Expedition Reports

Video Game Backs Guyana Monster Hunt

The Centre for Fortean Zoology has released the following press announcement on their forthcoming “South American Monster Hunt.” The tone and wording (such as the dubious “potentially lethal” to describe the cryptids) is their own. – Loren On the 14th November 2007, five members of the Centre for Fortean Zoology leave the United Kingdom for South America, on their most ambitious expedition yet. They will be searching the remote swamps and jungles of Guyana. They are looking for three elusive, potentially lethal, and hitherto undiscovered animals. a. The giant anaconda b. The didi c. The water tiger As far as [...]

More On Man-Eating Plants

You saw the posting here entitled “India’s Cow-Eating Trees”, and then might have seen it was picked up by Boing Boing. As David Pescovitz wrote, “Loren Coleman detours into ‘cryptobotany.’” Ah, the path less traveled. Map: The entire distribution range of the Venus Flytrap. Did they come down in a meteorite impact? Since then, there’s been several blogs around the internet snapping at a chance to mention man-eating trees. Now the news articles are appearing. One of the most detailed appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, which tips its cap to cryptozoologists, and points Bay Area residents in the direction [...]

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, [...]

Men of Cryptozoology: Scott Norman

Mokele-mbembe art courtesy of Bill Rebsamen. Click on image for a larger view. Scott T. Norman recently journeyed from California to the East Coast of the USA. He attended the Mass Monster Mash on October 13, and on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin Film, happened to visit me, along with five members of his family, at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. Scott is a cryptozoologist who has taken his passion for dinosaurs, Mokele-mbembe, and prehistoric cryptids, all the way to Africa. He definitely ranks as one of the Men of Cryptozoology. Let’s meet him [...]

New Dwarf Manatee

A new small manatee has been discovered in South America. Please click on the poster above to increase its size for easier reading. For more information on the efforts underway to defend the manatee’s discoverer Marc Roosmalen against the allegedly fictional charges he is facing in Brazil, visit http://www.marcvanroosmalen.org/howtohelp.htm. Thanks to Darren Naish for alerting me to this new species and Marc’s new legal defense site.

New Bird Discovered in Brazil

A beautiful new species, Formicivora antwren from Brazil, has just been discovered. Intriguingly, this bird’s status as a new species was argued based on its distinct vocalizations. A new species of antwren from Bahia, Brazil has recently been described in the journal Zootaxa. Sincorá Antwren Formicivora grantsaui is found only in the campo rupestre vegetation of the Serra do Sincorá between 850 m and 1,100 m in the Chapada Diamantina region. This is an important area that holds other restricted range species such as Grey-backed Tachuri Polystictus superciliaris and Pale-throated Pampa-finch Embernagra longicauda. First observed in 1997, it is closely [...]