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WATER CIVET VS AQUATIC GENET - A TALE OF TANGLED TAXONOMY
Painting from 1924 of water civets/aquatic genets in their native habitat (public domain/reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only)Originally a civet, nowadays a genet,...
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EXPOSING YET ANOTHER FAKE BLACK LION PHOTOGRAPH
Yet another fake black lion photograph currently circulating online (© Bridges, reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only, exclusively for the purposes of education and...
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ARE FRUIT BATS FLYING PRIMATES? ANOTHER RETROSPECTIVE FROM OUT OF THE ARCHIVES
A fruit bat in flight at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, Australia (© Daniel Vianna/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)But when he brushes up against a screen,We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:For...
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THE GIANT GRASSHOPPER OF WISCONSIN - FOCUSING UPON A PHONEY PHOTOGRAPH
The iconic photograph of A.L. Butts holding up a supposed giant grasshopper that he had allegedly shot dead in his apple orchard during 1937 (public domain)During the late 1970s and early 1980s, I...
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TODAY I RECEIVED MY GOLDEN YETI AWARD – AND NOT A WRONG ENVELOPE IN SIGHT!
With my Golden Yeti award for Cryptozoologist of the Year 2016 (© Dr Karl Shuker)I'm very happy to announce that my Golden Yeti – verily the Oscar and BAFTA of cryptozoology – awarded to me as...
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POSTHUMOUS SIGHTINGS OF PASSENGER PIGEONS?
Passenger pigeons (juvenile, left; male, centre; female, right), from Birds of New York by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, 1910 – did this species survive beyond 1914? (public domain)The most numerous species...
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THREE-HORNED RHINOCEROSES AND ALBRECHT DÜRER'S SHOULDER-HORNED SURPRISE
Digital creation of a three-horned white rhinoceros (digital manipulation © Dr Karl Shuker using a public domain photograph)There was the forest three-horned dark rhino that would be in small herds...
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A COUPLE OF CRYPTO-PLATYPUSES FROM NORTH AMERICA
Platypus, painted by John Lewin, 1808 (public domain)The egg-laying, venom-spurred, electroreceptive, and thoroughly astonishing duck-billed platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus has always been one of my...
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A COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MY BOOKS
My first 25 books - click picture to enlarge (© Dr Karl Shuker)Today is the fourth anniversary of my mother Mary Shuker's passing. I owe my lifelong love of reading, writing, and nature to Mom - her...
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SEEKING THE SANDWELL VALLEYGATOR!
North America's common snapping turtle, from John Edwards Holbrook's book North American Herpetology (1842) (public domain)It may be the town in which I was born, but West Bromwich in the West...
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THE WARRACABA TIGER AND OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN PACK-HUNTING MYSTERY CATS
Bush dog (public domain)According to native Indian testimony, as well as that of certain Western explorers and cryptozoological investigators, South America is home to several different types of...
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THE FRASERCOT PELTS – A VERITABLE CHINESE PUZZLE SOLVED AT LAST
The Frasercot pelt originally owned (see Epilogue) by Mark Fraser (© Dr Karl Shuker)In a short Tetrapod Zoology online blog post of 13 August 2007 (click here), English palaeontologist Dr Darren Naish,...
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THE NAGA HAG
A naga hag (© Andy Paciorek)Ancient India– a land of gods, demons, and cobras, and sometimes all three combined within a single dread form: the naga, or human serpent. Some of these ophidian deities...
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THE YARA-MA-YHA-WHO
The yara-ma-yha-who (© Andy Paciorek)Also known as the yaroma, the yara-ma-yha-who is one of Australia's most feared supernatural entities, but it may also have a basis in reality, at least according...
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WHITHER THE WOOLLY CHEETAH?
The only known illustration of a woolly cheetah (Public domain)Nowadays, the once-obscure, elusive king cheetah, a mutant morph of the normal cheetah Acinonyx jubatusfamously adorned with an ornate...
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SEEKING GLYCON - BLOND-HAIRED, HUMAN-HEADED, SERPENT-BODIED, AND VERY TALKATIVE!
The statue of Glycon unearthed at Tomis, Romania, in 1962; right-hand view (public domain)A snake with a blond head of hair and the ears of a man would certainly be a marvel – but how much more so...
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HERMAN MELVILLE'S POLYNESIAN MYSTERY CAT - A WHALE OF A CRYPTO-TALE?
Did Herman Melville see a spectral black cat in Polynesia? (public domain)For obvious reasons, it's always particularly interesting to learn of a possible cryptozoological encounter featuring a famous...
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THE LIGHTBULB LIZARD OF BENJAMIN SHREVE - ILLUMINATING A HERPETOLOGICAL...
Artistic representation of the Trinidadluminous lizard's possible appearance when glowing, as based upon Ivan T. Sanderson's claim (© Philippa Foster)Among the fishes and several different taxonomic...
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ENCOUNTERING THE CHING SHIH - A VAMPIRE FROM CHINA
The ching shih (© Andy Paciorek)In China, bloodsuckers are both plentiful and petrifying, but few are feared as greatly as the ching shih...After another back-breaking day planting rice in the...
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BRIDE OF THE LINDORM
The prince meeting his lindorm brother, from Folk Tales of the World, written by Roger Lancelyn Green, illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, and published in 1966 by Purnell and Sons Ltd (©...
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