tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24349656982671976482024-02-08T04:50:12.271-08:00Cryptids State-by-StateJohn Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-1660885742943786822024-02-08T04:45:00.000-08:002024-02-08T04:49:11.200-08:00The Vermont Monster Guide by Joseph Citro and Stephen R. Bisette<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh16dCAa54-0ggfw3iFabHUCwiQaeWYinDjtSAPrp2npFokYz7sNYrGnrAJz06_9HEAn2Sjbb5a1gBjcQZ8oANcYBceyUzx1H4sl83cWBrDNsqnveGocQI5DBZ4UYB6Fhuiip4TjqHOIm4rmGOnbeyG9Ulud-PqBKU5LkXxW2o_pxtDauB_DZrcVmBP4Pzf/s3024/IMG_2474.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh16dCAa54-0ggfw3iFabHUCwiQaeWYinDjtSAPrp2npFokYz7sNYrGnrAJz06_9HEAn2Sjbb5a1gBjcQZ8oANcYBceyUzx1H4sl83cWBrDNsqnveGocQI5DBZ4UYB6Fhuiip4TjqHOIm4rmGOnbeyG9Ulud-PqBKU5LkXxW2o_pxtDauB_DZrcVmBP4Pzf/w640-h640/IMG_2474.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I love monster guidebooks, so when I heard about this tome about cryptids of Vermont, I immediately had to track down a copy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">With its extensive forest, glacier-rounded hills, and deep, dark
lakes, it’s not surprising that Vermont is allegedly home to a multitude of
strange, unknown beasts. Monster investigator Citro and renowned comic artist Bisette delve deep into the folklore and urban legends of the Green Mountain
State to bring these creatures to life with
writing and illustrations that are as lurid and sensational as pulpy 19<sup>th</sup>
century newspapers breathlessly relating the horrors menacing backwoods folk.</span><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhunDduIK20ASwUFLcTzuWSZGGAH3jnsF7j1XJOAY1SOkwoSPtBSWxMrgIfGO1knYBsaJjcMaAoi_7Lp0RYa2rtSkIn96IDfw_L2AGhF00LI9ThXWWJpvgrIBlWZoW3Z7oCQQG3rgApLfKEoOBKpAI8UtYDBQ6gpaKv_Xqc2hbUHdgHzQOaqNLWDkA_dUjM/s3024/IMG_2475.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhunDduIK20ASwUFLcTzuWSZGGAH3jnsF7j1XJOAY1SOkwoSPtBSWxMrgIfGO1knYBsaJjcMaAoi_7Lp0RYa2rtSkIn96IDfw_L2AGhF00LI9ThXWWJpvgrIBlWZoW3Z7oCQQG3rgApLfKEoOBKpAI8UtYDBQ6gpaKv_Xqc2hbUHdgHzQOaqNLWDkA_dUjM/w640-h640/IMG_2475.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68ftFUliZcTPAtrGkn7vu14hyjh6lIsNd0O7-NL_n1ULiOgTqmSxcMiqGWDS3R0sy8ziZUyt3gkZyzo4cYX7kG0Nb1ptqbfD5ZJ8n0voYtxdemQ6tiYwZl2P2aWoVSZISBizshKXsS_JaCY7vg4XHHpBZ4NUMmmc4ZS7Bij8bDJkP0G4Kbtgc_dI_hRwB/s3024/IMG_2477.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68ftFUliZcTPAtrGkn7vu14hyjh6lIsNd0O7-NL_n1ULiOgTqmSxcMiqGWDS3R0sy8ziZUyt3gkZyzo4cYX7kG0Nb1ptqbfD5ZJ8n0voYtxdemQ6tiYwZl2P2aWoVSZISBizshKXsS_JaCY7vg4XHHpBZ4NUMmmc4ZS7Bij8bDJkP0G4Kbtgc_dI_hRwB/w640-h640/IMG_2477.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of the featured monsters are familiar- Champ, Bigfoot,
the Fur-Bearing Trout. Others are more
obscure, like the trash-eating Pigman, Memphre of cold, glacial Lake Memphremagog,
and the Man-Eating Stone of Glastonbury Mountain. There’s also a sizeable pack
of creatures known from single encounters, such as Steggy the hump-backed critter,
or the “Long-Leggedy Cats” of Burlington.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Bisette has a long history of comic book work, including
Saga of the Swamp Thing, and Tyrant, the latter a story about the life of a Tyrannosaurus from the moment of birth. He also co-created the comic character
John Constantine. Joseph Citro is a long-time collector of New England oddball
stories. Their guide to things
mysterious and monstrous of Vermont is perfect for any fan of cryptids and local
legends. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Though the book is out of print, it's pretty easy to track down good-quality used copies online.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Also, here's an illustration I did of the aforementioned Pigman enjoying a nice breakfast.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesBakKq5v2FMoihx0wgugMSIBSWY3fCC4MSLaEJfc0LWm59BA5SWxMp5v1xvh2AjBD8YbRS2u4sATAaWLWKOOEjhpZczP6bDmwPwDdUslIKgD0lfw-tX0n0Jax88zvKCkUR8AKFb6l46wKsK4DL3Jq-jbsUF0LX4dIA0nSFbY9kCt2oo9XTtVMjkkJl2z/s3464/IMG_2480.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3464" data-original-width="2631" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesBakKq5v2FMoihx0wgugMSIBSWY3fCC4MSLaEJfc0LWm59BA5SWxMp5v1xvh2AjBD8YbRS2u4sATAaWLWKOOEjhpZczP6bDmwPwDdUslIKgD0lfw-tX0n0Jax88zvKCkUR8AKFb6l46wKsK4DL3Jq-jbsUF0LX4dIA0nSFbY9kCt2oo9XTtVMjkkJl2z/w486-h640/IMG_2480.jpg" width="486" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-29975306263160525792024-02-01T17:34:00.000-08:002024-02-01T17:48:50.716-08:00The Shadow Biosphere<p><span style="font-size: large;">A few years ago I wrote an article for Cryptid Culture magazine #7 about the microbial cryptids that may be lurking all around us. Since the magazine has been defunct for a while now, I thought I'd post that article in full here. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">You can still purchase copies of Cryptid Culture from <a href="https://www.blurb.com/user/CCMagazine">Blurb</a>. Definitely check it out. There were some great articles.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNkLN4xmqfLAAtE9j1cfVh_Uy9MmbHEFQx-aupbWhwdi0fNgBx2YvH5O0AVORsU75crZIW4S66jCBRsdM-JSUqyrLMw-TsmBxZOaf3Ha8s1-Qu8bu5wkwF9-ylMtM3PqNh2CR2rd5owOmJkufdXws367WmIbhjvEfpqTReKEmBurif0gdV2MIONWv15JV/s1500/Hydrothermal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1500" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNkLN4xmqfLAAtE9j1cfVh_Uy9MmbHEFQx-aupbWhwdi0fNgBx2YvH5O0AVORsU75crZIW4S66jCBRsdM-JSUqyrLMw-TsmBxZOaf3Ha8s1-Qu8bu5wkwF9-ylMtM3PqNh2CR2rd5owOmJkufdXws367WmIbhjvEfpqTReKEmBurif0gdV2MIONWv15JV/w640-h482/Hydrothermal.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: large;">THE SHADOW BIOSPHERE</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">In our search for unknown creatures we often focus on large,
impressive cryptids- Mothman, Sasquatch, the Jersey Devil, Nessie. Beasts that,
if they do exist, would be extremely rare and inhabit the periphery of
humanity’s territory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But what if there are uncountable hordes of unidentified
organisms all around us? What if they are in the soil beneath our feet? In the
damp spots in our basements? Even lurking inside our very bodies? What if there
are whole unknown domains of life whose existence we have never even suspected
because they are too small to be seen with the naked eye and so radically
different from conventional Earthly life that we do not even have the proper
tools to detect them? What if there is an entire Shadow Biosphere (a term
originally coined by researchers Carol Cleland and Shelley Copley of the
University of Colorado in 2005) lurking all around us? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxvlRTu1unMXF2-RmrdthyJyrX-fPVRsjZ-XqxOIZL8btlLMWMWQNKoW61iCjtTXkmtymr2Envv_2e9W3cTTsu093y8Bkuy58jH8rn3p2YPIcP3v-RSjUBAsyD-2s8jVqOqHlklNtPuf8HeVS8zQT7r940PJrjXTERAB-zqn_Lqt_OZlJTxSN8J2hfj-Ih/s1500/Tidepool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxvlRTu1unMXF2-RmrdthyJyrX-fPVRsjZ-XqxOIZL8btlLMWMWQNKoW61iCjtTXkmtymr2Envv_2e9W3cTTsu093y8Bkuy58jH8rn3p2YPIcP3v-RSjUBAsyD-2s8jVqOqHlklNtPuf8HeVS8zQT7r940PJrjXTERAB-zqn_Lqt_OZlJTxSN8J2hfj-Ih/w640-h480/Tidepool.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The exact origin of life on Earth is not currently known,
though scientists have posed many possibilities. Some have speculated that life
coalesced out of the mineral-rich waters around hot springs or deep-sea
hydrothermal vents. Others have wondered if the basic building blocks of life
arose in warm tidal pools or on the surface of carbon-based matter floating in
droplets of sea spray. Still others have wondered if the components of life
might have been brought to Earth on icy comets. It’s possible- even likely-
that simple life arose multiple times and in multiple forms in these and many
other crucibles on the early Earth. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0lcaPhoGUP646tJnFElTp0pnftpUsWt4-Gz4Tx79385VEtotX7JQYPMKug5t9ENmyXKbzAL6ENmbG4xC-Dg1D1i9mG-b5EjEviLO874IBPhJVPNyoEddxI-zdwMy_mTviT0sZi6h72g3aGyif1tDSaP6ZGRqdz8j8eVNuCkrYOUKzU-2qFX8rInXZgv3/s1500/Sea%20Spray.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0lcaPhoGUP646tJnFElTp0pnftpUsWt4-Gz4Tx79385VEtotX7JQYPMKug5t9ENmyXKbzAL6ENmbG4xC-Dg1D1i9mG-b5EjEviLO874IBPhJVPNyoEddxI-zdwMy_mTviT0sZi6h72g3aGyif1tDSaP6ZGRqdz8j8eVNuCkrYOUKzU-2qFX8rInXZgv3/w640-h480/Sea%20Spray.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">At some point, though, one type of life predominated and
took over every ecological niche on the planet. This kind of life is highly
plastic in the form it takes: bacteria, amoebae, algae, jellyfish, dinosaurs,
humans. Organisms very different in form and structure, yet all sharing the
same fundamental building blocks. Their genetic information is wrapped up in
double-helices of DNA constructed from four bases: guanine, cytosine, adenine
and thymine . Their bodies are built and controlled by proteins and enzymes
made of 20 different amino acids. And many of their support structures- hair,
wood, cell membranes, etc- are constructed from carbohydrates.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But what if other life forms made from different sets of
building blocks also developed in those dawn crucibles? What if they used a molecular
structure besides DNA to hold genetic information? What if they utilized more
than the familiar 20 amino acids to build their proteins? Or a different set of
amino acids entirely? Even if such organisms did evolve they must surely have
gone extinct early on, out-competed by life that dominates the Earth today?
Otherwise we surely would have found evidence of them. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps not, though. The majority of living things on Earth
are prokaryotes- unicellular microbes too small for us to see with the naked
eye. Under a microscope, most
prokaryotes look fairly similar. Their cells are either shaped like pills,
spheres or twisting corkscrews. You can’t tell what species a prokaryote is
just by looking at it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But this external simplicity and uniformity hides a universe
of metabolic diversity. Some prokaryotes can photosynthesize like plants. Some
can obtain energy from salt or sulfur. Some live off metals or oil. Some even
feed on radioactive materials like uranium.
And of course, there are the more commonly known microbes that
parasitize other living organisms. To identify prokaryote species, scientists
have developed tools and techniques to detect the various enzymes, chemicals,
and other molecular components that allow them to live and feed in these unique
ways. Additionally, since prokaryotes are so small and numerous, these
techniques are not performed on individual specimens. Instead, they are tested
in a “shotgun” fashion on a sample of, say, soil or pond water to detect the
overall presence and abundance of certain metabolic components. These techniques assume, however, that the
organisms being examined are composed of the DNA, proteins, and other building
blocks of regular terrestrial life. They
would not find denizens of the Shadow Biosphere if their structures and genetic
material are different from what we currently know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">There is actually a precedence for discovering a completely
new domain of life. Up until the late 1970s all life on Earth was placed into
two broad categories based on the structure of their cells. Eukaryote cells
have lots of smaller metabolism-performing structures called organelles inside
them, including a nucleus to contain DNA, mitochondria to generate energy, and,
in the case of plants and algae, chloroplasts to photosynthesize. All animals,
plants, algae, fungi, and many single-celled organisms such as diatoms,
paramecia, and amoebae are eukaryotes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The aforementioned prokaryotes, by contrast, have no
organelles. Their DNA and all metabolic enzymes float freely in the cell. For decades all prokaryotes were assumed to
be bacteria. In the late 1970s, however, researchers noticed that some
prokaryotes had proteins and other chemical structures that were vastly
different from those found in the majority of these microbes. What’s more,
these strange prokaryotes were genetically closer to each other than they were
to any other bacteria. It soon became clear that these organisms were a whole
new domain of life that researchers dubbed the Archaea. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s important to note that even though archaea differ from
eukaryotes and bacteria in some structural ways, they still utilize DNA and the
20 amino acids found in the other two groups.
Archaea may have evolved separately from the other domains, but they are
still ultimately descended from the same distant ancestor as the others. They
are not part of a Shadow Biosphere. The point of this story is to illustrate
the fact that that unique microbial organisms can indeed be lurking all around
us without being detected.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"> So, is there any
evidence for a Shadow Biosphere? One possible clue to their presence is a
phenomenon known as desert varnish. In arid regions around the world, exposed
rock outcroppings frequently develop a thin red or black coating of iron,
manganese, silica and clay particles. Native peoples around the world have
created petroglyph images on these rocks by scrapping away this thin dark
patina to expose the lighter rock underneath. Though desert varnish has been extensively
studied, its exact origins are not known. Many scientists think it is caused by
chemical weathering or by the slow action of bacteria or archaea living on the
surface of the rocks. Some, though, have suggested that the dark patinas could
have been deposited by the unknown organisms of the Shadow Biosphere. Testing
this hypothesis would require developing techniques, which I will discuss a
little later, to detect traces of non-traditional life forms. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgMVupVEd0dv0wGWrpuekoNWVAgP0DNCKrzodKZ0K7ffJeUCmZRs-RJMqa23tjd9Z549ICv-K9nkIfraeA3cHbFgRVmXkoIQdN_jbefMh41tIBuSHNK2-0aRucZWd3Eyb7d-C_M9vABLaVbaThE2-P5OvxYYq0rnZt7_TcNitruDa0yw2I0JZBw5yOZtm/s1500/Nanobes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1500" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgMVupVEd0dv0wGWrpuekoNWVAgP0DNCKrzodKZ0K7ffJeUCmZRs-RJMqa23tjd9Z549ICv-K9nkIfraeA3cHbFgRVmXkoIQdN_jbefMh41tIBuSHNK2-0aRucZWd3Eyb7d-C_M9vABLaVbaThE2-P5OvxYYq0rnZt7_TcNitruDa0yw2I0JZBw5yOZtm/w640-h454/Nanobes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s possible that some of these Earthly aliens have
actually been found. In 1996 geologist Phillipa Uwins and her team discovered
microscopic filament-like structures on pieces of freshly fractured sandstone
they had pulled from 2-3 miles below the ocean floor. Soon, the filaments,
which Uwins dubbed “nanobes”, were found
to be growing on equipment and containers in her lab that had come into contact
with the samples. Experimentation found that the nanobes would also grow and
even multiply on freshly fractured rock samples. Testing with DAPI staining- a
technique for finding double stranded nucleic acids like DNA- produced a strong
positive result, indicating that these filaments had genetic material and were
thus alive. That revelation created
quite a conundrum, though, because these nanobes were one-tenth smaller than
even the smallest known bacteria or archaea. At that size, a conventional
organism would simply be too small to contain the genetic material and proteins
necessary for life. Could nanobes have different chemical structures for
carrying out life’s functions? Uwins and her colleagues are still hesitant to
definitively claim nanobes are a new form of life, or even alive at all. More
research is required to determine the exact nature of these structures. Nevertheless, they are another tantalizing
clue to the existence of an unsuspected Shadow Biosphere lurking all around
us. </span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">All this speculation begs the question: how would one find
evidence of the Shadow Biosphere if its denizens cannot be detected by techniques
that target known Earth life? One possibility would be to develop experiments
that look for other amino acids in the environment beyond the familiar 20.
