Evidence

Champ Video

Two years ago, in 2006, ABC-TV obtained for screening a video of a large object in Lake Champlain that was said to be Champ, originally taken in August 2005. (Please read more here, here, and here.) Now the entire video has become available, via YouTube. What do you Cryptomundians see in the video? (Please, for those that don’t yet understand all the otter jokes, do seriously share your sense of what this might be without a major side trek into otter-this-world humor.)

Sri Lanka’s Newest Shrew

The Greater White-toothed Shrew (Crocidura russula), shown above, is a small shrew found in Europe and North Africa, and related to the species newly discovered. A new, endemic species of shrew Crocidura hikmiya, has been described from Sri Lanka. The new shrew is presently only known from mid-montane and lowland rainforests of Sinharaja. This shrew was previously been identified as Ceylon Long-tailed Shrew (Crocidura miya). However the latter species is now believed to be confined to the montane forests of the central hills. The researchers believe that the most frequently encountered shrew in Sinharaja is the new species. This raises [...]

Pelicanism 1897

Pelicans historically have held a bizarre place in animal folklore. The Physiologus says of the pelican that it of all birds loves its young the most. The young pelicans in the Pieter van der Borcht (1545-1608) copperplate engraving (above) appear to be about to drink the blood of their mother; some versions of the story say that she feeds them her blood. The pose of the mother bird is known as “The Pelican in her Piety.” Another illustration of this pelican tale is shown in a woodcut (above) from Rome, 1577. “Pelicanism” is a term I wish to borrow from [...]

Kansas Cougar: First in 100+ Years!

Bo Rader/The Wichita Eagle Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks game warden Tracy Galvin displays the pelt of a mountain lion that was killed in Barber County last November [2007]. Galvin has been investigating the rumor that a mountain lion had been killed in Kansas for the past several weeks. This is probably the first confirmed wild mountain lion in Kansas in over 100 years. Charges are pending against the individual who killed the lion. This incident raises many questions about the probable treatment of any individual who decides to “prove” the existence of an “unbelievable” cryptid, like a Mystery [...]

St. Augustine Monster

For those on Spring Break now venturing South, don’t forget to see if there’s any evidence of the St. Augustine cryptid (1896) currently being popularized in that Florida East Coast city today. Timeline of the St. Augustine Monster

Micronesian Fossil Pygmies Discovered

Breaking news out of Micronesia appears to confirm both the notion that Homo floresiensis were “normal” and that “little people” tales are worthy of pursuing for more fossil evidence. Since the reporting of the so-called “hobbit” fossil from the island of Flores in Indonesia, debate has raged as to whether these remains are of modern humans (Homo sapiens), reduced, for some reason, in stature, or whether they represent a new species, Homo floresiensis. Reporting in this week’s PLoS ONE in a study funded by the National Geographic Society Mission Programs, Lee Berger and colleagues from the University of the Witwatersrand, [...]