NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE Page 3“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe Part II – Hunting for Nessie Victoria was a bit of a cyptozoologist herself, and she knew there was more evidence for the Loch Ness monster than for all the other legendary creatures combined. By one estimate, there have been more than 4,000 sightings of Nessie over the last 80 years, along with sonar tracings, video records, and some incredible photographs. But her Philosophy of Science professor had the class read Carl Sagan’s book Th e Demon Haunted World, so she was familiar with Sagan’s “Baloney Detection Kit.” One of the tools Sagan recommended was to “spin more than one hypothesis”; that is, consider all reasonable explanations of a phenomenon, weigh the evidence for and against each, then let the evidence tell you which explanation is most likely correct. While her brother was stuck on a single idea—namely that monsters were living in a lake in northern Scotland—Victoria understood the limitations of eyewitness accounts, sonar tracings, and fuzzy photographs. She would introduce her alternative hypotheses to Travis later. Now she was going to take him on a mental quest using what she had learned in her ecology course. “Th at was a great game sis, too bad your team lost to the Irish, and on homecoming weekend to boot.” “No worries,” she responded. “I’ve just poured each of us a big glass of fresh lemonade; want to go on that hunt for Nessie?” “Sure. Where, or should I ask ‘how,’ do we start?” “Well, to begin with, tell me what you know about the monster,” Victoria prodded, “but keep it brief.” Travis had read every positive report about Nessie, but Victoria requested the “elevator-pitch version,” so he strained to keep his account short and sweet. “Well, some saint back in the 6th century was the fi rst to encounter it, but it wasn’t seen again until an elderly couple reported it crossing the road, heading towards the lake, with a lamb in its mouth, in 1933. Th e next year, a fantastic photo was taken of the beast. Called “Th e Surgeon’s Photo,” it is probably the most widely recognized photograph of any cryptid anywhere.” “I know the one you’re talking about, this big animal in the middle of a lake, with its head raised out of the water, looking around, the one that resembles a plesiosaur,” Victoria added. “Th at’s the one,” Travis continued. “And it spawned a huge public interest. People fl ocked to the loch, and many saw the monster. Numerous scientifi c expeditions followed, generating some interesting sonar tracings. Th en, in 1975, a paper was published in the journal Nature that not only assigned a scientifi c name to the beast, but also printed several underwater pictures of Nessie; two of the photos clearly revealed her plesiosaur-like fi ns, while two others, with less resolution, showed her body, long neck, and head. More expeditions followed, and a set of vertebrae were found, but there hasn’t ...

1. NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN
SCIENCE
Page 3“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe
Part II – Hunting for Nessie
Victoria was a bit of a cyptozoologist herself, and she knew
there was more evidence for the Loch Ness monster than
for all the other legendary creatures combined. By one estimate,
there have been more than 4,000 sightings of Nessie
over the last 80 years, along with sonar tracings, video records,
and some incredible photographs. But her Philosophy
of Science professor had the class read Carl Sagan’s book Th e
Demon Haunted World, so she was familiar with Sagan’s
“Baloney Detection Kit.” One of the tools Sagan recommended
was to “spin more than one hypothesis”; that is,
consider all reasonable explanations of a phenomenon, weigh
the evidence for and against each, then let the evidence
tell you which explanation is most likely correct. While her
brother was stuck on a single idea—namely that monsters
were living in a lake in northern Scotland—Victoria understood
the limitations of eyewitness accounts, sonar tracings,
and fuzzy photographs. She would introduce her alternative
hypotheses to Travis later. Now she was going to take him
on a mental quest using what she had learned in her ecology
course.
“Th at was a great game sis, too bad your team lost to the Irish,
and on homecoming weekend to boot.”
“No worries,” she responded. “I’ve just poured each of us a big

