a camera on the shore of cryptids like the Loch Ness of Nessie, they’re not taking the same Loch Ness. How many of the Monster and Bigfoot are real. approach that Lindqvist did. Instead, 2017 sightings were from the How many people was that? the scientists scooped up nearly webcam? 260 samples of water from different 3B. How many were bone? parts of the lake—including one where the monster had supposedly just been spotted. Then they pressed 5B. In the same poll, 79% of Early explorers of the Americas, like Christopher Columbus, 1B. The webcam is located near the water through a fine filter to MERMAID: respondents said they believe mistook distant manatees for mermaids. a medieval ruin called Urquhart collect any microscopic material A. DNA analysis revealed there’s intelligent life elsewhere Castle, which is also a popular floating in it. 4 that 89% of the 9 yeti in the universe. How many spot for Nessie sightings. Of the Anything living in and swimming samples Lindqvist analyzed were people was that? 2017 total sightings, 64% were through water leaves traces of its actually from bears. How many in that area. How many sightings DNA behind in urine, droppings, samples was that? was that? drool, or flakes of skin, explains Gemmell. By collecting this DNA from the lake’s microscopic particles Urquhart Castle is a and analyzing it, scientists can learn 6 popular tourist attraction. 4B. Of those, 12.5% were from which species are in the lake without In 2015, it had 348,691 visitors. Loch Ness is 741 feet deep. Asian black bears, 12.5% were having to catch or even see them. But only 0.0006% of the visitors 2 But it’s so murky that, you from Himalayan brown bears, If the team finds any DNA that visited by fish, eels, and otters from learning more about the Loch Ness logged official sightings of the can’t see more than 4% of the and 75% were Tibetan brown doesn’t match a known animal’s, it around the region. The samples ecosystem will make the expedition Loch Ness Monster. How many way down from the surface. How bears. How many samples were could be a clue to Nessie’s identity. could also tell scientists whether worthwhile. “If it happens that we sightings was that? many feet deep can people see? from each bear species? But learning about the lake’s less- invasive species are moving in. detect something that may explain sensational residents is important The scientists expect to announce the monster,” he says, “then that’s too, Gemmell says. Loch Ness their results in January. Whether or the cherry on top.” connects to other waterways and is not they find Nessie, says Gemmell, —Mara Grunbaum BACKGROUND ILLUSTRATION BY JAKE MURRAY; CHUPACABRA ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID MELVIN; KEN CANNING/GETTY IMAGES (WOLF); ISTOCKPHOTO/ (WOLF); IMAGES CANNING/GETTY KEN MELVIN; DAVID BY ILLUSTRATION CHUPACABRA MURRAY; JAKE BY ILLUSTRATION BACKGROUND (MANATEE) IMAGES SOUVANT/AFP/GETTY GUILLAUME (MERMAID); PHOTO STOCK CRUMLEY/ALAMY A CHRIS RHINO); (UNICORN, GETTY IMAGES 10 OCTOBER 15, 2018 SCHOLASTIC.COM/MATH 11.