Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman

Lawndale’s Big Birds

Lawndale’s big bird returns – in print by Erin Clark The Lincoln (Illinois) Courier Lawndale resident Marlon Lowe traveled nearly 40 yards – by bird. The then 10-year-old was picked up in giant talons and nearly carried away 29 years ago today. According to The Courier’s account from July 26, 1977, two birds with wingspans of 4 to 6 feet attacked Lowe, and one of them caught the boy by the shirt and lifted him about a foot into the air. "He’s probably the luckiest kid in the world" that the bird only grabbed onto his shirt and not his [...]

Dr. Carrington of The Thing Dies

The mad scientist, Dr. Carrington, in the 1951 Howard Hawks’ horror thriller, The Thing, has died. The Los Angeles Times reports that Robert Cornthwaite, 89, “a character actor whose more than 50-year career in theater, films and television included roles in classic thrillers and thrilling classics…died of natural causes Thursday (July 20, 2006) at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills.” The “Thing” turned out to be a creature frozen in a block of ice, and in many ways, foreshadowed the Minnesota Iceman. There are several differences, of course, such as alleged origin and the [...]

New Giant Peccary

I’ve always liked the idea that a man named Ralph Wetzel discovered one of the newest large mammal species, the Chacoan peccary, quite recently. In Cryptozoology A to Z, I wrote: This “rangy big pig,” as University of Connecticut biology professor Ralph M. Wetzel characterized his 1974 discovery, was a big surprise – a Pleistocene Epoch survivor of a species thought to have died out 10,000 years ago. The Chacoan peccary, a relative of pigs, boars, and warthogs, weighed in at more than 100 pounds, the largest and most unusual of the three known peccaries. Wetzel found it in the [...]

Update: Mystery Flying Cryptid

This is the original uncropped photograph. Thanks to beautifu11ybroken and Iggy Makarevich for their separate assistance in obtaining this. Does the full-framed photo give some more helpful insights into what this might be? For more details on this photograph, please see the previous posting on the Mystery Flying Cryptid Photo.

Mystery Flying Cryptid Photo

Cropped and unidentified versions of the above photograph have been floating around the internet, sparingly. I noticed one used in conjuction with the Ropen press release. It clearly seemed out of context, but nevertheless worthy of further examination. Cryptomundo reader Brian Gaugler tracked it down to the ufocasebook.com files, and located the text of the who and the where behind the photo: 2003 – New Hampshire. November 6 – On the 25th of October in Plymouth, Joy P. was in the middle of a train trip. While observing the landscape, she decided to take photographs of the passing scenery. One [...]

Comic Con: Skinwalkers

Werewolves are popping up all over. You merely have to go to any theater and find one. There is, for example, Scrunt, a werewolf-like creature, in M. Night Shyamalan’s new Lady in the Water. One of Linda Godfrey’s good illustrations of you-know-what. Reporting from 2006 San Diego Comic-Con, Day One, on Friday July 21st, Dark Horizons’ Garth Franklin writes about another forthcoming appearance of other werewolves: Skinwalkers Director Jim Isaac and character/creature designer Stan Winston were on hand to present “Skinwalkers,” a werewolf horror film starring Rhona Mitra and Jason Behr. The story follows two kinds of the creatures – [...]

Ropen: Flying Reptiles Alive Today

One of the routine ways of looking at reports of giant flying creatures from exotic lands is as shown in the new comic, Cryptid, as giant bats (below). But there is another school of thought too. In Africa, they are called Kongomato (see below – William M. Rebsamen art from Cryptozoology A to Z and a mysterious photograph of one that has surfaced on the internet). In New Guinea, they are named Ropen. Some would have us consider if there are pterosaurs among us still today. A new book, Searching for Ropens, proposes they do exist. American cryptozoologist Matt Bille, [...]

Johor Hominid Hair?

In terms of keeping you informed, this is shared. In terms of levels of frustration, you looked, correct? We report. You decide. A short description of a specimen labelled as "JHFW 19/2/2006: Hair Sample 1" Click image for full-size version The above sample was one of three collected by Vincent Chow (on 19th Feb. 2006 at 10.30 am) during one of his trips to the haunts of the hominid at Kota Tinggi. Together with Vincent for the outing were a BBC journalist Jonathan Kent, accompanied by Justin (cameraman from BBC UK), the local NST press and cameraman and some members [...]

Thunderbirds on C2C

Mark A. Hall shares reports of thunderbirds and other mysterious creatures on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory tonight, July 20th. His show will be archived there after broadcast. Hall will be talking about many topics in cryptozoology. The show starts at 10 p.m. Pacific time, but Hall will not be on in the first hour. The interview will be from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. (In the Eastern time zone the interview starts at 2 a.m. and runs till 5 a.m., on Friday, July 21). Mark A. Hall authored the 2004 book, Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant [...]