The following picture of the presumably-extinct Australian megafauna was posted this morning on Facebook because of Australia Day. Most of the creatures shown on it have been nominated as survivals corresponding to recent Cryptid categories.
FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGY
Dale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.
Plug
Member of The Crypto Crew:
http://www.thecryptocrew.com/
Please Also Visit our Sister Blog, Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/
And the new group for trying out fictional projects (Includes Cryptofiction Projects):
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/
And Kyle Germann's Blog
http://www.demonhunterscompendium.blogspot.com/
And Jay's Blog, Bizarre Zoology
http://bizarrezoology.blogspot.com/
http://www.thecryptocrew.com/
Please Also Visit our Sister Blog, Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/
And the new group for trying out fictional projects (Includes Cryptofiction Projects):
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/
And Kyle Germann's Blog
http://www.demonhunterscompendium.blogspot.com/
And Jay's Blog, Bizarre Zoology
http://bizarrezoology.blogspot.com/
Monday 26 January 2015
Monsters in America Map Dissection
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2923920/United-monsters-America-Infographic-reveals-strange-beasts-captured-nation-s-imagination.html
This map has been highly circulated and promoted recently
It is also very misleading in creating multiple categories for what is really likely to be only the same thing over again. There are several known hoaxes included and several cases where the creatures in question probably belong to already known and established species.
This is what the map reduces down to after throwing out the obvious sightings of known animals (Chupacabras-dogs, big cats and the Beast of Busco snapping turtle), known hoaxes and misrepresentation (Monsters of Bear Lake and Alkali Lake, and the Jersey Devil as cited is based on hoaxes, not the residual of unexplained sightings), and putting all of the closely similar sightings into larger categories. This leaves with a few well attested Unknown categories with candidate fossil antecedents (blue F), some Cryptid categories that are likely known species (red K, including the Caveman and Ape categories which boil down to being "Only" humans and apes, and probably alligator gars) and a couple of poorly articulated and poorly attested leftovers, the smaller and larger "Lizardmen" or swamp creatures. I do think there is something to such reports but we need much better information on the both of them. I think Tyler Stone's suggestion of an amphibious sort of macaque monkey does still hold up as the best explanation for the "Kappa" like Pukwudgie types)
These are also not categories I made up to begin with and they don't contain all of the reports that I would include as potentially interesting. The original map is sensationalistic and not very particular about the authenticity of the stories it is including, or the lack of the same. ALL of the categories in Cryptozoology are completely artificial and largely arbitrary.
This is just how the situation stacks up to me and I will be the first to admit that nothing is "Proven" in Cryptozoology, these are only the best suggestions I have. For some funny reason people assume that just because something appears on this blog I consider the matter to be "Proven" but I do not, these are only the best suggestions and not all of the evidence is equally good across the board.
United monsters of America: Infographic reveals the strange beasts that have captured the nation's imagination
- The map, created by artist Mark Adams, reveals the imaginary beasts that are feared the most in each state
- 'It is a bit of a declaration of optimism and wonderment as to what might be possible on planet Earth,' he said
- Big Bird, for instance, has become notorious in Texas where some say they have seen an ape-like, winged beast
- Other monsters in the map include the Mothman in West Virginia, the Jersey devil in New Jersey, the Beast of Busco in Indiana and the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swap in South Carolina
Published: 16:26 EST, 23 January 2015 | Updated: 09:14 EST, 24 January 2015
This map has been highly circulated and promoted recently
It is also very misleading in creating multiple categories for what is really likely to be only the same thing over again. There are several known hoaxes included and several cases where the creatures in question probably belong to already known and established species.
I have a detailed intermediate map indicating which cases are hoaxes and so on, as formerly posted on Facebook. I think to save a lot of unnecessary argument I can leave it off here but I can add it if people are really interested in the rationale for all of the category eliminations
This is what the map reduces down to after throwing out the obvious sightings of known animals (Chupacabras-dogs, big cats and the Beast of Busco snapping turtle), known hoaxes and misrepresentation (Monsters of Bear Lake and Alkali Lake, and the Jersey Devil as cited is based on hoaxes, not the residual of unexplained sightings), and putting all of the closely similar sightings into larger categories. This leaves with a few well attested Unknown categories with candidate fossil antecedents (blue F), some Cryptid categories that are likely known species (red K, including the Caveman and Ape categories which boil down to being "Only" humans and apes, and probably alligator gars) and a couple of poorly articulated and poorly attested leftovers, the smaller and larger "Lizardmen" or swamp creatures. I do think there is something to such reports but we need much better information on the both of them. I think Tyler Stone's suggestion of an amphibious sort of macaque monkey does still hold up as the best explanation for the "Kappa" like Pukwudgie types)
These are also not categories I made up to begin with and they don't contain all of the reports that I would include as potentially interesting. The original map is sensationalistic and not very particular about the authenticity of the stories it is including, or the lack of the same. ALL of the categories in Cryptozoology are completely artificial and largely arbitrary.
This is just how the situation stacks up to me and I will be the first to admit that nothing is "Proven" in Cryptozoology, these are only the best suggestions I have. For some funny reason people assume that just because something appears on this blog I consider the matter to be "Proven" but I do not, these are only the best suggestions and not all of the evidence is equally good across the board.
Labels:
cryptozoology,
Monster Map,
Monsters in America,
North America
Friday 16 January 2015
Administrative Notice
This blog has been hacked and I have not been able to add anything or edit it for most of the calendar year 2014. Nor have I been able to get into the comments to read them or approve them. Most of the comments have all been wiped in my absence.
We can just say I've been on Sabbatical since I started writing on most of these subjects in Yahoo discussion groups and that was at least seven years ago.
If I can get the blogs going again I shall be doing extensive editing of older posts and rewriting. Currently the blogs are being run on Facebook. I shall have to see if I can get the regular blogs on blogger back under control again.
My readers are still in there and showing much support. I am grateful for that part
Thank you.
PS. I checked and this blog had two unreleased drafts on backlog. Both had been wiped when I went back to see if they were salvageable.
