Lake Monsters

Nessie Not Found in Antarctic

The Associated Press is reporting that the fossil bones of a baby plesiosaur have been found on an Antarctic island. That is a good find, but the papers won’t be stopping there. Be prepared. Of course, although there is no known relationship at all, except in the culture of the media, the following reference point is being thrown into the stories: In life, 70 million years ago, the five-foot-long animal would have resembled Nessie, the long-necked creature reported to inhabit Scotland’s Loch Ness. Hate to mention it but (1) we don’t know if any Nessies exist at all, so how [...]

Again, Bear Lake

I enjoy reading stories about new sightings of Lake Monsters as much as the next guy, but what is up with retreading stories from the 1800s, so often? There’s been another local Utah article written about the Bear Lake Monsters. It revisits the same old stories that you perhaps have read before. What I find surprising is they hardly ever talk about the Utah Lake Monster sightings that are known from the 21st century, as documented elsewhere and mentioned by, for example, Karl Rose. There is no disputing that evidence for the Bear Lake Monsters was established by early leaders [...]

Emela-Ntouka: Killer of Elephants

Click on above image, by Corey H., to see full-size version Flashback and Update… The Emela-ntouka has been an unknown animal of some confusion in Africa. A few chroniclers have felt it was merely another named cryptid representing the sightings of the Mokele-mbembe. But as revealed by a carving (below) seen here for the first time earlier this year, it appears to be a beast unlike the saurapod-like Mokele-mbembe. On page 219 of one of my recent field guides, written with Patrick Huyghe, we noted, among several different kinds of alleged “dinosaurs” in Africa, “one animal is called by locals [...]

Nessie Revealed?

Sunday Funnies Reveal the truth about the Loch Ness Monster by clicking on Nessie’s neck. Thanks to Emilio Diaz and Brad Steiger for sharing this with Cryptomundo.

Creature From the Black Lagoon Again

Boing Boing has a good new posting on the just-released Creature From the Black Lagoon novel. Cory Doctorow writes: "If you’re looking for a fun little paperback to take you away from your life for a couple hours, you need look no further." Perhaps we all will need this after the election is over today… As I’ve mentioned at Cryptomundo before, the original concept for the movie developed from the excitement in the early 1950s that surrounded the Comoros Islands (near Madagascar) discovery of a "living fossil," the coelacanth. After its initial find in 1938, and the eventual acceptance that [...]

Loch Ness Monster Sightings: 2006

The famed 1934 photograph by Dr. Kenneth Wilson of something in Loch Ness that automatically lets people know that what we are talking about are the Loch Ness Monsters. Gary Campbell, President of The Official Loch Ness Fan Club, shares this rundown of the sightings of Nessie for 2006, thusfar: 6 October 2006 Nick Thurston and Emma Louise Jones were holidaying at the loch when they saw what they say was Nessie from the Jacobite Queen. “As we sailed along I saw a hump, much like that of a bridge, which was dark brown in colour and was relative to [...]

Nessie: Pachyderm, Plesiosaur or Pinniped?

First the old 1970s theory that all the Nessies are swimming elephants was retold in new clothing in March 2006, and now we are hearing that the Scottish Lake Monsters cannot be plesiosaurs. Okay, tell me something I don’t know, please! What is it? See below. The news out of Scotland, as for example in the Scotsman article, “Scientist pours cold water on Loch Ness dinosaur theory”, is propelling the finding that Nessie is not a plesiosaur, which really is not a dinosaur anyway (but that’s another story). Here’s part of what the “breaking news” services you will read today [...]

Pondering OOP Dolphins and Manatees

What is to be made of the recent reports of river-dwelling manatees and now a dolphin? Have some of these known species been misidentified as cryptids in the past? Well, yes, they probably have been. First, let me share a mention of the newest account. Reporter Elizabeth Ratto of the Boston Globe writes that a “common dolphin” was sighted on Friday, October 27, 2006: …swimming in the Fore River, just outside the Braintree Yacht Club, until it exited Boston Harbor with high tide around 3 p.m., according to Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium. The aquarium was alerted [...]