Hey folks! Sorry it's been a while. I've had a lot going on these past few months. But in the new year I'm focusing on posting state cryptids on a more consistent and timely schedule.
In the meantime, here's another article I wrote for Cryptid Culture magazine! This time I focused on a somewhat more abstract concept- the Shadow Biosphere. In essence, this idea posits that there may be microbial life on Earth with a completely different chemical and genetic structure from currently known life forms. They could have different enzymes and proteins, different cellular building blocks, even a completely novel way of storing genetic information that isn't based on DNA. Researchers wouldn't be able to detect such strange organisms because our current tools for identifying microbe species relies on analyzing DNA and other molecular structures that are common to all known Earthly life. So a microbe with a different molecular structure wouldn't be picked out by our current technology. It's a fascinating concept.
A Shadow Biosphere might have evolved if life arose multiple times on the early Earth- which isn't really that strange of a concept. There were plenty of places where early organic molecules could have come together and "cooked" into living organisms. Life could have arisen in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, in sea spray or in warm tidal pools, three places that I've illustrated here and in my article.
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| Early life forming near a deep-sea hydrothermal vent. |
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| Early life forming in sea spray rich with organic particles |
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| Early life forming in a warm tidepool under a lightning-filled sky. |
In addition to my article, Issue 7 also has articles on the Flatwoods Monster, Alaskan cryptids, Native American legends of "red-haired giants", cryptid poetry and more.
You can get the latest issue of Cryptid Culture magazine here.
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