PPS. It has become necessary for me to make the blanket statement once again that as a news service I cannot be held personally responsible for the opinions expressed by others as reprinted on this blog. That is the standard situation. For some reason my harshest critics have managed to miss the point that this is the standard situation when they criticize me personally for the statements and opinions of others as expressed on this blog. For the record, Darren Naish, Cameron McCormack, Loren Coleman, Dick Raynor, Karl Shuker and several others have all done that when mentioning me or this blog during public discussions. They really should have known better than that.
We can just say I've been on Sabbatical since I started writing on most of these subjects in Yahoo discussion groups and that was at least seven years ago.
If I can get the blogs going again I shall be doing extensive editing of older posts and rewriting. Currently the blogs are being run on Facebook. I shall have to see if I can get the regular blogs on blogger back under control again.
My readers are still in there and showing much support. I am grateful for that part
Thank you.
PS. I checked and this blog had two unreleased drafts on backlog. Both had been wiped when I went back to see if they were salvageable.
PPS. It has become necessary for me to make the blanket statement once again that as a news service I cannot be held personally responsible for the opinions expressed by others as reprinted on this blog. That is the standard situation. For some reason my harshest critics have managed to miss the point that this is the standard situation when they criticize me personally for the statements and opinions of others as expressed on this blog. For the record, Darren Naish, Cameron McCormack, Loren Coleman, Dick Raynor, Karl Shuker and several others have all done that when mentioning me or this blog during public discussions. They really should have known better than that.
Saturday 2 August 2014
Researchers discover rare new species of deep-diving whale
http://phys.org/news/2014-02-rare-species-deep-diving-whale.html
Researchers have identified a new species of mysterious beaked whale based on the study of seven animals stranded on remote tropical islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans over the past 50 years.
Beaked whales, a widespread but little-known family of toothed whales distantly related to sperm whales, are found in deep ocean waters beyond the edge of the continental shelf throughout the world's oceans.
"They are rarely seen at sea due to their elusive habits, long dive capacity and apparent low abundance for some species. Understandably, most people have never heard of them," says international team leader, Dr Merel Dalebout, a visiting research fellow at UNSW.
The study of the new species, Mesoplodon hotaula, is published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
The first specimen was a female found on a Sri Lankan beach more than 50 years ago.
On 26 January 1963, a 4.5 metre-long, blue-grey beaked whale washed up at Ratmalana near Colombo. The then director of the National Museums of Ceylon, P.E.P (Paulus) Deraniyagala, described it as a new species, and named it Mesoplodon hotaula, after the local Singhala words for 'pointed beak'.
However, two years later, other researchers reclassified this specimen as an existing species, Mesoplodon ginkgodens, named for the tusk-like teeth of the adult males that are shaped like the leaves of a ginkgo tree.
"Now it turns out that Deraniyagala was right regarding the uniqueness of the whale he identified. While it is closely related to the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, it is definitely not the same species," says Dr Dalebout.
The researchers used a combination of DNA analysis and physical characteristics to identify the new species from seven specimens found stranded in Sri Lanka, the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), Palmyra Atoll in the Northern Line Islands near Hawai'i, the Maldives, and the Seychelles.
The new specimens are held by various institutions and groups, including the US Smithsonian National Museum in Washington DC, the Island Conservation Society in the Seychelles, and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The genetic analyses were conducted as part of an international collaboration with the US NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University
The researchers were able to get good quality DNA from tissue samples from only one specimen. For the others, they drilled the bones of the whales in order to analyse short fragments of 'ancient DNA' relying on techniques commonly used with old sub-fossil material from extinct species.
The researchers also studied all other known beaked whale species to confirm the distinctiveness of Deraniyagala's whale, including six specimens of the closely related, gingko-toothed beaked whale.
"A number of species in this group are known from only a handful of animals, and we are still finding new ones, so the situation with Deraniyagala's whale is not that unusual," Dr Dalebout says.
"For example, the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, first described in 1963, is only known from about 30 strandings and has never been seen alive at sea with any certainty. It's always incredible to me to realise how little we really do know about life in the oceans. There's so much out there to discover. "
Over the last 10 years or so, two other new beaked whales have come to light; both through research in which Dr Dalebout was involved. In 2002, Mesoplodon perrini or Perrin's beaked whale, was described from the eastern North Pacific, and in 2003, Mesoplodon traversii, the spade-toothed whale, was described from the Southern Ocean. Both species are known from only about five animals each.
With the re-discovery of Mesoplodon hotaula, there are now 22 recognised species of beaked whales.
Explore further: Rare whale found dead in Southern California
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-02-rare-species-deep-diving-whale.html#jCp
Researchers discover rare new species of deep-diving whale
Feb 05, 2014
Beaked whales, a widespread but little-known family of toothed whales distantly related to sperm whales, are found in deep ocean waters beyond the edge of the continental shelf throughout the world's oceans.
"They are rarely seen at sea due to their elusive habits, long dive capacity and apparent low abundance for some species. Understandably, most people have never heard of them," says international team leader, Dr Merel Dalebout, a visiting research fellow at UNSW.
The study of the new species, Mesoplodon hotaula, is published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
The first specimen was a female found on a Sri Lankan beach more than 50 years ago.
On 26 January 1963, a 4.5 metre-long, blue-grey beaked whale washed up at Ratmalana near Colombo. The then director of the National Museums of Ceylon, P.E.P (Paulus) Deraniyagala, described it as a new species, and named it Mesoplodon hotaula, after the local Singhala words for 'pointed beak'.
However, two years later, other researchers reclassified this specimen as an existing species, Mesoplodon ginkgodens, named for the tusk-like teeth of the adult males that are shaped like the leaves of a ginkgo tree.
"Now it turns out that Deraniyagala was right regarding the uniqueness of the whale he identified. While it is closely related to the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, it is definitely not the same species," says Dr Dalebout.
The researchers used a combination of DNA analysis and physical characteristics to identify the new species from seven specimens found stranded in Sri Lanka, the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), Palmyra Atoll in the Northern Line Islands near Hawai'i, the Maldives, and the Seychelles.
The new specimens are held by various institutions and groups, including the US Smithsonian National Museum in Washington DC, the Island Conservation Society in the Seychelles, and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The genetic analyses were conducted as part of an international collaboration with the US NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University
The researchers were able to get good quality DNA from tissue samples from only one specimen. For the others, they drilled the bones of the whales in order to analyse short fragments of 'ancient DNA' relying on techniques commonly used with old sub-fossil material from extinct species.