Another possible method would be to develop a chemical reagent that can
distinguish between typical DNA and other genetic material that might have
different bases besides guanine, cytosine, adenine, and thymine. This reagent
could be used to stain a sample of cells gathered from, say, a soil sample. Any
cells that were not stained could potentially possess a gene-encoding structure
different from typical DNA.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">As I stated at the beginning, while the big, bizarre
cryptids like Mothman and Thunderbirds may be the most popular, some of the
strangest, truly unique organisms on Earth may be lurking under our very feet
beyond the limits of what our eyes and scientific instruments can see. The
trick to finding them may require looking beyond what we currently understand
as life on this planet. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdZoMeRlukSuSRzyjpy6ioS7zPPPEoNGFfzL7rJH2MOCaC8EUw2aNUlwrbGS2ocL_1rtljB-F-aGNcY5iPKdMCOYOHvo2vJTMWefZT0lxDf-lO_WuoMobPo9oxisaGeekCXnssO1JLPj09bhwOy6kT6x9E74r7nfShhi4AG8EsQV2MY16GhdBQNqKwjGe/s2795/IMG_2518.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2795" data-original-width="2795" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdZoMeRlukSuSRzyjpy6ioS7zPPPEoNGFfzL7rJH2MOCaC8EUw2aNUlwrbGS2ocL_1rtljB-F-aGNcY5iPKdMCOYOHvo2vJTMWefZT0lxDf-lO_WuoMobPo9oxisaGeekCXnssO1JLPj09bhwOy6kT6x9E74r7nfShhi4AG8EsQV2MY16GhdBQNqKwjGe/w640-h640/IMG_2518.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">SELECTED REFERENCES<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Cleland, C. E. (2007). Epistemological issues in the study
of microbial life: Alternative terran biospheres? <i>Studies in History and
Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological
and Biomedical Sciences, 38</i>(4), 847-861.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Cleland, C. E., & Copley, S. D. (2005). <i>The
possibility of alternative microbial life on Earth. International Journal of
Astrobiology, 4(</i>3 & 4), 165-173.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Uwins, P. J. R., Webb, R. I, & Taylor, A. P. (1998).
Novel nano-organisms from Australian sandstones. <i>American Mineralogist, 83</i>(11-12,
Part 2): 1541-1550.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br /></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-81948792923730198772024-01-16T06:34:00.000-08:002024-01-16T06:34:40.329-08:00Devil Monkeys- Virginia<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbZ1e_ar40mOa26qqfa1KkDUUTqTM6epuk52jObxj3_0m0oqPQXbsxMNf3F0M-Jij8qyR1dORxrYL3VZAVVuQCYehNPsEk_v7In8pmll0W5bLjbasgn09WjGgm_TeH2UKfc5f_Ty26yg8sEHfiV1MzYOD3XydNpoGRf69AOP5EBJuvGA2WWiLxnieeSe3/s1616/Devil%20Monkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1616" data-original-width="1268" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbZ1e_ar40mOa26qqfa1KkDUUTqTM6epuk52jObxj3_0m0oqPQXbsxMNf3F0M-Jij8qyR1dORxrYL3VZAVVuQCYehNPsEk_v7In8pmll0W5bLjbasgn09WjGgm_TeH2UKfc5f_Ty26yg8sEHfiV1MzYOD3XydNpoGRf69AOP5EBJuvGA2WWiLxnieeSe3/w502-h640/Devil%20Monkey.jpg" width="502" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Though South America, Central America and southern Mexico have
a great diversity of primates, northern North America has none aside from
humans. This is ironic given that the earliest known primate- a small,
squirrel-like creature called <i>Purgatorius</i>- evolved on this continent. Descendants of <i>Purgatorius</i> and its
relatives diversified into several lineages of tarsier- and lemur-like forms
that inhabited North America during the warm Eocene epoch before supposedly dying
out as the land grew cooler and grasslands became more abundant. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">A fossil find in 1960s altered this view when molars from a
lemur-like creature dubbed <i>Ekgmowechasala</i> (Sioux for “Little Cat Man”)
were unearthed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. This animal
lived in the Oligocene, millions of years after other primates were thought to
have died out, proving that at least a few of these lines had continued. Though
no younger North American primate fossils have been found since, what if descendants
of <i>Ekgmowechasala</i> survived into the present day?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1959 a couple by the name of Boyd were driving home near
Saltville, Virginia when a strange, monkey-like beast attacked their car. They
described it as having light “taffy-colored” fur with a white belly, and
powerful, muscular legs. Other people in the Saltville area reported seeing a
similar creature around the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Then in the 1990s a woman driving on a dark Virginia backroad
saw a creature run in front of her car that she described as black and sleek
with a long tail, pointy ears, a short-snouted face, a man-like torso, and
powerful hind legs. Though the earlier Boyd cryptid bears little resemblance to
this animal- and may in fact have been a different species- both incidents have
been conflated in pop culture as encounters with what have come to be called devil
monkeys. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">While the Virginia encounters are the most well-known
sightings, devil monkeys have been seen throughout North America. Coweta County, Georgia, for example, is
haunted by the Belt Road Booger, a simian creature with a “flat, beaver-like
tail covered in hair”. Run-ins with the Booger began in the 1970s, many of them
now believed to have been hoaxes by pranksters dressed in gorilla costumes. But
other encounters have not yet been fully explained. The Belt Road Booger has
become such a local sensation that a taxidermist in Newnan, Georgia even made a
fake “Booger” head out of a white-tailed deer’s posterior as a decoration for a
friend’s hardware store.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">There is also possible photographic evidence of a devil
monkey. In 1996 photos surfaced online of a strange, furry, baboon-like carcass
lying along the curb of a Louisiana highway. Dubbed the Deridder Roadkill, the
body bears a distinct resemblance to descriptions of these cryptids with its
long snout, bushy-haired body, and ape-like feet. While some have suggested the
carcass was a devil monkey, others have proposed that it could be a rougarou,
dogman, or even a chupacabra. More mundane suggestions include a large Pomeranian
dog, or even a prop. However, as so often happens in these cases, the body
disappeared before samples could be taken, so its identity could not be proved
definitively.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Devil monkeys are often said to have powerful kangaroo-like
hind legs that allow them to jump huge distances. This feature has led some cryptozoologists
to wonder if widely reported “phantom kangaroos” sighted throughout the US and
Canada might actually be these animals. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">While stories of large non-human North American primates
like sasquatch and skunk apes are abundant in folklore and cryptozoology, no fossil
evidence for these creatures has been found. Thus if they are real, one could
argue that they likely migrated to this continent late in geological history along
the same routes that humans used. Devil monkeys, on the other hand, may
represent a species of home-grown North American primate possibly descended from
<i>Ekgmowechasala</i> or similar animals.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">REFERENCES<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Eons.
(20, November 12). What happened to primates in North America? [Video]. PBS.org.
<a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/the-first-and-last-north-american-primates-dztigm/#:~:text=Why%20don't%20we%20have,and%20eventually%20they%20all%20disappeared">https://www.pbs.org/video/the-first-and-last-north-american-primates-dztigm/#:~:text=Why%20don't%20we%20have,and%20eventually%20they%20all%20disappeared</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gilly,
Steve. (2018, April 20). The Devil Monkey. MountainLore. <a href="https://mountainlore.net/2018/04/20/the-devil-monkey/">https://mountainlore.net/2018/04/20/the-devil-monkey/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grundhauser,
Eric. (2016, December 22). Does America have a secret kangaroo population? Atlas
Obscura. <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/does-america-have-a-secret-kangaroo-population">https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/does-america-have-a-secret-kangaroo-population</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Leftwich,
Rebecca. (2023, October 30). Who put the “boo” in the Belt Road Booger? The
Newnan Times-Herald. <a href="https://www.times-herald.com/news/who-put-the-boo-in-the-belt-road-booger/article_ee9d689e-770f-11ee-a003-8bb851ca9cb4.html">https://www.times-herald.com/news/who-put-the-boo-in-the-belt-road-booger/article_ee9d689e-770f-11ee-a003-8bb851ca9cb4.html</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lynch,
Brendan M. (2023, November 6). Fossils tell tale of last primate to inhabit North
America before humans. University of Kansas. <a href="https://news.ku.edu/2023/11/06/fossil-evidence-tells-tale-last-primate-inhabit-north-america-humans#:~:text=The%20first%20primates%20came%20to,about%2034%20million%20years%20ago">https://news.ku.edu/2023/11/06/fossil-evidence-tells-tale-last-primate-inhabit-north-america-humans#:~:text=The%20first%20primates%20came%20to,about%2034%20million%20years%20ago</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Morphy,
Rob. (2010, January 13). Deridder Roadkill: (Louisiana, USA). Cryptopia. <a href="https://www.cryptopia.us/site/2010/01/deridder-roadkill-louisiana-usa/">https://www.cryptopia.us/site/2010/01/deridder-roadkill-louisiana-usa/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Morphy,
Rob. (2010, December 6). Devil monkeys: (North America). Cryptopia. https://www.cryptopia.us/site/2010/12/devil-monkeys-north-america/<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Spooky
Appalachia. (2023, April 26). The story of the Virginia devil monkey. [Video].
YouTube. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsv-mBSEX74">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsv-mBSEX74</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;">Taylor,
Jr. L. B. (2012). <i>Monsters of Virginia</i>. Stackpole Books.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p><p>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-19648544239490754842023-05-06T07:14:00.003-07:002023-05-06T07:26:53.299-07:00Ozark Howler- Arkansas<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEcEGy29bN6n0UzHgmxrKVYAH691p0SfotPnGpxOPuYJzqXhoHJdYY94ZK186qhueq2GyoWrxFjSBP1ojIAGM1v1BIy4Gh9OVPn2Y5MkcI0zhpe7TcUUJSOSel__9LldulRyp3uUDDEdfrmOz29Qg_6S0-FZaF9L9ZK96ZYAywa2SliKl7qvWYVc3AA/s1641/Ozark%20Howler.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1247" data-original-width="1641" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEcEGy29bN6n0UzHgmxrKVYAH691p0SfotPnGpxOPuYJzqXhoHJdYY94ZK186qhueq2GyoWrxFjSBP1ojIAGM1v1BIy4Gh9OVPn2Y5MkcI0zhpe7TcUUJSOSel__9LldulRyp3uUDDEdfrmOz29Qg_6S0-FZaF9L9ZK96ZYAywa2SliKl7qvWYVc3AA/w640-h486/Ozark%20Howler.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Ozarks are a range of low mountains found primarily in
Northern Arkansas and southern Missouri with portions extending into Oklahoma
and Kansas. Their origins lie in the late Paleozoic when
sand, silt, coral, and shells built up as layers of sludge on the bottom of a sea
that covered what would eventually
become the American South. Over time these sediments hardened into rock- sand became
sandstone, silt became slate, and the shells and coral became limestone- and the
movement of tectonic plates pushed them upwards into a low dome-like plateau. Over the next 485 million years rivers and
rain gradually eroded the soft rocks into canyons, cliffs, and caves that have provided
habitat for bears, bobcats, otters and other Southern wildlife along with more
unusual creatures like blind cave fish, collared lizards and endangered grey
bats. And perhaps a cryptid or two.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">According to legend, the people of the Ozarks have been haunted
for decades by the unearthly screams of a beast dubbed the Black Howler. Those who have caught a glimpse of the monster
describe it as a dark-furred cat nearly the size of a bear. Other reports claim
it has glowing red eyes and demonic horns sprouting from its head. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Explanations for the beast range from a normal, though unknown,
species of large cat to something more supernatural. A few people have even
compared the beast to English and Welsh legends of black dogs, cŵn
annwn, hellhounds, and other supernatural beasts that bring misfortune to those
who see them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">More skeptical people have speculated that the Howler is
simply a misidentified cougar. Though these big cats are believed to be extinct
in this region, it’s possible that a small population has survived. Or perhaps
a few lone individuals have wandered in from other areas. This theory is
bolstered by photos from trail cams showing creatures that strongly resemble
these animals, and by similar cases of “phantom big cats” occurring in areas of
the US where they are not normally found.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Though some claim that legends of the Howler go back
generations, cryptozoologist Loren Coleman has found that the first reports of
the beast originated from posts on online forums in the late 1990s. His
investigations indicate that the “folklore” about the beast was a deliberate
hoax to mock the widespread reports of chupacabras and bigfoots that were
becoming increasingly widespread at the time thanks to the advent of the internet.
Hoax it may be, but the Howler has since become a popular piece of Ozark
folklore and sightings are still regularly reported.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> The Howler is
especially significant as one of the first urban legend monsters to be created online,
laying the groundwork for later, more famous internet creatures like
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBVn4SzvImo&t=60s">Slenderman</a>, <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/fictional-characters/the-rake/">The Rake</a>, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/what-is-momo-challenge-800470/">Momo</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFjPbfIEe4&t=136s">Trevor Henderson’s Sirenhead</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">REFERENCES</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.unlocktheozarks.org/stories/folklore-legends-and-myths/ozark-howler/">An article from Unlock the Ozarks about the Howler</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://onlyinark.com/culture/ozark-howler/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Only in Arkansas about the Howler</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ozarkhowler.html"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Explore Southern History</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/ozarkxhowler/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Loren Coleman's article debunking the Howler hoax</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.4029tv.com/article/ozark-howler-sighting-at-devils-den-game-fish-say-photos-are-a-hoax/4957812"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A recent photo of the Howler debunked as a hoax</span></a></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-55360543800906709902022-11-23T18:13:00.002-08:002023-05-06T07:01:55.637-07:00 Falls City Metal-Winged Demon- Nebraska<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1iiQtoo7TZ1faPoLDoUEfhvKKPN9JAara4s8rA6ccJ9PYf-puguFw3M1apzYCTNCdXlIwV-MKcrP43sbC0ULY9oMH1hp1Ek5pTZgsGBFol0e0qnDhMwaUFDslo8GTvdM8U47TrWJelRizAh4mlcyugqgNW_ypHCDBtddjufdCDoi_skMB-SxZreP9g/s1666/Robot%20Devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1274" data-original-width="1666" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1iiQtoo7TZ1faPoLDoUEfhvKKPN9JAara4s8rA6ccJ9PYf-puguFw3M1apzYCTNCdXlIwV-MKcrP43sbC0ULY9oMH1hp1Ek5pTZgsGBFol0e0qnDhMwaUFDslo8GTvdM8U47TrWJelRizAh4mlcyugqgNW_ypHCDBtddjufdCDoi_skMB-SxZreP9g/w640-h490/Robot%20Devil.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"> <span style="font-size: large;">On a late evening in 1956 “Mr. Hanks” (a pseudonym used by
the witness to protect his identity) was traveling down a rural lane near Falls
City, Nebraska when a being out of a hypnogogic hallucination sailed over his
head. The creature, so Mr. Hanks claimed, was held aloft by fifteen-foot-long
metallic wings covered in multicolored lights. These wings remained rigid, yet the
being appeared to somehow be guiding its flight with a control panel strapped
to its chest. One might naturally conclude that this apparition was just some
eccentric human inventor testing a new glider. But then what does one make of Mr.
