The Top Cryptozoology Books of 2006 by Loren Coleman, Cryptozoologist Author, Cryptozoology A to Z, Bigfoot!, and Tom Slick It is time for the annual top picks for the best cryptozoology books of 2006, with attention to each book’s individual achievements noted in recognition of its unique niche within the cryptozoological literature this year. Since 2000, I have published my annual "best of lists" in cryptozoology. Last year’s list of the best non-fiction books can be found here. For more information on each book picked below, please click on its hyperlinked name. Congratulations to the authors, editors, and publishers. Readers, [...]
Loren Coleman
Baiji Declared Extinct
A rare, nearly blind white dolphin that survived for millions of years is effectively extinct, an international expedition declared Wednesday after ending a fruitless six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat. The baiji would be the first large aquatic mammal driven to extinction since hunting and overfishing killed off the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s. For the baiji, the culprit was a degraded habitat — busy ship traffic, which confounds the sonar the dolphin uses to find food, and overfishing and pollution in the Yangtze waters of eastern China, the expedition said. * * * Randall Reeves, chairman of [...]
Cryptid Quagga?
Quagga An article in the Edmonton Journal, December 13, 2006, concerns an alleged quagga, a South Africa species with genetic links to zebras said to be extinct for over 100 years. This specific equine has been missing for over two weeks from a farm located at Carrot Creek, a little way west of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The animal seems rather unique: The eight-year-old stallion, named Zebastian, is a brown zebra with black stripes, and its owner fears the animal’s unique looks will tempt area hunters who don’t know how special it is. Plus… [Patricia] O’Neil bought Zebastian seven years ago [...]
Who Coined “Skunk Ape”?
Just as I was curious about who coined “blobsquatch,” I’ve been wondering if there’s a clear history to who invented another term in our field. Who coined the phrase “Skunk Ape”? If you work your way over to the “Skunk Ape” entry at Wikipedia, you will find a simple answer that someone added there to that question. It is presented, as a fact, under the first subsection entitled simply Name. The following single sentence is given: The term “skunk-ape” was coined by David Shealy who heads the Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee, Florida. I’ve known the term “Skunk Ape” has [...]
Yahoo: “Salt & Pepper Squirrels” #1
The Once And Future University of North Texas White Squirrel. A Cryptomundo correspondent at Princeton University just passed this along: I see that your salt-and-pepper squirrel article made the # 1 spot (always reserved for cute critter pictures) on The 9 at Yahoo.Com. — my absolute favorite, must-watch M-F wrapup of the weird and wonderful on the World Wide Web: Vote For #1 = “Salt & Pepper Squirrels” Now you’ve really arrived, my man! Congratulations! I appreciate this. Actually, the readers at Cryptomundo are the keys to our success. Thank you all for visiting, reading, and voting us Number #1, [...]
Pynchon’s New Cryptofiction
Most people have heard the rumors about alligators-in-the-sewers, in large part, because of Thomas Pynchon’s 1963 novel, V. Pynchon wrote of the cute little pet alligators purchased as Florida souvenirs, eventually discarded, then growing and reproducing in the sewers of New York City. Moving through the underground system, Pynchon told us, they were big, blind, albino, and fed off rats and sewage. Pynchon envisioned an Alligator Patrol going into the depths of the sewers, working in teams of two, with one man holding a flashlight while the other carried a twelve-gauge repeating shotgun. As no one before him had, Thomas [...]
Memphis Manatee Found Dead
The out-of-place manatee, first seen the weekend of October 21-22, 2006, when fishermen spotted it in Wolf River Harbor, near Memphis, has been found dead. According to the Associated Press: Police spokesman Sgt. Vince Higgins said the manatee was discovered around 1:30 p.m. CDT (1930 GMT) [on Monday, December 11, 2006] at Lake McKellar, off the Mississippi River south of Memphis. Cryptomundo reader Lou Jackson also sends info from the more detailed article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal for December 12, 2006. It notes the specifics of how the dead animal was found, on the north bank of the lake, [...]
New Lizard Discovered in Borneo
A researcher from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and a Louisiana State University (LSU) professor, using the LSU molecular genetics lab, discovered a new lizard during a 2006 expedition. Chris Austin, assistant curator of herpetology at LSU’s Museum of Natural Science, or LSUMNS, in Baton Rouge, and adjunct professor in biological sciences, recently discovered the new species of lizard while conducting field research in Borneo. Austin, along with colleague Indraneil Das from the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, will publish their findings and photos of the new species in the Journal of Herpetology. The article, [...]
Origins of “M.K. Footage”
The other day, I wrote positively about M.K. Davis’s work with the Patterson-Gimlin footage. Cryptomundo technical staff shared, in what we viewed as an extension of Davis’s past permissions and a fair use situation, M. K. Davis’ stabilization work done on the Patterson-Gimlin footage. Then very late that night, we were contacted by Bobbie Short (who coincidentally carries a fair use statement on every one of her pages because her site is so full of copyrighted material). Ms. Short was speaking on M.K. Davis’s behalf, she said, and she told us to immediately remove “M.K.’s stabilization gif,” because we have [...]
Nessie Not Found in Antarctic
The Associated Press is reporting that the fossil bones of a baby plesiosaur have been found on an Antarctic island. That is a good find, but the papers won’t be stopping there. Be prepared. Of course, although there is no known relationship at all, except in the culture of the media, the following reference point is being thrown into the stories: In life, 70 million years ago, the five-foot-long animal would have resembled Nessie, the long-necked creature reported to inhabit Scotland’s Loch Ness. Hate to mention it but (1) we don’t know if any Nessies exist at all, so how [...]
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