Expedition Reports

Two Ancient Apes Discovered

Above, one of the most famed of the ancient apes, Proconsul africanus (Dryopithecus). A 10 million-year-old jawbone and teeth discovered in Kenya may represent a new species very close to the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans, according to a study published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on November 12, 2007. Researchers from the Primate Research Institute of the Kyoto University in Japan found the jawbone, along with 11 teeth in volcanic mud flow deposits in the Nakali region of Kenya, in 2005. The last time a hominoid fossil of this period was [...]

CFZ Guyana Trek Begins

On Wednesday evening, November 14, 2007, a five-person party flies from London’s Heathrow Airport in search of more complete information on at least three South American cryptids (e.g. Giant Anaconda, Didi/Mapinguary, Water Tiger). The five individuals from the UK-based Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] are on the track of cryptid data and en route to Guyana. For more information, see their previous release (which is being recycled this week), here. CFZ misread early notices here about this being called a “publicity stunt” for the videogame company Capcom’s launch of their new video game Monster Hunter 3. In the USA, the [...]

Replica Cryptia: Giant Ground Sloths

Photographs of the replicas under examination, in most cases, are generously shared by Dave Plenn of The Dinosaur Farm, who retains all copyrights to the images. Today, at Replica Cryptia, the representations examined are those of the Giant Ground Sloth or Megatherium. In recent years, replicas of this species of Amazonian megafauna have become significant in the search for the Mapinguary. The Mapinguary has been discussed cryptozoologically since the 1950s-1960s, for instance, by Frank W. Lane in Nature Parade, by Bernard Heuvelmans in On the Track of Unknown Animals), and by Ivan T. Sanderson in Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to [...]

New Coelacanth Discoveries in Solomon Islands

More big breaking news from the oceans… The expedition results of Jerome Hamlin, Dinofish, have been filed, and the results appear certain that a new population of coelacanth has been discovered. He was able to gather very credible testimonies on the presence of coelacanths in the archipelago of the Solomon Island, in the Western Pacific. The findings positively indicate this new population moves the known range of coelacanths further east from Africa and Indonesia. This is exciting news, indeed, because it means that all deep-water sites similar to what is being found near the Comoros, the Sulawesi, and the Solomons [...]

First Live Sightings of Shepherd’s Ziphiid

Shepherd’s beaked whale, Tasmacetus shepherdi. The oceans hold many natural history treasures and wonders. New animals are being discovered at a faster rate from the seas than in freshwater or on land. But these finds from the marine environment often get little attention from Homo sapiens versus, say, a new giant peccary or a new monkey. Overnight, famed marine biologist Bob Pitman shared with me breaking news about several new marine mammal species. The news will not get as much of a read as a fuzzy picture of a land mammal from the woods of Pennsylvania or of a rapid [...]

Dwarf Killer Whale Discovered in Antarctica

A new paper written by Robert Pitman of the NOAA Fisheries – Ecosystem Studies Program and his colleagues provides evidence that there is at least one new species of killer whale in Antarctica. In a new 2007 issue of Journal of Mammalogy, the article’s following abstract summarizes their findings: In the early 1980s, 2 groups of Soviet scientists independently described 1, possibly 2 new dwarf species of killer whales (Orcinus) from Antarctica. We used aerial photogrammetry to determine total length (TL) of 221 individual Type C killer whales—a fish-eating ecotype that inhabits dense pack ice—in the southern Ross Sea in [...]

Identikit Used In Cryptozoology Discoveries

Drawings of the yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda) by artist Stephen Nash were used in Peru to rediscover the primate. The use of identikit illustrations in support of the cryptozoology method is demonstrated often. The objective is to discovery what is already ethnoknown, in terms of local wildlife. Drawings from scratch, under the direction of locals, are a source of primary information. But oftentimes, identikit materials are used in the field for gathering and fine-tuning visual information. Sometimes, if available, a photograph shown to local residents and indigenous peoples is successful in gathering more data on new animals. This is [...]