Hank’s description of the entity’s twisted, leathery demonic face and nine-foot
height? Though the encounter was brief- the entity flew overhead and
disappeared into the dusk in only a few seconds- it would leave Mr. Hanks
deeply shaken.</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This was not the first recorded encounter with strange,
technology-assisted flying humanoids in modern times. In 1948 Bernice Zaikowski from Chehalis,
Washington also claimed to have witnessed a man gliding above her house on a
pair of giant, unmoving metallic wings. That same year, several people in Longview
Washington reported three men in “flying suits” sailing through the air with
the aid of unseen motorized equipment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Going even further back to 1880, visitors to New York’s
Coney Island witnessed a man with “bat’s wings and improved frog’s legs” and a
“cruel and determined expression” sailing over the amusement park.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">What could these bizarre, mechanically-assisted flying
humanoids be? Perhaps, as some have suggested, they were aeronaut inventors
testing out novel glider technology. The idea is not unprecedented. In the late
1800s German engineer Otto Lilienthal made extensive studies on the physics of
wings (his data served as inspiration for the earliest test flights of the
Wright brothers) and even built several gliders that he personally flew. Follow-ups
on the Chehalis sighting strongly suggest that what Ms. Zaikowski saw was just such
a man in a hang glider.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipn7o6F7lwXlcTlR8JSRJYPXuvwhpbN0HANPQ0nn5b0om3Cf9qKmue-gZ0NulL4kUfI61xYD6e5iQdR_z-OXSk1tAfNAReJ-p9Zl10C5WiojzgW7EGE4knXtobbk5yaeBbqTrEOa2wdViTjumWeeU0dXmR7MLLq7sYvD6V2Tfchyt7YjUEuSGyK3csmg/s1649/Robot%20Devil%20Flying%20Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1141" data-original-width="1649" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipn7o6F7lwXlcTlR8JSRJYPXuvwhpbN0HANPQ0nn5b0om3Cf9qKmue-gZ0NulL4kUfI61xYD6e5iQdR_z-OXSk1tAfNAReJ-p9Zl10C5WiojzgW7EGE4knXtobbk5yaeBbqTrEOa2wdViTjumWeeU0dXmR7MLLq7sYvD6V2Tfchyt7YjUEuSGyK3csmg/w640-h442/Robot%20Devil%20Flying%20Man.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But then what about the demonic face and massive nine-foot
height of the Falls River creature? Was it a mask? Or maybe Mr. Hank was simply
misinterpreting what he saw in a panic. If one wants to take a supernatural
approach, perhaps these metal-winged creatures were another iteration of
otherworldly winged cryptids such as the Mothman, the Cornish Owlman, and the
Van Meter Visitor. Supernatural investigator John Keel suggested that cryptids
and other strange phenomena such as UFOs, bigfoot, ghosts, etc. might be
manifestations of ultraterrestrials- beings from higher dimensions beyond the
four we know. According to Keel, humans cannot fully process the true
appearance of these hyper-dimensional beings, so our minds piece together
approximations that we can comprehend. Maybe Mr. Hank and the tourists at Coney
Island got brief glimpses at beings from the other world that had cloaked themselves
in forms mortal minds could process.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirlIKc4UNX9JpukOzVHThHH8zScNQvqyS0Co2PwnhZN3kxWaJGPl2akOlon41ZuzWimhP1yuQ8-zHPkqOE-jc0DlaFwTIICZdUKn_5z8JGlSH05-8pa_LwAz-Wh1-hyf9Kfd9XKV4gq_Su4xp70rjihmIpero3Gpx_MZ_JXE1hsP8-_DYRZ7RN-WZrjQ/s1610/Robot%20Devil%20ultraterrestrial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1610" data-original-width="1215" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirlIKc4UNX9JpukOzVHThHH8zScNQvqyS0Co2PwnhZN3kxWaJGPl2akOlon41ZuzWimhP1yuQ8-zHPkqOE-jc0DlaFwTIICZdUKn_5z8JGlSH05-8pa_LwAz-Wh1-hyf9Kfd9XKV4gq_Su4xp70rjihmIpero3Gpx_MZ_JXE1hsP8-_DYRZ7RN-WZrjQ/w482-h640/Robot%20Devil%20ultraterrestrial.jpg" width="482" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">SOURCES:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Encounters With Flying Humanoids by Ken Gerhard</span></p><p><a href="http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/1948-fly-man/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Cryptomundo providing a mundane explanation for the Chehalis winged man</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.brownstoner.com/history/coney-island-brooklyn-history-mystery-flying-man-1800s-talmage/">An account of the Coney Island Flying Man</a><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://untappedcities.com/2013/10/02/untapped-mailbag-the-flying-frogbat-person-over-coney-island-1880/">An account from Untapped New York about the Coney Island flying man</a></span></p><p><a href="http://www.lilienthal-museum.de/olma/eotto.htm"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Otto Lilienthal Museum</span></a><br /></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-67986201613314970522022-10-25T10:45:00.001-07:002022-10-25T10:45:10.041-07:00BOOK REVIEW: The Old Snatchengrabber's Big Book of Child-Eating Monsters <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9EfCoSYFEk4Z2KEv7V6Y9LxNWpwl5l29GNT7dIFMTD8hqOH2Mlmn5fYUTvIeNxH9hCPpLd--KCHta3GmMEBIKBazQHlksNfWTAMfsso-TCa9XQO6b-h3kvDK1Rv_peoHuRpBjtBny8k3ky7977bYNqD23ZeljNmcYmGOH6QOUyr20uL9U0YZAIA0zeg/s3106/IMG-6960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3106" data-original-width="2500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9EfCoSYFEk4Z2KEv7V6Y9LxNWpwl5l29GNT7dIFMTD8hqOH2Mlmn5fYUTvIeNxH9hCPpLd--KCHta3GmMEBIKBazQHlksNfWTAMfsso-TCa9XQO6b-h3kvDK1Rv_peoHuRpBjtBny8k3ky7977bYNqD23ZeljNmcYmGOH6QOUyr20uL9U0YZAIA0zeg/w516-h640/IMG-6960.jpg" width="516" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /> Over on my other social medias I've been doing some reviews of horror books for Spooky Season, and I thought this book, being about boogeymen and other folklore bugbears, would fit in nicely with this blog.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">THE OLD SNATCHENGRABBER'S BIG BOOK OF CHILD-EATING MONSTERS </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">by Bitter Karella (writing as Mike Rosen)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Boogey-men, women, and those in-between abound in this
collection of monstrous beings that live under beds, on the roof, or just on
the edge of the forest path, waiting to grab and devour kids who misbehave or
go to places they shouldn’t.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Big Book ranges from familiar bogeys (at least to American
pop culture) such as Rawhead Bloodybones, La Llorona, and Baba Yaga, to more obscure
beings such as the Babylonian sewer-dwelling Sulak, the gossip-eating living
marionettes called Croquemitaines, and the fungal witch Churnmilk Peg who
punishes naughty children who steal unripe nuts from their neighbors’ orchards.
All brought to life with Karella’s cartoony style.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Each entry is written in a field guide style with habitat,
range, appearance, diet, and other vital statistics so you can identify the
bugbear currently haunting your outhouse or crawlspace. Looking through the entries, it quickly
becomes apparent how hilariously gruesome boogeymonster folklore is, with
monsters delivering punishments such as chopping kids to pieces; grinding them into
sausage; suffocating them in piles of filth and sewage, ripping out their
living guts and replacing them with stones, and other unpleasentries. I suppose
if your kids won’t listen to reason, you gotta terrify them with the threat of
dismemberment by a nightmare hag to get them to obey.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Old Snatchengrabber’s Big Book of Child-eating Monsters
is available as a PDF on<a href="https://bitterkarella.itch.io/"> Bitter Karella’s itch.io pag</a>e, along with a bunch of
other cool, spooky comics, books, and games- including the award-winning
Midnight Pals!</span><o:p></o:p></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-52014428208020484792022-10-24T18:34:00.002-07:002022-10-24T18:34:42.320-07:00Flatwoods Monster Reimagined<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjopHQTCZ_klZxe6fvb_OSzFipBa2AtZ5La99g4imPOLmwrgjQ57fdBxStZTudQajx7UXuALZ24K5KF9nvn7CFTxLbmNbO2gFwDcInsXDoHuEyMKcU4f5_gngTGQnRz50CFyQy4IsVE-XIkAS3ZXL5HLc0A3pAlO2-NuQozJzxrmIrzh61tXefzfZhFvg/s1250/Flatwoods%20Radiodont.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjopHQTCZ_klZxe6fvb_OSzFipBa2AtZ5La99g4imPOLmwrgjQ57fdBxStZTudQajx7UXuALZ24K5KF9nvn7CFTxLbmNbO2gFwDcInsXDoHuEyMKcU4f5_gngTGQnRz50CFyQy4IsVE-XIkAS3ZXL5HLc0A3pAlO2-NuQozJzxrmIrzh61tXefzfZhFvg/w640-h640/Flatwoods%20Radiodont.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Besides cryptids, my other favorite creatures to draw are radiodonts, aka anomalocarids. These "strange shrimp" were a diverse group of predators from the Paleozoic era that captured prey using spiky Great Appendages that hung from their heads in front of their mouths. Radiodonts are believed to be ancestral to both arthropods and velvet worms. </p><p>Here I've reimagined the famous Flatwoods Monster as an upright, land-walking radiodont/anomalocarid with its Great Appendages forming the arms.</p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-32647129796709991482022-10-19T01:21:00.003-07:002022-10-19T01:21:58.906-07:00Mountain Creature Caught Running Behind a Google Car<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojhFTLsfJ4KoshUz2UB_1LvUmOGq3hDiGwHGV7IrLXjFFpCPYTk-vcg4edb9zP-QzD-8U-yfwdC0IxuHqu_2V9OajasIOULtjjoFyoTEY_Xg5d8OnYNpa-iEwA3MApkGRS7sPYQ9EO102IRBXwAw_lTD0_qVL8lLa0xCWvw-Hird2JTIhaicBaNXv8g/s1650/mountain%20Creature%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojhFTLsfJ4KoshUz2UB_1LvUmOGq3hDiGwHGV7IrLXjFFpCPYTk-vcg4edb9zP-QzD-8U-yfwdC0IxuHqu_2V9OajasIOULtjjoFyoTEY_Xg5d8OnYNpa-iEwA3MApkGRS7sPYQ9EO102IRBXwAw_lTD0_qVL8lLa0xCWvw-Hird2JTIhaicBaNXv8g/w640-h640/mountain%20Creature%20copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Been playing around recently with staining paper with tea. I love the aged look it creates, and the unusual patterns formed. The perfect look for making moody crypitid drawings.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This here is the Mountain Creature Caught Running Behind a Google Car, or Mocc for short. It's recently become somewhat popular on Twitter and Reddit after a user posted a blurry photo from a Google Streetview car that appears to show an odd, bipedal creature running along a line of trees in a wooded area. Or maybe it's just a weird-looking tree stump. Either way, it's a neat new addition to American internet folklore, and has already generated a fair amount of fan art, including mine!</span></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-67304289130500427022022-06-10T11:43:00.008-07:002022-06-10T11:43:47.692-07:00Pride Cryptids<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It's Pride Month, so I'm reposting all my LGBTQ+ Cryptid designs!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9yv9uGHbxZAPJ4R2eEqqP4seb88VYSHhUTCca3r_ArVYYx5GNvv_YKZMnp32HtQghQSSgROfma2iEdSK0bRPsAM-yXU1OLEVN9GCb575ZJ2ZmNLmBttuQJvBQe13k9BWh8PMRJ-JNO64qoy-vRSpSb39U73LY8pyVwKyH7mCHVYPp5YcSUnI7Vt8KA/s3112/Van%20Meter%20Visitor%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2406" data-original-width="3112" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9yv9uGHbxZAPJ4R2eEqqP4seb88VYSHhUTCca3r_ArVYYx5GNvv_YKZMnp32HtQghQSSgROfma2iEdSK0bRPsAM-yXU1OLEVN9GCb575ZJ2ZmNLmBttuQJvBQe13k9BWh8PMRJ-JNO64qoy-vRSpSb39U73LY8pyVwKyH7mCHVYPp5YcSUnI7Vt8KA/w640-h494/Van%20Meter%20Visitor%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">PRIDE VAN METER VISITOR</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgUJeult7a4ZICGkWFQePq5jH7uonPCFqky77NMgVw--KcuZkBQU-XAbfAAMVIk2UImPeWx_fls4EZAmFzboL20ZihTmwJO_-h7QhNJH6GZ_N7KfLpeHSMNC0wMvpMfYp8rtoUDkYpb3loH1mIUxjl0WdVNGNg8cJr2Te7mDTGZx9aO2982WIOZZFgQ/s1384/Dover%20Demon%20low%20rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1274" data-original-width="1384" height="590" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgUJeult7a4ZICGkWFQePq5jH7uonPCFqky77NMgVw--KcuZkBQU-XAbfAAMVIk2UImPeWx_fls4EZAmFzboL20ZihTmwJO_-h7QhNJH6GZ_N7KfLpeHSMNC0wMvpMfYp8rtoUDkYpb3loH1mIUxjl0WdVNGNg8cJr2Te7mDTGZx9aO2982WIOZZFgQ/w640-h590/Dover%20Demon%20low%20rez.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">GENDERFLUID DOVER DEMON</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCAQnkjaoz6ArdPpof0J9hzmAJe0LmE9FHc9YHSPQXcwiOt_pV5BuBptFkwuZI6B2comC6K5ViJlX3bk3X72iqMOUpjhHaLVNEqks-izpYhsfIiIRyE16b3Q7839rNR8Yj99OEoKSG0EhLxB387E3abilHJkbFv4gWcp0CAU1ykZIW2h71azn8ypr8w/s3902/nightcrawler%20low-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3902" data-original-width="2701" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCAQnkjaoz6ArdPpof0J9hzmAJe0LmE9FHc9YHSPQXcwiOt_pV5BuBptFkwuZI6B2comC6K5ViJlX3bk3X72iqMOUpjhHaLVNEqks-izpYhsfIiIRyE16b3Q7839rNR8Yj99OEoKSG0EhLxB387E3abilHJkbFv4gWcp0CAU1ykZIW2h71azn8ypr8w/w444-h640/nightcrawler%20low-rez.