The cryptozoological scientific art of Alex CF.
posted by homunculus on Feb 17, 2009 - 8 comments

In 1996 a man known only as "Bugs" rocked the cryptozoology world with the claim that during the 1970s he was part of a hunting party in the Texas panhandle that shot, killed & buried two adult Bigfoots. Bugs turned over a copy of his map to radio talk show host Art Bell & was never heard from again, despite pleas to step forward from prominent members of the Bigfoot community. All that changed a few days ago when somebody recognized Bugs's voice while listening to political muckraker Ed Hale's Internet radio show. Ed's current cause is uncovering documentary evidence that President-Elect Barack Obama is not a "natural born citizen" and therefore is ineligible for office. Currently Ed claims to be in possession of Obama's parents' divorce decree. Although Ed has not made an official comment on the matter, a commenter claiming to be Ed has posted a short defense that admits he was the infamous "Bugs". (via)
posted by scalefree on Jan 6, 2009 - 100 comments

Ferocious-looking mystery creature in Tahoe National Forest confirmed to be a California wolverine, thought to be extinct since 1922. A motion-detecting camera snapped a compelling photo behind the beast last month, and the California Department of Fish and Game just confirmed the discovery with a clear profile shot. Notably, both photos appear to show the same animal.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Mar 25, 2008 - 53 comments

Do you remember an old photo of a thunderbird/pterodactyl, nailed against a barn wall, with men standing in it for scale? So do many others (including myself). But since that photo has entirely disappeared, are we all victims of a form of mass hysteria? Or victims of a massive reality-altering conspiracy (ctrl-f for 'Birdzilla')?
posted by Kickstart70 on Nov 26, 2007 - 103 comments

There is a remote part of the Congolese jungle, called the Bili forest, where local legend has long told of a breed of giant apes that eat lions, catch fish and howl at the moon. To his surprise Dutch researcher Cleve Hicks found them. In fact they are large chimps but they appear to have a number of behavioural differences from other groups seen in the wild. (More information from Wikipedia).
posted by rongorongo on Jul 16, 2007 - 33 comments

Bigfoot? Meh. Real Pseudoscientists hunt the MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM! Watch out for its acid spit! And the electricity it shoots out of its eyeballs. Now, see Richard Freeman's tireless search for this mighty beast in "The Lair of the Red Worm". (Part 1)(Part 2) Flee for your lives!
posted by unreason on Jun 27, 2007 - 12 comments

Looking for a mermaid or chimera for your trophy room? Artist Sarina Brewer uses roadkill and discarded livestock to create unusual fashions, art and more. Links maybe nightmare fuel for sensitive readers.
posted by drezdn on Apr 26, 2007 - 14 comments

"This may very well be the single greatest biological discovery of our age" - rods, or skyfish, are the subject of a documentary by Jose Escamilla. While some are skeptical, Jose and others aren't dissuaded and Kozo Ichikawa claims to catch them bare-handed. Japanese TV reports, and USA's unit 13 investigates. Heres a guide to photographing them or filming, or buy an instructional video and rod-rod, known as a spoodle and try to catch some yourself.
posted by MetaMonkey on Oct 17, 2006 - 43 comments

The Museum of Fantastic Specimens is an online (virtual) museum of taxidermy specimens of imaginary creatures, all created by hand by Japanese artist Hajime Emoto. The museum itself can be difficult to navigate, as all the links are in Japanese, so the link in this post goes to an unrelated overview page in English.
posted by jonson on Jul 6, 2006 - 12 comments

"After our transparently bogus story and our impossibly shitty video appeared on the website... we received a flood of messages from big-shot bigfoot hunters who were dying to find out about [the] footage. Our plan was working." So, Penn and Teller faked the Sonoma bigfoot footage. But only the BFRO fell for it. Conveniently, they deleted the evidence of that. With so many sasquatch enthusiasts expressing doubt about the video when it was released, can our favorite Libertarian and mime really use it to prove that bigfoot is bullshit?
posted by kyleg on Apr 27, 2006 - 70 comments