2. glass of fresh lemonade; want to go on that hunt for
Nessie?”
“Sure. Where, or should I ask ‘how,’ do we start?”
“Well, to begin with, tell me what you know about the
monster,” Victoria prodded, “but keep it brief.”
Travis had read every positive report about Nessie, but Victoria
requested the “elevator-pitch version,” so he strained to
keep his account short and sweet. “Well, some saint back in the
6th century was the fi rst to encounter it, but it wasn’t
seen again until an elderly couple reported it crossing the road,
heading towards the lake, with a lamb in its mouth, in
1933. Th e next year, a fantastic photo was taken of the beast.
Called “Th e Surgeon’s Photo,” it is probably the most
widely recognized photograph of any cryptid anywhere.”
“I know the one you’re talking about, this big animal in the
middle of a lake, with its head raised out of the water,
looking around, the one that resembles a plesiosaur,” Victoria
added.
“Th at’s the one,” Travis continued. “And it spawned a huge
public interest. People fl ocked to the loch, and many saw
the monster. Numerous scientifi c expeditions followed,
generating some interesting sonar tracings. Th en, in 1975, a
paper was published in the journal Nature that not only assigned
a scientifi c name to the beast, but also printed several
underwater pictures of Nessie; two of the
photos clearly revealed her plesiosaur-like
fi ns, while two others, with less resolution,
showed her body, long neck, and head. More
expeditions followed, and a set of vertebrae
were found, but there hasn’t been much
recently.”

3. “So the general consensus is that Nessie is a
plesiosaur, or something like that?”
“Yep, and she’s big!” Travis blurted, eager to
show his kid sister how much he knew. “Based
on the photos and sonar records published
back in 1975, she’s around 15 meters long,
about the length of a gray whale, and would
weigh approximately 8 tons, although another
report suggested she may only be half that
long with a mass of only 1.5 tons.”
“Wow, that is big” Victoria responded. “And
what do they eat?”
Figure 1. Th e “Surgeon’s Photo” of the Loch Ness Monster.
Provided by the
Fortean Picture Library.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN
SCIENCE
Page 4“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe
“Well, we don’t know for sure, as no one has
ever found a carcass or skeleton of the monster.
But based on the skulls and teeth of fossil
plesiosaurs, they were top-level predators and
ate big fi sh like salmon.”
“But aren’t plesiosaurs a group of marine reptiles
that went extinct when a meteor exploded near
the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years

4. ago, wiping out the dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs,
pterosaurs, and a whole bunch of other stuff ?”
Victoria probed.
“Sure,” Travis snapped defensively, “but
scientists thought the coelacanth died out back then too, and
look how wrong they were!”
Questions
1. Prior to the meteor-driven extinction at the end of the
Cretaceous, the seas teamed with a diversity of large
reptiles, including voracious predators like plesiosaurs,
ichthyosaurs, and mosasaurs. What is left of this diversity
of marine reptiles? If you wanted to snorkel with our few
remnants of this past reptilian glory, where would you
go? Could any of today’s marine reptiles survive and breed in
Loch Ness? Why or why not?
2. Is Loch Ness old enough, geologically, to have been a refuge
for plesiosaurs that may have escaped the mass
extinction of 65mya?
3. What is Net Primary Productivity, or NPP? Are all
ecosystems equally productive? Where, on the range of NPP
values for diff erent systems/biomes, would Loch Ness fall?
4. What is the 10% rule in ecology? A generous appraisal of the
mass of fi sh in Loch Ness is 15,675 kg. Based on
Travis’s estimates of the size of Nessie, how many monsters
might the lake contain?
5. What is the 50/500 rule, and why is it relevant?
6. Your sleuthing likely revealed additional ecological
inconsistencies regarding the plesiosaur hypothesis. Provide a

5. short list.
7. Imagine that, as a good friend of both Travis and Victoria,
you’ve joined them in their lemonade-fueled quest
for Nessie. Using your answers to the questions above,
summarize the results of your investigation. What do
your results suggest regarding Travis’s hypothesis that a
population of large, predatory monsters (plesiosaur or
otherwise) prowls the murky depths of Loch Ness?
Figure 2. Plesiosaur skeleton, Denver Museum of Nature and
Science.
Used with permission from Mike Everhart.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN
SCIENCE
Page 5“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe
Part III – Spinning Additional Hypotheses
Travis felt a bit defl ated following their hunt for Nessie.
“Alright
sis, I’ll grant that ecology makes a strong case against the
monster.”
As a good defense attorney, however, he wasn’t
conceding defeat, not yet. “But what about
all the evidence in her favor?” he added.
“Such as…?” responded Victoria,
knowing full well the nature of the
evidence—and its limitations.
“To begin with, there are the

