There are three known kinds of electric – more correctly called electrogenic – animals: (1) the one species, Electrophorus electricus, of South American electric eel (really a knifefish), (2) the 19 species of African electric catfish in the genera Malapterurus and Paradoxoglanis, and (3) the 69 species of electric rays (order Torpediniformes) found around the world. The first two fish both demonstrate the ability to shock prey with electricity as an effective strategy for a piscivore (an animal that eats fish). They produce high levels of voltage, e.g. electric eel (600 volts) and the electric catfish (350 volts). Electric rays [...]
Loren Coleman
Bridge Name Game: Reeves/McDaniel
August 1, 2007: The I-35W Bridge collapses. Taking a couple Fortean and Mothman sidetreks, here is more pondering in the wake of the I-35W Bridge collapse. While reading the accounts about the fall of the Minnesota bridge, I noticed two names popped up, Reeves and McDaniel. Hang in here with me as I let that Fortean part of my brain wander and wonder. Jay Reeves, 39, was one of the first people on the scene after the collapse. He tried calling 911, but all the lines were jammed. Then, he heard the sounds of children’s screams from the school bus. [...]
Attack Panther “Like a Woolly Mammoth”
The photograph of the “Sidney Mystery Cat” taken in Maine late in June 2007. Articles about incidents in British Columbia, Ontario, and Maine have appeared recently, detailing breaking news and updates about mountain lions, cougars, panthers, puma or whatever you wish to call these great cats (Puma concolor) of North America. Here’s a roundup of panther news, from west to east: A cougar attack has left Colton Reeb with strange memories, but little fear of the big cats that roam rural areas such as the B.C. Interior region where the 12-year-old was scratched and bitten this week. “Colton remembers seeing [...]
Prince Arthur’s Feejee Mermaid
Gordon Rutter, a professional botanist and well-known collector of Fortean artifacts, wrote me: “I was in London last week and whilst in the British Museum I stumbled across a rather fine Feejee mermaid which I did not know they had!” Gordon shares the above photograph with Cryptomundo, of what he found. Gordon decided to write the museum and discover more about what was being exhibited: From: Gordon Rutter Sent: Sun 29/07/2007 19:36 To: Collection Enquiries Subject: Collection Request Dear Sir On a recent visit to the museum I chanced upon a Mermaid exhibit in the George II library. There was [...]
New Enigmatic Catfish: Lacantunia enigmatica
Lacantunia enigmatica shown above.Photo courtesy of John P. Sullivan. I get interesting emails. Here’s a good one with a new species discovery to share: I’m a fan of Cryptomundo and also an ichthyologist. I thought I’d point out an article we just published on an enigmatic catfish from Chiapas, Mexico (named Lacantunia enigmatica, appropriately). From DNA analysis we found that this species is apparently a relict of a once much more widespread clade of catfishes (claroteinea) all of which are today exclusively found African. It’s an amazing disjunct distribution for a freshwater clade. The paper, published in the latest Proceedings [...]
The Day It Began: Bluff Creek in Bigfoot History
During this 40th anniversary of the filming of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek (October 20, 1967), I’ll drop in at various points to note some significant milestone dates on the calendar. For today, let’s look at the pivotal date of August 3rd. The October 1958 tracks of the Bluff Creek’s Bigfoot became famous because Jerry Crew took a cast of one of them into Eureka to show the newspaper. But the 1958 Bigfoot events began in August. Crew was a new hire that spring with the construction company. The men were getting serious about taking down trees and creating the new [...]
Looking For A Summer Rental?
Thanks to Charles Berlin for sharing another light look at the history, circa 1924, of hairy hominoids.
Olympic “King Kong”
Yu Zhenhuan, above, wants to carry the Olympic torch before the Beijing Games. One of the world’s hairiest men, who nicknames himself “King Kong”, has launched a campaign to carry the Olympic torch during the relay ahead of next year’s Beijing Games. (Reuters: Claro Cortes IV) Occasionally skeptics will try to debunk a Bigfoot case from the past by pointing to abnormally hairy people or feral human beings as a solution. Is this possible? Feral adults and wild children certainly have existed and have been found. The Tenth Edition of Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae (1758), lists seven cases of “wild children,” [...]
Bridge Collapse: Flashback to 1967
A bridge over the Mississippi River has fallen. The I-35 W is visible as one of the darker (thus wider) bridges on this map, and is labeled. It is seen near the Gasworks Area and the Bohemian Flats. As it gets near 10 pm EDT, the wire services are saying seven people are reported dead from the freeway bridge that fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about four hours ago. Reuters is flashing the news around the world that “One hundred cars [are] missing in US bridge collapse.” News channels on television are showing wall-to-wall images of the [...]
Scientists Need Your Help: Identify This
Have you seen anything like the above, ever? This crustacean, found in the marine environment off Walpole and Portland, Maine, is not like anything researchers have seen before. Can you assist them with identifying it? (Photo courtesy Casco Bay Estuary Partnership) Reporter Ann S. Kim noted in The Maine Sunday Telegram on July 31, 2007, specifically about this unknown animal: A crustacean the size of a grain of rice was among the hundreds of specimens that researchers gathered in recent days from docks and piers from Cape Cod to midcoast Maine. The tiny crustacean, the marine version of a pill [...]
Follow CryptoZooNews
Not Found
The resource could not be found.