The researchers also studied all other known beaked whale species to confirm the distinctiveness of Deraniyagala's whale, including six specimens of the closely related, gingko-toothed beaked whale.
"A number of species in this group are known from only a handful of animals, and we are still finding new ones, so the situation with Deraniyagala's whale is not that unusual," Dr Dalebout says.
"For example, the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, first described in 1963, is only known from about 30 strandings and has never been seen alive at sea with any certainty. It's always incredible to me to realise how little we really do know about life in the oceans. There's so much out there to discover. "
Over the last 10 years or so, two other new beaked whales have come to light; both through research in which Dr Dalebout was involved. In 2002, Mesoplodon perrini or Perrin's beaked whale, was described from the eastern North Pacific, and in 2003, Mesoplodon traversii, the spade-toothed whale, was described from the Southern Ocean. Both species are known from only about five animals each.
With the re-discovery of Mesoplodon hotaula, there are now 22 recognised species of beaked whales.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-02-rare-species-deep-diving-whale.html#jCp
Monday 21 July 2014
Lake Pepin's rumored creature may be folklore come to life
[I feel I need to reiterate that "Lake Pepin" is only an enlargement of the Mississippi River and so we are really talking about the Mississippi River Monster, and there are a lot more sightings and even more photos from other locations.-DD]
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/267579381.html?page=all&prepage=3&c=y#continue
Lake Pepin's rumored creature may be folklore come to life
Article by: KIM ODE , Star Tribune Updated: July 21, 2014 - 11:39 AM
The centuries-old legend of a lake creature is alive today thanks to a handful of folks who are driven by scholarship, obsession and the irresistible mystery.
About JW Player 6.7.4071 (Ads edition)
There it … there it is! Over by that fishing boat. No, there! Omigosh, they don’t see it! They must think it’s a log.
Unless it is a log.
Or a catfish. Or an otter. Or a boat wake.
But it also could be a sea serpent. (It could be.)
For hundreds of years, people have glanced across the glistening waters of Lake Pepin, where the Mississippi River widens to a basin as long and wide as Scotland’s famous Loch Ness (the same size!), and seen … something.
Most often, the sight turns out to be a dead tree hung up on a sandbar, or a huge sturgeon breaking the surface, or the wake of a boat unfurling toward shore.
But not always. (Maybe.)
“I firmly believe there was something at one time,” said Jil Garry, who owns Treats and Treasures in Lake City, Minn., a town of 5,000 on Lake Pepin.
Garry sells T-shirts, bibs, mugs and candy depicting a friendly Pepie, which is what everyone calls the (possible) creature. “There were those accounts of French explorers and the newspaper stories,” she said, then shrugged. “But now?”
Larry Nielson, who plies the lake daily offering tourists excursions on his sparkling paddlewheeler, Pearl of the Lake, doesn’t know, either. A few years ago, he offered a $50,000 reward to anyone providing “undisputable evidence that proves the existence of the real live creature living in Lake Pepin,” according to www.pepie.net.
So far, there hasn’t been a single claim, although he added, half-laughing, that “my wife’s always worried.” No question, the reward is a publicity stunt (and has reeled in some national press) but Nielson also would like some proof because, well, he’s seen “things I can’t explain.”
Such as 11 years ago, on a calm lake, midweek with few boats out, he saw “this wake 200-some feet long and 2 feet high going upstream.” (Upstream!)
Then in 2009, he saw a log in the water — he knew it was a log; it looked just like a log — but then it began moving against the current (against the current!) before slipping out of sight.
Is Pepie real?
“I don’t know,” Nielson said, hands on the spokes of the Pearl’s big wheel. “That’s for you to make up your mind.”
From “Sacré bleu!” to “What the – ?!”
When Father Louis Hennepin explored this region for France in the late 1600s, he reported seeing “a huge serpent as big as a man’s leg and seven or eight feet long” where the Minnesota River flows into the Mississippi. In those days, the river ran unimpeded from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico — and, in turn, was open from the ocean to Minnesota.
Indians used only strong dugout canoes on the lake, given legends of something large enough to swamp a birchbark boat. Ancient effigy mounds in the region appear to depict huge serpents. Still, we can’t know if they reflect sightings, creation myths or something else entirely, said Chad Lewis, a Minneapolis man who’s written “Pepie, the Lake Monster of the Mississippi River” and maintains www.chadlewisresearch.com.
The first known newspaper account in August 1867 was from river rafters from St. Louis, Mo., who reported seeing a large, unknown creature in the water. A more vivid account appeared four years later in the Wabasha County Sentinel, describing “a marine monster between the size of an elephant and rhinoceros,” moving “with great rapidity.”
Four years later, another newspaper described a “dark, strange-looking object” that rose 6 feet out of the water. Another newspaper noted that a huge eel later was caught.
Sightings have continued over the years, with Nielson, the Pearl’s captain, considering 15 to have some degree of credibility, in that they can’t easily be explained away.
Local lore even claims that one moonlit night in 1922, a young man named Ralph Samuelson saw a creature gliding across Lake Pepin and thought, “If a large aquatic creature can skim across the water’s surface, why can’t I?” A few months later, he invented the sport of water skiing.
Except for the fact that Samuelson did invent water skiing, and Lake City is known as “the birthplace of water skiing,” this is almost certainly not true.
Plans are being made for the first Pepie Festival in September, which promises to be the most family-friendly of events.
“When Larry Nielson brought Pepie back to life, some were afraid that people would think we’re dumb, or they’d be scared to go in the water,” said Garry, the shopkeeper. “But we see Pepie as a shy creature. Like we say, if you haven’t seen it, it’s not going to bite you.”
Wait a … wait a minute. Over there, by the far shore, do you think it … um, never mind.
Twenty years ago, Chad Lewis was pursuing a master’s degree in psychology, driven by two questions: What makes people believe in the weird and unusual? And what makes people not believe?
He had ample reason to ponder those questions, growing up near Elmwood, one of three Wisconsin towns (along with Campbellsport and Belleville) that claim to be the UFO capital of the world. But he also had ample reason to earn a living and so became a grant writer, pursuing folklore on the side, writing books and giving lectures.
Those books and lectures proved so popular, though, that he became a full-time folklorist, traveling the world collecting legends and accounts of curious experiences. (It may not hurt that he looks just like actor Sean Penn. Just. Like.)