6. eyewitness accounts, and the positive
sonar recordings! Have you seen
Tim Dinsdale’s fi lm? And that set
of fossil plesiosaur vertebrae found
at the edge of the lake? What about
those amazing underwater photos,
especially of Nessie’s fl ippers? How
do you explain those if Nessie isn’t
real?”
“Travis,” Victoria admonished, “as a defense attorney you know
the limitations of eyewitness testimony. Th e Innocence
Project has used DNA evidence to free hundreds of people
wrongly convicted of crimes based solely on eyewitness
identifi cations. People’s accounts of events are notoriously
fallible, especially when they have expectations about what
they are likely to see. Th e majority of ‘Nessie sightings’ are by
tourists visiting the loch in the hopes of encountering
the monster. As you yourself have argued in defense of a client,
‘without corroborating hard evidence, eye-witness
accounts cannot be used to reach a verdict.’”
“Ok, I’ll grant you that. But what explains the sonar contacts?”
“Remember that trip we took out to New Mexico, with mom and
dad before the twins were born, to visit the Roswell
UFO Museum?” While Victoria didn’t share her brother’s
fascination with aliens, this family vacation just prior to
their father’s death was a cherished memory. “And do you
remember how, when driving through the desert, we
thought we saw a huge lake, but it was only a mirage? Well,
mirages are the product of ‘layered’ air. When a colder
layer of air sits above a warmer layer, as it often does on a hot
summer day in the desert, light can be bent at the
boundary. So what we think is a lake is just a refl ection of the
sky. Th ere are several things that can cause layering of

7. the water in a lake. And, like light, sound can be bent by the
boundaries, leading to ‘false positives’ in sonar tracings.”
Having set the trap, Victoria moved in for the kill, “But that
doesn’t mean all sonar tracings are false. As you
said, juries need to base their decision on the preponderance of
the evidence. Th ere have been numerous scientifi c
expeditions to Loch Ness in search of the monster, and many
have used sonar to scan the depths of the lake. Th e most
ambitious of these was the BBC expedition back in 2003. Th ey
used an array of 600 sonar machines, positioned by
satellites, to probe every inch of the loch. Do you know what
they found?”
“No,” Travis demurred.
“Nothing. Nada. Zip. Other than the submerged target buoy they
used to test their equipment. No monsters.”
“Bummer,” whimpered Travis. “But that set of fossil
vertebrae?”
“Millions of years old, and taken from somewhere else”
Victoria quipped, “possibly planted to keep the Nessie-based
tourism industry alive.”
Figure 3. Is this how the infamous “fl ipper photo” was taken?
Illustration by Ryan
Daniels; used with permission.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN
SCIENCE
Page 6“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe

8. •
Case copyright held by the National Center for Case Study
Teaching in Science, University at Buff alo, State University of
New York. Originally
published June 16, 2015. Please see our usage guidelines, which
outline our policy concerning permissible reproduction of this
work. Licensed
photograph of Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness in title block
©Merlindo | Fotolia, ID#21216098.
“And the fl ipper photos?” her brother asked quietly, sensing
the case slipping away from him.
“Airbrushed. Th e lead scientist on the expedition that took
those photos was both a credible scientist and a successful
lawyer, but he was passionate about Nessie. Passion, as we all
know, can cloud judgment. Th e un-retouched photos
show a fuzzy blur, nothing resembling a fl ipper. And the
underwater photos of Nessie’s head turned out to be a tree
stump.”
Travis suspected Victoria had another shoe to drop, “Any other
bad news?”
“Sorry bro,” Victoria added, “but even the Surgeon’s photo
appears to have been faked.”
Questions
1. Science, law, and critical thinking share a common approach.
When presented with a claim, the surest way
to the truth (or as close as we can come to it) is to work up a
list of alternative explanations (referred to as
“multiple working hypotheses” in scientifi c jargon). Th e next

