Croyde Carcass Case Closed by CFZ
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 11th, 2009
The Exmoor Beach Beast, the Croyde beach carcass, the Beast of the Bay, or the Cadaver of Croyde, whatever you wish to call it, from the beginning more of a media monster than a real one, has been identified to the satisfaction of authorities in the U.K.
The Centre for Fortean Zoology, Jon Downes and his chaps, recovered the skull and other evidence, and then attempted to get it identified as quickly as possible, from the beginning.
For more photos, see the CFZ slideshow here.
The CFZ, I think, properly took the skull from the beach before it disappeared into some eBay auction or was thrown away to keep the media mystery going. They also shared what they found, via “uploading and linking to the pics” with Darren Naish of the Tetrapod Zoology blog and a vertebrate palaeontologist.
Naish has this to say on the CFZ’s blog about the case:
“Your photos demonstrate without doubt that it is a Grey seal after all….Short nasals and a deep nasal cavity are both characteristic of Halichoerus, the grey seal. The skull definitely belongs to that taxon, case closed.”
Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus
As Jon Downes mentions:
“So, the story is solved. It was a seal which may have had slightly abnormal nasal cavities. However, we are now on the position to be able to state this as incontrovertible fact. The CFZ went out and got the skull, and will be keeping it in our museum because of the minor position which it will always hold in the history of cryptozoology.”
Rest of posting can be accessed here.
Job well-done by Darren Naish (with his detailed reasoning, here) and the CFZ. Congratulations.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
If they hadn’t gotten a hold of that skull immediately, this may have gone on for weeks/months. Some crackpot would take it, sell a story to the tabloids, and further destroy the reputation of people like you.
I can imagine the tabloid headlines…
“Flying Mutant Mermaid/seal halfbreeds help Bigfoot repair UFO, Bigfoot returns favor by Eating them”
“Nessie had Kids with Champ, one baby washed up on shore and died.”
“Mutant Mermaids! Alleged Crackpot Bigfoot research Loren Coleman Part of Seal-Based Government coverup!”
It’s rather amazing how out of proportion the media blew this thing. I really can’t see how this could come to this since it was plainly obvious to anyone who got a good look at that skull that this was that of a Grey seal. It was my immediate reaction when I saw the skull comparison.
I understand that the media likes to propagate the mystery of these things, but this was a little ridiculous. To my understanding, the CFZ from the very beginning thought of this as nothing more than the skull of a mundane animal, and it is the media (which unfortunately is the source most people are going to get their information) which spun this into something more than it was. This was never really anything cryptozoological to anyone other than the media, it was a completely fabricated phenomena based on nothing. I think the CFZ did the right thing and I’m glad the matter has been cleared up to everyone’s liking, but it’s amazing that it was necessary to do that in the first place.
Seals wash up, they die, they decompose, they leave skulls, it is a completely normal and non mysterious process. Does every carcass found have to be demonstrated to be that of a known animal or else be assumed to be something more? This is the very opposite of how things should work. Unless something is anomalous to the point that the evidence shows that it cannot be or possibly is not a known animal, something that it seems at no point anyone involved (barring the media) really thought, it is probably relatively safe to think that the source of the carcass is mundane. I mean, there was nothing even particularly odd about this skull. I dread to think that every decomposing corpse found is potentially going to have to go through the same process that happened here just to appease the sensationalist proclivities of the media and prove it is not a monster.
Sometimes a seal is just a seal. Hopefully level heads and rational thinking will prevail in the future, or at least that the level heads of those involved (like the CFZ) will be heard.
Not to worry mystery_man, I don’t think the media’s latest carcass craze will last much longer; they’ll soon switch over to a flap that doesn’t raize such a stench
Well done Jon and team and acolades to all involved, particularly Darren also for being on the ball as usual.
Well done chaps.
Tony Lucas
NZ Cryptozoologist