Karl’s Kritter: Pliciloricus shukeri

Dr. Karl P. N. Shuker is a zoologist with a lifelong interest in cryptozoology and other animal-related anomalies. He studied zoology at the University of Leeds and obtained a Ph.D. in zoology and comparative physiology at the University of Birmingham. Due to the complications of a life that could have been hindered by a chronic form of diabetes, Shuker has continued on with his interest and passion for new animals through the written word and his documentary appearances in a dynamic fashion.

Shuker has now been honored for his efforts with the naming of a new animal – or as the Fortean Times mentions in their dispatch, “Shuker’s Microscopic Namesake,” a very, very small one.

As FT notes: “The bestower of this rare honour is Prof. Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen – discoverer of the lorciferans, an entirely new phyla of microscopic multicellular animals – who has christened one of them Pliciloricus shukeri (pictured above top).”

The exact citation for Karl Shuker’s namesake, the bibliographical reference to the paper in which its description appears is as follows: Iben Heiner and Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen. 2005. “Two new species of the genus Pliciloricus (Loricifera, Pliciloricidae) from the Faroe Bank, North Atlantic.” Zoologischer Anzeiger, vol.243, no.3. pp121-138.

Outstanding! What an honor for Karl and cryptozoology to be recognized in this fashion.

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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