Cryptomundo Mermaids Do Exist
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 17th, 2008
Recently someone emailed in a complaint: “I can’t help noticing the dearth or paucity of Mermaid information on an otherwise very complete site. Even I, a rank amateur, keep stumbling across references to live sightings. Even if some do turn out to be Dugongs, it seems as if some are less easy to explain — witness the case in Newfoundland, which is hardly Dugong territory.”
I thought I would share a couple helpful hints about using Cryptomundo.
Please click on the image for the full-size editorial image.
First, of course, mermaids and all kinds of other fantastic creatures, curious cryptids, new species, and other possible new animals inhabit this blog.
You may at any time search for them in two major ways on the site: (1) via the search engine box on this page (in the upper right column), and (2) via the list of multiple categories to the flush right. “Mermaids,” for example, could exist under “Lizard People,” perhaps, or even under “Swamp Monsters.” But hey, I can take a hint, so I’ll add a new category, “Merbeings” to help find the old and new reports.
Also, as many clever researchers know, you can enter “Cryptomundo” or “Cryptomundo.com” in your favorite search engine (e.g. Google, Yahoo, whatever others you might use) and then type in a term like “mermaid,” “merman,” or “merbeing,” in that search tool box, thus getting broader results.
Furthermore, when writing us, usually via [email protected], you must realize that these emails do not come directly to me but must be sorted by a technical administrator.
Be specific in your requests, and if alluding to some “case,” such as the “Newfoundland” one noted above, give a date, reference, or citation, so I’ll know the “what” and “when” that you are talking about. If referring to a certain posting, and you are deciding to email me or us directly versus leaving a comment, do mention what posting you are referencing, as we are still unable to read minds about such matters. (Maybe that happens on the psychic cryptolist somewhere else?)
If you want to know how to make certain your “blog specific” comments will appear (beyond knowing your swearing and off-topic remarks won’t be posted), you might wish to read this again.
Thank you for reading Cryptomundo and being a Cryptomundian. We know the silent majority of 2 million readers per month seem to understand most of the above, so forgive me for reminding the few who have forgotten.
Best wishes for a good time at Cryptomundo.
Thanks to Mia B. Smith, Permissions Coordinator at the American Scientist, who informs me the copyright credit for the above illustration is Bill Long, 2005.
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.
Mermaids are one of the those bizarre but interesting things that people keep claiming to see from time to time.
While I’m not sure I would mistake a dugong for a human face in the water, I guess it would depend on the distance and the frame of mind…or perhaps the rum…
However, I can’t quite get my mind around there being a terrestrial race of half fish half human things living in the oceans of the world…just too far off Darwin’s evolutionary chains…
Though I did read a Russian Science Fiction story many years back about just that…and it was really good!
I know there was a popular ‘water ape’ theory (I think it has been disproved scientifically but I’m not sure) about primates taking to the water and living an aquatic / semi-aquatic lifestyle to explain the loss of fur and the face-to-face mating, among other things.
But I have to wonder if the merbeings aren’t part of this, either via actual sightings or simple ‘species memories’. All things considered, the bounty of the sea tends to be high protein, low fat and very nourishing so to think that a common ancestor may have chosen a watery home isn’t that far fetched, is it?