The opening sequence of an X-files episode, or real life? There is a lot of Strange News on the internet, but I particularly like ones that could be the beginning of an X-files episode, potentially only the tip of an even stranger iceberg, yet are reliable and well documented, with photographs of the mysterious blob, or x-rays of strange events that the person in question can't shed light on. As a kid I once played in snow that, much like this, soon turned out to be silk, and similarly read urban-legend-like news articles of a home suddenly plagued by thousands of large poisonous spiders, coming up from underneath it, stumping experts as well for the species was never known to be anything but solitary. I assume that frequently, the explanation is found but never makes the news, leaving the mystery unresolved to the rest of us. Many, like Monkey-man attackers, baby zombies and strange killer grasshoppers have a death toll or leave scars, directly or indirectly. There are plenty of people trying to present themselves as real life x-files, but I'm more interested in well documented events which stand out as bizarre and creepy, without having any of that pushed upon them, and (with a bit of reckless imagination) hint at something bigger - preferably with photo goodness. You no doubt have links of your own. Why not share the better ones. (Or even make up a brief x-file-like mystery around a weird link, then post the link as if to show the story really happened :-)
posted by -harlequin- on Jul 31, 2005 - 14 comments

Loch Ness Tooth • "In March (2005) my roommate and I went to the U.K and spent our last two days at Loch Ness. The boat rental season hadn’t started so we hired a local who took us on a private boat tour. After a few hours we came across the remains of a dead deer. The animal had literally been ripped in half - hind quarters gone, its spine was broken and severed. There were huge bloody gashes, teeth marks and a bizarre bony protrusion sticking out of an exposed rib. It was a tooth - about 4 inches long, barbed and very sharp!"
posted by dhoyt on Jul 14, 2005 - 50 comments

Ogopogo is Canada's most famous water monster. This bashful monster (Win Media clip) resides in British Columbia's Lake Okanagan and recorded sightings date back as far as 1872. If you're thinking about heading out to Lake Okanagan to try and catch a glimpse (Windows Media clip) of Ogopogo for yourself, remember these helpful tips.
posted by debralee on May 2, 2005 - 10 comments

Screw bigfoot. Researchers at Cornell say they have found the ivory-bill.

[K]nown as an ornithologist's "Holy Grail," [r]esearchers from Cornell University, along with others, reportedly have found the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas, a rare bird that was last seen in the United States in the 1940s and was believed to have become extinct.

More on the story here. A digression into the legend here.
posted by piskycritter on Apr 28, 2005 - 34 comments

Bigfoot Field Researchers' Organisation.
posted by plep on Oct 22, 2004 - 1 comment

Extinct animals action figures - get yours and make them fight. Recreate the famous battles of Dodo vs. Caribbean Monk Seal, or Little Swan Island Hutia vs. the Balinese Tiger.
posted by milovoo on Oct 1, 2004 - 6 comments

It's a jackelope! Or maybe an antefeline! Or perhaps a lupursa or... heck, I don't know what this strange creature wandering Bill and Gayle Kurdian's back yard is, and neither does the curator of the North Carolina Zoo.
posted by headspace on Jun 3, 2004 - 40 comments

A Cautionary Tale: DNA Analysis of Alleged Extraterrestrial Biological Material: Anatomy of a Molecular Forensic Investigation .pdf file
::From The National Institute for Discovery Science via The Daily Grail::
[more inside]
posted by anastasiav on Sep 24, 2003 - 7 comments

Cryptids Cryptids Cryptids Cryptids Cryptids Cryptids Cryptids FUNGI FUNGI !
posted by moonbird on Sep 15, 2003 - 6 comments

Strange creature found in Chile Article points to Babelfish translation. Original article here (in Spanish). Anyone have any idea what this is?
posted by oissubke on Nov 2, 2002 - 43 comments

What's scarier than a cloned dinosaur? Part 2
Answer: Dinosaurs that never died out.
posted by thirteen on Sep 24, 2000 - 6 comments