The Animals Nobody Had Seen: teacher key

Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. The giant squid and the saola were known from stories or a skull before scientists studied them. Here is how those finds compare with the search for Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What was the giant squid known from before it was found?
   • Cave paintings
   • Sea-monster stories (answer)
   • Laboratory tests
2. Which animal was found alive in 1938?
   • The okapi
   • The saola
   • The coelacanth (answer)
3. How many hair samples were chosen for DNA tests in the Oxford study?
   • 57
   • 37 (answer)
   • 1
4. Why did the authors call the 2014 polar-bear match preliminary?
   • The matching stretch of DNA was only 104 base pairs long (answer)
   • The hairs were from a dog
   • The hairs had been burned
5. What does it mean that a hoax "tainted" the monster's image?
   • It made the image shine
   • It spoiled how the monster was seen (answer)
   • It made the monster larger
6. Why did the Loch Ness prop not count as proof of an animal?
   • It was a film prop, not a body (answer)
   • It was too small to see
   • It was found on land

Words

• coelacanth: ancient fish
• submersible: deep-sea vehicle
• preliminary: early, uncertain
• contamination: unwanted traces
• hoax: a trick