Posted by: Karl Shuker on September 1st, 2013
Sea monsters can be very deceiving, even when dead. It is well known that the decomposing carcase of a beached basking shark often transforms very dramatically, and deceptively, to yield what on first sight looks remarkably like a long-necked, four-flippered, slender-tailed, hairy plesiosaur-like creature. This is the so-called pseudo-plesiosaur effect. Similarly, when a sperm whale […]
Posted by: Karl Shuker on August 25th, 2013
As comprehensively documented in my latest book, Mirabilis: A Carnival of Cryptozoology and Unnatural History (2013), crocodilian mystery beasts come in all shapes and sizes and are of worldwide distribution. Yet few, surely, can be stranger than the giant limbless version reported from southern Asia as recently as 1980.
Read: Legless In Nepal – A Limbless Himalayan Crocodile Dragon? »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on August 19th, 2013
Black lions and black pumas (aka cougars, mountain lions) are two of the three most controversial melanistic mystery cats, which I have blogged about in previous articles. Now, to complete this trio of ebony enigmas of the feline kind, here is my investigation of its third member – the black tiger. By this, I am […]
Read: The Black Tiger – A Veritable Bête Noire of Mystery Cats »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on August 15th, 2013
Isn’t it amazing what you can uncover on clip-art sites? While browsing through various of these a couple of nights ago in search of some public-domain animal images for various future writing projects, I came upon a remarkable 19th-Century engraving that was labelled as an indri, but what was so intriguing and unexpected about it was that it was almost entirely black.
Read: The Black Indri – Reviving Another Melanistic Mystery Beast »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on August 13th, 2013
Welcome to a carnival unlike anything that you have ever read about, visited, or even imagined before. Here, before your very eyes, you will encounter bizarre, anomalous creatures of every conceivable (and inconceivable!) kind-a veritable menagerie of cryptozoological mysteries to dazzle and delight, tantalize and terrify. For this is Mirabilis-a realm of marvels, wonders, miracles…and monsters!
Read: It’s Here, Mirabilis! »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on August 12th, 2013
Largest of today’s living tapir species, and the only one that is native to the Old World, the Malayan tapir Tapirus indicus is further distinguished by its striking ‘saddle’ of white, encompassing much of its torso and haunches. In total contrast, its four New World relatives are all uniformly dark. Naturally, therefore, zoologists were nonplussed when one of the adult Malayan tapirs sent to Rotterdam Zoo in spring 1924 from Sumatra proved to be entirely black, with no saddle.
Read: Brevet’s Black Malayan Tapir – A Forgotten Asian Mystery Beast Resurrected »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on August 4th, 2013
The famous Greek legend featuring Heracles and the dreaded Stymphalian birds. A non-existent forest raven native to the lofty peaks of the Swiss Alps. The epic biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood. What conceivable connection could exist between such ostensibly disparate subjects as these?
Read: Stymphalian Birds, Forest Ravens, and Hermit Ibises – Dreams of a Feathered Geronticus »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on July 29th, 2013
Tim gave me a copy of a most interesting Nessie sighting that an eyewitness had recently sent to him. He didn’t provide me with the eyewitness’s name, because he no doubt intended to publish an exclusive report of it in some future publication.
Posted by: Karl Shuker on July 19th, 2013
The discovery of supposedly blood-drained animal carcases hit the cryptozoology headlines with monotonous frequency (I noticed yet another one being discussed online just a few days ago), accompanied by the usual (and sometimes decidedly unusual) media speculation as to what diabolical entity could have been responsible for such a hideous, unnatural act. In reality, of […]
Read: Why Blood-Drained Carcases are NOT the Work of Chupacabras or Other Supposedly Vampiric Cryptids »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on July 15th, 2013
Today, the classic, pre-eminent image indelibly engrained in everyone’s mind when speaking of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster (LNM), is that of a plesiosaur lookalike, complete with long slender neck and tail, small head, and four large diamond-shaped flippers. However, this was not always the case.
Read: Does the Loch Ness Monster Have a Split Personality? »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on July 4th, 2013
It is widely known that many remarkable species of animal have become extinct or at least highly endangered in modern times. However, it is far less well known that during this same time period, a startling number of equally spectacular species have been newly discovered (having been previously unknown to science) or rediscovered (after having […]
Read: My Top Ten New and Rediscovered Animals of Modern Times »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on June 29th, 2013
One of New Zealand’s most iconic species of bird was the huia, famed for the male and female possessing beaks of dramatically different shapes. It officially became extinct in 1907 – but did it? “The huia’s morphology is unique. No other bird in New Zealand, whether native or introduced, can be readily confused with it […]
Read: Remembering the Huia – Mysteries of New Zealand’s Extinct(?) Bird With Two Beaks »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on June 8th, 2013
Down through the centuries, several remarkable, unique species of mammal have become extinct on various West Indian islands in the Caribbean. One of these was a truly mysterious monkey, which may have survived into much more recent times than currently confirmed by science. “Today, some monkey species inhabit Jamaica, but none of them is native; […]
Posted by: Karl Shuker on June 4th, 2013
Many different hybrids between the smaller species of wild cat have been recorded over the years, but I would like to mention one particular interspecific (indeed, intergeneric) cross featuring smaller cats here – because, as far as I am aware, when I originally included details of it in the article of mine (Wild About Animals, […]
Read: A Surprise of Servicals »
Posted by: Karl Shuker on June 1st, 2013
Following Animal Planet‘s mermaid ‘mock-umentary‘, here are some cases of supposed merbeings that do remain intriguing and unsolved: Further details can be obtained here on my ShukerNature blog.
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