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RAT KINGS – A TANGLED TALE OF TANGLED TAILS
Vintage sepia photograph of a black rat, the species almost uniquely responsible for the surprising number of perplexing, tangle-tailed rat kings on record (public domain)Among the most unusual but...
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CENTROPSAR AND SCLATER - THE CAUTIONARY TALE OF A NON-EXISTENT BIRD
A hand-coloured lithograph from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 3 March 1874 by Joseph Smit, depicting the likely appearance in life of Centropsar mirus– if it had ever...
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SINGING THE PRAISES OF OUR NATIONS' FEATHERED AMBASSADORS
A male doctor bird, Jamaica's national bird, in Philip Henry Gosse's book The Birds of Jamaica, 1849 (public domain) / Doctor birds (two males, one female), in John Gould's tome A Monograph of the...
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UPDATING THE LOUISIANA GIANT SPIDERS SAGA
Giant spider sculpture in Ottawa, Canada (© Markus Bühler)Last year, I posted a 2-part ShukerNature blog article of mine (click here and here to access it) concerning the alleged encounters during...
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SOLVING THE RIDDLE OF THE SEA SCOPIUM - A FISHY TALE FROM EAST SUSSEX
Life restoration model of a Eurypterussea scorpion, exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution's Hall of Fossils (© Ryan Somma/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 2.0 licence)The eurypterids or sea scorpions of...
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HOW THE NANDI BEAR WAS CONCLUSIVELY IDENTIFIED AND CONTENTIOUSLY LOST - OR...
Artistic restoration by Anthony Wallis of the possible appearance in life of Kenya's mysterious 'giant forest hyaena'– aka the Nandi bear? (© Anthony Wallis)The hyper-aggressive Nandi bear, named...
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THE MONSTER OF DREAD END - REDISCOVERING A CHILLING CHILDHOOD PRECURSOR TO MY...
The dramatic, climactic panel from the legendary comic-strip horror story 'The Monster of Dread End' written by John Stanley and illustrated by Ed Robbins that first appeared in Ghost Stories, #1,...
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LEAST WEASELS, CANE WEASELS, WHITNICKS, AND DANDY DOGS - DEMYSTIFYING...
Exquisite 19th-Century colour-tinted engraving depicting a pair of Mustela nivalis, the common weasel, or – to avoid being labelled by pedants as nomenclaturally negligent – the least weasel (public...
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UNFURLING CHINA'S FENG-HUANG – THE 'OTHER' PHOENIX
A multicoloured feng-huang figurine that I brought back home from Hong Kong in 2005 (© Dr Karl Shuker)One of the most famous legendary birds is the Egyptian phoenix, but traditional Chinese mythology...
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WAS A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF NESSIE DNA PROPELLED INTO OBLIVION?
The Story of the Loch Ness Monster (1973), by Tim Dinsdale – the very first book devoted entirely to Nessie that I ever read and owned – and I still own it today (© Tim Dinsdale/Target Publishers –...
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THE DINOSAURS OF CRYSTAL PALACE - VISITING LONDON'S LOST WORLD. Part 1:...
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's Crystal Palace studio in 1853, containing some of his completed statues of prehistoric 'monsters' (public domain)On 22 April 2010, I finally fulfilled a lifelong...
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THE DINOSAURS OF CRYSTAL PALACE - VISITING LONDON'S LOST WORLD. Part 2:...
The Crystal Palace dinosaurs, in Views of the Crystal Palace and Park, Sydenham (1854), by Matthew Digby Wyatt with P.H. Delamotte (public domain)Yesterday, in Part 1 of this 3-part ShukerNature blog...
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THE DINOSAURS OF CRYSTAL PALACE - VISITING LONDON'S LOST WORLD. Part 3: THE...
The dream that died – a 19th-Century engraving depicting Hawkins's planned Palaeozoic Museum for New York City; how magnificent it would have been (public domain)In Parts 1 and 2 of this ShukerNature...
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AN UNDULATION OF SEA SERPENTS, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR CRYPTIDS AND...
My newly-acquired copy of a fascinating book that I've been seeking for years –An Unkindness of Ravens: A Book of Collective Nouns by Chloe Rhodes, first published in 2014 by Michael O'Mara Books...
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KELLAS CATS, RABBIT-HEADED CATS, FAIRY CATS, AND DAEMON CATS - A CLOWDER OF...
The late Corinna Downes from the Centre of Fortean Zoology alongside a taxiderm Kellas cat (© Jonathan Downes/Centre of Fortean Zoology)One would surely imagine that a mystery cat ceases to be a...
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'THE BOY WHO SAW BIGFOOT' - BOOKING MY REDISCOVERY AT LONG LAST OF A...
The very evocative front cover of my Weekly Readers Books hardback edition of The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot, a novel written by Marian T. Place and first published in 1979 by Dodd, Mead & Company (©...
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MYSTERY OF THE MACAW MOSAIC - A (NOT SO) ROMAN RIDDLE?
The macaw-depicting mosaic panel sold by Christie's at auction in 2003 (© Christie's – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)I'm very grateful...
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KOCH'S MONSTROUS MISSOURIUM AND HORRID HYDRARCHOS - A PHENOMENAL PAIR OF...
Colour engraving of 'Dr' Albert C. Koch's Missourium (Wellcome Collections/Wikipedia – CC BY 4.0 licence)Unless you're well-versed in palaeontology, fossil forgeries are less likely to have attracted...
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KOCH'S MONSTROUS MISSOURIUM AND HORRID HYDRARCHOS - A PHENOMENAL PAIR OF...
Albert C. Koch's Hydrarchos (aka Hydrargos) – a classic engraving from a German journal, 1846, colourised (public domain)As recently revealed in Part 1 of this 2-part ShukerNature blog article (click...
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A SURVEY OF EXTINCT DOG BREEDS. PART 1: GUN DOGS THAT ARE GONE, AND HOUNDS...
Vintage illustration of a talbot hound, now extinct (public domain)Previously on ShukerNature, I documented the little-known history of a truly remarkable creature – Mexico's hump-backed...
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