9. step is to gather all the evidence you can fi nd
that challenges or supports the various explanations. Th e most
likely explanation is the one that best survives
this thorough and impartial examination. Travis was trapped
because he chose not to consider explanations
challenging his belief in Nessie. He failed to develop a set of
“multiple working hypotheses.” Th is is a skill that
benefi ts from practice.
Start with the 1960 Dinsdale fi lm
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdQUbLKwCvQ), which
many claim
represents the best cinematic evidence for the monster. Th e
footage, shot by Tim Dinsdale from over a mile
away, purportedly shows Nessie swimming at high speed,
leaving a wake. What hypotheses other than “I’ve
fi lmed Nessie!” could explain what you observe in the video?
Which explanation would best survive Occam’s
Razor?
2. Your hunt for Nessie probably uncovered additional types of
evidence that “true believers” have off ered in her
support. Pick one, something diff erent from the “mysterious
wakes” reported by Dinsdale and others. Develop
a complete list of alternative hypotheses that could account for
the type of evidence/observation(s) you selected.
3. Nessie isn’t alone; she comes from a large and diverse family
of cryptids. Apply what you’ve learned during this
investigation to the claims made in favor of a diff erent
legendary creature.
SUMMARY

10. In my opinion, organizational behavior is the behavior of the
whole, not individual behavior. But organizational behavior is
realized through individual behavior, which in turn affects
individuals. Organizational behavior consists of organizational
culture, organizational change and organizational development.
I am very lucky to participate in the study of this course. We
have spent more than a month learning a lot about
organizational behavior, which has benefited me a lot. During
the organization activities, I found many problems and
promoted my correct understanding of the organization behavior
through group discussion and summary of problems. The whole
course arrangement was very interesting and we gained a new
understanding of the organization through a lot of group
activities. We use the group model to simulate the company
model, and extend the generation and solution of group
problems to the generation and solution of company problems.
This class will help me a lot in my work and life in the future.
I would like to segment the topics learned in the module as each
topic has its significance in one way or the other.
ORGANISATIONAL POWER AND POLITICS.
The people belonging to the high echelons in the organization
try to influence the policies of the organization as they are the
ones who have control over the resources and have a say in the
decision making process. Power and politics go hand in hand as
it is concentrated in the hands of few and it is useful for
someone who has to climb the ladder to reach to its top. It can
sometimes be behind-the curtains manipulation to achieve a
desired result. Too much emphasis on power and politics can
degrade the organization as there’s abuse of authority for
personal greed and can also tarnish the reputation of the fellow
colleagues and also of the organization. I learned from my team
mates that blame game, gossips and shifting of responsibilites
won’t work in carrying our tasks effectively. Cohesion of ideas
and coming to a conclusion is of great importance in a team

11. settings to complete the task.
LEADERSHIP
It is of great importance for organizations to have a leader who
always takes responsibilities and leads from the front.
According to me as i am aiming to become a top manager this is
a vital attribute which should be instilled in me before i join my
first job. I have the ambition of leading a team at my workplace.
There were many activities where i could deliver my leadership
skills which motivated my team mates and developed unity
among all the group members. An firm is successful only when
its employees are heard in the decision making process and a
good leader always hears everyone out and then arrives at a
decision.
ORGANISATION CULTURE
It is the social atmosphere engulfing the organization. It
depends on the people working in the organization. A good
organizational culture sets a positive vibe among people.
Different organizations have different culture. Culture plays an
important role in creating an image for the firm. It can also be
changed according to the wishes of the top leadership. Strong
culture is established when people are in line with the firm’s
values and beliefs. It can help the firm to achieve it’s mission
and objectives. Employees can feel motivated to work in the
firm where there is strong culture. Good culture can also lead to
productivity,growth and efficiency. There was positive
atmosphere around my learning team as people in my learning
team were positive and helped each other during crisis.
Organizations having strong culture generally have positive
financial growth and lead to employee retention.
TEAMWORK
I observed that effective team works results in productivity and
builds a rapport among team members. It helps to achieve the
tasks faster and also help in tackling different projects
efficiently. It also builds trust and promotes a wider sense of
ownership. Organization can increase team roles by specifying
goals in detail and establishing effective communications.

