Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman

New Shark Discovered

Mark Clarke over at Practical Fishkeeling is noting there’s been a “new Mandarin shark discovered,” and named from south eastern Australia. William White, Peter Last and John Stevens of Australia’s CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research named the new species Cirrhigaleus australis in an announcement paper in the newest issue of the journal Zootaxa. Clarke writes, “Cirrhigaleus australis is a member of the Mandarin dogfish group of squalid sharks which typically reach lengths of just a metre or so….The new species is believed to occur in temperate waters off eastern Australia and its range may extend as far as New Zealand. [...]

New Moa Photos For Sale

Editorial Commentary Is cryptozoology the newest big time marketable niche to be discovered or exploited? It appears to be so. There’s the Shipton Yeti footprints photographs auction that I’m discussing at Cryptomundo also today, and now this business of someone selling new photographs of moa tracks and the pictures of the animals themselves. I think it’s one thing to sell off historical items (even though I have reservations about these disappearing into private collections). But these alleged moa discoveries have not even been properly noted and discussed, examined and explored for their possible value to the knowledge base of what [...]

For Sale: Yeti History

Eric Shipton, above, (August 1, 1907 – March 28, 1977), has a name that will live on forever within cryptozoology, in conjuction with the famed “1951 Shipton Yeti footprints photos.” Shipton found these tracks during his exploratory 1951 expedition in which he and his team worked out the now famous route over the Khumbu Glacier to assault Mount Everest. I thought the death on October 7, 2005, of Michael Ward, 80, closed a living chapter of that remarkable event and soon thereafter, more might be heard from Ward’s or Shipton’s estates. Ward was the medical doctor, along with Eric Shipton, [...]

Lake Ontario Monster Sighting

September 5 – Another report of the appearance of the great snake or water monster in Lake Ontario has reached us. We have it from reliable citizens who reside on the Lake shore in Parma [New York], ten miles or so west of the mouth of the Genesee, that on Thursday last [possibly August 29] , just as sunset, this monster was seen in the water close to shore. A drove of cattle went to drink, whereupon the huge monster raised his head above the water and approached the shore, intending no doubt to take an evening meal of fresh [...]

Fayette Factor Fascinates On 250th

The name game is played daily. One word, “Lafayette,” which can be translated from the French as “the little fairy” or “the little enchantment,” is an especially fascinating focus, my friends. This specific element of the name game that Jim Brandon wrote about in Weird America, and that I have discussed in Mysterious America, is what I’ve come to call the “Fayette Factor.” Since research and writing about it first in the 1970s, several items on this lexilink between Fayette (as well as its related forms – Lafayette, La Fayette, Fayetteville), high strangeness and sightings have been published. The cities, [...]

Cryptid Caracas Lion’s Roars Confirmed

There is news out of Caracas, Venezuela, of a mystery felid, being heard and evidence of its presence being found. Roars from the unidentified feline have scared residents of a mountainous Caracas suburb and triggered a hunt for the capture of what neighbours are convinced is a lion. But Venezuelan authorities, who have scoured on horseback the woods where the bellowing comes from, could only confirm the presence of some type of feline after finding the carcasses of small animals including a half-eaten armadillo. “One of the people that saw this animal talks about a lion,” said Juan Fernandez, mayor [...]

Red Elephants of New Guinea

I receive good questions emailed to me via my lorencoleman.com website’s contact form. For example, a Japanese reader asked today about an interesting subject, which I will label as the Red Elephants of New Guinea: Hello, I enjoyed reading your website. Thank you. I have read a Japanese book about cryptozoology by Mr. Tatsuo Saneyoshi. In the book the author mentioned red elephants that were sighted in the Nassau Mountains, Indonesia by two American Navy pilots on June 15, 1952. Mr. Tatsuo Saneyoshi is a well-known cryptozoologist in Japan. In his book he also states that those pilots who sighted [...]