New Species

Yeti Crab And Beyond: New Marine Species 2006

The media attention is high today for the Sloan Foundation’s year six census of marine life, so I’ll keep this short. You can read one of the stories here, from CNN, and another here in The Hindu. At last count, I found over 200 versions of this story appearing in newspapers and online sites around the world. Courtesy © Ifremer / A. Fifis Press Release; click on image for larger view. The Yeti crab photo is getting recycled. (Click on the hyperlink for more about it.) Here’s a summary of the findings from the 2006 research: Shrimp, clams and mussels [...]

Little Foot Coexisted With Homo

The remains of the apeman, dubbed Little Foot, were discovered in a cave complex at Sterkfontein by a local South African team in 1997. Its bones preserved in sediment layers, it is the most complete hominid fossil skeleton ever found. (Photo Credit: Alf Latham and used with his permission) Redating news published today calls for a younger age for the unknown species of Australopithecus popularly called "Little Foot," or technically "Stw 573." Initially, the species had been tentatively dated to three to four million years before present, but the new findings show the small upright Australopithecus died only about 2.2 [...]

New Glowing Shark Discovered

Scientists have described a new species of shark which emits green light from its belly. For more info, please read here. And for more, see here.

Making Time with a Monster Hunter

Click on the above image for a full-framed view of Loren and some hidden friends. Publisher and editor David Lineal’s monthly paper The Skeleton News will hit the Chicago streets on Friday, December 1, 2006. Included in the issue is an interview with yours truly, Loren Coleman. They do not publish online, and instead maintain a humorously skeletal webpage. Because of that, David passes along his interview, and the article’s illustration (above by Chicago artist named Becca Taylor), for the readers of Cryptomundo. All the flattering but too generous (e.g. "great" and "foremost") descriptors are Mr. Lineal’s. Blush, blush. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [...]

The Beautiful Anthropologist and Vietnam’s Lost World

As opposed to viewing what recently happened during a formal anthropological criticism of cryptozoology as some cause for upset, let’s reframe what occurred as an opportunity for our field to broaden our worldview. When the apparently charming Pamela D. McElwee, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, The School of Global Studies, Arizona State University (shown above), shared some insights, her audience may not have realized the significance of what she was saying. Certainly, however, cryptozoologists need to pay attention, as McElwee’s comment might be useful in reviewing some foundation thoughts within our field. If we wish to remain aware of how fast [...]

New Parrot Discovered

New parrot species found in Queensland 7th November 2006, 22:09 WST A veteran bird-watcher has discovered a new species of parrot in Queensland after a decade of searching. Queensland naturalist and wildlife cinematographer John Young has discovered the rare blue-fronted fig parrot in a rugged southern Queensland forest after an exhaustive search. The exact site of the finding has not been disclosed. Although Mr Young has known of the bird’s existence for 10 years, he only recently found evidence that the parrot differed from the endangered Coxen’s fig parrot that overlaps in range. Three fig parrots were known to occur [...]

Wow! 100 New Species Found Off Hawaii

Everett, Washington’s Herald today publishes a summary ("Researchers find 100 new species off Hawaii") on the discovery of 100 new species found recently in the remote French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: "There were lots of organisms that people were saying, ‘Wow! What’s that?’" said Joel Martin, a zoologist for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Researchers returned from the voyage Sunday with at least 1,000 species of invertebrates, including worms, crabs and sea stars. About 160 unique species of seaweed were also found. Among the discoveries are multicolored worms; a bright purple, foot-long sea star; [...]

Borneo’s New Mammal

On December 5 and 7, 2005, Cryptomundo scooped the mainstream media with some analytical insights of the following Borneo photographs and the probable identification of the animal in the photographs. As this has surfaced again with regard to "new mammals" discoveries, and there are so many new Cryptomundo readers, here are those first postings on this mystery animal find. What do you think this looks like? There is exciting news out of Borneo. A new red-furred animal larger than a domestic cat has reportedly been discovered on this remote island of Indonesia. On December 5, 2005, the World Wide Fund [...]

New Walking Shark Find by Coelacanth Discoverer

There’s good discovery news out of Indonesia, in various widely reported dispatches, such as by our buddy David Pescovitz over at Boing Boing, in his notes, "Dozens of new undersea species discovered off Indonesia ." Pescovitz writes: Researchers from Conservation International discovered dozens of new species in the water off Indonesia’s Papua province. This epaulette shark (Hemiscyillum freycineti) walks around the bottom of the sea on its fins. From the Associated Press: The team from U.S.-based Conservation International also warned that the area–known as Bird’s Head Seascape–is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches [...]