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">TRANSGENDER FRESNO NIGHTCRAWLER</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW74yrbctqka3X4UZ9FV_hG95SFwHjw4FblyHjxUMeg0Z32J1QD634iCQbwToik0sMxr_e3nS136EHRONnqX_14K2d75Wo9QdNFUDabZcSwICFPzpw4bR1jxBolBePk7VJU7fFYVxtYASXUASqDiQ5zLl7oTzLIX3WSQia1ed9RYc4OCagn7u9a3eozg/s1751/Crawfordsville%20low-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="1751" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW74yrbctqka3X4UZ9FV_hG95SFwHjw4FblyHjxUMeg0Z32J1QD634iCQbwToik0sMxr_e3nS136EHRONnqX_14K2d75Wo9QdNFUDabZcSwICFPzpw4bR1jxBolBePk7VJU7fFYVxtYASXUASqDiQ5zLl7oTzLIX3WSQia1ed9RYc4OCagn7u9a3eozg/w640-h440/Crawfordsville%20low-rez.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">NONBINARY CRAWFORDSVILLE MONSTER</span></p><p></p></blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVAWkkCLd0nlOGwmjmQnFOO9SIB_eBqMtZq_HPngq1ncxMj8_R3vPH1otPxSVkb3ImwQHOmOfu5V5neKCuD3GnuL-tnAX_OXRAPM1SIS5O-dRX5tsAXODeJL6NbQaodZdauka0oUyGttxCcps7QcAYAqsLv6Z2FSajz-xg1Ur25GzlCBB8I7qsLYkiMg/s1438/Asexual%20Trunko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1438" data-original-width="1438" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVAWkkCLd0nlOGwmjmQnFOO9SIB_eBqMtZq_HPngq1ncxMj8_R3vPH1otPxSVkb3ImwQHOmOfu5V5neKCuD3GnuL-tnAX_OXRAPM1SIS5O-dRX5tsAXODeJL6NbQaodZdauka0oUyGttxCcps7QcAYAqsLv6Z2FSajz-xg1Ur25GzlCBB8I7qsLYkiMg/w640-h640/Asexual%20Trunko.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">ASEXUAL TRUNKO</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I also made a couple of Pride Mothmens for this year.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJJ2g7FP2g-O_Y-H2eKDysX48WITZjiymZUXElha_VqTKoioLzw6_sDsyWimLF25QxNRQ78tpsrxwpZcXgHFWH-heOt3iyCiMwainM03QzP7UMBmRB1834bvPwTe4puu6e3OAfJq0Gp1GumgWPj4DLPz-jm-8kRdLnga54GCUcHRu7BHkDkrsfCp0qeg/s1125/Agender%20Moth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1125" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJJ2g7FP2g-O_Y-H2eKDysX48WITZjiymZUXElha_VqTKoioLzw6_sDsyWimLF25QxNRQ78tpsrxwpZcXgHFWH-heOt3iyCiMwainM03QzP7UMBmRB1834bvPwTe4puu6e3OAfJq0Gp1GumgWPj4DLPz-jm-8kRdLnga54GCUcHRu7BHkDkrsfCp0qeg/w640-h640/Agender%20Moth.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">AGENDER</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqj2WlDOcjDUlJrFlMz5KPb5w8VEUvVUR8nFBLUqW6zbnF1lHOHX4vQchePYKmY61wl1WV51WS6Tu9M85Ez8u3qXx71bNM9xZRGa-WkcWbyXRng4WzbRahRp9sSruD9tsaeozewZrYm6nUQUt8gqUOthKNjz0xliyrEEOQLlVq2AaY0dBa5sP_cxZSA/s1250/Bisexual%20Mothman%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqj2WlDOcjDUlJrFlMz5KPb5w8VEUvVUR8nFBLUqW6zbnF1lHOHX4vQchePYKmY61wl1WV51WS6Tu9M85Ez8u3qXx71bNM9xZRGa-WkcWbyXRng4WzbRahRp9sSruD9tsaeozewZrYm6nUQUt8gqUOthKNjz0xliyrEEOQLlVq2AaY0dBa5sP_cxZSA/w640-h640/Bisexual%20Mothman%20copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">BISEXUAL</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMQ54jrBCpJ-jMB8eu28IbDWkOhF4NA1MV_V2SqRavvVUV5IHsrI3hHS46FpJTDCW2REd2cLD5yH6PUe9tlmrY4YXjI3A4akRLrf1gMM6vVo58D9GrKGK_8hdD8Rm3bhKNFxSCXEZStXWEGarU6BXz5SeqPXQ6A65rkNvDQINTNfp1fE18TAIsVY7kg/s1125/Nonbinary%20Moth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1125" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMQ54jrBCpJ-jMB8eu28IbDWkOhF4NA1MV_V2SqRavvVUV5IHsrI3hHS46FpJTDCW2REd2cLD5yH6PUe9tlmrY4YXjI3A4akRLrf1gMM6vVo58D9GrKGK_8hdD8Rm3bhKNFxSCXEZStXWEGarU6BXz5SeqPXQ6A65rkNvDQINTNfp1fE18TAIsVY7kg/w640-h640/Nonbinary%20Moth.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">NONBINARY</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9jQP7wRfrMsHJmrjBqySnksqmntRC0Vjk4R7U59XP9AOwqbu2U28Dt4nHvxJHR5IutEW18P21QI_WbomR_FYUFrHwFdB91VCDkQSc3HiRR_N6ONd0lGjlTvVz1KO7C5mazNj34733w-RRIfmFZYnVWauk--AwOWoyPplOg0vE-rW-dqGRJluuX4c0Q/s1250/pansexual%20mothman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9jQP7wRfrMsHJmrjBqySnksqmntRC0Vjk4R7U59XP9AOwqbu2U28Dt4nHvxJHR5IutEW18P21QI_WbomR_FYUFrHwFdB91VCDkQSc3HiRR_N6ONd0lGjlTvVz1KO7C5mazNj34733w-RRIfmFZYnVWauk--AwOWoyPplOg0vE-rW-dqGRJluuX4c0Q/w640-h640/pansexual%20mothman.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /><span>PANSEXUAL</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-KUQGmsN9wgxFaO1JNlN3fQiV0y5cBBKBEaZOqMCcKuzFDO9rC1fOx-icol-orrP7OnNt6EsVOZyrQ9fEdtU0uZ1pZ5DDKoNYBQmnYviieRd7jRN_yiHKfRKLKNqO_bh0ZJL1jJnQDlpdSCChL1mS-nvipLupmhinL6CnGjFOlZf5GJJm7dJEwWYdw/s1125/Trans%20Mothman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1125" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-KUQGmsN9wgxFaO1JNlN3fQiV0y5cBBKBEaZOqMCcKuzFDO9rC1fOx-icol-orrP7OnNt6EsVOZyrQ9fEdtU0uZ1pZ5DDKoNYBQmnYviieRd7jRN_yiHKfRKLKNqO_bh0ZJL1jJnQDlpdSCChL1mS-nvipLupmhinL6CnGjFOlZf5GJJm7dJEwWYdw/w640-h640/Trans%20Mothman.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">TRANSGENDER</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">All designs are available on shirts at my <a href="https://www.teepublic.com/user/nocturnalsea">Teepublic store</a> or as stickers and art at my <a href="https://www.redbubble.com/people/nocturnalsea/shop?asc=u&ref=account-nav-dropdown">Redbubble shop</a>. All profits go to LGBTQ+ charities!</span></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-16896685760330036982022-04-16T15:42:00.001-07:002022-04-16T15:42:29.520-07:00Rougarou- Louisiana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zAPn-nf-KOqAk1Yn_x8ZLli1slsiJfG9GJcmnwDiRjgENdHub4x6A5rA5PoDoUWJhqSip-AHCWCor5mSFd2feCQupaNEzVAurvokVqsExkePbL6IADiyDVi6lU4zXbWPwWvRzCvx48qSSv8tHZeF14HjT5aT__q506BXUMvhfrn5CCNX994_WU4U6g/s1376/Rougarou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="1041" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-zAPn-nf-KOqAk1Yn_x8ZLli1slsiJfG9GJcmnwDiRjgENdHub4x6A5rA5PoDoUWJhqSip-AHCWCor5mSFd2feCQupaNEzVAurvokVqsExkePbL6IADiyDVi6lU4zXbWPwWvRzCvx48qSSv8tHZeF14HjT5aT__q506BXUMvhfrn5CCNX994_WU4U6g/w484-h640/Rougarou.jpg" width="484" /></a></div><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A strange, unearthly cry echoes across the mirrored surface
of the Louisiana bayou, echoing off scattered cypress and tupelo dripping with
Spanish moss. Is this merely the call of a wading bird? A lone puma? Or is it the
shriek of the man-wolf creature known as the Rougarou? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Rougarou is a Cajun variation on “loup garou”, the French
word for werewolf. France has a long history of werewolf folklore. In the 16<sup>th</sup>
century these creatures were often blamed for crimes such as disappearances,
animal killings, and particularly violent burglaries. In a parallel to the infamous
witch hunts also taking place at the time, scared and panicked villagers would usually
accuse someone living outside the societal norms of the time- such as a hermit
in the woods, or a person with mental illness- as being the beast. Once
accusations had been made, the condemned had little ability to defend
themselves in court other than to “confess” to being a werewolf and implicate
others in their ddeds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Many legends existed to explain how one became a loup garou.
Some men (medieval werewolves were almost always masculine) could change by
putting on a wolf’s skin- a possible link to legends of the Norse berserker warriors
who would don bear skins to take on the beast’s power. Some people would become
werewolves through cannibalism and other debauchery. Catholic priests claimed
that a man who didn’t observe Lent for seven straight years would become a werewolf.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Stories of the loup garou came to North America in the 17<sup>th</sup>
century with French settlers in the Acadia region, located in what is now
Eastern Canada. In the aftermath of the French and Indian War, the British
colonial government took over the region and forcibly deported most of the
ethnically French Acadians. Many of
these displaced people settled in Louisiana, originally a colony of France that
was ceded to Spain in 1762. The Spanish government was fairly tolerant of the
settlers, allowing them to continue their cultural practices- which included tales
of the loup garou.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In modern times the rougarou has become more of a boogeyman to
frighten children. Parents warn their kids not to misbehave or play in the swamp
or else the beast will come for them. These stories usually do not make it
clear if the creature is a transformed human or if it is always a humanoid
beast akin to the<a href="http://statecryptids.blogspot.com/2019/12/beast-of-bray-road-wisconsin.html"> Beast of Bray Road</a> and other dogmen of the Midwest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Despite- or, more likely, because of- its frightening appearance
and behavior, the Rougarou has become a popular part of Louisiana culture.
Costumes based on the creature frequently appear in Mardi Gras celebrations,
and the city of Houma even has an annual festival themed around the creature.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">
SOURCES </span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://rougaroufest.org/">Rougarou Fest in Houma, Louisiana</a><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">
<a href="https://pelicanstateofmind.com/louisiana-love/history-rougarou-louisiana-werewolf/">A page from www.pelicanstateofmind.com about the rougarou</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://www.whereyat.com/the-rougarou-is-gonna-get-you-cajun-folklore"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A post from www.whereyat.com about the rougarou</span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://blog.nwf.org/2019/10/save-the-swamp-but-beware-the-rougarou/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">National Wildlife Federation article on the rougarou</span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://tulanemagazine.com/legend-of-the-rougarou-louisianas-werewolf/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Article from Tulane magazine about the rougarou</span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://folklorethursday.com/creative-corner/old-tails-in-new-bottles-folklores-influence-on-pulp-fiction-werewolves/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Blog posts from Dr. Kaja Franck about werewolves</span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Monstrum episodes on Werewolves, hosted by Dr. Emily Zarka</span></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xPFdX5qEyk"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Part 1</span></a></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aff9ZQLClcU"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Part 2</span></a></div></div>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-41488144841099442362021-09-30T04:52:00.004-07:002021-09-30T04:52:53.365-07:00Hairy Devils- Alaska<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMS1bcbTTuFz_sQc_Xv-3migBE2OT8I2qGrcYjuirhQ71EuGxGt3xWuszeD6VG26xETdXDnn_wUXIkMGxicncCVQsFQdRGhdrnpzjFkMCz6g7Sm1dnV3eoGPxXHvGH5BVjM7z9ncyEQSYk/s1658/Alaska+Devil+Ape.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1658" data-original-width="1253" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMS1bcbTTuFz_sQc_Xv-3migBE2OT8I2qGrcYjuirhQ71EuGxGt3xWuszeD6VG26xETdXDnn_wUXIkMGxicncCVQsFQdRGhdrnpzjFkMCz6g7Sm1dnV3eoGPxXHvGH5BVjM7z9ncyEQSYk/w484-h640/Alaska+Devil+Ape.jpg" width="484" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Stepping into the dense rainforest of Southeastern Alaska,
one can’t helping feeling a strange sort of presence, as if something unknown
and unseen were watching from the trees. Is this sensation merely a construct
of the mind? The human tendency to anthropomorphize nature? Or is it possible
there are ancient spirits and unknown beasts lurking among the dripping spruces
and shadowy hemlocks? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Around 1900 a gold prospector named Harry D. Colp wrote a
story of an alleged encounter between one of his companions and a pack of
unknown entities in the Alaskan wilderness.
Colp had been lodging with the man, Charlie, along with a few other
prospectors in a shack near the city of Wrangell. Charlie had heard about a deposit of
gold-bearing quartz in the nearby Thomas Bay area. Packing three months of supplies, he set off
alone to investigate the site, only to return less than a month later badly shaken
and with neither supplies nor gold. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Charlie told Colp that upon arriving in Thomas Bay, he’d gone
in search of a half-moon shaped lake where the gold could supposedly be found.
