Sir Peter Markham Scott

This led to one of my favorite little episodes in the whole saga.

In 1975, Rines and a famous British naturalist named Sir Peter Scott were so convinced by these images that they gave the creature an official scientific name, publishing it in the journal Nature.

The name was Nessiteras rhombopteryx, roughly the Ness monster with a diamond shaped fin.

Part of the reason was practical.

Not long after, a Scottish member of Parliament pointed out that if you rearrange the letters of Nessiteras rhombopteryx, they spell out monster hoax by Sir Peter S.

To which Rines gamely fired back that if you rearrange the letters a little differently, you could also spell, "Yes, both pics are monsters, R." [laughs] I have to say, that's a pretty good comeback.

And to be fair to Peter Scott, most people think the anagram was pure coincidence.

He genuinely believed in Nessie, but it's a perfect little snapshot of how the whole subject lived in the space between serious science and total absurdity.