Fossil Finds

Satyrs & Salt?

Courtesy of The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) Satyr? A man’s body, naturally mummified within an ancient salt mine, was found in a salt mine outside the Iranian city of Zanjan. What’s going on here? This news out of Iran is now been linked to ancient tales of satyrs and salt. Stanford University’s Adrienne Mayor, a folklorist and friend to Cryptomundo, has previously suggested that satyrs were fakes, as she notes in The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Due to this specific find, Mayor may be changing her position: Obviously, satyrs are mythic creatures [but [...]

First Zanzibar Coelacanth Caught

Small coelacanth from Tanzania caught in February 2007; it is not the one discussed below. Photo courtesy dinofish. The known range of the coelacanth is expanded with this new discovery, and hope remains high that the “living fossil” fish may exist in some surprising locations around the world. Zanzibar, Tanzania – Fishermen have caught a rare and endangered fish, the coelacanth, off the coast of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, a researcher said on Monday [July 16, 2007]. The find makes Zanzibar the third place in Tanzania where fishermen have caught the coelacanth, a heavy-bodied, many-finned fish with a [...]

Flash Frozen? Siberian Baby Raises Old Questions

Fifty years ago, Bernard Heuvelmans collected and published reports of modern sightings of supposedly extinct mammoths seen alive today, in the boreal forests of Siberia. Thoughts that mammoths had survived probably stemmed from finds of extremely fresh specimens thawing out of the tundra’s permafrost. Two questions, one cryptozoological and the other Fortean, nevertheless, are raised whenever there is new talk of such discoveries: (1) Did these mammoths live during contemporary times with modern humans, as discussed by Heuvelmans and others? (2) Were they frozen in a quick “flash freeze” incident, as first noted by Ivan T. Sanderson? In Sanderson’s 1960 [...]

Going Dodo Over Tassie Tiger Doodoo and Dodo Bones

While it is a long shot, there are still people today who report sightings of Dodo birds. Needless to say, even when new fossil remains are found of these avian wonders, the media tends to go a little dodo itself. Reporter Ed Harris of Reuters learned from Julian Hume, a paleontologist at Britain’s Natural History Museum, of the new discovery of a nearly complete skeleton from a dodo dig on Mauritius, and the news is centering the globe. The new find, Hume shared, is bound to tell more about the elusive bird than perhaps ever known before. The discovery was [...]

March of the Giant Penguins

March Of The Giant Penguins: Prehistoric Equatorial Penguins Reached 5 Feet In Height Science Daily — Giant prehistoric penguins? In Peru? It sounds more like something out of Hollywood than science, but a researcher from North Carolina State University along with U.S., Peruvian and Argentine collaborators has shown that two heretofore undiscovered penguin species reached equatorial regions tens of millions of years earlier than expected and during a period when the earth was much warmer than it is now. Paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State with appointments at the North Carolina [...]

A Pterodactyl in the Pool Cabana

There’s a Pterodactyl in the Pool Cabana So Brian passed it along, With a pat on the nose and a song. From Freaky Links in the South, Yikes, look at that mouth. Thanks Patrick for taking the family heat With the head in your passenger seat. To some, it’s a bizarre abomination, Seeking love, far from its final destination. The thing is in search of its new home. The creature has more miles to roam. Does it appear as an unwelcome louse? Nay, now it’s in the pool house. No need for further trepidation, Or even swimmers’ consternation. No reason [...]