After several days of searching, he finally locating the body of water at the
foot of a glacier. He had only just gotten his bearings when he was horrified
to see a pack of hairy “devils” swarming towards him from the shore. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Charlie described these beings as looking halfway between
men and monkeys. They were “entirely sexless, their bodies covered with long,
coarse hair, except where the scabs and running sores had replaced it.” The
stench of the creatures made Charlie ill, and their screams and cries made him
delirious. The beings chased him all the way back to Thomas Bay, where he
passed out and woke up hours later floating in his canoe in the middle of the water.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Several decades after Harry Colp’s death, his daughter,
Virginia, published the manuscript of the story under the title “The Strangest
Story Ever Told”. Over the years this tale has become a popular piece of folklore
in Southeastern Alaska.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Some have suggested that the beings Charlie encountered may
have been kushtaka- shape-shifting otter-men from the folklore of the Tlingit
people. Stories depict these creatures as malevolent tricksters who lure
fishermen and hunters into the wilderness, only to drown them or transform them
into more otter-men. They are often used as boogeymen to scare children aware
from the dangers of the ocean. Yet, like shapeshifters in many cultures,
kushtaka can be mercurial in behavior, and may occasionally save lost travelers
from dying in the freezing cold (often, again, by turning them into kushtaka
themselves). In at least one tale recorded by the Smithsonian Institute, an
otter-man is depicted as the reborn spirit of a dead man who returns to aid his
impoverished family. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">While Harry Colp never refers to the creatures in his story
as kushtaka, the otter-men have become closely linked with “The Strangest Story
Ever Told” in Alaskan folklore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Other people have allegedly also seen the hairy devils
around Thomas Bay, though Colp’s story is the only one widely known. These
sightings have led locals to dub the area “Devil’s Country”. Thomas Bay is also
known as the “Bay of Death” by the Tlingit people because of a landslide in the
1700s that wiped out a village.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">SOURCES</span></p><p><a href="http://www.bigfootencounters.com/stories/harrycolp.htm"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Full text of "The Strangest Story Ever Told", from bigfootencounters.com</span></a></p><p><a href="https://sitka.com/news/?page_id=191"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A story about a more benevolent encounter with a kushtaka</span></a></p><p><a href="http://www.alaskaforreal.com/blog/the-rest-of-the-strangest-story-ever-told"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An interesting possible explanation for the Thomas Bay devils, from Tara Neilson's Alaska For Real blog</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.juneauempire.com/life/a-few-strange-stories/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from the Juneau Empire with more details about Harry Colp</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFRluc9Exfc"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"Kushtaka", a short film created by Cameron Currin about the monstrous Otter-Men</span></a></p><p><br /></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-44539784996942789012021-05-11T20:28:00.001-07:002021-05-11T20:28:46.522-07:00Unktehi and Wakinyan- South Dakota<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirExaZtdwBY3OKksOu8heB3GJ9oCX8FF0zEJ9z3sXd1xcUZwaiTfxgecYKpxvI919SV7ajnI3rBqtsOl8Q15tLFyt0gdikZ0uapXxzYegd-XJFfa32XxB4oaGUEIlOFuESw38xwUfZnlJk/s1645/Wakinyan.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirExaZtdwBY3OKksOu8heB3GJ9oCX8FF0zEJ9z3sXd1xcUZwaiTfxgecYKpxvI919SV7ajnI3rBqtsOl8Q15tLFyt0gdikZ0uapXxzYegd-XJFfa32XxB4oaGUEIlOFuESw38xwUfZnlJk/s1645/Wakinyan.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1645" data-original-width="1265" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirExaZtdwBY3OKksOu8heB3GJ9oCX8FF0zEJ9z3sXd1xcUZwaiTfxgecYKpxvI919SV7ajnI3rBqtsOl8Q15tLFyt0gdikZ0uapXxzYegd-XJFfa32XxB4oaGUEIlOFuESw38xwUfZnlJk/s600/Wakinyan.jpg" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In every culture, in every era, humans have always been fascinated by monsters. We love to sit around the fire- or listen to the radio, or read a book, or play a video game- immersing ourselves in tales of dragons, gorgons, yokai, trolls, asuras, tokoloshe, and even stranger beings that lurk in the unseen corners of our world. The phenomena of cryptids is just the newest iteration of this fascination, though our modern age has added a scientific veneer onto these hidden monsters.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">With that being said, I wanted to expand this list of state cryptids out beyond the European American legends to include mysterious beasts form other cultures of the North American continent.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thunder beings and their rivals, the horned water serpents, are prominent in the legends of many Native American peoples, and are known under many names. Among the Lakota Sioux and other Native peoples of the American prairies, the Thunder Beings are known as Wakinyan, and the horned serpents called Unktehi. The Wakinyan often manifest as great birds to do battle with the serpents, smiting them with lightning and driving them into the Earth. Some legends say that the bones of both combatants can be found all over the American West, particularly in the prairies of Midwest and in the Badlands of South Dakota.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">These bones are said to have great wakan, spiritual power similar to the Algonquian concept of manitou. People sometimes gather bones from Unktehi for medicine bundles. And there are stories of evil sorcerers using shards of horned serpent bones to “sting” or curse others.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the late 1800s, European-American paleontologists such as Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope came to the West in search of fossils. Guided by Native stories, they collected many of the monstrous bones and identified those of the Wakinyan as pterosaurs. Unktehi bones found on the grasslands were discovered to be from aquatic reptilian mosasaurs, while the bones from in badlands belonged to extinct mammals.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why, one must wonder though, are the bones of marine animals found in the middle of the prairies? The answer lies in the late Cretaceous period when a long, shallow Interior Sea ran through North America, dividing the continent into the landmasses of Laurentia in the West, and Appalachia in the East. Mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and giant carnivorous fish such as Xiphactinus hunted these waters, while pterosaurs soured above the waves, and dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and duck-billed hadrosaurs roamed the shores. Over millions of years, plate tectonics pushed up the floor of the Interior sea, leaving the bones of its prehistoric inhabitants entombed on dry land.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's important to note that the cryptid commonly called a "Thunderbird" by many European Americans is distinct from the Wakinyan. While the former was definitely inspired by the legends of Native peoples, it tends to be thought of as a natural- if unusual- animal such as a giant bird or even a pterosaur. The Wakinyan, however, is a spiritual being that can take many forms. I've talked about the other type of Thunderbird- and an imfamous phantom photograph of one that everyone remembers, but no one can find- in a <a href="http://statecryptids.blogspot.com/2018/01/thunderbird-photo-arizona.html">previous post.</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Fossil Legends of the First Americans by Adrienne Mayor</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Lakota Belief and Ritual by James R. Walker, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie and Elain A. Jahner</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/unktehi-and-the-flood-as-told-by-lame-deer.htm"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A legend of the Unktehi from the National Park Service website</span></a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><a href="http://www.native-languages.org/morelegends/unktehila.htm"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Information on the "horned serpent" from Native-Language.org</span></a></span></p><br /></div>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-67412143578511131992021-03-23T07:59:00.002-07:002021-03-23T07:59:40.767-07:00Specter Moose- Maine<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShBhJ9qtPOW_-WAqt_mJbpGEm7ZZYrUxzl_mkSksrvPR5cT2qkRxSQbxHSbUCKtEuObKnbn6Qp-1iqAqlggNvVufIujd_L2eCEghmqCSmlHR1mMKdksbNo-Uma6xPMkM8AvlBOaPA1HW8/s1364/Spectral+Moose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1364" data-original-width="1049" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShBhJ9qtPOW_-WAqt_mJbpGEm7ZZYrUxzl_mkSksrvPR5cT2qkRxSQbxHSbUCKtEuObKnbn6Qp-1iqAqlggNvVufIujd_L2eCEghmqCSmlHR1mMKdksbNo-Uma6xPMkM8AvlBOaPA1HW8/w492-h640/Spectral+Moose.jpg" width="492" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Among the pines, an apparition looms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Towering twice the height of a man, the beast
has the form of a moose, but is far bigger than any ordinary member of <i>Alces
alces</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its coat is deathly white. Its
antlers spread wide as outstretched arms, pronged with over two dozen sharp
points. Is it a ghost? A spirit of the forest? Or perhaps it is merely an
ordinary- if impressive- natural mutation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The first recorded sighting of Maine’s spectral moose
occurred in 1891 when hunting guide Clarence Duffy spotted the creature around
Lobster Lake. A year later it was seen again by a sportsman from New York who
shot at it, only to be chased down and nearly trampled by the vengeful beast. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Regular sightings occurred for several decades. Witnesses
described the moose as being white or light gray, with some even claiming that
it glowed dimly. It was said to be about 10-15 feet high at the shoulder, much
taller than the 8-10 foot shoulder height of an average moose. Its antlers were
said to be 10-12 feet wide and festooned with up to 22 prongs- much larger and
more complex than the 4-6 foot spread of a regular moose. Some eyewitnesses
claimed that the moose would actually vanish into thin air right in front of
them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Some have suggested that the animal was albino. Albino moose
have indeed been documented many times, but their eyes are pink or violet,
while the eyes of the spectral moose are said to be brown. Albinism would also
not explain the creature’s tremendous size and enormous antlers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Its possible the spectral moose had a condition similar to
the Kermode Bears of British Columbia, also known as Spirit Bears or Moksgm’ol
in the language of the Indigenous Kitasoo, a tribe of the Tsimshian people.
Although these bears have white fur, their eyes and skin do have pigment. The
white coloration is due to a recessive gene that stops melanin from being made
only in the fur, a condition called leucism (as opposed to albinism, in which
all pigmentation is lost in all tissues). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In fact, population of white moose are well-known to inhabit
the woods around the town of Foleyet in Ontario. Like the Moksgm’al, these
moose are not albino, instead possessing a recessive gene that makes their
coats a grayish-white. Its quite possible that Maine’s spectral moose had a
similar genetic condition, though again the creature’s alleged great size, and
its seeming ability to disappear into thin air have not been fully explained.
Perhaps eyewitnesses, startled by the sight of such an otherworldly-looking
animal, exaggerated their descriptions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2012/03/specter-moose-of-maine.html?m=1"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from New England Folklore about the Spectral Moose</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/08/the-spectral-moose-of-maine/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Mysterious Universe about the Moose</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.weird.lumberwoods.org/monsterhunting/specter-moose.html"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Lumberwoods.org</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/rare-white-bear-key-saving-canadian-rainforest-180956330/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A Smithsonian article about the white Moksgm'ol Bear</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.northernontario.travel/northeastern-ontario/in-search-of-the-spirit-moose-foleyet-ontarios-mysterious-white-moose-population"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Ontario's white moose</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SU19111126.2.16&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A 1911 article from the Sacramento Union about the Specter Moose</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.legendsofamerica.com/specter-moose-maine/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A post from legendsofamerica.com about the Specter Moose</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />
</span><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p><br /><p></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-23060737065627298632021-02-25T15:31:00.001-08:002021-02-25T15:32:04.644-08:00Book Review- The Van Meter Visitor: A True & Mysterious Encounter with the Unknown by Chad Lewis, Noah Voss, and Kevin Lee Nelson<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLF5SZv3MHR41uXhOk8U5-5Of6AoT15AMEhFP8XXHduQp2uInWEcl7CpxPgvpiLil7TXOB8CJNTHonQFVczm0glx9SmDqzhkbCU4VOH-tJQRwM-BQ3DWSnTk20sTpr3AKOU-y-ggAPZyST/s2048/van+meter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLF5SZv3MHR41uXhOk8U5-5Of6AoT15AMEhFP8XXHduQp2uInWEcl7CpxPgvpiLil7TXOB8CJNTHonQFVczm0glx9SmDqzhkbCU4VOH-tJQRwM-BQ3DWSnTk20sTpr3AKOU-y-ggAPZyST/w480-h640/van+meter.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">I’ve read
many, many books in the course of my research for this blog, and figured I’d
start reviewing and sharing some of them in between regular State Cryptid
posts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">For five days
in late autumn 1903, the small Iowa town of Van Meter was haunted by a
mysterious winged Visitor with a glowing horn on its head. Though the story was
big news at the time, it <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fell into
obscurity for decades until paranormal investigators Voss, Lewis, and Nelson
turned their flashlights on it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">This book is
the culmination of their research. It is as much a character study of
historical Van Meter as it is a recounting the Visitor encounters. In my own cryptid
research, I often find that the people and circumstances surrounding the
sightings are just as fascinating as the creatures themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">The majority
of evidence is drawn from accounts in local newspapers. This might make the
whole Visitor phenomenon seem dubious at first since “monster yarns” were a
common feature in papers of the 1800s and early 1900s (see, for example, my
entries on the Bear Lake Monster and the Snallygaster). Journalistic integrity
hadn’t fully developed yet, and many papers were more like sensationalist
tabloids like the old Weekly World News that used to lurk in grocery store
check-outs. The details of the Van Meter Visitor, however, feel different from
a typical newspaper tall tale. Fantastic as the sightings are, there is a
degree of realism in the accounts. It seems that the people of Van Meter definitely
experienced <i>something</i>- though whether it was monster, demon, or mass
hysteria is still unknown. The authors offer several possibilities as to the
being’s identity. Could it have been an alien? A living thoughtform? A demon? A
case of mass hysteria? Or something more?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">This book was
my first introduction to John Keel’s Ultraterrestrial theory, which has become
a major theme of my cryptid writings and illustrations. Keel postulated that
unexplained, seemingly supernatural phenomena- ghosts, UFOs, bigfoot, fairies, Mothman-
are actually manifestations of beings from higher dimensions beyond our own.
When they move into our plane of reality, our minds cannot fully perceive or
comprehend them, so we translate them into forms that we can handle. The
authors speculate that the Visitor may have been one such manifestation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">I’d highly
recommend this book as a thorough investigation in a lesser known, but very intriguing,
cryptid. You can get a copy <a href="http://here.">here.<o:p></o:p></a></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p><span style="color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">And check out my own interpretation of the <a href="http://statecryptids.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-van-meter-visitor-iowa.html">Van Meter Visitor here.</a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Van-Meter-Visitor-Mysterious-Encounter/dp/0982431465"> </a></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br /></span></p><br /><p></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-64821042430195340382021-01-23T12:28:00.000-08:002021-01-23T12:28:27.475-08:00Paleodictyon<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> A few years ago I wrote a couple articles for Cryptid Culture magazine. While the publication itself seems to have gone under, you can still order copies of it on <a href="https://www.blurb.com/user/CCMagazine">their website</a>. Definitely go check it out. There are lots of great articles and illustrations. Here I'd like to share one of the articles I wrote on a most unusual deep-sea cryptid which may have existed since before the dinosaurs.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIM0BGOcUqhCt7VsNwuHmOO5WmqVGEAEudXsjwdVrs4RcSEDfGqZPGmcPiXj6IL7Bpe0taj4k1_O9c3Bi9zgOfWhZ5jwXrI2xKaKhZIrc5K4LOt1p5_RiSAcluddgu-yHFi0ESE58jMjah/s1350/Paleodictyon+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1350" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIM0BGOcUqhCt7VsNwuHmOO5WmqVGEAEudXsjwdVrs4RcSEDfGqZPGmcPiXj6IL7Bpe0taj4k1_O9c3Bi9zgOfWhZ5jwXrI2xKaKhZIrc5K4LOt1p5_RiSAcluddgu-yHFi0ESE58jMjah/w640-h494/Paleodictyon+small.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">PALEODICTYON</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p> I</o:p>t’s often said that the deep sea is as mysterious and
unexplored as the distant gulfs of space. There is much truth in this, for new
and strange species are constantly being discovered in the unlit abyss. Even
those scant few creatures which have been seen by surface-dwellers may be
little more than ghosts: brief flickers in a submersible’s lights, enigmatic
shapes glimpsed for but a second on an ROV camera, strange carcasses damaged
almost beyond recognition by the rough journey to the surface in a fisherman’s
net. And in some cases, these phantoms may only be known indirectly from the
marks of their passage left in the environment.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In 1976 oceanographer Peter A. Rona was using an underwater
camera towed behind a research boat to explore the seafloor along the
Galapagos Rift, a volcanic hotspot in the Pacific Ocean near the islands made
famous by Charles Darwin. Though the Rift is dotted with numerous hydrothermal
vents that are abundant with life, the area Dr. Rona was exploring was far
away from the hot, black-smoking chimneys. It was little more than an undersea
desert- a flat expanse of mud and silt almost devoid of life. So it was a great
surprise when the camera came across a hill of sediment about the size of a
silver dollar covered with an intricate pattern of holes. The placement of the
holes was so geometrically perfect, and the find itself so out of place, that
Dr. Rona at first assumed that the other researchers on the exploration team
had somehow played a trick on him. But they were just as surprised as he was by
the find. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybZdLAtnIWgd_bvrpJzPm7F8qpGJnTtmor4KJWDoeFmlCgvt5qItLnBWdDfRM0vknww-4tIyWnk9fpeeKSfk6zQihddpHy_vU5CHjVjH5aU1Xw-l8NueJyPW72adAxroGxdZvmsvcBBt8/s1191/Paleodictyon+tunnel+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="995" data-original-width="1191" height="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybZdLAtnIWgd_bvrpJzPm7F8qpGJnTtmor4KJWDoeFmlCgvt5qItLnBWdDfRM0vknww-4tIyWnk9fpeeKSfk6zQihddpHy_vU5CHjVjH5aU1Xw-l8NueJyPW72adAxroGxdZvmsvcBBt8/w640-h534/Paleodictyon+tunnel+small.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Later excavations of the holes revealed that they led to
shafts that connected to a network of honeycomb-like interconnected tunnels
about an inch below the surface. A burrow of some sort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A burrow so geometrically perfect as to
almost seem made by intelligent beings- though there is no need to invoke an
intelligent builder here since many animals can create startlingly precise
structures.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The first question Dr. Rona and the others asked, of course,
was just what animal had made these remarkable structures. No living organisms
were discovered when the burrows were dug up. There weren’t even any telltale
food scraps, bits of DNA, or other detritus to provide a clue to the identity
of these deep-sea engineers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The mystery only grew deeper as word of the discovery spread.