12. Effective communication in a team setting leads to positive
output. Being transparent helps in developing mutual respect
and keeps everyone in the loop. Managing teams effectively
also leads to constructive feedback and it is the teamwork which
made every task easier for us.
CASE STUDY
Jorge
technically competent work on a schedule work long hours at
the company
Mary
outgoing, rich work experience and innovative
Oki
rational understanding of the market works hard accept
different opinions
Because the three managers have different personalities, the
project cannot proceed. Everyone has their own advantages. Due
to their good development, they are reluctant to explore new
markets and shift their focus of work. In this case, if I were
Jean, I would find out the benefits to their company in
developing countries based on their respective production
conditions. Only when people see the benefits will they abandon
the original strategic plan. I will convince Oki first, because he
is a person who is receptive to different opinions. Let him see
the potential market to bring him huge benefits, with his leading
role, together to persuade the other two company executives. In
developing regions, the population base is large, the market
demand is large, and the production cost is low, the labor force
is connected. Most developed markets are already saturated, and
big breakthroughs are hard to come by. Jorge is a man who likes
to make plans and stick to them, so he's the hardest person to
change his mind. He was my last persuasion target, and I used
the influence of the other two to help him change his mind.

13. MBTI CSI MNO
Names
Belbin
MBTI
CSI
Number1
SP
IMP
TW
ESTJ
Quasi-Analytic
Number2
PL
CO
RI
INTP
Intuitive
Number3
TW
RI
PL
ESFJ
Quasi-Intuitive
Number4
CO
ME
SP
ENTP
Adaptive
Number5
CF
ME
SH
INFJ
Adaptive

14. Number6
RI
SP
ME
ENTP
Adaptive
Number7
ME
PL
SH
ENTP
Adaptive
Before the class, we took some personality tests such as
belbin.csi. Based on these tests, we could roughly position
ourselves in the team. In BELBIN's test, my results were shaper,
plant, resource investigator. For myself, I do have some interest
in planning and enterprise modeling. In our team work, I attach
great importance to team planning, and I am also good at
planning the development route of the team. Team nember 2 is
good at teamwork, so she pays great attention to our
communication process to ensure the normal teamwork. Team
nember 5 is Completer Finisher. He always follows through on
the plans we make, which helps our team a lot. When everyone
just stayed at the level of exchanging opinions, he had already
started to implement our plan, which ensured the normal
progress and timely completion of our team project. MBTI's
survey results show that I am an outgoing person who is good at
communicating with others. When making decisions, I tend to
be rational and judge the external things by my own perception.
According to the survey report, I think I will be a popular role
in our group. I am not stuffy, but I also have my own judgment,
can accept other people's different opinions, and can handle the
relationship with my friends well. Each member in the group
has his or her own personality. For example, the third member
of our group likes to work according to the plan and finish his

15. work according to the rules. We developed a complementary
state in the group. Different characters can make up for other's
shortcomings, which is beneficial to the development of the
team.
During the whole operation of the organization, it is necessary
to make plans according to your own situation in advance. In
our group activities, there are some problems. First, when we
choose a project, we often only see the value of the project, but
ignore an evaluation of our own value. At the beginning of the
game, we had time to choose which game we wanted to make,
and soon we decided on the project based on the amount of
money we made and the number of people we had. However, in
the process of the game, we found that although many projects
were of high value, they failed due to our own insufficient
ability. We spent a lot of time and effort on making the game
worthwhile, and that decision dragged down the team. In my
opinion, not all projects are suitable for every company, and
there is specialization in the industry. We should first of all
give ourselves a correct positioning in the future work, evaluate
our own ability, and select the project under the corresponding
conditions. This will not waste resources, thereby creating
greater value. In a small organization, we should be familiar
with everyone's skills and try to make the best use of each
person's value. In this case, I was assigned a sudoku game, but
English was not my first language, so I spent a lot of time and
couldn't finish the game. Second, group meetings are important
in every organization. Meetings are the soul of managers. Every
meeting is the best way for managers to find problems and solve
problems. n our group discussion, we need to determine the
theme of each meeting et the group members present their own
ideas, and then make decisions or vote on them by the leader.
As a leader, you can't experience every position and find every
problem. So you can only summarize the problem in the meeting
and find a way to solve the problem. There are also many kinds
of meetings, planned meetings, summary meetings, morning