So, what makes someone believe in the weird and unusual? “Personal experience,” he said, or knowing someone who had a personal experience.
But what intrigues Lewis even more is research suggesting that “the more educated people are, even while they may not believe in something, the more likely they are to believe in the possibility of these things,” he said. In other words, the more we know, the more aware we are of what we don’t know.
He’s always taken a 50-50 stance about the existence of legends, a position he calls “simple, safe and accurate.”
So he was a little stunned a few years ago when, to the usual question about Pepie, he blurted that he was tipping toward 75 percent that something unidentified is in Lake Pepin. What, he doesn’t know.
“But there’s something that’s big, and real.”
It’s a sturgeon. (It’s always a sturgeon.) Until it isn’t.
So what exactly is in the lake, apart from the large- and smallmouth bass, walleye, sauger, black crappie, sturgeon, northern pike, bluegill and yellow perch?
Does it migrate? What does it eat? Does it need to pop up and breathe, or is it a bottom-dweller?
Is it some form of ancient pleiosaur? A large eel?
Is it an alligator gar, which can be 8 to 10 feet long and weigh 300 pounds? Did we mention a gar’s broad snout and double row of sharp teeth? (Did we mention that whether or not such a fish accounts for Pepie, alligator gars really do live in the lake?)
Finally, sightings over centuries speak to reproduction, which means there has to be more than one.
Right?
“I love that we haven’t explained this,” Lewis said. “But it’s funny how we need to believe something is out there.” Today, Lewis said he has more questions than answers, which is OK with him.
“The legends, for me, provide the opportunity to have an adventure,” he said, a motivation that he urges others to adopt. While looking for Pepie, or Bigfoot, or a UFO or a ghost — or just an unfamiliar horizon — you may find yourself in a new place, learning new things and moving just far enough out of your comfort zone to discover a fresh context for your life.
Or, as Nielson said, at the very least, you can have a lovely day on a beautiful lake
The Lake Monster of Japan’s Mt. Fuji
I am reposting this from another blog by request
Japan is a rugged, mountainous land filled with natural beauty. Perhaps the most well known example of this is the majestic and iconic Mt. Fuji, one of the country’s most famous and instantly recognizable landmarks. Rising up from Yamanashi prefecture, Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, it’s majestic peak widely visible for miles around, even from the bustling metropolis of Tokyo. The mountain, which is in fact a volcano, has been revered by the Japanese people for centuries. In addition to its stark beauty, Mt. Fuji is also known for its mysteries.
Sprawled out in an arc under the northern shadow of the looming Mt. Fuji are The Fuji Five Lakes, also known in Japanese as “Fujigoko,” (literally, “Fujis’s five lakes”). The lakes were formed by previous eruptions of Mt. Fuji, when volcanic lava flows blocked and dammed up rivers and streams to create the lakes. These five lakes are Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Motosu, Lake Saiko, Lake Shoji (the smallest of the five), and Lake Yamanaka, which is the largest of the five and also the third highest lake in Japan. The Fujigoko are a popular travel destination for people all over Japan and are also allegedly home to a bizarre, water dwelling beast.
For years, these picturesque lakes have been the setting for a series of strange sightings of an unidentified creature in the water, which has been affectionately referred to as Mossie, モッシー” in Japanese, in an attempt to emulate the naming of its more famous Scottish cousin Nessie. Mossie is reported as being up to 30 metres in length, with a horny, bumpy back like an alligator or crocodile. Some reports have also mentioned a long dorsal fin like that of a shark, yet the majority of sightings have been simply of large, dark shapes swimming under the surface of the water, with no details visible. A good majority of the sightings have occurred at or near dusk, when the creature appears to be more active.
Mt. Fuji’s lake monster first became widely known in the 1970s, when there was a rash of sightings of something large and unexplainable lurking in the depths of the lakes. The idea of a water monster roaming the waters at the foot of the famous Mt. Fuji captured the public imagination, and drew a lot of media attention at the time. People began to arrive in droves in order to not only bask in the beauty of the mountain and surroundings, but also in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the monster.
At the height of this lake monster fervor, boats descended upon the lake trying to find it, and one group of fishermen decided to try their hand at catching whatever the thing was. The fishermen spent days laying an elaborate system of sturdy nets on the hopes of ensnaring the creature, then laid in wait. Not long after, the nets were pulled up and were found to be completely shredded and ripped apart, much to the fishermen’s surprise. It was surmised that only something very large and strong could have done that much damage to the nets that were used.
Meanwhile, some of the boats scouring the lake came up with bizarre sonar readings of large moving shapes near the bottom. One boat captain claimed to have repeatedly picked up the sonar signature of an inexplicable dark form that he described as being around 25 meters in length. Other boats reported getting sonar hits on multiple unidentifiable shapes at the same time, which they described as almost a school of huge, eerie creatures that they insisted could not have possibly been schools of fish or geographical features.
One man, a Mr. Ken Yanoguchi, claimed to have had a very close encounter with the beast in the 1970s. While fishing on lake Saiko in his small boat, Yanoguchi reportedly bumped up against something in the water. Thinking it was a log, he went to investigate only to find a large creature of some sort lurking just under the surface with part of its back protruding from the water. The exposed part of the creature was described as black, slick, and rubbery looking. The rest of the creature had the appearance of an enormous fish or whale, and Yanoguchi himself even said that his first impression was of a whale, although he could not fathom why a whale should be out in one of the five lakes. The creature reportedly leisurely sunk beneath the water and was not seen again.
In the 1980s, sightings continued and the creature was even allegedly caught on film in October, 1987. A Mr. Yoneyama was out with three others taking pictures of the lake and its surroundings when they saw a surge of water out on the otherwise calm lake. Within this surge, they reported seeing 3 to 5 meters of the exposed back of something they could not identify, which was described as being rough like that of a crocodile. They were able to capture the animal on film, but the results are less than impressive, showing merely a dark shape and thus proving to be inconclusive. Sightings of the animal have dropped off in recent years, but a group in the village of Kamikuishiki has been investigating the Mossie phenomena since 2005.
