Museums

Grice Roast Anyone?

The Shetland pig, or grice, was a specific and special feral boar that was driven into extinction 100 years ago. It was called a “scourge of lambs, landowners and local produce.” There are no known photographs of it, although some drawings (such as the one above) exist. Highlighted in BBC News and other media, it’s been all grice and no pig with this news. The Scotsman recently noted the grice’s distinctive appearance: Short, squat, with a mohawk of bristled hair running down its spine, the grice was a primitive domesticated pig that became extinct after locals on the island were [...]

Discovered: Circa 1350 A.D. Hominid Updated

What is it? Click on image for a larger version. I note that the National Library of the Netherlands has identified this image as being a "monkey." But I note this primate is not showing any tail. Look at the feet? Those are definitely not the feet of a monkey or even an ape. In terms of scale, this animal is shown with panels of various known, correctly drawn species that include a horse, a goat, a sheep, a wild boar, a hunting dog, a deer, and others. When those animals are compared to this one, they do not all [...]

Crypto Urban Safari

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Catholic Left Attacks Cryptozoology

Misunderstandings come on the Right from the creationists, and now comes the subtle assaults from Roman Catholics on the Left. A blog which calls itself a “progressive Catholic site,” Catholic Sensibility attacks the new Cryptozoology exhibition in Missouri by noting that “Sunday’s Kansas City Star reports on an art exhibit that will raise eyebrows.” So much for any open-mindedness among the Catholic progressives. First it was the creationists and now it is the Catholic progressives that seem ready to assault cryptozoology. Is this evidence that cryptozoology really occupies the excluded middle and is surely damned, as per the Fortean “damned,” [...]

New Review of CZ in KC

A new review of the Kansas City cryptozoology exhibit was published today, Sunday, November 12, 2006, in the Kansas City Star. Please find it here.

Department of Cryptozoology

The Kansas City Star celebrates the opening of the traveling Bates exhibition with an article by John Shultz, in the October 25, 2006, edition: It evokes a hallway out of the X-Files, a parallel universe where government spending skews towards the arcane. At the end of the faux corridor, the very official-looking door for the Federal Wildlife Commission’s Department of Cryptozoology. It’s sandwiched, naturally, between the portals of the National Institute of Comparative Astrobiology and the Bureau for the Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena. The movie set of a hallway, inspired by a piece by artist Mark Dion, is among the [...]

Mothman and Boston Rob

Looking ahead to next Wednesday’s "Mothman" episode of "Sci-Fi Investigates," here is today’s guest blog from John Frick, one of the cofounders of the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It has little to do with cryptozoology, but much to do with how this television program approached the subject. John Frick writes: On October 25, at 10 PM Eastern is the debut of the Mothman episode of "Sci-Fi Investigates" on the Sci-Fi channel. One of the principal investigators on the show is Boston Rob from "Survivor" fame, and he represents the critic. My brother, Tim, and I, once again [...]