Cryptozoology

[Yahilles]

I'm starting this thread just out of curiosity, if some of you believe in bigfoots, african dinosaurs, chupacabras and the rest.
For some people it may sound obvious, but for example, year ago i got amazed seeing on polish exotics forum, how many people were creationists - till that day i was pretty sure it's obvious that people interested in animals are looking from the "science point" at those things, so i wonder if on this worldwide forum are only people believing or not believing in "unseen animals".
I personally not believe cause i don't see any real proofs, though i like to read articles about tyrannosaurus hunting rhinos in Congo, it's just a joy for me, it's kinda like i want to believe in things that don't make sense for me.
Today i discussed with my buddy about bigfoots, he said it's "just a big ape with bigger brain, making it so intelligent that it's hiding well, that we can't find it" :lol:
What do you think about that? Maybe we have some caudata-maniac who have seen a bigfoot?

 

[Shizeric]

I, for one, do not believe in any of those...until I see proof, I will not believe that big foot, the loch ness monster, doctors, the chupa cabra, or any of those mythical beasts exist.

 

[dragonlady]

Seems to me that if these things were really out there, with all this technology, somebody would have a clear picture, not some fuzzy, far off shot where you think there's a shape or something shadowy there, but nothing definite. As soon as someone does show up with sonars, radars, etc. poof ...nothing there.

I mean seriously, new ones are coming out of the woodwork all the time! Why, just yesterday I heard about a strange sighting in the Connecticut River....something about a 22 ft long axolotl...heard there's even a photo and everything! Well, you know, most likely this will turn out to be yet another altered photo!

 

[Shizeric]

I heard about a strange sighting in the Connecticut River....something about a 22 ft long axolotl...heard there's even a photo and everything! Well, you know, most likely this will turn out to be yet another altered photo!

It's definitely real. I can even get more pictures to prove it.

 

[Yahilles]

Please show them up! That's always interesting!
edit:
http://www.mainstreetmuseum.org/wiki/index.php?title=Connecticut_River_Monster
I wonder who is so clever to name subspecies of animal which, we could say, not surely exists?

 

[jake96]

Well there could be unknown of animals in the world. A new one that recently came up is a monitor lizard discovered in the Philippines which was caught in a local hunters trap. And also the komodo dragon was considered a cryptid till 1910

 

[Otterwoman]

The more I keep hearing about weird new hominids being discovered, and co-existing with other ancient hominids...sometimes I think a branch might have survived...like a bigfoot. But I don't actually believe in anything!

 

[Mac Myers]

I look at everything from a Science driven perspective.
I'll buy the Bigfoot (and Elvis) sightings when I see one. Or some real evidence of one.

 

[Ltdanicecream]

Its not just America. Not saying I beleive but I didn't like that "redneck-monkeysuit-gun-crazy" jab. Even though it does describe a few of the people I've seen saying they've seen bigfoots (bigfeet?)

But if you think about it, where's the species between us and chimps? I know our DNA is like 98 percent alike, but where's the 99 percenter? Primitive man (or bigfoot) probally moved up from Africa, into the middle east, asia, europe, and north america in that order. Which is why you see bigfoot sightings in Asia and North America mostly. This is just one of the theories I've had while daydreaming in Math class, hah.

 

[Mac Myers]

Chimps and Humans evolved from a common ancestor. Chimps are not lesser evolved Humans. There is no "in between" species requirement.

 

[Shizeric]

There is no "in between" species requirement.

You might change your mind if you ever met my brother.

 

[Mac Myers]

Ha! Touché.

 

[Morm]

I'm a paleontologist. As someone studying extinct animals and evolutionary relationships using morphology, I can say two things about cryptozoology:

1. It's silly. People who go out thinking bigfoot exists because they saw a thing on Discovery Channel but have no evidence need to grow up...I understand it's fun, and that has a place like ghost hunting, but when people take it too far it's quite pathetic.

2. It has a place, if done CORRECTLY. Look at Rhacodactylus ciliatus or various other "extinct" animals that weren't. Look at the world's largest species of gecko, I can't remember the name, that was hunted to extinction but now resides as a single specimen in the bowels of a museum (was tracked down based on rumor alone). If you apply the scientific process to cryptozoology, it absolutely has applications. If you think sauropods live in Kenya or the loch ness monster actually exists after all the research being done on it, you're doing something wrong.

 

[Otterwoman]

But if someone described some of the weird things they're finding in the sea, and you didn't know they were real, you would think that person was a kook.
Hmmmmmmmmm?

Oh, and
http://whatsthecrack.net/Real-Life-Sea-Monsters---24-Bizarre-Creatures-of-the-Deep

 

[Morm]

If you apply scientific method appropriately, you won't be called crazy at all. It's all about repeatability of the claim and methods. If it's done correctly, you can go back to the primary literature and appropriately go looking for it yourself using their methods. It's sensationalist things like the email that circulated about the Tsunami dredging up all sorts of strange animals, or untrained people jumping to speculative conclusions, that makes cryptozoology the joke that it is. The presence of strange looking animals in no way counters what I said; infact, it reinforces the opinion I have that cryptozoology can be good when done correctly.

 

[Mac Myers]

There is also... from a strictly observational standpoint.... a somewhat "expansive" difference between previously unobserved sea life well photographed and an 8 foot Hairy man-ape-thingy running around a picnic campsite or a K-mart Parking lot and filmed with a poorly made shoe-box pinhole camera wielded by a drunken Abraham Zapruder.

 

[lea]

here in down under we have our very own mytical beast......wait for it.......the Yowie.....and it lives near kilcoy (which is a small country town) about 2 hours from north of brisbane and even tho there hasnt been any sightings in recent years, there is a "australian yowie research (AYR)" they work full time and are a self funded org. (i know what you are all saying......)the local town of kilcoy has even got involved and the servo(petrol station) sells yowie burgers and a yowie donger(i dont think i would drink a drink named that myself)....
lea

 

[Yahilles]

I checked the Yowie article on polish wikipedia, one made me laughing:

Second theory says, that they're degenerated descendants of british prisoners, who escaped their prisons in XVIII century

 

[pete]

To give this thread a caudate spin... Who's ever heard of the Trinity Alps Giant Salamander?

I came across some references to this when I was reading old 1920 articles on Dicamptodons.

Edit: Here's a better link, because it refers to some of the old journal articles I came across. http://www.unknownexplorers.com/giantsalamander.php

 

[Yahilles]

Alligator-sized salamander? I'd love to see them!