I'm not a very big believer in the field (hidden zoology), but there are people that are... like an old friend of mine I haven't spoken to in years, Robert Visser.
Anyway, it covers things like Bigfoot (Sasquatch, Yeti, Skunkape, etc.), the Loch Ness Monster, as well as looking for specimens of supposedly extinct species like the dodo.
And if anybody wants some links:
www.pibburns.com/cryptozo.htm
Cryptozoology
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I suppose it all depends how you define it really. It's pretty clear that even today, the world holds many animal species, (and far, far more plant and fish species) that remain unknown, and every now and then some excited zoologist or botanist or icthyologist stumbles across one.
I'm not particularly convinced that things like the Yeti are around, and even less that things like the dodo are not actually extinct, but with a narrower definition, I guess it could be a discipline that has value.
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I'm not particularly convinced that things like the Yeti are around, and even less that things like the dodo are not actually extinct, but with a narrower definition, I guess it could be a discipline that has value.
--Avatar
Oh! I read a fascinating book on sea serpents while in college. Written by zoologist, it compiled all kinds of reports of different sea monsters then tried to organize them. Many he discounted as hoaxes or misunderstandings (one in particular he made the case for being a wounded blue whale). But from the others he made a series of predictions about unknown sea animals.
Interestingly, he assumed most would be some form of cetacean--the equivalent of huge seals with long necks, etc.
I hope he's proven right. That would just be soooooo cool!
Interestingly, he assumed most would be some form of cetacean--the equivalent of huge seals with long necks, etc.
I hope he's proven right. That would just be soooooo cool!
"O let my name be in the Book of Love!
It be there, I care not of the other great book Above.
Strike it out! Or, write it in anew. But
Let my name be in the Book of Love!" --Omar Khayam
It be there, I care not of the other great book Above.
Strike it out! Or, write it in anew. But
Let my name be in the Book of Love!" --Omar Khayam
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Prebe
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It is a well supported theory, that we know no more than at best 50% of the different organisms on the planet. But I suppose that cryptozoology only deal with organisms that - as Zahir puts it - are "Cool".
The funny thing is, that when someone finds a new plant, bacteria or insect everybody just go "Well Duh!".
A good example was two years ago, when botanists found living representatives of a primitive palm tree, thought to have been extinct since the cretaceous period. It made it into "Nature" and "Science", but never hit the mainstream news. But If that had been a dino, Oh boy!
The funny thing is, that when someone finds a new plant, bacteria or insect everybody just go "Well Duh!".
A good example was two years ago, when botanists found living representatives of a primitive palm tree, thought to have been extinct since the cretaceous period. It made it into "Nature" and "Science", but never hit the mainstream news. But If that had been a dino, Oh boy!
"I would have gone to the thesaurus for a more erudite word."
-Hashi Lebwohl
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www.monstrous.com
Has a great database of pretty much everything.... Cryptids, vamps, weres, faeries, etc., etc. Awesome site.
don't care too much for Big Foot, but Nessy is one of those things that endlessly facinates.
Has a great database of pretty much everything.... Cryptids, vamps, weres, faeries, etc., etc. Awesome site.
don't care too much for Big Foot, but Nessy is one of those things that endlessly facinates.
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High Lord Tolkien
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It was a squid, prebe.
I love the following story.
It's like a giant organic time capsule!
I know they expect to find no life beyond microbes but what if there are frozen animals down there too amid the surrounding ice?
Animals preserved from thousands or even millions of years ago.
My imagination is running wild!
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2581485.stm
A five-kilometre-long ice-sealed super-concentrated saltwater lake has been discovered by scientists working in Antarctica.
This is beyond what scientists thought a few decades ago
Dominic Hodgson, Bas
Researchers uncovered the extreme lake, called Lake Vida, along with 2,800-year-old microbes, under 19 metres of ice.
Because the body of water has been cut off from the rest of the world for millennia, the scientists say it could represent a previously unknown type of ecosystem.
This might make it an important template for the search for evidence of microbial life on other worlds, including Mars, they argue.
Frozen lakes
It had been thought Lake Vida was one of several Antarctic lakes that are frozen to their beds all year-round. But this new research shows otherwise.
A team of US scientists extracted two ice cores above Lake Vida, which lies in a cold desert region of Antarctica known as the McMurdo Dry Valleys.
They also used ground-penetrating radar to find liquid water below the lake's ice cap.
The water remains liquid because it is seven times saltier than seawater and so will not freeze even at minus 10 Celsius - the temperature below the ice cover.
