Conservation International led expeditions to the South American country of Suriname in 2005 and 2006, finding two dozen potential new species in the process. Among the biological curiosities documented during the expeditions was this ant species, Daceton armigerum, which is a highly visual predator of the rainforest canopy. Piotr Naskrecki / Conservation International The Amazonian snail-eater snake, Dipsas indica, was documented by researchers on the Lely Plateau in Suriname. This snake feeds on snails, which extracts from the shell. After the snake seizes the exposed body of a snail, the slender lower jaws of the snake are drawn into the [...]
Van Roosmalen Temporarily Released
Chad Arment has passed along the news that the mammalogist and cryptozoologist Marc Van Roosmalen is out of prison on appeal. A Brazilian judge on Tuesday [August 7, 2007] ordered that a prominent Dutch scientist be freed from prison while he appeals his conviction for environmental crimes and embezzlement, a court official said. Marc Van Roosmalen was convicted on June 15 of trying to illegally auction off the names of monkey species, keeping rare monkeys at his house without authorization and selling a scaffolding donated to the National Institute for Amazon Research where he worked. He was sentenced to 15 [...]
An Electrogenic Mammal?
There are three known kinds of electric – more correctly called electrogenic – animals: (1) the one species, Electrophorus electricus, of South American electric eel (really a knifefish), (2) the 19 species of African electric catfish in the genera Malapterurus and Paradoxoglanis, and (3) the 69 species of electric rays (order Torpediniformes) found around the world. The first two fish both demonstrate the ability to shock prey with electricity as an effective strategy for a piscivore (an animal that eats fish). They produce high levels of voltage, e.g. electric eel (600 volts) and the electric catfish (350 volts). Electric rays [...]
New Enigmatic Catfish: Lacantunia enigmatica
Lacantunia enigmatica shown above.Photo courtesy of John P. Sullivan. I get interesting emails. Here’s a good one with a new species discovery to share: I’m a fan of Cryptomundo and also an ichthyologist. I thought I’d point out an article we just published on an enigmatic catfish from Chiapas, Mexico (named Lacantunia enigmatica, appropriately). From DNA analysis we found that this species is apparently a relict of a once much more widespread clade of catfishes (claroteinea) all of which are today exclusively found African. It’s an amazing disjunct distribution for a freshwater clade. The paper, published in the latest Proceedings [...]
Scientists Need Your Help: Identify This
Have you seen anything like the above, ever? This crustacean, found in the marine environment off Walpole and Portland, Maine, is not like anything researchers have seen before. Can you assist them with identifying it? (Photo courtesy Casco Bay Estuary Partnership) Reporter Ann S. Kim noted in The Maine Sunday Telegram on July 31, 2007, specifically about this unknown animal: A crustacean the size of a grain of rice was among the hundreds of specimens that researchers gathered in recent days from docks and piers from Cape Cod to midcoast Maine. The tiny crustacean, the marine version of a pill [...]
Homo pongoides Emerges From Lausanne
The following images are more photographs being shared from the inside of “The Department of Cryptozoology B. Heuvelmans, Museum of Zoology, Lausanne, Switzerland.” This location is the sanctuary for Bernard Heuvelmans’ collection of books, paintings, and raw materials, detailing his years of cryptozoology research and gathering of cryptid data. Today, you can more clearly seen how he organized his data on unknown hairy hominiods and other cryptids. Once again, these photographs were taken and shared with me by Christoph Kummer, who was allowed to begin to examine the Heuvelmans files and then take these photographs, at my request. I then [...]
How To Catch A Coelacanth
Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama holds up a rare coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs. (Reuters) Scientists excited by Indonesian-caught coelacanth fish Two months ago Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama caught a rare coelacanth fish that has now lured an international team of scientists to investigate how he caught it. French experts equipped with sonar and GPS asked Mr Lahama to reconstruct in his dugout canoe, exactly what it was he did that enabled him to catch the coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world’s oldest. Last May 19, Mr Lahama [...]
Photographed in Laos: Muntiacus vuquangensis
Large-antlered muntjak (Muntiacus vuquangensis) and unidentified poachers (below) in Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area, Laos. Copyright 2007 Nam Theun 2 Watershed Management and Protection Authority. Rare Jungle Deer Photographed For The First Time A camera trap has captured the first ever pictures of an elusive forest deer in its natural habitat, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The deer, called a large-antlered muntjak, was previously known only from specimens collected by hunters and a few brief glimpses by biologists. The species stands approximately 25-30 inches tall (65-80 cm) and weighs up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms). The photographs were taken [...]
Belfast’s Muck Monster
Megan Richardson’s article in a Downeast Maine newspaper will be remembered as the first media discussion of a little known Maine cryptid, Belfast’s Muck Monster. See the third paragraph from the end for more on that creature lurking in Kirby Lake. Prospect [Maine] — World-renowned cryptozoologist Loren Coleman visited Fort Knox over the weekend as part of the fort’s Paranormal and Psychic Faire, which also featured presentations on dowsing and paranormal investigation. Coleman was on hand for much of the weekend to answer questions and autograph copies of his numerous books. Coleman started working in cryptozoology, which literally means the [...]
Heuvelmans Files
The following images are the first ones I have seen of the inside of “The Department of Cryptozoology B. Heuvelmans, Museum of Zoology, Lausanne, Switzerland.” This location is now the sanctuary for Bernard Heuvelmans’ collection of books, paintings, and raw material detailing his years of cryptozoology research and gathering of cryptid data. These photographs were taken and shared with me by Christoph Kummer, who was allowed to do an initial examination of the Heuvelmans files and then take these photographs, at my request. I then asked and was granted permission to publish these photos at Cryptomundo, by Olivier Glaizot, Conservateur, [...]
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