The Cryptozoology Season

Is there a new public attack on the Bigfoot and Sasquatch research work of Grover Krantz to be launched soon in London? Or, actually, less melodramatically, what will be said?

Cryptozoology Season at the Grant Museum: The Grant Museum is located at the University College London – Gower Street – London – WC1E 6BT – United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7679 2000.

The Grant Museum is taking advantage of the popularity of “cryptozoology” by putting on a variety of lectures in what they call “The Cryptozoology Season.” I especially hope some learned cryptozoologists, hominologists, and colleagues get to hear the one entitled “Crackpots and Eggheads: Pseudoscience and the search for the Yeti,” on July 10th! I’d love to fly in for that one.

“The Cryptozoology Season explores the world of hidden animals and the people who work with them. From the lives of those who study species unknown to science, like Nessie and Bigfoot, to expeditions in search of
animals presumed extinct, our talks, events and film-night will investigate this marginalised subject in exciting ways. Is it mainstream science or paranormal research? Come and make up your own mind.”

Location: Grant Museum of Zoology, Darwin Building, University College London, Malet Place, WC1E 6BT.
Tel: 020 7679 2647

This 1954 Japanese classic, the first Godzilla film, tells the tale of a terrifying prehistoric beast which destroys Tokyo. The dinosaur-like monster was reawakened by American nuclear weapons testing and goes on the rampage, killing thousands. Few films have managed to combine dinosaurs, romance, anti-American politics and heroic scientists so successfully. Interestingly, the anti-nuclear themes of the film are largely removed from the 1956 US reworking of the original. UCL Historian of Science, Dr Joe Cain, will introduce the film, and a free glass of wine will be served in the interval.

Location: Grant Museum of Zoology, Darwin Building, University College London, Malet Place, WC1E 6BT
Tel: 020 7679 2647

What drives the hunt for anomalous primate monsters like Bigfoot? Is it the need to discover the undiscovered…a thirst for knowledge…or a desire for excitement? It’s not so simple. Dr Brian Regal will argue that it’s all about the battle between amateur naturalists and professional scientists – the Crackpots versus the Eggheads. Come to the Grant Museum and hear the hairy reality. Join us for a free glass of wine in a private view of the Museum after the talk.

Brian Regal is Assistant Professor for the History of Science at Kean University, New Jersey, USA. His latest book is the two volume, Icons of Evolution. He is currently working on a history of the search for anomalous primates.
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The broad scope of my research concerns the history of human origins. My focus is less on human evolution itself than on an intellectual historical study of how scientific theories are constructed, and then perceived and used in popular culture, religion, and politics for extra-scientific ends. My first book Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man (2002) is an attempt to unravel the complex and contradictory nature of a theory of human evolution which was simultaneously scientific and religious and which was designed to show more than just where the first humans arose, but how American society should be ordered. Human Evolution: a guide to the debates (2004) takes an interdisciplinary approach by including such topics as popular culture, eugenics and creationism along with traditional aspects of evolution history to show the interconnected aspect of human origin studies and how they go beyond finding fossils, isolating DNA, and dating strata.

As an historian of science I am particularly interested in the relationship between professional scientists and their amateur counterparts. I write about how the fringe and mainstream interact, co-mingle and argue, whether it is over the creation/evolution debate or American national origins theories.

My current writing is an historical analysis of the lives of mainstream scientists–particularly the controversial paleoanthropologist Grover Krantz (1931-2002)–who believed anomalous primates like the Sasquatch and Yeti were real animals, not just relics of folklore or hoaxes. I have been ransacking the archives and libraries of North America and England using long forgotten letters, correspondence, diaries, and notebooks of scientists who researched humanoid monsters.

Location: Grant Museum of Zoology, Darwin Building, University College London, Malet Place, WC1E 6BT.
Tel: 020 7679 2647

Price: Drop-in from 10am to 4pm daily
Age group: Family activities, but the Museum is suitable for all ages

From 6 tonne elephants to 6 metre worms, come and investigate the animals at the top end of the scales. Discover the longest, heaviest, strongest and tallest creatures on Earth with the Museum’s fantastic specimens and activities. What would you do if you met an 8m long crocodile or a snake as long as a bus?

Location: Grant Museum of Zoology, Darwin Building, University College London, Malet Place, WC1E 6BT
Tel: 020 7679 2647

Take part in our exciting interactive activities with the deadliest animal specimens in the Museum. Do you know a scary scorpion from a terrifying tarantula? Can you tell a snake from a legless lizard? Which animals live in the most dangerous locations, and how do they survive there? Come and see the beasts you wouldn’t want to meet in the wild.

Loren Coleman 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.

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