16. meetings, weekly meetings, annual meetings and so on.
Meetings are an important way to make the whole organization
more efficient. In the game, I found that in order to save time,
our team was spared the process of meeting, but in fact, we
lacked communication and did our own things without exerting
the collective power to the maximum. People can't be perfect,
but the collective can be perfect. Thirdly, each member of the
group should have its own correct positioning, understand its
own position in the group, and complete the tasks of the group
according to its own ability. We were formed temporarily in this
group activity, so we didn't have a good understanding of each
other. But before the group activity, there is a brief self-
introduction. During this period, each person should simply
describe his/her own characteristics and identify himself/herself
as a leader. Then the leader will assign the work according to
each person's personality characteristics and preferences. There
are fewer people in our group, so it is not very difficult for the
leader. The purpose and function of managers are to improve
work efficiency. In chapter 2 of {Wealth of Nations}, it is
mentioned that the main reason why human beings can make
progress is that we use tools to improve work efficiency.
Management is also an intangible tool of production. Before the
course began, we completed some investigations, such as CSI,
MBTI and so on. We can according to the above data, the
correct positioning for themselves. According to MBTI's survey
structure, I am a straightforward but rational independent
person who does not like to conform to rules. So I am suitable
for some independent and creative work. Having a correct
cognition of oneself before work can not only improve the work
efficiency of the whole team, but also make oneself have a
favorite working environment, which is conducive to one's
mental health and relieve work pressure. In the future
management work, especially when the size of the enterprise is
relatively small, the number of employees is small, we as
managers, we should know more about each person's personality
and his ability to work, according to each person's ability to

17. work out the corresponding work plan. This will make the
whole organization's system clearer, improve the company's
production efficiency and create a good working environment
for the people.
Our last class impressed me a lot. Under the guidance of the
professor, we played a very interesting game -- anonymous
evaluation. Each of us has a piece of paper on our back, and
your team members and friends can paste their comments on
your back, but you can't find out who wrote them. First, let's
talk about the benefits of mutual evaluation. First, evaluation
can help us find our shortcomings and promote our growth.
Everyone's vision has limitations, many times we can not find
their own shortcomings, mutual evaluation can help you find the
shortcomings in time, to correct. Second: mutual evaluation is
conducive to the summary of the group's work, common
communication, improve the quality of work. The third; Group
evaluation can enhance the affection between team members and
promote the coordination ability of the team. Anonymous
evaluation can maintain the benign development of the team's
feelings, improve efficiency and promote development without
affecting the team's feelings. Such activities are necessary in
our future work.
CONCLUTION
This class has brought me a lot of gains. In the future work and
life, I know how to improve work efficiency through
organization and management, reach the target through setting
the right plan, and find out the problems through meetings. We
can solve different problems in the same way. This class also
gives me a concrete understanding of organizational behavior,
which affects individual behavior through organizational
behavior. So the purpose is to improve work efficiency, so that
employees have a good working environment. Organizational
culture refers to the image of individuals through organizations,

18. but it is also the individual behavior that constitutes
organizational culture. But when businesses are small, we need
to use everyone a little to increase productivity. As the
organization grows, we need to use management regulations,
corporate systems, and corporate culture to manage employees
to maximize their personal value. This may be the ultimate goal
of studying organizational behavior.
Page 1“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN
SCIENCE
Part I – Introduction
Victoria adored her older brother Travis. She had good reason:
their father had died when they were kids, leaving them
and their younger twin sisters to be raised by their mother and
grandmother. Growing up was tough; their mother’s
salary as a social worker was meager, and their grandmother
suff ered from a chronic medical condition that took
much of the family’s income. As the oldest, Travis started
working early to help support the family, a sacrifi ce not lost
on Victoria and her sisters. Victoria so respected her brother
that she couldn’t help comparing her high school and
now her college suitors to Travis, and the admirers always fell
short. Travis was kind, courageous, generous to a fault,
and oh so smart—he even, while helping raise his siblings, put
himself through law school and was now working as
a public defender in Chicago. But he had a weakness that
worried Victoria. Outside of the courtroom, Travis was