Mossie has been sighted in more than one of Mt. Fuji’s five lakes, which could be explained by the unique geological features of the lakes, namely the fact that Lake Motosu is connected to Lake Saiko and Lake Shoji by a system of underground waterways that mysterious underwater creatures could use to travel back and forth between lakes. However, what can’t be readily explained is why an enormous lake monster should be here in the first place. The very nature of the lakes makes them an odd location for a lake monster to be found since the Fuji Five Lakes are not particularly ancient. It is thought that the volcanic activity that formed the lakes is very recent in geographical terms, with the lakes forming sometime during the 9th and 10th centuries. This makes it impossible for the creature to be some type of prehistoric animal trapped in the lakes millions of years ago.
The presence of a large, unidentified monster here is also further complicated by the fact that there are no rivers or natural drainage connected to the lakes either, so there is no possibility that something has travelled there from the sea through this route. In addition, many of the fish in the lakes were stocked, and there is no species of fish known there that even approaches a size large enough to cause the reports. These facts make it difficult to determine a biological possibility of just what Mossie could be.
Many theories have been put forward. Ideas run the gamut from oversized introduced fish like the enormous wels catfish or sturgeon that have somehow been released into the lake. Sturgeon have indeed been introduced in some areas of Japan, but this is not known to have happened in the Fuji five lakes. As it stands, no species of fish known to inhabit the lakes even approaches the sizes reported for Mossie.
Regardless of the head scratching nature of the Fujigoko lake monster phenomenon, sightings of Mossie continue to occasionally come in to this day. Is there any chance that a large, unidentified creature is lurking somewhere in these lakes? Those who swear to have seen it say yes. Giant fish or unknown monster, perhaps one of these animals is swimming out there right now, cutting a path through the tranquil reflection of Mt. Fuji upon the water.
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/07/the-lake-monster-of-japans-mt-fuji/
The Lake Monster of Japan’s Mt. Fuji
posted July 21, 2014 by Brent SwancerSprawled out in an arc under the northern shadow of the looming Mt. Fuji are The Fuji Five Lakes, also known in Japanese as “Fujigoko,” (literally, “Fujis’s five lakes”). The lakes were formed by previous eruptions of Mt. Fuji, when volcanic lava flows blocked and dammed up rivers and streams to create the lakes. These five lakes are Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Motosu, Lake Saiko, Lake Shoji (the smallest of the five), and Lake Yamanaka, which is the largest of the five and also the third highest lake in Japan. The Fujigoko are a popular travel destination for people all over Japan and are also allegedly home to a bizarre, water dwelling beast.
For years, these picturesque lakes have been the setting for a series of strange sightings of an unidentified creature in the water, which has been affectionately referred to as Mossie, モッシー” in Japanese, in an attempt to emulate the naming of its more famous Scottish cousin Nessie. Mossie is reported as being up to 30 metres in length, with a horny, bumpy back like an alligator or crocodile. Some reports have also mentioned a long dorsal fin like that of a shark, yet the majority of sightings have been simply of large, dark shapes swimming under the surface of the water, with no details visible. A good majority of the sightings have occurred at or near dusk, when the creature appears to be more active.
Mt. Fuji’s lake monster first became widely known in the 1970s, when there was a rash of sightings of something large and unexplainable lurking in the depths of the lakes. The idea of a water monster roaming the waters at the foot of the famous Mt. Fuji captured the public imagination, and drew a lot of media attention at the time. People began to arrive in droves in order to not only bask in the beauty of the mountain and surroundings, but also in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the monster.
At the height of this lake monster fervor, boats descended upon the lake trying to find it, and one group of fishermen decided to try their hand at catching whatever the thing was. The fishermen spent days laying an elaborate system of sturdy nets on the hopes of ensnaring the creature, then laid in wait. Not long after, the nets were pulled up and were found to be completely shredded and ripped apart, much to the fishermen’s surprise. It was surmised that only something very large and strong could have done that much damage to the nets that were used.
Meanwhile, some of the boats scouring the lake came up with bizarre sonar readings of large moving shapes near the bottom. One boat captain claimed to have repeatedly picked up the sonar signature of an inexplicable dark form that he described as being around 25 meters in length. Other boats reported getting sonar hits on multiple unidentifiable shapes at the same time, which they described as almost a school of huge, eerie creatures that they insisted could not have possibly been schools of fish or geographical features.
One man, a Mr. Ken Yanoguchi, claimed to have had a very close encounter with the beast in the 1970s. While fishing on lake Saiko in his small boat, Yanoguchi reportedly bumped up against something in the water. Thinking it was a log, he went to investigate only to find a large creature of some sort lurking just under the surface with part of its back protruding from the water. The exposed part of the creature was described as black, slick, and rubbery looking. The rest of the creature had the appearance of an enormous fish or whale, and Yanoguchi himself even said that his first impression was of a whale, although he could not fathom why a whale should be out in one of the five lakes. The creature reportedly leisurely sunk beneath the water and was not seen again.
In the 1980s, sightings continued and the creature was even allegedly caught on film in October, 1987. A Mr. Yoneyama was out with three others taking pictures of the lake and its surroundings when they saw a surge of water out on the otherwise calm lake. Within this surge, they reported seeing 3 to 5 meters of the exposed back of something they could not identify, which was described as being rough like that of a crocodile. They were able to capture the animal on film, but the results are less than impressive, showing merely a dark shape and thus proving to be inconclusive. Sightings of the animal have dropped off in recent years, but a group in the village of Kamikuishiki has been investigating the Mossie phenomena since 2005.
Mossie has been sighted in more than one of Mt. Fuji’s five lakes, which could be explained by the unique geological features of the lakes, namely the fact that Lake Motosu is connected to Lake Saiko and Lake Shoji by a system of underground waterways that mysterious underwater creatures could use to travel back and forth between lakes. However, what can’t be readily explained is why an enormous lake monster should be here in the first place. The very nature of the lakes makes them an odd location for a lake monster to be found since the Fuji Five Lakes are not particularly ancient. It is thought that the volcanic activity that formed the lakes is very recent in geographical terms, with the lakes forming sometime during the 9th and 10th centuries. This makes it impossible for the creature to be some type of prehistoric animal trapped in the lakes millions of years ago.