A few years after Dr. Rona formally described the strange structures, he was
contacted by paleontologist Adolf Seilacher, who showed him fossil burrows
that were nearly identical to the Galapagos Ridge hills. Seilacher’s fossils,
dubbed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i> (trace fossils
such as burrows, footprints, and coprolites are given their own distinct scientific
names), dated from the Eocene Epoch, approximately 55 million years ago. Other,
simpler but still very similar fossil burrows dated all the way back to the
early Cambrian Epoch, when large multicellular animals first appeared in the
fossil record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever was making the mystery
burrows had apparently existed on Earth with minimal evolutionary change since
before the dinosaurs had evolved. Or, at least, with little change in the way it
constructed its dwellings. Once this striking continuity was brought to light,
the still-unknown maker of the modern tunnels was given the name <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon nodosum</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Since the initial discovery in 1976, Doctors Rona and
Seilacher, along with other researchers, have found thousands of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i> burrows along volcanic
rifts in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Like those first specimens, the
other structures were found on the barren seafloor far from the hydrothermal
vents and their diverse ecosystems. Perhaps these unknown animals have evolved
to survive in this rough environment, adapting to feast on what few nutrients are
present in the form of “marine snow”- tiny bits of organic matter formed from
bits of dead plankton and other organisms that constantly rain (or rather,
snow) down from above.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZccQmqLkTobHuQ6_CEl4e0gx6P2ekCHWUHwfk3Tf__b9K40PA3MjxG5fWc4KAGAn_kZf0YBBFVAvpeDSezXV3O-X8OsmXPOKldj6yftxk8x_yJk2Z7xSRgshteazv9V_db7bF5WmpN2Cf/s1350/xenophyophore+smaller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1053" data-original-width="1350" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZccQmqLkTobHuQ6_CEl4e0gx6P2ekCHWUHwfk3Tf__b9K40PA3MjxG5fWc4KAGAn_kZf0YBBFVAvpeDSezXV3O-X8OsmXPOKldj6yftxk8x_yJk2Z7xSRgshteazv9V_db7bF5WmpN2Cf/w640-h500/xenophyophore+smaller.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A large xenophyophore in its shell.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But the question still remains: what sort of animals are
making these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i> structures,
exactly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One hypothesis is that they are
a species of giant amoebae known as xenophyophores. These single-celled
organisms can be found in the deepest parts of every ocean. Most species cement
sand and other debris together to build complex, rippled shells or “tests”
which can resemble brains, sponges, heads of lettuce, or other corrugated
objects. Some, however, are known to live buried in the sediment, admittedly in
much simpler burrows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon
nodosum</i> is indeed a xenophyophore, though, why does it excavate such
geometrically complex burrows? Laboratory tests have shown that the convex
lens-shaped mound over a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i>
burrow draws water down through the vertical shafts, so perhaps the structure
is used to pull suspended marine snow from the water column down to the buried
amoebae. Alternatively, the tubes could be used for “farming” bacteria on their
walls, much like how leafcutter ants in the Amazon will farm fungi on the bits
of vegetation, they bring into their nests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The farming hypothesis is suspect, though, since research has shown that
the concentration of bacteria in the tubes is no higher than the concentration
on the sea floor above, indicating that there is no deliberate cultivation occurring.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Dr. Rona’s favored possibility as to the identity of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i> is that the “burrows” may
actually be the outline casts of sediment-dwelling sponges or other soft,
filter-feeding organisms. This idea is not as strange as it may seem. Many
sponges will burrow into mud, coral, or even the hard shells of oysters (the
latter by using a weak acid secreted by the sponge’s cells) to protect their
soft bodies from predators. As to why no remains of the animals themselves have
been found, Dr. Rona suggests that they may have died and been completely
devoured by bacteria and small deep-sea scavengers, leaving behind the
geometric pit structure as the only evidence of their existence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is still curious, though, that in all these years of
searching not a single burrow has been found that contains a live <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon nodosum</i>, or even a few
small scraps of their remains. Perhaps it is because the structures are
actually much older than they appear. Though the burrows seem freshly dug, the
seafloor deserts where they are found are still, quiet places lacking any
current and only rarely disturbed by other organisms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These unusual conditions may have allowed the
burrows to persist intact for hundreds of years, long after their builders had
completely rotted away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The lack of a living builder may also simply be due to the
fact that the area where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i>
burrows are found has not been explored that extensively. Investigating the
deep sea is an expensive endeavor that requires reserving highly competitive
slots of time with a submersible or diving robot. Rona and Seilacher simply
haven’t had enough time or money to search for these enigmatic builders. Though
they have found thousands of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i>
burrows, perhaps these are only the graveyards of a long-dead colony of the
creatures. Perhaps the living animals lie just a few miles beyond the
submersible’s light, waiting for someone to finally stumble across them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i> has
received some media attention, though. Most notably in the form of “Volcanoes
of the Deep Sea”, an IMAX documentary chronicling the researcher’s discovery
and search for the animal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On a final, interesting side note, the first recorded
reference to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i> fossils may
have come from Leonardo da Vinci. In the Leicester Codex, Leonardo records
extensive notes on fossilized shells and other traces of prehistoric marine
organisms. Among his drawings is a small, quick sketch of a honeycomb-like
structure. Though the sketch is unlabeled, it is not a huge stretch to
postulate that this may have been a representation of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paleodictyon</i>, especially since these striking trace fossils are
common around the inventor’s childhood home in the valley of the Arno River.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-30850602928011001332020-12-13T21:08:00.002-08:002020-12-13T21:08:32.334-08:00Altamaha-ha- Georgia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZvqcmwEs4o5A3YFJVShv7OohUqX-QXEIqWXDAKsW0XEqk1Dn9a5r9NCpekG4V5fttJS_KCNm1nWnUEp3iEWuayhXnsLjHGl-BfHHXyU2Z0A8KM7Q0ubEHWBOGqvedqBxHQvQcOXBoebd/s1641/Altamahaha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1268" data-original-width="1641" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZvqcmwEs4o5A3YFJVShv7OohUqX-QXEIqWXDAKsW0XEqk1Dn9a5r9NCpekG4V5fttJS_KCNm1nWnUEp3iEWuayhXnsLjHGl-BfHHXyU2Z0A8KM7Q0ubEHWBOGqvedqBxHQvQcOXBoebd/w640-h494/Altamahaha.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Altamaha River runs through the state of Georgia from
the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee all the way to the Atlantic. As the
river reaches the ocean, it spreads out into a maze of creeks and runnels
snaking among tall saltgrass marshes, mudflats, and ancient shell middens. This
estuary is one of the most ecologically productive areas of the Altamaha, providing
ample habitat and food for wading birds, mussels, crustaceans, fish fry,
muskrats, otters, and more. And if the legends are to be believed, these
twisting waters also host a population of unknown serpentine beasts.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Legends of the Altamaha-ha, nicknamed “Altie”, go back all
the way to 1830 when a “Captain Delano” of the schooner <i>Eagle</i> reported
seeing a monstrous snake-like beast in the river. In the 1920s loggers working
along the Altamaha also sighted the beast, but the first major modern report
occurred in 1981 when newspaper publisher Larry Gwin spotted it. After this,
more people came forward claiming to have seen the creature. The majority of
sightings occurred around the small town of Darien and the nearby Butter
Island. Altie eventually became the unofficial mascot of the town, and the
Darien Visitor Center even boasts a “life-size” model of the creature created
by museum exhibit designer Rick Spears.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In 2018 a strange carcass was discovered on a beach near
Darien. Pictures show a sinewy gray creature with front flippers and a short
head, leading many to conclude it was a juvenile Altamaha-ha. The body
disappeared before it could be examined, but skeptics believe it was either a
clay model or a decomposed shark.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Early reports of Altamaha-ha described the creatures as large
serpents, but more recent sightings claim they have rounded bodies,
alligator-like heads, front flippers, and sometimes ridges on their backs like
gars or sturgeons. They are described as being gray-green with yellow undersides. Some
observers have reported the creatures blowing out water and swimming with an
up-and-down undulation like whales or dolphins, rather than the side-to-side
movement of fish or aquatic reptiles. Based on this, it’s possible the
Altamaha-ha are a species of unknown cetacean or pinniped.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></p><p><a href="http://www.rickspearsart.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The website of Rick Spears, creator of the Altamaha-ha statue in Darien</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180319/scientists-identify-mysterious-dead-coastal-georgia-sea-monster" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Jacksonville.com about the alleged Altamaha-ha carcass</span></a></p><p><a href="https://coastalcourier.com/news/outdoorsrecreation/altamaha-ha-may-be-areas-nessie/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from the Coastal Courier about Altamaha-ha</span></a></p><p><a href="http://cryptomundo.com/cryptotourism/georgias-altamaha-ha/attachment/lyle-cindy/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Cryptomundo about Altie</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ga-altamahaha/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Legends of America</span></a></p><p><a href="https://twoegg.blogspot.com/2019/10/altamahaha.html"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A post from the blog of historian and author Dale Cox</span></a></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-34816460785421110072020-10-22T19:25:00.000-07:002020-10-22T19:25:29.773-07:00Skunk Ape- Florida<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpO4WPPpiP1Rw7XlZ39l3F7Wu1wQFLMlpAVYmvFK8QRpZ4t_7E0mo_s0_sBZHy5ytbDvJl6bDERgn8CYM_gSage6RMQyKj_EQKmQpJvM6x6QFOo1EB55WkyuaZSLWuCHmW-pDdUrjHb_7k/s1347/Skunk+Ape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1347" data-original-width="1045" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpO4WPPpiP1Rw7XlZ39l3F7Wu1wQFLMlpAVYmvFK8QRpZ4t_7E0mo_s0_sBZHy5ytbDvJl6bDERgn8CYM_gSage6RMQyKj_EQKmQpJvM6x6QFOo1EB55WkyuaZSLWuCHmW-pDdUrjHb_7k/w496-h640/Skunk+Ape.jpg" width="496" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The vast Everglades covering southern Florida are, for the
most part, open wilds. Yes, there are cities on its edges and a few rough roads
cutting through it, but the majority of the “Sea of Grass” is undeveloped,
natural sawgrass marsh, palmetto brush, and hardwood hammocks filled with
alligators, gars, black bears, wading birds, and perhaps a few undiscovered
primates.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">For decades folks have been sighting hairy bipeds wandering
the Glades. These creatures are commonly called Skunk Apes due to their
distinctively pungent odor. They are said to have black to reddish-brown fur
and may sometimes have a greenish tinge due to algae growth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Tales of skunk apes allegedly go back to pre-colonial Native
legends- though as is often the case, the existence of these “legends” is
suspect and might just be an invention of modern folks to add some historical
weight to their sightings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless,
sightings of the creature really took off in the early 1960s around the time
that sightings of Bigfoot were becoming more common in the Pacific Northwest.
One of the first major encounters with skunk apes occurred around 1966 when
several gorilla-like creatures invaded the community of Holopaw, forcing open
garage doors and frightening people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Interest in skunk apes grew greatly throughout the 1970s, to
the point that a bill making it a misdemeanor to harm or harass the creatures
was drafted by State Representative Paul Nuckolls in 1977. The bill never made
it to committee, sadly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In 2000, several night-time photographs of a hairy, ape-like
beast were sent to the Sarasota County Sherriff’s Office. An anonymous letter
included with the photos described the creature as an “orangutan”, but many
folks came to the conclusion that the being was a skunk ape. Skeptics, however,
claim that the creature may be merely a person in a suit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If skunk apes are real, it’s possible they are part of the
group of southern “swamp apes” which are lighter, smaller- and smellier- than
their sasquatch cousins. Swamp apes are also often reported to have only three
toes on their feet and three fingers on their hands, though alleged casts of
skunk ape footprints show them with four toes. As their name suggests, swamp
apes are typically found near wetlands as opposed to the drier old-growth forests
that bigfeet seem to prefer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Folks wanting to learn more about Florida’s mystery primates
should check out the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, run by Dave Shealy and
located in Ochopee along the Tamiami Trail right in the middle of the
Everglades.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.skunkape.info/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The website of Dave Shealy's Official Skunk Ape Headquarters</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trail-floridas-bigfoot-skunk-ape-180949981/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Smithsonian Magazine about the Skunk Ape</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2005-04-01-0503310553-story.html"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from The Orlando Sentinel about the Holopaw Gorilla</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/who-skunk-ape/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A Cryptomundo article about the Skunk Ape</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://threader.app/thread/1302341705891446786"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A Twitter thread from Darren Naish about the 2000 Skunk Ape photo</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Field Guide to North American Monsters by W. Haden Blackman</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-13103128944706861942020-09-15T22:12:00.001-07:002020-09-15T22:12:07.126-07:00Bear Lake Monsters- Utah<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-J9ix8N4PFMPH_-fK9WYN2-aemBa5yn0REPO9Ynwt3LlQHilAGdyU8m9N2Wo1HjlbH9-o0ogmlTYqPtw7UYf8LTQh7j_himhmo4j6gR7c4Uuj8FAhwQPu_UvBztKproXPGNfSR0Dhjnts/s1267/Bear+Lake+monster+low+rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1267" data-original-width="1044" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-J9ix8N4PFMPH_-fK9WYN2-aemBa5yn0REPO9Ynwt3LlQHilAGdyU8m9N2Wo1HjlbH9-o0ogmlTYqPtw7UYf8LTQh7j_himhmo4j6gR7c4Uuj8FAhwQPu_UvBztKproXPGNfSR0Dhjnts/w527-h640/Bear+Lake+monster+low+rez.jpg" width="527" /></a></div><p></p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Straddling
the border of Utah and Idaho, Bear Lake is a long, deep body of water lying
along a shifting fault line.. The lake’s vivid blue waters- which are caused by
an abundance of dissolved calcium carbonate- have drawn people to its shores
for centuries, from the native Shoshone, Ute, and Bannock, to more recent
European trappers and settlers. And also, according to settler Joseph C. Rich, a small population of aquatic
monsters, . In an 1868 article for
the Deseret News, Rich wrote: “The Indians say there is a monster animal which
lives in the lake…They represent it as being of the serpent kind, but having
legs about eighteen inches long on which they sometimes crawl a short distance
out of the water onto the shore.”</span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />The
story quickly caught the interest of newspapers all over the west, eventually even
reaching the ears of the leaders of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City. The
church fathers, including Brigham Young, would inquire about the monsters when
they were in the area around the lake and quickly discovered that nearly
everyone claimed to have seen the beast or at least knew someone who had. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /> Descriptions
of the monster varied. Sometimes it was said to be long and limbless like an
eel. Other times it had dozens of little legs like a centipede. It was often
said to have sleek brown fur like an otter, and little ears- or at least
ear-like tufts of fur on its head. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /> Sightings
of the monsters (sometimes singular, sometimes plural) became very popular in
local papers, and led to a proliferation of hoaxes and tall tales. One
particularly colorful encounter with the beast
was related by Quill Nebaker in 1907:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /> “By this
time all of the folks but me were terribly frightened and they confidently expected
that the monster would smell the fresh-baked pies in the cellar and turn over
the house in order to get them. Confidentially, I rather hoped he would in some
way get the pies, but I sensed the danger to my loved ones and set my mind at
work to devise ways and means to divert the animal’s attention in case he
decided to come up our way. At this juncture my dog, which seemed mesmerized
before, let out a terrible howl that attracted the monster and here he came
full tilt, mouth open wide enough to swallow the front porch. Here was my time
