The Mermen of Johann Zahn

Wikipedia page of Johann Zahn.

Images from the NOAA archives.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 24, 2014 - Comments (3)
Category: Cryptozoology, Europe, Sixteenth Century

Monsters of Iowa

Who would ever suspect that boring old Iowa was host to so many odd creatures?

Consider this winged monster from 1903, above.

Or this account, below, found along with more Iowa monsters in UNNATURAL PHENOMENA. (See book sidebar.)

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 08, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Cryptozoology, Fictional Monsters, Regionalism, Superstition, 1900s, North America, Nineteenth Century

Wawa Grande

Thanks to my pal, KW Jeter, who now lives in Ecuador, I learned about the existence of that country's own Bigfoot monster, "Wawa Grande."

Wawa Grande, which takes its name from the Quechuan word for baby and the Spanish word for big, reportedly stands upright on two legs and has thick, light gray or reddish hair. The Wawa legend dates back at least 200 years in Ecuador's southern Andes but several reported sightings since the 1980s sparked international interest.

Of course, a monster whose name translates as "Big Baby" instantly assumes less fearsome dimensions.

Read more here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 25, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Cryptozoology, Foreign Customs, South America

Ozo

OZO from OZO Team on Vimeo.

This one deserves to be watched in fullscreen mode.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jan 04, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Cryptozoology, Family, Babies and Toddlers, Parents, Cartoons

The Yowie

Get familiar with the Australian bigfoot/yeti known as the Yowie.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 03, 2012 - Comments (1)
Category: Cryptozoology, Australia

Swimming Pool

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 04, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Cryptozoology, Cartoons, Love & Romance

Ika Musume

There is an anime character named Ika Musume. She is an aquatic being, a "squid girl." She is conventionally drawn as you see to the right.

After the jump, you can see how one fan imagined the reality inherent in the term "squid girl."

Mildly NSFW.



More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 05, 2011 - Comments (9)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Cryptozoology, Fictional Monsters, Cartoons, Asia

The Skeptic’s Dictionary

I'm certain every reader of this blog could happily spend hours at The Skeptic's Dictionary, whose mission since 1994 has been to explore "Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions."

For instance, why not learn more about the bunyip?

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 25, 2011 - Comments (4)
Category: Authorities and Experts, Cryptozoology, Fictional Monsters, Weird Studies and Guides, Weird Theory

Latitude Zero

This campy spectacular was long unavailable in the USA. I watched it last night and can report that it is full of prime-grade weirdness. If you have ever wanted to see Caesar Romero transplant a woman's brain into the body of a winged lion, now is your chance!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 29, 2010 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Cryptozoology, Geography and Maps, Movies, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Paranormal, Surgery, Science Fiction, 1960s, Asia, Weapons

Weird Animals - Och Aye The Roo!

The week saw the publication of the 2010 Eden Wildlife Report, which tracks the numbers of foreign species introduced to the UK over the past century. Compiled by Dr. Toni Bunnell and a team from the University of Hull, the report mentions wallabies thriving in Scotland, scorpions setting up home in Kent and aardvarks that have somehow emigrated from Brazil to Cumbria (Telegraph).

Of course, this won’t be news to one member of Britain’s thriving rod-fishing community, who this week caught a piranha in his local pond (Guardian).

Another place you might not expect to see exotic creatures is on your lunch menu, but that didn’t stop one restaurant owner in Mesa, AZ from putting “lion burgers” on the menu to celebrate soccer’s World Cup. Cameron Selogie of the Il Vinaio makes his “mane course” with genuine lion meat imported from South Africa, earning him the ire of local animal rights groups and several death threats, but not a reprimand from health officials. According to an FDA spokesman serving lion meat is perfectly legal, as long as it’s not roar (Scotsman).

Slightly luckier than the lions, one cat who has fallen on his feet is Oscar, a housecat from the Isle of Jersey in the UK, widely billed as the “bionic cat” after successfully receiving two artificial hind legs to replace the ones he lost in an altercation with a combine harvester (BBC News).

You might think pitting a rodent like mammal against a 12 tonne Triceratops makes for an equally one-sided match up, but evidence emerged recently that our primitive ancestors occasionally feasted upon dinosaurs. Seventy-five million year old “gnaw marks” of a kind characteristic of early mammals, and belonging to a creature not much bigger than a squirrel, have been found on the fossil bones both of Tricerotops and the crocodile-like predator Champsosaurus (LiveScience).

Sadly today the nearest we get to dinosaur flesh is turkey or chicken, but not all birds were prized solely for their meat. The huia bird of New Zealand for example, was once used to make the feathered head-dresses of Maori chiefs, until predation from accidentally introduced species drove it to extinction around 1907. But if the bird has gone its feathers have not, and one recently became the most expensive feather ever when it sold at auction for NZ$8000, i.e. $4000 American (Telegraph).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Mon Jun 28, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Aliens, Animals, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures, Cryptozoology, Food, Overpriced Merchandise, Pets, Cats, Rants, Warnings, Jeremiads, Prophecies and Cassandra-like Figures, Science, Violence, 1980s