Cryptozoologists

The Discovery of the Hobbit Arrives in Australia

Please click on the book cover above for a fuller-sized version. Professor Mike Morwood, Archaeology, University of New England, Australia, contacted me tonight to let me know that Random House (Australia) has published his new book on Homo floresiensis. The name of the book is The Discovery of the Hobbit: The Scientific Breakthrough that Changed the Face of Human History. Morwood’s book is with Penny van Oosterzee, who is one of Australia’s best science writers, and is the recipient of the 1997 Eureka Science Book Prize for her book Where Worlds Collide: The Wallace Line. She is most-remembered for her [...]

John A. Keel: Demonologist?

Artist John Frick (below) of Cumberland, Maryland, stands under his creation, a Mothman replica that hangs from the ceiling of the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The belief system that underlies the sidetracking of 1966′s Mothman sightings from cryptozoology into the “dark side” has a lot to do with John A. Keel’s apparent framing of the case. But some folks still don’t get it. Good guy John Frick, a list moderator on the Mothman Lives email list, innocently writes: As far as Keel being a demonologist. He really isn’t as far as I know. Keel has mentioned that [...]

Alligators-In-The-Sewers Are Real

In the early 1970s, I did quite a great deal of library archive research on out-of-place alligators. That resulted in the publication of various Fortean articles, such as "Showers of Alligators," (Fate, Vol. 26, September 1973) and "Erratic Crocodilians and Other Things" (INFO Journal, 12, Summer 1973). Finally, I made a unique discovery that alligators-in-the-sewers were not all just legendary, and were not merely a figment of smoking too much weed in the 60s. I tracked down articles that noted real alligators were found and killed in New York City, specifically in that city’s sewers in the 1930s. My formal [...]

The Beautiful Anthropologist and Vietnam’s Lost World

As opposed to viewing what recently happened during a formal anthropological criticism of cryptozoology as some cause for upset, let’s reframe what occurred as an opportunity for our field to broaden our worldview. When the apparently charming Pamela D. McElwee, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, The School of Global Studies, Arizona State University (shown above), shared some insights, her audience may not have realized the significance of what she was saying. Certainly, however, cryptozoologists need to pay attention, as McElwee’s comment might be useful in reviewing some foundation thoughts within our field. If we wish to remain aware of how fast [...]

Mystery Photo at Boing Boing

Old cryptobuddy David Pescovitz continues to post cryptozoological and faux cryptozoologie news items at Boing Boing, such as this new one, "Takeshi Yamada’s curious taxidermy creations". Now, fellow Boing Boing blogger Mark Frauenfelder is jumping into the cryptid pool, with both feet this week. See his posting on "Old engravings of animals are charmingly strange" (about such images as the one above). I only saw this after I’d posted mine on "Who Were The Dogheads?" and the "Discovered: Circa 1350 A.D. Hominid," so I must be on the same wavelength as Mark. Also, Mark Frauenfelder has posted a mystery image, [...]