A little girl's eerie footage has people scratching their heads in Scotland.
A little girl's video from Scotland's infamous Loch Ness has brought the search for its mythical occupant back to the forefront as a New Zealand scientist and his team hope DNA testing will reveal the truth, once and for all.
We are speaking, of course, about the Loch Ness Monster.
And, from time immemorial, the elusive beast has lit up the imagination of kids like 8-year-old Laria Annand.
Laria was visiting the lake with her grandmother, Marie, when they noticed strange movement in the water as light bounced off a long, unidentified object.
With no boats or people around, the duo quickly fumbled for their phone to take some pictures.
"I had to do a double take because there was just nothing to explain it," Marie told Caters. "I took a few pictures and then my granddaughter asked if she could take a picture. I didn't realize at the time but that's when she shot the video... I can't explain it so the only thing I can think is we have seen the Loch Ness Monster."
Hoping to determine whether the scores of experiences like these can possibly be real is University of Otago professor Neil Gemmell.
Gemmell says he's no believer in "Nessie," but he wants to take people on an adventure and communicate some science along the way.
To do so, he's leading an international expedition to the lake next month. They intend to take samples of the water and conduct DNA tests to determine what species live there.
If generations of lore are to be believed, one of those species is a long-necked plesiosaur that somehow survived the period when dinosaurs became extinct.
Others theorize Nessie is actually a sturgeon or giant catfish.
Whatever it is, Gemmell says it leaves behind little bits of its DNA as it swims. He and his team will take 300 samples from around the lake and at different depths.
The team will then filter out any DNA.
"I'm not a great believer in the Loch Ness Monster," Gemmell said. "But I'm willing to go there and test the idea, and I'm also willing to test the idea that there may be other explanations for the myth, like various giant fish that have been purported to have been in Loch Ness."
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