for action. And while I dislike to speak of myself, I must confess that I arose
to the emergency... I noticed my
large graphopohone (sic) standing on the table ready for use. An inspiration
struck me- I called to mind the value of music in taming the snakes and wild
animals of the forest- and I decided to try it. Hastily winding up the machine,
I opened wide the front door, squarely in the face of the approaching monster,
and turned loose my music.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />As it
happened, the record on the machine was that incomparable tune, “Home, Sweet
Home,” and as its strain floated out on the midnight air, I noticed that the
monster halted, then stopped. His head being low, a reminiscent smile played o’er
his features, and as the chorus was reached we were surprised to see the
monster’s tail switch ‘round toward his neck. As we watched we noted a stringed
instrument, something like a lyre, at end of the animal’s tail, and as “Home,
Sweet Home” continued, that monster didn’t do a thing but utilize his several
hands or feet in playing accompaniment to that grand old tune. Ah, but it was
sweet, and as “the band played on” we really fell in love with the Bear Lake
monster. As I moved to his side, the monster seemed to welcome me as a friend
of other days and before “Home, Sweet Home” was ended the animal’s head rested
on my shoulder and we were mingling our tears together.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />All was
going splendidly and I had definitely decided to adopt the animal and make him
a member of my family, but just there sorrow, deep and tearful sorrow, shook
the frame of my newly made friend, and he began to weep. Great streams of tears
poured from his eyes, and finally they flowed so copiously that the monster
floated away in them. Thoughts of his subterraneous home were too much for him,
and though he seemed loth (sic) to go, he waved us a sad farewell and
disappeared from sight.<br />A point of
particular interest just here is that as the monster passed the barn it left my
barbed wire stacked up nicely, and on top the pile left that lyre on which it
had played that accompaniment. Imagine my surprise at discovering that stringed
instrument to be a portion of a bale of that wire and a part of my pigpen
worked up into the most approved form.”<br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> ---“Quill
Nebeker Sees Monster” <i>Logan Republican</i>, 21 September 1907</span></p></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> From
the beginning, the Bear Lake Monster was known by local people to be nothing
but a tall tale. Nevertheless, a number of outsiders were convinced the beast
was real. Twenty-six years after publishing his first sighting of the beasts,
Joseph Rich admitted that he’d made the whole thing up as a way to draw
interest to the Bear Lake area. Yet despite this confession, sightings of the
monster continued all the way until 2002. Whether these were honest reports by
people who genuinely believed they’d seen an unknown animal in the lake or
just more tall takes, is up for debate. But hoax or not, the monster
remains a fond piece of Bear Lake folklore.<br /></span><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></p><p><a href="https://www.utahoutdooractivities.com/bearlm1.html"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article about the beast from the Utah Outdoor Activities website.</span></a></p><p><a href="https://digital.lib.usu.edu/digital/collection/bearlakemon"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A library of newspaper reports about the monster from the USU Digital History Collections</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.utahhumanities.org/stories/items/show/231"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An article from Utah Humanities</span></a></p><p><a href="https://bearlake.org/bear-lake-monster-winterfest/"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Bear Lake Monster Winterfest!</span></a></p><p><a href="http://historicnews.blogspot.com/2016/03/bizarre-account-of-lake-monster.html"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A scan of Quill Nebaker's account of the musically-inclined monster</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-5692385956842791812020-06-17T09:01:00.002-07:002020-06-17T09:01:58.564-07:00Lake Worth Goatman- Texas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWK4VLLYQFROv_gH9HR8ikHegVn4I5mVTlwvmeqaBZ56JEbu5oyKa53YlVljmACVGZzut25x1tLk0KQ1vC2QCt3jfiKCE2C1FTn-y70i0yISsC48rfxkGVxirmETOjvPaYyfLR5ik9TyU-/s1600/Goatman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1215" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWK4VLLYQFROv_gH9HR8ikHegVn4I5mVTlwvmeqaBZ56JEbu5oyKa53YlVljmACVGZzut25x1tLk0KQ1vC2QCt3jfiKCE2C1FTn-y70i0yISsC48rfxkGVxirmETOjvPaYyfLR5ik9TyU-/s640/Goatman.jpg" width="486" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Many towns in America have their own Lover’s Lane
monster. Seems there’s just something about amorous couples in parked cars that draws hidden beasts out of the dark woods like moths to a porch light. Honestly, it’s a wonder
anyone parked at those remote spots can even get to first base with all the
vengeful ghosts, hook-handed serial killers, hairy hominids, lizardmen, and
other supernatural oddities trying to get into their vehicles. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One of the more memorable of these voyeuristic creatures hails
from Lake Worth, Texas. Described as resembling a seven-foot satyr covered in thick white fur- and possibly scales- the Goatman
has been haunting the brushy hills and cliffs around the lake since at least
1969, when it attacked a car packed with three couples out enjoying the night. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Soon after that initial attack, crowds of people along the
Lake Worth shore claimed to have seen the Goatman trudging through the
underbrush. Cars were attacked in the dark, their metal chassis
torn and shredded by inhuman claws. Several witnesses even saw the creature
pick up a truck tire and hurl it 500 feet through the air. As is typical when any new cryptid makes an appearance, the Goatman's antics quickly brought in a rush of tourists, reporters, and self-proclaimed
monster-hunters- the latter of whom became a public hazard as they prowled the scrub around the lake with loaded rifles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One man, Allen Plaster, even snapped a blurry photo of a
tall, hairy white creature emerging from a stand of tall grass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plaster, though, would eventually come to
doubt that the thing he saw was an actual cryptid, theorizing instead is that
it was merely local kids playing a prank. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Indeed, many other folks around Lake Worth eventually came
to the conclusion that the creature was nothing but a hoax, perhaps begun by
bored teenagers on summer vacation. Still, regardless of whether the Goatman
was real or not, it has become a fond part of Lake Worth folklore. The Forth
Worth Nature Center & Refuge, located on the shores of the lake, has<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>even begun celebrating an annual <a href="https://www.fwnaturecenter.org/tag/goat-man/" target="_blank">Lake Worth Monster Bash</a>, featuring an appearance by the infamous creature (or at least, a
person in an impressively-detailed Goatman costume). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One can’t help but notice that the Goatman’s description as
a hairy, possibly scaly hominid, and its propensity to attack and damage parked
cars, are strikingly similar to the appearance and habits of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bishopville Lizard Man. Could both creatures
be part of a Southern population of small, lightly-built sasquatches with an
odd hatred of motorized vehicles? Or maybe both are just hoaxes drawing on classic
American folklore about monsters lurking in the dark, ready to trash unwary vehicle, and perhaps their unlucky occupants if they aren’t
careful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.fwnaturecenter.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/tracking-goatman-the-story-behind-the-lake-worth-monster/287-526680734" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A local news story about the history of Goatman sightings</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://texashillcountry.com/legend-of-lake-worth-monster/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Texas Hill Country story about the Goatman</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/mystery-still-engulfs-lake-worth-monster/1879934/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A story from NBCDFW about the Goatman</span></a></div>
<br />John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-4902025127621368752020-05-23T20:05:00.001-07:002020-05-23T20:05:57.044-07:00Dragon of the Ishtar Gate<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A few years ago I wrote some articles for the defunct Cryptid Culture magazine. These works game me an opportunity to explore cryptozoology beyond the scope of the American creatures that I focus on in this blog. Here's one I particularly enjoyed which focuses on the mysterious "dragon" on the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And if you're interested, you can get back issues of <a href="https://www.blurb.com/user/CCMagazine?filter=bookstore" target="_blank">Cryptid Culture on Blurb</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Dragon of the Babylon Gate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">by John Meszaros</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Babylon. City of legend. Rising from humble origins over
four thousand years ago as a small Akkadian town upon the Euphrates River-
bisected into equal halves by the life-bringing waters- it became one of the
largest cities of the ancient world. The owners of the great city would change
many times as empires rose and fell across the Fertile Crescent. But regardless
of who ruled, Babylon would remain a major hub of culture and trade throughout
its existence. Its most powerful, and certainly one of its most famous, kings
was Nebuchadnezzar II, who surround the city with high, thick walls both to
demonstrate the power of his rule and to deter attacks from invaders who
coveted Babylon’s riches. Entry to the city was via eight gates, the most
famous of which was dedicated to Ishtar the goddess of love, fertility, war and
political power. The Ishtar gate was constructed of fired bricks painted a deep
blue that must have glowed to match the cloudless desert sky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bas-reliefs of sacred
beasts picked out in yellow enamel strode against this rich backdrop. The
procession leading up to the gate was flanked by lions, while the great arch
itself was decorated with the aurochs- a massive ancient breed of cattle that
was associated with Hadad, the god of storms- and with a much stranger beast
called the mushussu (pronounced mush-hush-shu). This beast, sacred to the city’s
patron deity, Marduk, was a hybrid with the scaled body of a dragon, the head and
forked tongue of a serpent, front paws of a lion, back paws of an eagle, and a
long tail tipped by a scorpion’s sting. It’s serpentine head was also topped by
a pair of long, straight horns on the snout and what appears to be a pair of
curving, ram-like horns at the back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Although mushussu may initially seem like purely
mythological animals in the vein of griffons, qilin, manticores and other
chimerical beasts, some researchers have wondered if they may have been real
animals. Robert Koldewey, the German archaeologist who rediscovered the ruins
of the Ishtar Gate in 1902, was the first to propose this idea. He argued that
the appearance of the beast in Babylonian art had remained largely consistent
over several hundred years, in contrast to the changing depictions of other
beasts that were known by the people of Babylon to be purely mythological. He
also pointed out that Marduk’s dragon was depicted alongside real-life aurochs
and lions, indicating that it was a real animal the Babylonians were familiar
with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Another hint at the mushussu’s possible existence comes from
the biblical Book of Daniel. In the Roman, Greek and Eastern Orthodox Catholic
versions of the Old Testament, chapter 14 of Daniel briefly mentions a dragon
worshipped by the Babylonians as a living god which the titular hero slays by
feeding it cakes made of pitch, fat and hair. It’s quite possible that the
writer of this tale misinterpreted the Babylonians’ respect for the mushusu’s
sacredness to Marduk as outright worship of the animal itself as a deity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Creatures similar to the mushussu have appeared in the
mythology of other cultures. According to the legends of the Apatani people of
the Ziro valley at the base of the eastern Himalayas, a species of large,
semi-aquatic reptiles known as buru once inhabited the marshes around their
villages. These creatures were said to have long necks, short, robust legs with
mole-like claws, and long, powerful tails. Aside from the short legs, this
description bears a fair resemblance to the mushussu. Though there is no
mention of the buru bearing the iconic snout-horns or the fleshy curls at the
back of the head. Unfortunately, these giant lizards were apparently driven to
extinction when the Apatani drained the animals’ wetland home and no physical
evidence of them remains. If they were ever truly real in the first place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In his book The Marsh Arabs, explorer Wilfred Thesiger made
mention of the belief among the river-dwelling Arabic tribes of Iraq in the
afa, a large semi-aquatic reptile that resembled a snake with legs. Though the
account is extremely brief, the reference to an unknown large serpentine reptile
in the lands around ancient Babylon is intriguing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian art often depicted strange
creatures that resembled leopard with long, serpentine necks. The ancient names
for these creatures are unknown, thus archeologists have given them the
portmanteau name “serpopards”. Although the creatures are more feline than
reptilian, it is possible they are another interpretation of the long-necked
beast that inspired the dragon of Babylon, though in this case with more
exaggerated mammalian features.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Yet another mushussu-like creature is the Questing Beast, or
Beste Glatisant, of Arthurian legend. The monster is the quarry of several
knights including King Pellinore, Sir Percival and King Arthur himself. The
appearance of the Questing Beast varies depending on the text, but one version describes
it as having a serpent’s head, a leopard’s body, and a stag’s feet. Though this
description might simply be a case of another fanciful chimera so common to
folklore and mythology, it’s interesting to wonder if the author who first came
up with this depiction was not basing it off a real animal he had seen, or at
least read about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If the mushussu was a real animal, what was it though?
Koldewey himself initially proposed that it was a surviving dinosaur, perhaps a
relative of Iguanodon, which was one of the most well-known prehistoric beasts
at the time. A glance at a modern reconstruction of Iguanodon, however, will
show a heavyset, stiff-tailed, beaked saurian quite unlike the agile, almost
mammalian-looking mushussu. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps the mushussu was another type of dinosaur?
Cryptozoologist Willy Levy compared the serpentine appearance of the mushussu
to accounts of the Mokele-mbembe, a long-necked monster reported to inhabit the
swamps and rivers of Central Africa. European investigators have frequently
suggested that the mokele-mbembe is a surviving sauropod similar to Apatosaurus.
When this connection was initially made in the 1950s, it was believed that
sauropods had to spend their lives half-submerged in water to support their
great weight. Thus the idea of a surviving long-necked dinosaur living in
swamps in a relatively unexplored (by white scientists, anyway) region of
Africa made some sense to cryptozoologists. In the 1970s, however, changing
ideas in paleontology showed that sauropods could indeed support their own
weight on land and thus did not need to rely on an amphibious existence. Even
so, given millions of years of evolution, it would not be impossible for a
sauropod to adapt to an aquatic lifestyle like a capybara or a hippopotamus. Dinosaurs
have, of course, survived into the modern day in the form of birds. So it is
not completely out of the realm of possibility that a non-avian dinosaur such
as a sauropod may also have survived into the age of humans. Although the lack
of any sauropod fossils after the Mesozoic extinction makes this a highly
unlikely proposal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLBZ6MB9ffkQO-zQWuYOaryQpwTjtRZCnozQbKJeD_j6CXkJauw82R9LIZE5C8iV_eyESXd8QY059gGokyisf9pyZkz1eIt3EJ7uo0MSPJ8OV-zvFLYf7-EtZezhj_OlGunPbpHxxgNIjK/s1600/Mushussu+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1189" data-original-width="1497" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLBZ6MB9ffkQO-zQWuYOaryQpwTjtRZCnozQbKJeD_j6CXkJauw82R9LIZE5C8iV_eyESXd8QY059gGokyisf9pyZkz1eIt3EJ7uo0MSPJ8OV-zvFLYf7-EtZezhj_OlGunPbpHxxgNIjK/s640/Mushussu+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What else could the mushussu have been, then? Several
researchers have suggested that it may have been a species of giant, unknown
monitor lizard even bigger than the Komodo dragon- an identity that has also
been proposed for the afa of the Marsh Arabs and the Himalayan Buru.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A monitor lizard explanation is not all that
far-fetched, considering that smaller species of these reptiles actually do
inhabit the Arabian peninsula. There is even precedence for other giant
monitors aside from the Komodo dragon in the form of a 16-foot long monitor
called Megalania that roamed Australia thousands of years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What of the long, paired horns on the mushussu’s snout? Or
the supposed “ram’s horns” on the back of its head? While no living monitor has
horns or other head ornamentation, the aforementioned Megalania did have a
small crest between its eyes. Perhaps Marduk’s sacred beast had similar, but
more pronounced and paired crests on its snout. Regarding the curling horns on
the back of the head, it’s worth noting that these features were not present on
many other depictions of the animal. It’s possible they were simply an artistic
embellishment of a fleshy fringe or neck flap on the real animal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Did a large horned reptile roam the lands of Babylon and
Central Asia, serving as a sacred beast to some and a nuisance to others? There
is, unfortunately, no scientific evidence just yet. No preserved skins or bones.
No fossils. But perhaps one day some explorer will unearth some remains lying
forgotten in a temple under the sands or buried in the peat of an ancient bog.