19. gullible. He had a fondness for all things extraordinary—from
ghosts to alien abductions to new-age therapies. His
true passion, however, was cryptids. He was simply crazy about
cryptids.
Victoria was majoring in Integrative Biology at Michigan State.
Her training, including courses in ecology, wildlife
biology, and the philosophy of science, made her appropriately
skeptical of chupacabras, yetis, bigfoot, the Loch
Ness monster, and other storied beasts. Th e fact that her
brother, a lawyer whose career depended on the critical
examination of evidence, could be so credulous was unsettling
to her. While sensitive to his feelings, she hoped she
could use her growing understanding of science in general, and
ecology in particular, to empower her brother. A “just
touching base” phone call from Travis presented Victoria with
an opportunity.
“Hi sis, how are classes?” Travis asked supportively when
Victoria picked up the phone.
“Great,” she replied, “in my wildlife techniques course, we’re
studying all the cool things you can learn about an animal
just by analyzing a tiny drop of its feces, or a hair or two
snagged on a scratching post. It’s pretty amazing.”
“Yeah,” Travis replied with unrestrained enthusiasm, “did you
hear about the recent study of hair samples collected
from a bunch of diff erent sites in the U.S. and Canada that
proved the existence of bigfoot, and showed they were
interbreeding with humans?”
Victoria, remembering one of the principles she learned in her
philosophy course, responded: “Travis, science isn’t
about ‘proving’ an idea or explanation, it’s about marshaling all
of the evidence you can to determine which of various

20. competing explanations is best supported.” She continued, “I
don’t mean to sound scientifi cally snobbish or anything,
but the study you mention by Melba Ketchum and her coauthors
lacks credibility. A team led by Bryan Sykes
published a more rigorous analysis of hair sent in by bigfoot
and yeti enthusiasts from around the world; the results
showed that the hair belonged to bears and raccoons and other
mammals one would expect to be wandering around
in the woods, not to bigfoot or a bigfoot-human hybrid.”
by
Matthew P. Rowe
Department of Integrative Biology
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Crazy About Cryptids!
An Ecological Hunt for Nessie and
Other Legendary Creatures
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN
SCIENCE
Page 2“Crazy About Cryptids!” by Matthew P. Rowe
“You’re breaking my heart here kiddo, you know I’m a true
believer in Sasquatch,” Travis replied with feigned sadness.
“Besides, isn’t it possible that a species of giant man-ape
unknown to science exists somewhere on the planet?”
“Sure,” Victoria chimed encouragingly, “species unknown to
science are occasionally discovered, like the mega-mouth
shark or the saola. And creatures that scientists thought went
extinct millions of years ago like the coelacanth are
rediscovered. So I’m not saying that bigfoot doesn’t exist, only

21. that the evidence presented so far is insuffi cient for me
to accept that it does.”
After a short pause, Travis responded thoughtfully, “Ok, little
sister, I think I see where you are coming from; in a jury
trial, which is something I know about, the guilt or innocence of
a suspect is determined by the preponderance of the
evidence. Th e jury has to determine whether the accused is
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not beyond any shadow
of a doubt. Absolute certainty is unlikely. What matters is that
the jurists, before reaching a verdict, carefully examine
each of the explanations and all of the evidence off ered by both
the prosecution and the defense. I guess it’s the same
thing in science.”
Sensing an opening, Victoria slyly suggested, “Didn’t you say
you wanted to see a Spartan football game? Well,
homecoming is in two weeks; why don’t you come for a visit.
We can catch the game, and then afterwards we’ll go
hunting for the Loch Ness Monster.”
Nessie was Travis’s favorite cryptid, so his sister’s off er
aroused his curiosity. “How can we go hunting for a population
of aquatic monsters in Scotland from your apartment in the
middle of Michigan?” Travis asked inquisitively.
“We’ll track her down using the science of ecology,” Victoria
answered.
Questions
1. Two articles were mentioned in the story. Th e fi rst, titled
“Novel North American Hominins, Next Generation
Sequencing of Th ree Whole Genomes and Associated Studies”
by lead author Melba Ketchum and her co-
authors, was published in the journal DeNovo. Th e second,

22. titled “Genetic Analysis of Hair Samples Attributed
To Yeti, Bigfoot, and Other Anomalous Primates” by Bryan
Sykes and his team, was published in the journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Th e
two reports apply similar techniques using similarly
obtained samples but reach diff erent conclusions. Summarize
the main conclusions of each.
2. Credibility is an important concept both in science and in
courts-of-law. Which of the two publications is more
credible, and why?
3. Occam’s Razor, also known as the Principle of Parsimony,
can be useful when trying to determine which
explanation, among two or more, is most likely to be correct.
What is the Principle of Parsimony? Apply the
principle to the diff erent explanations off ered by Ketchum’s
team and Syke’s team. Which of the competing
explanations best passes the razor test, and why?