The presence of a large, unidentified monster here is also further complicated by the fact that there are no rivers or natural drainage connected to the lakes either, so there is no possibility that something has travelled there from the sea through this route. In addition, many of the fish in the lakes were stocked, and there is no species of fish known there that even approaches a size large enough to cause the reports. These facts make it difficult to determine a biological possibility of just what Mossie could be.
Many theories have been put forward. Ideas run the gamut from oversized introduced fish like the enormous wels catfish or sturgeon that have somehow been released into the lake. Sturgeon have indeed been introduced in some areas of Japan, but this is not known to have happened in the Fuji five lakes. As it stands, no species of fish known to inhabit the lakes even approaches the sizes reported for Mossie.
Regardless of the head scratching nature of the Fujigoko lake monster phenomenon, sightings of Mossie continue to occasionally come in to this day. Is there any chance that a large, unidentified creature is lurking somewhere in these lakes? Those who swear to have seen it say yes. Giant fish or unknown monster, perhaps one of these animals is swimming out there right now, cutting a path through the tranquil reflection of Mt. Fuji upon the water.
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/07/the-lake-monster-of-japans-mt-fuji/
Labels:
Giant Catfish,
Japan,
Lake Kawaguchi,
Lake Motosu,
Lake Saiko,
Lake Shoji,
Lake Yamanaka,
Loch Ness Monster,
Mossie
Sunday 20 July 2014
Horned Serpents in Mounds and Puebloes
Wehave had announcements about the "Dinosaurian" Water Monster (Horned Serpent) Avanyu (Awanyu) before, but I just came across this stunning petroglyph representing one from the Anasazi culture. The Anasazi were the forerunners to our more familiar Pueblo (Village) Indians. It does seem that the idea is that the monster is a creature much like a Plesiosaur with a long neck and a fat body with four flippers. The tail is apparently prolonged by counting in the wake and the entire appearance is much like Oudemans' reconstruction of the Great Sea-serpent when seen from above.
This depiction of a Horned serpent has a human rider on its back, possibly intending to harpoon it. This is indeed intended to be an Avanyu despite its rather short and stumpy appearance: another version showing a human riding on an Avanyu is below, together with a rendition of it in "Periscope" position.. the one below definitely shows flippers and the one above from Mallory also has variations that seem to show the flippers also, at least the foreflippers.
Here is an extraction I did while I was looking for "Spinybacked" reference materials, but after I was done the result still looks like a pair of big Loch Ness Monster type humps.
And here I a painting done by a Native artist of the area, depicting the Avanyu as a water monster in its own environment. I am not intending this should defraud the artist, I am merely using it because it is an exceptionally good depiction of the Avanyu as a water monster.
Another more modern depiction of Avanyu, showing the flipperlike limbs.
Similar creatures were depicted by the Mississippian culture, mostly in the Mississippi valley itself. These bowls with snaky heads, necks and tails have caught the attention of collectors that call them "Sea Monsters", which is a label that has been used in some museums.
And as has been mentioned earlier on this blog, some of the earlier Effigy mounds of the Ohio valley area generally also resemble Oudemans' reconstruction for the Great Sea-serpent, only they are more usually called "Panthers" and "Turtles". Sometimes the idea probably was to represent turtles or Water panthers, but in other cases the shape is different enough that the makers could have been trying to represent Plesiosaurian Water Monsters. I would weigh this toward the "Turtles" myself.
Indian Rock, Champ, And The American Bunyip
The Indian Rock petroglyph is at Battleboro, Vermont and is shown below. One commentator thought the long horizontal line at top right represented a long neck turned back but I think this is more likely a bow wave. Bow waves are definitely represented on other similar petroglyphs.
This creature has some very specific Plesiosaur-like characteristics such as the long neck with a small head at the end of it, and a big body with four flippers and a short tail on the other end. The combination of the big ovoid body and four schematic limbs is what reminded me of Australian "Bunyips" in their own rock art.
Above: The long neck can be seen in "Periscope" position.
Below: also associated with large pointed or peaked humps on the back.
Three humps are usual.
The more usual "Water panthers" or Mishipiziheus are more characteristic of the upper Great Lakes and inland generally. In their case there are catlike eyes and whiskers, and the "Horns" are definitely pointed ears at times.
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Earliest Documentation of a Giant Beaver
Scott Mardis just sent this in along with a package including many other things:
Giant Beaver of the St Lawrence, Codex Canadiensis, ca 1670
I am fairly certain this "Cheval Marin" only represents another swimming moose report.
Giant Beaver of the St Lawrence, Codex Canadiensis, ca 1670
Saturday 19 July 2014
Crowned Crowing Cobras
These two Roman representations of probably Crested Crowned Cobras recently came to me in the form of a Cryptic colouring page. I coloured them in and add them to the blog as illustrating the type. The originals were from frescoes at Pompeii. It is possible that they were called "Basilisks"
Labels:
Basilisk,
Classical Age,
Crested Crowned Cobras,
Pompeii,
Rome
Maybe Not So Faux Alligators After All
I had at one point mentioned that water monster depictions had a distinctive subcategory that showed creatures with a row of spines down the middle of the back. In one of my earlier postings to an article posted to the CFZ, I said "The spiny-backed creature comes from further South. It is possible that originated in stories about alligators after all"
And later I reclassified the representations into the "Faux-Alligator" more general category.
From the masks of the "Water Monster" actors in the old ethnographic illustration above, I would think that Alligators are indeed back in the running as possible culprits in such sightings and traditions. This does mean that records in the category might run all the way out into California.
Below are a couple of "Missepeshu" representations from farther North and possibly representing an alligator's jagged back on a different sort of Water-Monster:
And this is another Alligator like creature depicted in Pueblo pottery which appears to have large squarish armour plates (Osteoderms) on its back. The armour is typical of Crocodylians.
