Cryptomundo
for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and More

To misquote Oscar Wilde: To lose one white eagle may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness. In the annals of ornithology, only two types of white eagle have been reported – one in Europe, and one in North America. Both, however, are long vanished, not only from our planet but […]

Read: Whither the Lost White Eagles of Europe and America? »

Some zoological photographs are so bizarre that long after they first hit the news headlines, they still continue to circulate online, like restless ghosts doomed to wander forever down the highways and byways of the worldwide web, resisting all attempts to expose them as hoaxes or explain them as grotesque yet nonetheless natural phenomena. One […]

Read: Wrong-Footing A One-Legged Mystery Snake From China »

The longest species of praying mantis currently known to science is the giant stick mantis Ischnomantis gigas. Brown in colour, enabling it to blend in with the bushes upon which it lives and lies in wait for unwary prey to approach, this mighty mantid is native to Senegal, southern Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, northern Nigeria, […]

Read: Did I See an Undescribed Species of Giant Praying Mantis in South Africa? »

Colugos must surely be among the most bizarre yet bewitching of all mammals. Native to the tropical forests of southeast Asia, most famous for the extensive gliding membrane (patagium) connecting their limbs, tail, and even the digits of their paws, and as big as a medium-sized possum or very large squirrel, the two modern-day species […]

Read: When Flying Cats Were Flying Lemurs »

As so often happens during my cryptozoological researches, while seeking something entirely different while browsing online this morning I came upon a remarkable engraving that may have some bearing upon the speckled mystery cat saga.

Albertus Seba (1665-1736), a Dutch pharmacist by trade but inflamed by an unquenchable passion for collecting zoological specimens, was so successful financially in his work that he was able to assemble not one but two truly spectacular, prodigious collections of unprecedented size and scope that gained international acclaim.

Read: Albertus Seba and a Pair of Speckle-coated Mystery Big Cats from the 1750s »

Jardine’s enigmatic 19th-Century illustration of a putative speckle-coated jaguar

Read: Anomalous Jaguars and Other Speckled Mystery Cats From South America »

Of all of my 20 books, none has attracted such acclaim but also such controversy as In Search of Prehistoric Survivors. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of its original publication in 1995, and having received countless requests from readers over the years for its republication (after having been out of print for a number of years now), I am happy to say that following a protracted period of time doing the rounds of prospective publishers, it was accepted for publication just over a year ago, and I am working upon it with a view to its achieving a timely 2015 reappearance.

Read: In Search of Prehistoric Survivors »

Nessie and family ((c) Richard Svensson)

What do Cannock Chase, Renwick, Exmoor, Drummans, Falmouth Bay, and Bala Lake all have in common? If I added Loch Ness to the list, I’m sure that you’d guess much more readily. Yes indeed, they are all locations in Britain linked to sightings of mystery creatures.

Read: My Top 10 Cryptozoological Locations in Britain »

In various of my books, magazine articles, and ShukerNature blog posts, I have documented a number of mystery birds that have appeared in paintings by famous artists and which may conceivably represent lost species undescribed by science. In recent times, several additional examples have come to my attention, but perhaps the most significant of these is the following one, which may feature a hitherto-unrecognised depiction of a long-extinct bird officially known only from a single verbal description.

Read: Dominica’s Dead Parrot – A Perfect Picture of Mystery? »

When it debuted in his classic tome In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents (1968), Dr Bernard Heuvelmans’s bold classification of sea serpents into no less than nine well-defined types was widely hailed within the cryptozoological community as a milestone in cryptid research, and it is still widely referred to today. However, the validity of certain […]

Read: Contemplating the Con Rit »

Anyway, on to Mothman. Not.

Read: “Creepy, Strange Bird found in Venezuela: Mothman?” »

Facebook never disappoints me as a rich source of the exceedingly weird but also very wonderful when it comes to the animal world, and yesterday was no exception. During its early hours, I was browsing the recent posts of various FB friends when I came upon a quartet of photographs depicting a truly remarkable- (and […]

Read: Portraits of a Potoo – Neither an Avian Alien Nor the Bird From Hell! »

By definition, no-one has ever seen such a creature, because if they have done, it can’t have been invisible – or can it?

Read: Look Out For The Invisible Catfish! »

The internet is the natural home of some very unnatural creatures – fakes, frauds, and the falsely identified. Many of them attract only fleeting, transient attention before being soundly exposed and permanently discredited. However, there is also a hardcore set whose members simply refuse to die – being revived time and time again by unsuspecting […]

Read: Exposing Online Fakes and Frauds of the Cryptozoological Kind »

According to a number of Sherlockian scholars, today, 6 January, is Sherlock Holmes’s birthday – so it seemed a very appropriate day upon which to present the following ShukerNature investigation concerning one of Holmes’s most deadly, non-human opponents – the Speckled Band.   (c) Tim Morris During his numerous cases, the famous if fictitious consulting […]

Read: Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band – An Unknown Species of Reptile? »