The Australian media is in a whirlwind because allegedly the “first pictures of what has been dubbed the world’s ugliest dolphin were shown on Australian television on Thursday. The snub fin dolphin with its distinctive bulbous head was first identified three years ago off Western Australia’s remote Kimberley coast.” But, of course, photos had been published before of this dolphin. The Queensland government published one in its official 2007 bulletin on the species, an extract of which is shown below: Australian snubfin dolphin Common name: Australian snubfin dolphin Scientific name: Orcaella heinsohni Legislative name: Orcaella brevirostris Conservation status: The Australian [...]
Coleman vs Nickell: Round Two for Champ Week
Round One: In the otter competitive battle between the forces of good and evil, the following is the clip from CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now,” for June 1, 2007, on Nessie, which was run in the final moments of her program. It was originally scheduled to be five minutes long. At the time, my author friend Jerry Clark noted that what was operating here, in counterpoint to my view, was: The Nickell principle: “We will take up an existence by its otters.” Coincidentially, another good friend, Patrick Huyghe emailed me: “Joe was otterly ridiculous.” Round Two: Bigfoots and Yetis and Champ, [...]
Cryptid Washes Ashore At Montauk
Something strange has washed ashore at Montauk Island, New York. “This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is ‘a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island,’” says Gawker in a posting for Tuesday, July 29, 2008. Comments like “That’s a turtle, without its shell,” make no sense because of the teeth. Some fossil turtles had teeth, but no modern turtles possess real teeth. What is this animal? Why can’t people put some sort of size reference object in these mystery photos? How big is this [...]
Cadborosaurus willsi Revisited
Due to the new sighting of Ogopogo, it was only a matter of time before someone would begin wondering what happened to Caddy, Cadborosaurus willsi, the Sea Serpent of Cadboro Bay, off British Columbia. Victoria’s Times Colonist ran an update today. According to Paul Leblond, a retired University of British Columbia oceanography professor and author a 1995 book on the Cadborosaurus, Caddy was last spotted several years ago off the shores of Galiano Island. “The search is still ongoing,” Leblond (pictured below) told a reporter. Leblond said Jason Walton, vice-president of the B.C. Scientific Cryptozoology Club, keeps a video camera [...]
Steller’s Sea Ape
Steller’s Sea Ape, as drawn by Harry Trumbore, from The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates (2006: 64-65). A good overview of the expedition leading to the remarkable sighting of what has become known as Steller’s Sea Ape can be found in the November 17, 2005, article in the California Literary Review. The essay is by Peter Bridges, former U.S. ambassador to Somalia, and is about the animal discoveries made by naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller. Bridges writes that: In January 1738, Steller set out from St. Petersburg on a five-thousand mile journey across European Russia and Siberia to [...]
Sea Monster Week
Darren Naish, over at Tetrapod Zoology, just rolled through five days, last week, of sea monster photographs and remarks about the mostly fake, false, or misleading images. Let’s take a look. First up was the March 1965 photograph (below) from Robert Le Serrec of a huge, tadpole-like creature encountered in Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, Queensland, Australia. The case has been rather universally labeled a hoax. I mentioned in my field guide that Interpol was even after the guy. Naish does gather together all the “other photos” linked with this episode, and that’s a rather interesting angle ignored by most. Naish [...]
Monster Experts Tell All
Loren Coleman, the world’s leading authority of cryptozoology, says this relatively new field of study is exciting because “it overlaps nature, outdoors recreation and adventure” into one easy-to-grasp package.
Mystery Fish Photograph Revisited
People seemed to have so much fun yesterday with the alleged Bigfoot image from near Mt. Hood, it feels like your magnifying glasses may be polished off for another look at the “Mystery Fish Photo.” If you are new here, then you have to see this one too, and have your say. As oldtimers may recall, despite speculations, theories, thoughts, rumors, ideas, hypotheses, and claims, this longest standing mystery at Cryptomundo has never been fully solved. The postcard photo, originally sent to me by Phyllis Mancz of Ohio, has become such an enigmatic icon that it became part of the [...]
Giant Ocean Platypus of Alaska?
In Karl Shuker’s book, Extraordinary Animals Revisited, there is a subsection entitled “The Cryptic Case of the Colorado Platypus.” In actuality, the largest part of those two pages are devoted to a story of a supposed sighting of a platypus off the coast of Alaska. Unfortunately, the investigation of the case is distracted by how the initial eyewitness labeled and linked what he saw with an exotic known animal’s name. People associate “seen cryptids” with the animal world they know or have seen on television. But, of course, platypuses are Australian, freshwater, and usually no bigger than 20 inches long, [...]
Sea Monster Quest
As part of an EPSRC funded public understanding of science project, the University of St. Andrews has teamed up with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to produce a website dedicated to the statistics/biology behind whale surveys. Visitors (aged 16 -21) can play a computer game which takes them on a whale survey and explains how whale population numbers are actually estimated. The winner of the computer game (and a friend) can win the chance to go on an actual whale survey in the IFAW sail boat Song of the Whale at the end of the summer. The competition [...]
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