The team did not drill directly into the lake for fear of contaminating it.
Ancient DNA
Using radiocarbon dating, the scientists analysed sediments found in the ice cores and dated them back 2,800 years.
When the sediments were thawed, the scientists discovered micro-organisms which they successfully revived.
This suggests that despite a complete lack of light, cold temperatures and hyper salinity, the lake itself may also contain life.
John Priscu, from Montana Sate University, was one of the researchers who extracted the cores.
He said: "The ice cover of these lakes represents an oasis for life in an environment previously thought to be inhospitable.
"Importantly, the cold temperature preserves DNA extremely well making them perfect 'ice museums' for the study of ancient DNA."
Red Planet
This research could help scientists find out more about possible life in Lake Vostok, the largest of over 70 sub-glacial lakes on the White Continent, which lies more than four km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Commenting on the latest findings, Dr Dominic Hodgson, an Antarctic lakes expert from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) in Cambridge, said the research raised the possibility that there was life on Mars.
He told BBC News Online: "Life can be locked up in ice for many thousands of years and cells can survive these low temperatures, and once conditions are right they snap out of their frozen states and start photosynthesising again.
"This is beyond what scientists thought a few decades ago."
Peter Doran, a co-researcher on the project from the University of Illinois at Chicago, said: "Mars is believed to have a water-rich past, and if life developed, a Lake Vida-type ecosystem may have been the final niche for life on Mars before the water bodies froze solid."
The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada; Nasa's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California; and Montana State University in Bozeman.
It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I love the following story.
It's like a giant organic time capsule!
I know they expect to find no life beyond microbes but what if there are frozen animals down there too amid the surrounding ice?
Animals preserved from thousands or even millions of years ago.
My imagination is running wild!
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2581485.stm
A five-kilometre-long ice-sealed super-concentrated saltwater lake has been discovered by scientists working in Antarctica.
This is beyond what scientists thought a few decades ago
Dominic Hodgson, Bas
Researchers uncovered the extreme lake, called Lake Vida, along with 2,800-year-old microbes, under 19 metres of ice.
Because the body of water has been cut off from the rest of the world for millennia, the scientists say it could represent a previously unknown type of ecosystem.
This might make it an important template for the search for evidence of microbial life on other worlds, including Mars, they argue.
Frozen lakes
It had been thought Lake Vida was one of several Antarctic lakes that are frozen to their beds all year-round. But this new research shows otherwise.
A team of US scientists extracted two ice cores above Lake Vida, which lies in a cold desert region of Antarctica known as the McMurdo Dry Valleys.
They also used ground-penetrating radar to find liquid water below the lake's ice cap.
The water remains liquid because it is seven times saltier than seawater and so will not freeze even at minus 10 Celsius - the temperature below the ice cover.
The team did not drill directly into the lake for fear of contaminating it.
Ancient DNA
Using radiocarbon dating, the scientists analysed sediments found in the ice cores and dated them back 2,800 years.
When the sediments were thawed, the scientists discovered micro-organisms which they successfully revived.
This suggests that despite a complete lack of light, cold temperatures and hyper salinity, the lake itself may also contain life.
John Priscu, from Montana Sate University, was one of the researchers who extracted the cores.
He said: "The ice cover of these lakes represents an oasis for life in an environment previously thought to be inhospitable.
"Importantly, the cold temperature preserves DNA extremely well making them perfect 'ice museums' for the study of ancient DNA."
Red Planet
This research could help scientists find out more about possible life in Lake Vostok, the largest of over 70 sub-glacial lakes on the White Continent, which lies more than four km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Commenting on the latest findings, Dr Dominic Hodgson, an Antarctic lakes expert from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) in Cambridge, said the research raised the possibility that there was life on Mars.
He told BBC News Online: "Life can be locked up in ice for many thousands of years and cells can survive these low temperatures, and once conditions are right they snap out of their frozen states and start photosynthesising again.
"This is beyond what scientists thought a few decades ago."
Peter Doran, a co-researcher on the project from the University of Illinois at Chicago, said: "Mars is believed to have a water-rich past, and if life developed, a Lake Vida-type ecosystem may have been the final niche for life on Mars before the water bodies froze solid."
The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada; Nasa's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California; and Montana State University in Bozeman.
It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
https://thoolah.blogspot.com/
[Defeated by a gizmo from Batman's utility belt]
Joker: I swear by all that's funny never to be taken in by that unconstitutional device again!
[Defeated by a gizmo from Batman's utility belt]
Joker: I swear by all that's funny never to be taken in by that unconstitutional device again!
