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Denialists, Behold Nessie!!!!

Q. Why did the toad cross the loch?
A. To get to the other side.

Toads are very common here and are found at quite high altitude in the most unpromising looking of small lochans. I've found toad tadpoles very late in the year and also very early in the year (February) which suggests, to me, that they can survive the winter as tadpoles.

I've also found toads a long way from water and deep in the ground (when digging ditches). Toads can hibernate at the bottom of ponds.

Tough beasties toads.

As I said, my bet is it was just crossing the loch.
 
From the BBC article:

"MIT said it had completed a side-scan sonar map of the entire length of the loch - which is about 750ft (228m) at its deepest point."

My understanding is that this is not the first sonar survey of the loch, and is in fact one more expedition that did not find any sort of huge beast(s) that might account for "monster" sightings.
 
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William Parcher said:
Nah. I never thought you thought this was a hoax.



You can't start out wrong before converting to French. The beginning statement must retain its full original character and bankrupt English grammar...

All your base are belong to us.
All my base are belong to you.
All my base are belong to them.

...and so on, for great justice.
Click to expand...
Uh... Uhm... OK.
Aniway,
All my base are belong to you, except Loch Ness. No attempt there diving Use they joined, use they well for great justice.
 
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I don't know how long a toad can go without breathing, but aparently pretty long. Toads aren't very fast swimmers, and I would think that swimming down to a depth of close to 100m would take a while. I'd like to know this toads fate. Did he get disoriented and keep swimming down? Will he suffer the effects of "shallow water blackout" like human free-divers do? What the hell was he looking for down there? Is there some source of food there for him (her)?
 
I'd like to know more. The story says MIT was doing a side scan survey yet the image shown is not a side scan sonar image. What other instruments were involved in the survey?

The article also says the toad was "crawling" along the bottom. I'd like to know how long they observed it and what they saw. The toads I've seen don't crawl. I wonder if they have video.

Finally, note how the back legs are extended. Again, from the toads I've seen, that is a very unusual posture.

Fun stuff to speculate about.
 
I guess we should thank the craptozoologists, if it weren't for their futile quest for a mythical beast we wouldn't have found this awesome toad!
 
Skeptic Guy said:
Perhaps you are supposed to kiss the frog and it'll turn into Nessie?
Click to expand...

Maybe the crushing water pressure at that depth is making us think it's just a normal sized toad but, if you take the toad up to the surface, it expands back to the size of a elephant. Then we have our monster! :)
 
William Parcher said:
Mister Toad, I presume,
Hopping out of the Loch Ness gloom
Into the midday sun.
What did you find there?
Did you stand awhile and stare?
Did you meet anyone?

"I've seen detritus galore,
I've seen fishes big and small,
I've still not found what I'm looking for."
Click to expand...

Lol, Toad ode.
 
Modified said:
What's 98m deep in Loch Ness that would be of interest to a toad?
Click to expand...

It's a well-known fact that toads have an insatiable drive to hop around and see things. After all, you know the old saying: "All toads need to roam."
 
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William Parcher said:
Mister Toad, I presume,
Hopping out of the Loch Ness gloom
Into the midday sun.
What did you find there?
Did you stand awhile and stare?
Did you meet anyone?

"I've seen detritus galore,
I've seen fishes big and small,
I've still not found what I'm looking for."
Click to expand...

An FM hit for The Toady Blues, as I recall...
 
You know angler fish? Carnivorous fish. Thing on it's head looks like a worm?

Nessie has a thing on her head looks like a toad.

Good grief, don't you people know anything?


 
Isn't it obvious to everyone that the researchers made the classic mistake of brining the Frog Exaggerater instead of the Monsterometer? Deploy the Delochinator!
 
SezMe said:
I'd like to know more. The story says MIT was doing a side scan survey yet the image shown is not a side scan sonar image. What other instruments were involved in the survey?

The article also says the toad was "crawling" along the bottom. I'd like to know how long they observed it and what they saw. The toads I've seen don't crawl. I wonder if they have video.

Finally, note how the back legs are extended. Again, from the toads I've seen, that is a very unusual posture.

Fun stuff to speculate about.
Click to expand...

It looks like a normal posture to me. Toads can hop, jump (bigger hop) and walk (crawl). This one appears to be crawling up an incline. I doubt that they hop underwater - it's probably all swimming and crawling.

_42878811_toad300.jpg
 
Wow, tough little toad we've got here. The pressure down there is roughly ten kilograms per square centimeter.

But more puzzling is probably how the toad got there, and how long does it take? Anybody hazards a guess?
 
I believe that a toad's body is negatively bouyant (it sinks) unless it puts air in its lungs or air sacs (in which case it will float). They don't typically use water as an escape from predators as the frogs do. This is probably because they rely on the poison glands as defense, and their habitat is sometimes distant from water.

This toad ended up 98 meters below either by accident or intentionally. It's hard to speculate why a toad would want to go there. It may have "misjudged" the depth and kept swimming downwards or simply stopped swimming and went into freefall.

How he gets back to the shore is another big question. He either has to swim to the surface or crawl out on the substrate. Both are daunting tasks for a toad and it might even be impossible. In either case, he has to use lots of energy. On a full water ascent, he can't stop swimming or he'll sink again. It could be that toads occasionally find themselves this deep, but never return and end up dying down there.
 
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