Cryptomundo
for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and More

When we think of sloths, we generally picture those famously sluggish, dog-sized, tree-dwelling beasts that spend much of their time hanging upside-down from branches in modern-day Central and South America. Millions of years ago, however, there were several additional, very different morphological types – of which the most famous and dramatic were the ground sloths.

Read: The Yukon Beaver Eater, and Ground Sloths in New Zealand? »

On 8 August 2015, the city of Lepel in Belarus’s Vitebsk Province hosted an international festival of mythology entitled ‘On a Visit to Lepel Tsmok’ . Among the varied array of subjects featured in this festival’s talks and presentations was Lepel’s very own legendary monster, one that was once virtually unknown to the outside world. Thanks to a wonderful statue here, however, all that is now changing, rapidly.

Read: The Tsmok Statue at Lake Lepel, Belarus – Aquatic Dragon, Flippered Water-Deer, or Long-Necked Seal? »

I’m delighted to announce that my latest book, A Manifestation of Monsters: Examining the (Un)Usual Subjects, is now in print, published by Anomalist Books. It contains a superb foreword by my good friend and fellow cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard, and its front cover is sumptuously illustrated with a truly spectacular cryptozoological painting by hugely-talented artist Michael J. Smith that directly inspired me to write this book.

Read: A Manifestation of Monsters is Here! »

As a fervent browser of bestiaries, illuminated manuscripts, and other sources of antiquarian illustrations portraying a vast diversity of grotesque, extraordinary beasts that ostensibly bear no resemblance or relation to any species known to science, I am rarely surprised nowadays by any zoological depictions that I encounter in such sources. A few days ago, however, I was not just surprised but also thoroughly bemused – bewildered, even – by a truly remarkable picture that I happened to chance upon online.

Read: Investigating the Locust Dragon of Nicolaes de Bruyn »

Has the creature in these two photos from Arlene Gaal’s book In Search of Ogopogo ever been conclusively identified and, if so, what was it and does anyone have any published sources for the identification?

Read: Mystery Creature Carcass Identified? »

Between June 1764 and June 1767, a hideous series of killings, as grisly as they were plentiful (somewhere around 80 to 113 human victims, plus many injured survivors), occurred in a village-speckled district of Lozère, southeastern France, called Gévaudan. Their perpetrator became known as the Beast of Gévaudan, but more than two centuries of speculation have failed to stem the controversy regarding its precise identity. Just what was the Beast of Gévaudan? An animal? A man? Or something more?

Read: The Beast of Gévaudan – Wolf, Man…or Wolf-Man? »

After extensive research, I finally wrote my long-planned second dragons book – entitled Dragons in Zoology, Cryptozoology, and Culture – and saw it published in 2013 by Coachwhip Publications of Greenville, Ohio. It constitutes one of the most comprehensive dragon-themed factual books ever published, is sumptuously illustrated throughout in full colour, and very recently I was delighted to see not one but two positive, encouraging reviews of it.

Read: Reviewing Dragons in Zoology, Cryptozoology, and Culture »

Exclusive!! Here, making its official public debut, is the front cover for my latest, 22nd book, A Manifestation of Monsters, to be published in September.

Read: A Manifestation of Monsters »

One of the most spectacular members of the Eurasian Pleistocene megafauna was the Irish elk Megaloceros giganteus. Formally described in 1799, it is also aptly known as the giant deer, as its largest known representatives were only marginally under 7 ft tall at the shoulder and bore massive antlers spanning up to 12 ft, but did this magnificent species linger on into historic times?

Read: The Last of the Irish Elks? »

Everyone has heard of Nessie, the reputed monster of Loch Ness, but fewer people realise that mystery beasts of various forms have also been reported from a sizeable number of other mainland Scottish freshwater lochs. These include Lochs Arkaig, Assynt, Awe, Eil, Feith an Leothaid, Garten, Lochy, Lomond, Maree, Morar, Oich, Quoich. Shiel, and Treig.

Read: Lesser Nessies »

Mystery beasts come in all sizes and shapes, but in the case of globsters they are most famous not just for their great size but also for their conspicuous lack of any well-defined shape. Aptly named by American cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson in the early 1960s, globsters (also dubbed blobsters or blobs) are generally huge, amorphous masses of decomposing tissue, usually rubbery and covered in fibrous ‘hair’, lacking any recognisable body parts or skeleton, which are regularly washed ashore on beaches around the world.

Read: Globsters Abounding! »

In 1980, a very popular television series screened in the UK was Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, produced by Yorkshire TV, in which the renowned, eponymous science-fiction writer presented a wide range of unexplained phenomena. Four episodes in this series were devoted to cryptozoological subjects. One of these dealt with sea monsters, one with lake monsters, one with man-beasts, and one with a wide assortment of other mystery creatures – including giant snakes, the king cheetah, the New Guinea dragon, the mokele-mbembe, and the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf Thylacinus cycnocephalus.

Read: Marsupial Sabre-Tooths, Queensland Tigers, Blue Mountains Lions, and a Most Elusive Crypto-Cutting »

The term ‘reptoid’ is most closely associated with the reptilian category of extraterrestrial aliens, but it also has a much wider yet less familiar usage, having been applied to a number of extraordinary humanoid reptilian entities reported from modern-day North America and elsewhere. (c) Dr Karl Shuker – Dr Karl Shuker with figurine of the […]

Read: Coming to a Swamp Near You… Lizard Men, Frog Men, and Reptoids – Oh My! »

Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would have said if this had happened in Wonderland! Just when it seemed that the much-tangled tale of the ‘dead bigfoot photo’ was finally disentangled, another knot of controversy has duly presented itself.

Read: ‘Dead Bigfoot Photo’ Update – Hoaxed From a Hoax? »

Having now exposed as a photo-manipulated fake the (in)famous ‘dead bigfoot photo’, as well as purchasing on ebay’s USA site an example of the original vintage picture postcard of a dead bear that was used to create it, I thought that Cryptomundo viewers would be interested in seeing a ‘Before’ and ‘After’ comparison. So here it is…

Read: Bearly a Bigfoot – Sourcing the ‘Dead Bigfoot Photo’ »