Over the last two days, I’ve been getting inquiries about the identification of two objects in some recent photographs.

One supposedly “cryptid” that has been shown to me is this animal (below) being featured in the Russian media. Said to be a “Prehistoric Fish,” it reportedly was “found in Russia, during construction near an underground river in Chelyabinsk city. The workers killed it and these are the remains.”

Apparently, someone is having a little fun with pictures and sizing. This animal is actually a small species, the Triops (notostracans), the so-called tadpole shrimp or shield shrimp. While an aggressive predator, they are smaller than what Pravda (hardly the “truth”) would have us think.

The Triops grows to an upper limit of 22 millimeters or 0.8661417314 inches in length. The Pravda photographs give an illusion this animal is much bigger.

Triops or notostracans are intriguing, no doubt about it, though. I like what it says here in their description: Triops cancriformis may therefore be the “oldest living animal species on earth.” Here’s a less dramatic photograph:

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Other emails have contained questions about what that skull is in the foreground of this photograph of me by Amber Waterman:

The skull is the John Weisgerber replica made for Valley Anatomical Preparations of the Australopithecus aethiopicus . The original was discovered by A. Walker in 1985 on the west shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. The skull is commonly referred to as “The Black Skull,” due to its blue-black color caused by the manganese-straining of the cranium. It has been dated to 2.5 million years ago.

Various replicas, such as the Bone Clones one of Australopithecus aethiopicus Skull KNM-WT 17000 (below), are also available.

“The Black Skull” is an attractive hominid fossil, and I enjoy the easy-to-identify (for students and the media) example of its sagittal crest.

Hope that clears those two things up.