Peabody Number: 36-131-10/8060
Display Title: Zooomorphic black on white potsherd–animal form
Inventory Description: Ceramic, zoomorphic figurine, with tail, opened mouth, two feet, black painted design on back and sides
Classification: Figurine
Department: Archaeological
Culture/Period: Pueblo
Geography/Provenience: North America/United States/Arizona/Navajo County/Hopi Reservation/Antelope Mesa/Awatovi
Intrasite: Test 14
Geo-Locale: Antelope Mesa
Materials: Ceramic Pigment
Provenance: Dr. John Otis Brew (1936)
Provenance: Peabody Museum Expedition (1936)
There is also the side issue that some of the traditions and representations of a "Horned Alligator" found in the Mississippi valley could be a new unrecognized species and likely a visitor from the sea. Common estimates of the size of the creatures in such sightings run up to 50-60 feet long, and sometimes even more, and they are sometimes called "Dinosaurs." People that talk about the "White River Monster" (in Arkansas) sometimes mention reports in this category, although they are usually stated as being in the Mississippi River.
http://www.gustavslibrary.com/turnermoundgroup.htm
Tiwanaku Black Ware Creatures
I recently came across some information on some black pottery animal figures (zoomorficas) found at Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco). In central America, similar black pottery can be very old, back to 2000 BC or more in the Preclassic period, in Bolivia the age is some matter of controversy. In this case I only wanted to point out the animals represented.
And the third is labeled as a "Pyrotherium"
This might represent a transpacific cultural contact but there were apparently still some "Mastodon" reports in Peru and Ecuador during the 1800s.
Toxodons are also represented in other art at the same site.
Below is the original notice, in Spanish. I am not assigning any identity to the remaining examples at this time, these were the ones I had something relevant to say about.
The first one seems to be one of those big lizards that run on their hind legs and reported in both North and South America in the drier uplands of the west ("Mini-Rex", "Mountain Boomer" and so on.) This evidently represents a foreign animal, whichever species it represents, because no lizards live in the Altiplano plateau near Lake Titicaca. There are both traditions and reports of the biped lizard types further to the South, in Northern Argentina and in Chile.
The Arica Monster was first spotted at the Atacama desert in Chile 1980. Witnesses describe a run in with huge kangaroo-like, bipedal monster in the deserts . The sightings have occurred by people who were traveling by car on different days through the remote road that links the cities of Iquique and Arica through the Atacama desert, some 2,000 kilometers north of Santiago, Chile. The newspapers in those cities collected recent accounts from citizens who claim to have seen the rare creatures. In addition, a military officer named Hernan Cuevas says that he spotted two of the beasts while traveling with two other adults and two children in a vehicle. He was quoted as seeing, "a huge beast, much like a two-legged dinosaur, with huge thighs."
They described the animal as being exactly like the raptor from Jurassic Park. In this case, it's said to be a living Dromaeosauridae.
http://itsmth.wikia.com/wiki/Arica_Monster
See Also http://itsmth.wikia.com/wiki/River_Dinos
The second is a frog or toad and I relate this to the Sapo de Loma.
Sapo De Loma is a mysterious large toad, living in river valleys of Andes Mountains of Chile and Peru. Eats medium-sized birds and rodents.
http://itsmth.wikia.com/wiki/Sapo_De_Loma
Toxodons are also represented in other art at the same site.
Below is the original notice, in Spanish. I am not assigning any identity to the remaining examples at this time, these were the ones I had something relevant to say about.
Labels:
Altiplano,
Arica Monster,
Bolivia,
Mastodons,
Pyrotherium,
River Lizards,
Sapo de Loma,
South America,
Tiahuanaco,
Tiwanaku,
Unknown iguanid lizards
Wednesday 16 July 2014
Surface Swimming Longnecks and Plesiosaurs
Jay Cooney has made these comparisons and they look like they are potentially meaningful the way he has arranged them, and so I pass the pasteups along.
Recent model of the likely surfacing configuration taken on by Cryptoclidus compared to the Devon Coast, Nushagak Bay, and Pembroke Dock 'sea serpent' photographs
Recent model of the likely surfacing configuration taken on by Cryptoclidus compared to the Devon Coast, Nushagak Bay, and Pembroke Dock 'sea serpent' photographs
Ten Mermaid Sightings
10 Credible Mermaid Sightings? (+Videos)
By Daniel Cameron, Epoch Times | September 21, 2013Last Updated: September 23, 2013 3:03 pm
[Note, this article is reposted as a news item and not as any kind of endorsement necessarily-DD]
Labels:
Animal Planet,
Merfolk,
Mermaid Sightings,
Real Mermaids
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Sea Monster
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Sea Monster
by Adrienne Mayor (Wonders & Marvels contributor)
Sea monster sightings have been reported in the Mediterranean since antiquity. Aristotle (fourth century BC) remarked that experienced Greek sailors occasionally encountered unknown sea creatures. The monsters fell into two types: some resembled massive beams of black wood; others were like giant red shields with many fins. A multi-finned monster was observed in modern times by officers of the British royal yacht Osbourne in 1877. Twenty years later another British crew in the Mediterranean saw a huge sea “centipede,” 150 feet long with “an immense number of fins.” In 1742, it was reported that giant eels wrecked tuna fishermen’s nets; similar reports appeared again in 1907, 1924, and 1958.
The Greek travel writer Pausanias, writing in the second century AD, claimed that so many sea monsters lurked in the Adriatic Sea that “their smell hung thick in the air.” Unfortunately Pausanias did not describe the odor. The nineteenth-century classicist J. G. Frazer (author of The Golden Bough) was intrigued by Pausanias’s comment. Frazer sailed the Adriatic several times but he never caught a whiff of anything untoward.
The Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder described another type of sea serpent, said to be about 30 feet long. These “dragons” swam with their heads raised up like periscopes, in the classic Loch Ness Monster pose. In the late 1890s, a Mediterranean ship’s log noted that a pair of sea creatures whose “heads were like greyhounds without ears” kept pace with the ship sailing at about 8 knots. In 1912, the crew of the steamer Queen Eleanor observed a 25 foot long mottled, eel-like creature with two “humps or coils” swimming along at the same speed as their ship. [It would not be eel-like if it showed humps or coils above water-DD] Another ship’s log of 1924 reported a 100-foot serpentine animal with raised head moving with “vertical undulations in the waves.” In 1916, Captain Eduoard Plessis, sailing west of Thasos (northern Aegean), was startled to see what looked like a periscope projecting 6 feet out of the water, moving swiftly, about 15 knots. Plessis sounded the submarine warning even though no sub of his day could move that fast.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle maintained a keen interest in prehistoric animals and paranormal events. In 1928, the creator of the unflappable detective Sherlock Holmes and his wife took a sea voyage to the island of Aegina. Standing on the deck of a steamer, they were gazing at the ancient Temple of Poseidon, god of the sea, on Cape Sounion. Suddenly they were distracted by something swimming parallel to the ship. Conan Doyle recalled that “the curious creature had a long neck and large flippers. I believe, as did my wife, that it was a young plesiosaurus.” Plesiosaurs were marine reptiles that went extinct along with dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Their shape strongly resembles the reported forms of typical sea monsters in the popular imagination, such as Nessie of Loch Ness. Perhaps this incident inspired Conan Doyle to write his story The Lost World, in which extinct creatures are brought back alive to London.[No, the sighting came sixteen years after the book which was published in 1912. The book was also published long before "Patagonian Plesiosaurs" were publicized in the newspapers but the sighting was made close to the same time.-DD]
About the author: Adrienne Mayor is a Research Scholar in Classics and History of Science, Stanford University. She is the author of “The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myths in Greek and Roman Times” (2000, 2011); and “The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy,” a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award.
