Strange Brazilian Creature

Scott Corrales has sent to Cryptomundo the photographs you see here, labeled "Strange Brazilian Creature," with this following message:

These images were just forwarded to me from Spain regarding (and I quote): "a strange creature found by the Servicio de Aguas (Water Authority) of the town of Sorcaba, Brasil. It was taken to a biologist at the zoo (no name given) was was stunned and believed it to be a mutation of a smaller creature."

The giant isopods are crustaceans in the genus Brahynomus. They were first described to science in 1879, and are related to pill bugs and wood lice. They are unusual but otherwise commonly known within marine biology.

Update – The above material is someone attempting to pull off a hoax or joke.

From: Clanders99
Sent: Sun 8/27/2006 5:58 PM
Subject: Strange Brazilian Creature

I enjoy your web site. I just thought I’d drop a line on the "Strange Brazilian Creature." It was identified in Brazil as a hoax some time ago.

(Incidentally, the city is spelled Sorocaba, not Sorcaba). I apologize in advance for errors, but here’s my best attempt to translate the article:

Giant Tatui, the Mutant of Sorocaba [Tatui is the Brazilian name for a small crustacean, Emerita brasiliensis]

Many people were worried about the "dog with the human face" [this was another hoax] and the giant skeleton of a "giant tatui," called the "mutant of Sorocaba." The world is lost! Is it a sign of the end times, the thing that many people have been waiting for?

The creature is, in fact, exquisite, but comparing the size of the pen with the size of the animal, it’s not as large as the 60 centimeters claimed for it.

In material entitled Hoax E-mail Deceives Ufologist, the electronic periodical Southern Cross of Sorocaba – SP informs us that this is not a mutant. Where was the animal found? In the Basin de Campos, in Rio de Janeiro, by a company prospecting for oil.

Still according to Southern Cross, "The biologist of the Quinzinho de Barros", Cecilia Pessutis, contradicted the rumor, but the e-mail had already deceived other people.

JB Online says that the animal "was found by the ROV (robotP of Petrobras at a depth of 1,680 meters, in the Basin de Campos, and it is not an armadillo, but a bathynomus, an isopod. A tatui is a decapod.

It is clear that it is simply a bathynomus and not a multipede deapodus. The concerns are baseless.

In March of 2005 the runaway bathynomus would have travelled almost 100 kilometers that separate Sorocoba from Sao Paulo. Mixing cities and abilities, the author of the e-mail message was mixed up.

The strange creature was encountered by and killed by an employee of the SAAE, who when entering a manhole for maintenance, had his leg bitten by the animal. The animal measures approximately 60 centimeters and weighs 5 kilograms and was sent for study at the Quirizinho Zoo of Barros.

The biologist who received the animal at the zoo was surprised and said that, with certainty, it is a species unknown to science, or else a genetic mutation of a smaller animal. The employee was bitten three times in the leg and is already back to work.

The spreading by means of e-mail of news of the capture of a strange animal in Sorocaba, that bit an employee of the SAAE inside a sewer, aroused the interest of the curious and also of a ufologist on Friday [the article is dated July 4, 2004]. The trick had already circulated on the Internet in some parts of the country. In Sorocaba, the information was given out that the creature had been taken to the zoo "Quinzinho de Barros." The e-mail informed that the animal, with the appearance of a giant crustacean, was 60 centimeters in length and weighed about 5 kilograms. It was killed by the employee of the SAAE. To develop the story, it said that the "victim" of the attack received three bites in the leg. The biologist at the "Quinzinho de Barros" denied the rumor, but she stated that the e-mail had already deceived other people. She commented that she had even received a phone call from a ufologist of Sao Paulo, who was interested in the alleged find.

The origin of the animal shown in the photo is controversial. But what already is known is that it is of a marine animal found in a hollow in the Basin De Campos, in Rio de Janeiro, by a company prospecting for oil. Taking advantage of the curious image, Internet users started to use it as a test of people’s gullibility.

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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