Artifacts

Breaking News: Platypus – 120 M Yrs Old Living Fossil

When the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) was first discovered by Europeans in 1798, no one believed it could be real. British scientists were at first convinced it must be a hoax. George Shaw, who produced the first description of the animal in 1799 in the Naturalist’s Miscellany, originally had his doubts about it being a real animal. Shaw cut up the dried skin to look for stitches. Robert Knox believed it may have been produced by some Oriental taxidermist by sewing a duck’s beak onto the body of a beaver-like animal. How would have zoology and cryptozoology dealt with such an [...]

Cow-Eating Tree Video

Still more on the “India’s Cow-Eating Trees”. A fascinating video report from tvdaijiworld India has been broadcast about the cow-eating tree, the eyewitness villagers, and the cow. Here is the footage, hosted by Gloria Rodrigues: ++++++ Update: David Pescovitz at Boing Boing did a good job of capturing a couple frames from the video, here.

Africa’s Art Deco Dino: Njago Gunda

Syracuse Herald, May 15, 1921 In 1920, the Smithsonian Institution sent a 32-person expedition to Africa, which found unexplained tracks along the riverbank and heard mysterious “roars.” See the “Dinosauria” chapter of my field guide for more details. One hundred years ago, people would grab their weekend newspapers and hurry to find the Sunday supplements. There they might discover new adventures of explorers in deepest darkest Africa, follow the treks of famed safari leaders, and learn of new animals being found in the jungles. Take a moment today, reach back to that feeling, understand the world is not fully explored, [...]

The Dover Demon Lives

Move over Ortiz, Manny and Beckett! Share the media airwaves Boston Red Sox! I will be on television around 4:15 p.m. on Boston’s “NewsDay Live,” this Friday, October 12th, on the New England Cable Network, speaking about Mysterious America and specifically, the Dover Demon. A figurine of the Dover Demon is displayed at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. The strange creature was spotted in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1977. The Dover Demon sculpture is by artist Steve Goodrich of New York State. (Photograph: Amber Waterman/Sun Journal.) This weekend (see poster below), I will also be speaking about the Dover [...]

Boing Boing Museum

Boing Boing is the big boy and girl on the block in blogging, there’s no two ways about it. In an article in today’s New York Times entitled “Nerd Chic Arrives on TV” by David Carr, it is noted that Boing Boing is expanding to television broadcasts via the internet, spurred on by the talented Xeni Jardin. But what Boing Boing, created by Mark Frauenfelder, does just with their blog is already rather amazing. According to that article: “Boing Boing has become one of the five most visited blogs on the Web, according to Comscore, with a monthly traffic of [...]