[Charles Paxton criticized Doyle's accounts which called the creature he saw an "Ichthyosaurus" at another time. The answer is of course that Doyle was not actually wholly conversant with the scientific names and that the same confusion occurs with other reports of Longnecked water monsters elsewhere. And in The Lost World, much of the information about the dinosaurs was inexact or incorrect because Doyle was not really thorough on his research on the subject. But that is not to say that he did not know what a Plesiosaur was supposed to look like -DD]
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2013/01/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-and-the-sea-monster.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Conan_Doyle_novel)
Sea monster sightings have been reported in the Mediterranean since antiquity. Aristotle (fourth century BC) remarked that experienced Greek sailors occasionally encountered unknown sea creatures. The monsters fell into two types: some resembled massive beams of black wood; others were like giant red shields with many fins. A multi-finned monster was observed in modern times by officers of the British royal yacht Osbourne in 1877. Twenty years later another British crew in the Mediterranean saw a huge sea “centipede,” 150 feet long with “an immense number of fins.” In 1742, it was reported that giant eels wrecked tuna fishermen’s nets; similar reports appeared again in 1907, 1924, and 1958.
The Greek travel writer Pausanias, writing in the second century AD, claimed that so many sea monsters lurked in the Adriatic Sea that “their smell hung thick in the air.” Unfortunately Pausanias did not describe the odor. The nineteenth-century classicist J. G. Frazer (author of The Golden Bough) was intrigued by Pausanias’s comment. Frazer sailed the Adriatic several times but he never caught a whiff of anything untoward.
The Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder described another type of sea serpent, said to be about 30 feet long. These “dragons” swam with their heads raised up like periscopes, in the classic Loch Ness Monster pose. In the late 1890s, a Mediterranean ship’s log noted that a pair of sea creatures whose “heads were like greyhounds without ears” kept pace with the ship sailing at about 8 knots. In 1912, the crew of the steamer Queen Eleanor observed a 25 foot long mottled, eel-like creature with two “humps or coils” swimming along at the same speed as their ship. [It would not be eel-like if it showed humps or coils above water-DD] Another ship’s log of 1924 reported a 100-foot serpentine animal with raised head moving with “vertical undulations in the waves.” In 1916, Captain Eduoard Plessis, sailing west of Thasos (northern Aegean), was startled to see what looked like a periscope projecting 6 feet out of the water, moving swiftly, about 15 knots. Plessis sounded the submarine warning even though no sub of his day could move that fast.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle maintained a keen interest in prehistoric animals and paranormal events. In 1928, the creator of the unflappable detective Sherlock Holmes and his wife took a sea voyage to the island of Aegina. Standing on the deck of a steamer, they were gazing at the ancient Temple of Poseidon, god of the sea, on Cape Sounion. Suddenly they were distracted by something swimming parallel to the ship. Conan Doyle recalled that “the curious creature had a long neck and large flippers. I believe, as did my wife, that it was a young plesiosaurus.” Plesiosaurs were marine reptiles that went extinct along with dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Their shape strongly resembles the reported forms of typical sea monsters in the popular imagination, such as Nessie of Loch Ness. Perhaps this incident inspired Conan Doyle to write his story The Lost World, in which extinct creatures are brought back alive to London.[No, the sighting came sixteen years after the book which was published in 1912. The book was also published long before "Patagonian Plesiosaurs" were publicized in the newspapers but the sighting was made close to the same time.-DD]
About the author: Adrienne Mayor is a Research Scholar in Classics and History of Science, Stanford University. She is the author of “The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myths in Greek and Roman Times” (2000, 2011); and “The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy,” a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award.
Illustration from The Lost World: YES, he knew what a Plesiosaur was!
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2013/01/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-and-the-sea-monster.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_World_(Conan_Doyle_novel)
Monday 14 July 2014
Roman and Byzantine- Age Sea Monsters
Peter Costello drew attention to this mosaic in In Search Of Lake Monsters and surmised that it represented the same kind of Longnecked Sea-serpent that witnesses continued seeing and which were the basis for many reports of Lake Monsters worldwide.He noted that it could not be a reconstruction of a fossil animal because it contained features which occurred in the reports and which could not possibly be inferred from fossils. Later critical response included the assertion that it and the similar depictions below must have been made to account for fossils. Fossils do not indicate ears or horns, manes or humps on the back (often called "Coils" and thought of as being a long body thrown up into twists and turns)
(I have pointed this out to both Tyler Stone and Jay Cooney)
Illustrations of "Cetus" (Ketos in Greek) from 1st-2nd Century mosaics at Rome. The "Cetus" (Now used to mean "Whale" but it is evidently an even older IndoEuropean root meaning "a Disturbance or a Shaking",ie, "That which disturbs the waters from below"). The Greek story of Perseus had him rescuing a Phoenician princess from a Cetus (Ketos), and it is the name of one of the constellations as a result. The constellation is traditionally represented as a long-necked sea monster.
Be cause of the ambiguity of the term, many early Christians had the mistaken notion that Jonah had been swallowed by a Cetus (later "a Whale") and that representation became regular for many years before it fell out of fashion. The original text nowhere specifies what kind of a sea creature swallowed Jonah. It is a mistaken notion because almost certainly, Longnecks are not equipped to be able to really swallow people. However you do get many interesting repeated views of a Longnecked animal in Periscope position showing its foreflippers while it was considered the proper thing.
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