A New Approach To Cryptozoology
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on December 12th, 2013
From C. M Kosemen:
I introduce our new book, the Cryptozoologicon, in the book launch event in London on December 6th, 2013.
I talk about how the “study” of cryptid animals is actually a mix of zoology, folklore and popular culture. Even if they are not real, mystery animals can tell us a lot about the world’s history, culture, and civilization. I also introduce a Venn-diagram-like method which we hope will be more common in the study of cryptid lore from around the world and outline a new, objective and holistic approach to all things cryptozoological.
Cryptozoologicon is available from Amazon.com in print or Kindle versions.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
It’s not that we need a new approach, it’s just the approach many within the field are taking is questionable.
For instance, cataloging multiple species out of unknown hominoid reports because of description variations will not add any credence to the pursuit. If anything, it’s bound to deteriorate whatever credibility the creature had to begin with.
Same applies to sea serpents. We don’t need to set after 10 different sea creatures, just investigate the reports, mark down the description, and if the description doesn’t match any previous account it could just boil down to the individual, the eyewitness lack of attention to detail, or it may be a separate animal all together.
The time for distinguishing species will come when we have that creatures body.
It is impossible to tell how many species we could be dealing with merely from eyewitness descriptions.