And the world will see get to marvel at Marduk’s dragon once again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-86615410762444257062020-05-02T16:56:00.000-07:002020-05-02T16:56:16.933-07:00Sinkhole Sam again!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp_9nywFIX2GkM5U9foxsJsO5M5ZhMuw3W3aMmRCd_NEvrAJvYjonZi8KBLT196BGh4Z06y4KIsuYItBtlomTRoE34iVBB2H0ucZvWSAQtVzRengcPBZvJUiK3TeegfXNtVY2WeLbl7-gg/s1600/SInhole+Sam+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="675" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp_9nywFIX2GkM5U9foxsJsO5M5ZhMuw3W3aMmRCd_NEvrAJvYjonZi8KBLT196BGh4Z06y4KIsuYItBtlomTRoE34iVBB2H0ucZvWSAQtVzRengcPBZvJUiK3TeegfXNtVY2WeLbl7-gg/s640/SInhole+Sam+3.jpg" width="404" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #e6ede4; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: devioussans02regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "メイリオ, meiryo", "ヒラギノ角ゴ pro w3", "hiragino kaku gothic pro", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #e6ede4; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Another drawing of Kansas' own (unofficial) state cryptid!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">I've developed a special fondness for this critter. Mainly because I love the idea of a giant, derpy-faced caecilian living in a prairie lake. But I also have to admit to a little pride in the fact that my first drawing of Sam seems to have become the main representation of him/her on the internet. <a href="http://statecryptids.blogspot.com/2015/02/sinkhole-sam-kansas.html" target="_blank">Sam's</a> entry is also the one with the most traffic on my blog.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So here's another depiction of ol' Sam. </span><span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: devioussans02regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, メイリオ, meiryo, "ヒラギノ角ゴ pro w3", "hiragino kaku gothic pro", sans-serif;"> </span></span>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-89483935624396638232020-05-01T11:18:00.002-07:002020-05-02T16:56:47.287-07:00Weird Winged Cryptids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlUanzVB2ZdzNuAYPReIbtzKOSciO6RR-0tri6MNiAaiGcT9npv6GLTpBbzEbfGlDm4eu0aKKw6Ld41stvylADt34akRAodZBmZck6RMDMvlpJRnr32Te_BS9Vzdpyl1HZhA3aFfJ9r8_/s1600/Ultra+Mothman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="897" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlUanzVB2ZdzNuAYPReIbtzKOSciO6RR-0tri6MNiAaiGcT9npv6GLTpBbzEbfGlDm4eu0aKKw6Ld41stvylADt34akRAodZBmZck6RMDMvlpJRnr32Te_BS9Vzdpyl1HZhA3aFfJ9r8_/s640/Ultra+Mothman.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T0ol3tSwtBUJsdiyTYyQoLlMSMvKkZziIIU81_wo8nEOvHm18vN-5SFq9feqi1LcGFS5cbdoXFTG8TAAuAMBAvV4kxZzSpmtpdAXgnPlHX_Y-1yavuiAifVGlYSXhOoXIjZ6WUk96mnw/s1600/Ultra+Bat+Beast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="912" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T0ol3tSwtBUJsdiyTYyQoLlMSMvKkZziIIU81_wo8nEOvHm18vN-5SFq9feqi1LcGFS5cbdoXFTG8TAAuAMBAvV4kxZzSpmtpdAXgnPlHX_Y-1yavuiAifVGlYSXhOoXIjZ6WUk96mnw/s640/Ultra+Bat+Beast.jpg" width="432" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvtAFeF3krrhO5NqmfSy1iTmT3XkceRzG1sv2kyLGHXjlziLGCQCR782rULseYi_jkYDCRjoUq6WFbaUr0jTrkzpC13vzziEcE6vPpBKfLVS7iY8m-vqh_p74pb8HKLdj_w_xD9nbNtDT/s1600/Ultra+Owl+Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="897" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAvtAFeF3krrhO5NqmfSy1iTmT3XkceRzG1sv2kyLGHXjlziLGCQCR782rULseYi_jkYDCRjoUq6WFbaUr0jTrkzpC13vzziEcE6vPpBKfLVS7iY8m-vqh_p74pb8HKLdj_w_xD9nbNtDT/s640/Ultra+Owl+Man.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Been playing around with aging paper at home with coffee, tea, and ink. I love the eerie aesthetic these treated papers give off. And thought I'd use them to draw some of my favorite cryptids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In his book "Operation Trojan Horse" journalist and ufologist John Keel discussed the possibility of ultraterrestrials- beings living on our planet that were so far advanced technologically and biologically beyond humans that we would only barely be able to conceive of their presence. He suggested that ultraterrestrials could be responsible for all sorts of unexplained phenomenon- UFOs, ghosts, aliens, and some cryptids such as the Mothman. Creatures resembling the Mothman have been sighted all over the world, as have other winged beings that bear a strong similarity to it, such as the Cornish Owlman, the Bat Beast of Kent, the Van Meter Visitor, the Chernobyl Black Bird, and others. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Regardless of my own feelings about the reality of Mothman, ultraterrestrials, UFOs, and other Fortean phenomena, I love them from a folklore perspective. I particularly like the idea that these bizarre winged humanoids could all be different interpretations of the same species of entity, filtered through our limited human perceptions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here's my version of three forms of this creature. From top to bottom: Mothman; The Bat Beast of Kent; and the Cornish Owlman.</span>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-74487676079027058132020-04-07T20:36:00.000-07:002020-04-07T20:36:44.167-07:00Bishopville Lizardman- South Carolina<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-wzp8TwcekUjw_Sof5lVRHLOdFx6UypaoK0LVnIOHGywcdOz-QDv1UM8ri8-aCGEXuwqscEHz9seOETXbMlPpPGR6eBDiEM9XSh9ueUcudbWDpZe7R_WISLVeKRAwdmgI5X6hH_FRMbQ1/s1600/Lizardman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1062" data-original-width="1297" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-wzp8TwcekUjw_Sof5lVRHLOdFx6UypaoK0LVnIOHGywcdOz-QDv1UM8ri8-aCGEXuwqscEHz9seOETXbMlPpPGR6eBDiEM9XSh9ueUcudbWDpZe7R_WISLVeKRAwdmgI5X6hH_FRMbQ1/s640/Lizardman.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It looks like something attacked your car with a small
chainsaw. There are deep scratches in the sides and on the bumper. The wheels
slashed and flat. The edge of the hood is mangled as if an animal chewed on it.
But what kind of animal gnaws metal? Your eyes slide from the damaged vehicle
to the swamp that comes right up to your backyard. You know there are bears and
coyotes out there. Maybe even pumas. Could something like that have done this?
But you’ve also heard the stories about that other thing out there, lurking
among the tupelos and sedges and dark, still water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The thing that walks upright like a man, but
which is covered with hair and scales, and has only three fingers and three
toes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Rumors of a strange beast inhabiting Scape Ore Swamp just
outside Bishopville, South Carolina allegedly go back decades. But the creature
first entered pop culture in 1988 when a couple woke up to find that the car
parked in their driveway had been heavily scratched and chewed by an unknown
vandal. A few days later local teenager Chris Davis went to the sheriff
claiming he’d been attacked by a strange bipedal monster while he was changing
a flat tire on a lonely dirt road near the swamp. Davis said the beast was
covered in thick hair and green scales. When it jumped on the roof of his car
and scratched at the windshield, he saw that it had only three fingers on each
hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It didn’t take long for local newspapers to conflate the two
stories, even if there was no direct evidence that the being that had attacked Davis
had also damaged the couple’s car. The strange monster was dubbed the “Lizard
Man” due to the scaled appearance Davis had described. As so often happens when
word of a monster gets out, Bishopville became a tourist draw as people came
from all over to see the home of the mysterious creature. A local radio station
even offered a tongue-in-cheek reward of one million dollars to anyone who
could bring it in alive. The Lizard Man was apparently quite shy, however, as
only a few brief sightings were reported after 1988. Hoaxes were actually more
common than actual sightings. For instance, two sheriff’s deputies found a
supposed footprint that they made a plaster cast of, but even a cursory look at
the print can tell a viewer that it is clearly a crude fake. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the hype surrounding the Lizard Man began
to die down, a Bishopville local claimed that the monster had attacked his car
and left behind blood and scales. He later admitted that he had faked the
damage and the evidence in an effort to keep the legend alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Lizard Man is often depicted in pop culture as a bipedal
reptilian being. However, the limited descriptions of it suggest that it is
mammalian. More like a swamp-dwelling, three-digited variation of a sasquatch
than an upright saurian. It’s worth noting that hairy tridactyl hominids have
been reported form other wetland areas of the American South and Midwest. Perhaps
they are a separate species, or at least subspecies, of North American hominid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though the Lizard Man hasn’t been seen in a long time, it
has become a fond part of Bishopville’s culture. The town has even begun
hosting an annual Lizard Man Festival in honor of their famous cryptid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">On a side note, the name of the Lizard Man’s home, Scape
Ore Swamp, has its own weird history. It is allegedly a corruption of Escaped
Whore Swamp. According to local folklore, during the Revolutionary War
Continental troops came across British soldiers being entertained by a group of
sex workers. The Red Coats were captured but the women were allowed to flee
into the nearby swamplands, giving rise to the name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster by Lyle Blackburn</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America by Linda Godfrey</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="https://www.thestate.com/living/midlands/article212699564.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">An article from The State about the Lizard Man festival</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/post/30-years-later-legend-lizard-man-lives-bishopville" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">An article from South Carolina Public Radio about the Lizard Man</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/07/lizard-man-30-years-later/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">An article from Mysterious Universe about the Lizard Man</span></a>John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-5766740922991754652020-03-24T08:36:00.004-07:002020-03-24T08:36:36.720-07:00Working on a cryptid kids book<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now that my picture book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Scarecrow-Harvest-Festival-John-Meszaros/dp/0578543095/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+scarecrow+harvest+festival&qid=1585026953&sr=8-1">The Scarecrow Harvest Festival</a> is all done, I'm looking for an agent and/or publisher for it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the meantime, though, I'm turning my creative efforts onto a new picture book about cryptids celebrating my favorite holiday, Halloween. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Cryptid Halloween, you see, is just like Human Halloween, but with little differences. Instead of carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, cryptids carve cantaloupes and other melons. Instead of decorating with bats, rats, and cats, cryptids decorate with fur-bearing trout, jackalopes, and flying platypus. And, of course, instead of dressing up as monsters to trick-or-treat, cryptids dress up like human kids, as you can see below.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjxfJekol8Kti19OztYO0_ArTWObx8HDG_0JrwRG3n6XQzm7RrqzHlR4ZbCX1vF8NfzzxGMTvLhUEGK_T1r8Chk0to2zVgI0HJcoyJfEqJlarrNuvQ3INcfS5eg1K5Px50calLsRN1Yee/s1600/Mothgirl+combined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="1600" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjxfJekol8Kti19OztYO0_ArTWObx8HDG_0JrwRG3n6XQzm7RrqzHlR4ZbCX1vF8NfzzxGMTvLhUEGK_T1r8Chk0to2zVgI0HJcoyJfEqJlarrNuvQ3INcfS5eg1K5Px50calLsRN1Yee/s640/Mothgirl+combined.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mothman (or rather, Mothgirl in this case)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyBa8o_37zcXR9l8FaQJ1Nrs5f86t1stX6l2fCq0NpCqKzROu5-rVwc2Zi8dgmdnneS1aQDXbezVAyvfu_xrmMNd5A11uf9PfrV_bdXU39oKzMRagMXCmta-EyEeZnOZAZYPZosc_vnzjV/s1600/Champ+combined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1600" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyBa8o_37zcXR9l8FaQJ1Nrs5f86t1stX6l2fCq0NpCqKzROu5-rVwc2Zi8dgmdnneS1aQDXbezVAyvfu_xrmMNd5A11uf9PfrV_bdXU39oKzMRagMXCmta-EyEeZnOZAZYPZosc_vnzjV/s640/Champ+combined.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Champ</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0it1NLfC7_oiG8xxxlR78o7jIpKL0ahS5w_ODR3pVBT0AM8tBUpm0vyDjPiLRStPAEqNXurUwjiHWE-6tIUXAh0J5SzkZiI_ST4XjOLLH1p23LW9Om9wFGiv5GKTXKxwSZDrvHot4GDcP/s1600/Nightcrawlers+combined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="1600" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0it1NLfC7_oiG8xxxlR78o7jIpKL0ahS5w_ODR3pVBT0AM8tBUpm0vyDjPiLRStPAEqNXurUwjiHWE-6tIUXAh0J5SzkZiI_ST4XjOLLH1p23LW9Om9wFGiv5GKTXKxwSZDrvHot4GDcP/s640/Nightcrawlers+combined.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fresno Nightcrawlers</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'm still working on designs for other cryptid trick-or-treaters, and working on a book dummy. Stay tuned for more!</span><br />
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John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2434965698267197648.post-22735101473053381002020-02-15T12:05:00.002-08:002020-02-15T12:05:35.660-08:00Minnesota Ice Man- Minnesota <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwYlIAgt2D2NzMSod2azBy0-T0J90YFRlpkRmYjPMsq3xB9tObI_wKoPNChOJ8fnIXmA34Ra0VRZwEECbdS3iSF93sYKULpLbJMhU5T0YPVf9A-zWR60TG2R9mEv2E5LigUG78MzQxtb7/s1600/Ice+Man+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="740" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwYlIAgt2D2NzMSod2azBy0-T0J90YFRlpkRmYjPMsq3xB9tObI_wKoPNChOJ8fnIXmA34Ra0VRZwEECbdS3iSF93sYKULpLbJMhU5T0YPVf9A-zWR60TG2R9mEv2E5LigUG78MzQxtb7/s640/Ice+Man+2.jpg" width="344" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">You pay your quarter and follow the cramped line of
fairgoers into the striped canvas tent. It’s dim and sweltering inside. The air
is filled with the mingled scents of popcorn, sugar-coated fry bread, generator
gasoline and the occasional whiff of dung from the nearby pens of llamas,
donkeys, and sheep. You can still hear the tinny calliope of the fairground
drifting through the dirty tent walls. Before the crowd, a long horizontal
freezer hums. You lean in, looking down through the glass at a supine, hairy
figure encased in a block of cloudy ice. Is it a weird-looking ape? A rubber
dummy? A hirsute human? Could it really be The Missing Link as the sign outside
proclaims in gaudy red letters? Perhaps even a surviving Neanderthal? You have
little time to ponder as the crowd starts to shuffle out to allow the next
gaggle of gawkers to enter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Such is the typical way most people would have first
encountered the oddity known originally as the Siberskoye Creature but nowadays
more popularly called the Minnesota Iceman. The mysterious cadaver had toured
county fairs across the Midwest under the care of its owner, Frank Hansen,
throughout the 1960s but gained wider fame in 1968 when young aspiring
naturalist Terry Cullen saw the body at the International Livestock
Exposition’s Chicago Fair and brought it to the attention of cryptozoologists
Ivan T. Sanderson and Bernard Heuvelmans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The researchers paid a visit to Hansen and examined the
corpse through the ice since its owner would not let them thaw it. What they
saw looked remarkable man-like, though he was covered in short but thick hair
like a great ape. His feet and hands were large and splayed. Under a prominent
brow ridge, one of his eyeballs hung from its socket, apparently the result of
a gunshot wound to the back of his head. The creature’s left arm up in a
defensive posture and bore a strange bend that indicated a broken radius and
ulna.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sanderson and Heuvelmans concluded that the body was genuine
based on the fine details of the hair, nails, and skin and because of a putrid
rotting-meat smell that emanated from a crack in the glass display case.
Sandersn wrote an article about the creature for the magazine Argosy, while
Heuvelmans published a paper on the creature in the December 1969 issue of the
Bulletin of the Royal Institute of Natural Science of Belgium. In it, he
described the Iceman as a new species of hominid, <i>Homo pongoides</i>. He
even wrote a book about the discovery, which was recently translated into
English as “Neanderthal”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The origin of the Iceman’s body is murky and several
possibilities have been put forward. Hansen frequently changed his story about
how he acquired it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Initially he claimed
that he’d shot the creature on a hunting trip in the Whiteface Reservoir area
in Minnesota. Later he said that Japanese whalers had found the body frozen in
a block of ice in Siberia and sold it to a famous Hollywood actor who had
entrusted it to Hansen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Heuvelmans formed his own theory about the body’s origin,
connecting it with a story about a strange ape that had been killed in Vietnam
during the war and preserved before being brought to the US.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">At one point a woman, Helen Westring, told a tabloid
magazine that she had shot and killed the creature when it had attacked and
tried to sexually assault her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Heuvelmans and Sanderson asked John Napier, a primatologist
at the Smithsonian, to examine the body. He concluded that it was nothing but a
latex model. Hansen tried to explain this by claiming he’d recently switched
out the real body for a replica. The two cryptozoologists backed up Hansen’s
story, claiming the body Napier had examined was clearly different in several
ways from the corpse they had initially examined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The investigation led to someone at the Smithsonian actually
contacting the FBI, reasoning that if the body was genuine, it was possible a
type of human being had been murdered. Though the FBI didn’t end up looking
into the case, the incident did give Hansen the opportunity to put a sign above
his creature that said: “The Near Man… investigated by the FBI”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hansen continued to tour the Iceman at county fairs and
shopping malls for a few years after 1968, but interest gradually died down, At
some point, he claimed to have gotten rid of the body, either burying it or
returning it to its original owner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In 2013 a latex model of the creature– allegedly one of the
props Hansen had used, if not the original creature itself- was put up for sale
online. It was bought and currently resides at the Museum of the Weird in
Austin, Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Since the Iceman became famous, people have reported seeing
beings resembling <i>Homo pongoides</i> all over the world. While these sightings
may seem like good anecdotal evidence for the existence of a still-living
nonhuman hominid, it should be noted that such tales are part of a larger
folklore about “wild men” found in every culture and at all times throughout
the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So what was the Minnesota Iceman? While some still wonder if
it was a late-surviving non-human hominid, or even a species of Bigfoot, the
skeptical view is that it had always been nothing but a latex dummy all along.
A carnival curiosity that briefly caught the attention of the cryptozoological
research world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCES</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/iceman" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">An article from American Hauntings on the Ice Man</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-strange-case-of-the-minnesota-iceman/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A Tetrapod Zoology article about the Iceman</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/a-review-of-neanderthal-the-strange-saga-of-the-minnesota-iceman-part-1/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A Tetrapod Zoology review of Heuvelmans' book "Neanderthal</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.unmuseum.org/iceman.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Museum of Unnatural History article on the Iceman</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/minnesota_iceman" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Museum of Hoaxes article about the Iceman</span></a></div>
<br />John Meszaroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15069026871527462722noreply@blogger.com0