Sea Serpent
Graphic Source: Public Domain

Cryptozoology, just the word conjures up strange and maybe mythical animals. Webster's online dictionary defines the word as the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence. Ivan T. Sanderson was a Scottish explorer and adventurer and it is said that he created this term. Many people credit it to Bernard Heuvelmans, but he has said that it was really Sanderson who first coined it. The term is relatively new, since Sanderson lived until 1973. Many biologists do not recognize cryptozoology as a science, because it relies on sightings and we all know how sightings are sometimes ridiculed. Just the tinge of ridicule is enough to keep most scientists away from any field. In almost every scientific endeavor, if one goes too far to the fringe, they become an outcast. Cryptozoology is one of the few places where you can say what you feel about different species of animals and postulate if some of those animals that were referred to in myths, actually lived. When local legends are analyzed it sometimes leads to the discovery of very exotic animals. Examples of these are the Komodo Dragon, Onza and Mountain Gorillas. We still might not know that these animals existed, if scientists didn't investigate the tales.

All a Cryptozoologist has to do is mention bigfoot and that's the end of his discussion with any accredited biologist, for that matter most people that hear him will run away. So what are some of the things that the Cryptozoologists believe? Well I certainly can't speak for all of them, but there are some that believe that there might still be dinosaurs alive, in isolated parts of this planet. Can you imagine what it might be like to discover a dinosaur in some hidden valley in South America or Africa? They might have changed somewhat from the dinosaurs that we have come to know and love. Since they were believed to have died out hundreds of millions of years ago, they might have developed into completely different looking animals. An example of this might be that some animals developed long necks to reach the tops of trees because that is where their food came from, but what if the food source changed over millions of years and they went from being herbivores to carnivores? Their necks might have shrunk and their teeth might have developed more and even their jaws might have become more powerful. Hey, we are talking about a long time here.

In 2004 the first photograph of a giant squid was taken. Previously if anyone had suggested to a scientist that wasn't a Cryptozoologist that it existed, they would have been laughed off the planet. Our Cryptozoologist friends however, keep an open mind. They are of the opinion that you just can't discount something because it sounds strange or because it might be described in a fairytale. Right now some Cryptozoologists are keeping their eyes open for a giant man eating bird. Yes it does sound strange and the bird would have to be mighty big, but impossible? What do you think? I guess you could say the credo of the Cryptozoologist is that nothing is impossible. I like that, it fits into the way that I feel about things. Did you know that the Gorilla was considered to be a mythical animal? They were describes as hairy wild men and were thought to be a myth, even in the late 1800s. I guess the good old boys had a great laugh when someone would bring up a story about a person seeing one of these things. Little did anyone know back then that there was an animal that resembled man so closely. Imagine if they found out that you could even teach them sign language like *Koko the Gorilla.

Unknown Sea Creature Living In A Hot Water Vent
Photo Source: NOAAPMEL Vents Program NeMO Project

It is very hard to pursue an animal like Bigfoot, because of the ridicule factor. The truth of the matter is that it just might exist. Sure there are a lot of scams connected with it, but one has to remember that it has been sighted in many different parts of the world and there are many witnesses. It just might turn out to be a creature that is even more advanced than the Gorilla, being somewhere between that animal and man on the evolutionary scale. Here is a question for you, if a Bigfoot is ever found and it is more intelligent than a Gorilla, will it be considered an animal or some lower species of man? If we find a Bigfoot, then is there a chance that an even more advanced creature is out there? And now for the $64,000 question, could we possibly ever find another species of human somewhere on this planet? Maybe the Neanderthals didn't become completely extinct and a small pocket of them are still living in some isolated area on some island that was never explored? Yes I know this is sheer speculation, but its fun, isn't it?

We have to realize that new species of animals are being discovered all of the time. There doesn't seem to be an end to this. One of the problems with discovering new species of animals, is that one creature may not mean that an undiscovered species exists. The creature must be carefully examined to make sure that it isn't just a freak of nature and one of a kind. The Associated Press reported on a strange creature in 2006. They said that it was found in Maine, weighed between 40 and 50 pounds, had a short snout, short ears and curled fangs hanging over its lips. It was found because it had become road kill. The modern automobile had eliminated a creature that could have had a lineage of millions of years. Stories had grown up around either this creature or others like it. One man described the poor beast as evil and bad smelling. The body of the animal was examined by a cryptozoologist and thought to be a feral dog. So what exactly is a feral dog? It is a dog that was once a domestic animal and escaped to live a wild life. I wonder how this explains its strange description?

Dinosaur
Photo Source: Stock.xchng

Like adventure? If so, you could go into the Gobi desert and search for the Mongolian Death Worm. In 2006 a group of Cryptozoologists did just that. The worm is described as a fat, bright red worm that is two to four feet long. It is called Allghoi Khorkhoi by the locals and means blood filled intestine worm. Sounds really nice doesn't it? Supposedly it can squirt some sort of poison that can kill a human immediately on contact. Not only that, but it is said that it can kill you from a distance with an electrical discharge. This has to be the most lethal worm in the history of the world, if it is found to exist. Needless to say, that right now, it is still a myth thank goodness. I can just see it now, the military gets hold of this creature and starts to breed thousands of them to drop on the enemy. Yep that is what we do folks. The last expedition that looked for these worms was in 2007. Can't you just picture someone holding up one of these things and saying, look what I ..ugh, collapse!

A really strange animal was found by Russian soldiers on the Sakhalin shoreline. This is an area that is near Japan. It is the most eastern part of Russia. At first it was thought to be some kind of fish, but the skeleton disproved this. It was also thought to be a reptile, like a crocodile or alligator, but on further examination it was discovered that it has a hairy skin or fur. There are photos of it at http://englishrussia.com/?p=251 just **copy and paste this link into your browser to see them. There are just so many weird animals on this earth. I'd like to finish up this article by talking about a few oddities. The first one is the bone eating Snot Flower. No I am not kidding, there really is an animal named this. Yes I said animal. The Snot Flower is actually a worm that looks like a flower. It is newly discovered. It lives in the bones of dead whales in the North Sea. Here is an unusual fact, the North Sea is one of the most studied seas in the world, yet it yielded this newly discovered creature. In U.S. waters, off the California coast, there is a zombie worms that also lives in dead whales. The difference between the two, as far as living conditions go, is that the Zombie lives about 2,500 meters under the water and the Snot Flower lives in shallow water. This has been giving scientists a headache, as they try and figure out why?

Lastly, many new animals are being discovered that live in caves. It has been estimated that about 90% of all animals that live in caves are still undiscovered. I love to hear things like this, it makes me wonder how you can get figures for things that you don't know exist? Anyway, there are a lot of new animals being found down there. One new animal is a type of daddy long legs with jaws that are bigger than its body, ouch! Another is a scorpion that is transparent with visible organs. A florescent orange spider has also been found. Be friendly to your local Cryptozoologist, he just might be the person that discovers that dragons actually existed.

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