Cryptozoology

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I am crazy about this stuff and so if you are too then post your stuff here!! It can be pics, evidence, videos of things like Big Foot, Aliens, Thunderbirds, etc.

Chupacabra stuff can be posted, but its existence has been proven in case you didn't know

Here is a page containing a supposed chupacabra corpse and a police chase video of a chupacabra:
Boop  

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Cryptid Definition:

A cryptid is an animal whose existence is suspected, but does not have sufficient scientific evidence to support it. Creatures such as bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster fall under this umbrella, as do animals thought to be extinct but are claimed to still be alive today by cryptozoologists.  

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THE MOTHMAN

The Mothman is a creature seen throughout the United States, but mostly around the area of Point Pleasant, West Virgina.

APPEARANCE:
Generally, the Mothman is described as being very large, around 6 or 7 feet tall. It appears human-like in body, however it is almost always described as having large, red eyes. The creature is occasionally described as headless, with the eyes set into its chest. The reason for the name are the large, moth-like wings on the creature's back.

SIGHTINGS:
The first Mothman sighting was in Point Pleasant, on November 15, 1966. Two young married couples were driving near the explosives factory several miles north of Point Pleasant, and discovered the creature following their car. It reportedly chased the car at speeds up to 100 miles per hour.

In 1967, the Mothman was seen by many and suspected to have a connection with the collapse of the Silver Bridge (connecting West Virgina to Ohio). The events concerning the Mothman were made into a feature film in 2002 called "The Mothman Prophecies".

ANALYSIS:
The Mothman is believed to be connected with disasters. It's unclear whether it is the cause of the disasters or simply able to have premonitions of them. Many say that if you see the Mothman, something terrible will follow.

After the bridge collapse in 1967, the Mothman sightings have decreased. However he is still seen periodically throughout the United States.  

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JERSEY DEVIL

The Jersey Devil, also known as the Leeds Devil, is a cryptid or paranormal being from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, US. Descriptions vary, but the most common physical features are a dog's head with a horse's face, a long neck, bat wings, and a long, spaded tail. It is has four legs, though it is reported to be bipedal. Its front legs are short, and end in paws, while its rear legs are crane-like, and end in hooves. Some claim it resembles some species of pterosaur, but most pterosaurs were quadrupeds, and had beaks.

LEGEND:
The legend of the Jersey Devil begins with Mother Leeds, who was thought to be a witch. She had 12 children, and swore if she had another, it would be the devil. When her 13th child came, it was birthed as normal, human baby. But then it began to change. It flew around the room, killing a midwife before escaping the house and fleeing into the woods. In 1740, a clergy exorcised the woods supposedly home to the Jersey Devil, and was not seen again until 1840. According to documents, there was a woman named Deborah Leeds living in the area where the legend is supposed to take place. Her husband, Japhet Leeds, also claimed 12 children in his will.


SIGHTING AND ENCOUNTERS:
Like the Chupacabra, the Jersey Devil has been blamed for numerous livestock killings in 1840, and again in 1841. January of 1909 had many sightings, with nationwide news coverage. This period also saw the first (and only) attack of the Jersey Devil against a living being, a dog. The dog suffered a gash in one cheek. Jersey Devil sightings continue to this day, though less frequently. The last reported incident was in 2008, in Pennsylvania.  

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Here is one of the most popular Cryptids and I have plenty of info about it:

BIG FOOT

Bigfoot, also referred to as Sasquatch, is a massive, bi-pedal ape rumored to inhabit the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Legends of the creature stem from Native American tradition, and sightings have been consistently reported for decades. Most of these sightings are located in the state of Washington, but extend as far north as Alaska, down the coast into California, and sightings of a similar creature have been reported in the everglades of Florida. No solid scientific proof of the creature's existence has ever been discovered, however.

LEGENDS:

Stories of giant, vicious wildmen were common throughout the indigenous population in the northwestern region of North America. The details, however, differed beetween regions, tribes, and even different families in the same community. These stories are virtually universal in primitive populations the world over, as a way to humanize fears, and in some cases, as cautionary tales to keep children from wandering off on their own.

There is a legend of a tribe known as the Seeahtik, or Seeahtkoh, thought to have died off in the late 1800s, though there is a recorded encounter with this tribe by white settlers in 1924. The Seeahtik people were said to be seven to eight feet tall, covered in long, thick hair, and able to hypnotise and stun their prey.

SIGHTINGS:

In 1924, a man named Fred Beck claimed he and 4 other men were attacked by ape-like creatures throwing rocks at their cabin. Beck went on to write a book about the encounter, but was discredited by his own claims of psychic premonitions about the event. The story's similarity to an event in which nearby hikers threw stones into the valley, along with rumors of local prankster harassing the men and leaving fake footprints further discredit the story.

In 1941 a woman named Jeannie Chapman fled her home with her children, claiming a seven and a half foot tall Sasquatch approached her house in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.

In 1958 a bulldozer operator by the name of Jerry Crew made a plaster cast of one of the footprints he and his coworkers found in Bluff Creek, California, and brought it to a local newspaper office. The man overseeing the work crew was Wilbur L. Wallace, brother of Raymond L. Wallace, who was the first to se the term "Bigfoot" in his report on the event. When Ray passed away in 2002, his son Michael came forward with a pair of large wooden feet that had been used to stamp footprints in the woods of northern California.

PATTERSON GIMLIN FILM

In October of 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin went on an expedition to track down the creature in Bluff's Creek, and returned with the following footage.

This footage has been surrunded by controversy since it was shot. Both Pattersn and Gimlin have dismissed accusations that they had merely filmed a man in an ape suit, and Patterson went so far as to swear on his death bed that the footage was authentic. Gimlin refused to speak publically on the matter, and did not grant interviews on the subject until 2000.

Very few scientists were willing to view the footage at first, and those who did immediately dismissed it as a hoax. One of the most important details when trying to evaluate the footage itself is the film speed. Patterson's camera was capable of shooting film at several different speeds, if this footage had been shot at 24 frames per second, the creature's movement is indistinguishable from that of a human, supporting the idea that this was merely a man in a costume. However, if 16 or 18 frames per second is the correct speed, there are several details about the creature's gait that would be impossible for a human to duplicate. As visual technology has improved, the footage has been cleared up and stabilized, and many supporters point out that this has made details visible that simply could not be faked, including visible muscle movement and the shifting of hair over those muscles.

LIKELY EXPLANATIONS:

Many proponents of the existence of bigfoot have pointed to the now extinct giant ground sloth, some of which were elephantine in proportion, as opposed to the giant ape theory. These creatures, however, were largely concentrated in South America, and resided in grasslands and more lightly wooded areas, as opposed to the thick forests bigfoot supposedly inhabits.

Another theory is that bigfoot is a surviving population of Gigantopithecus, an extinct genus of ape. Fossils of these creatures have been found in China, India, and vietnam, and indicate the apes stood nearly 10 feet tall in some cases. As many species migrated over the Bering land bridge, it is likely that this species may have as well, even though no fossils have been found anywhere in the Americas. It is also unclear whether or not Gigantopithecus was bipedal, or moved on all fours like a gorilla, as no pelvic or leg bones have been uncovered.

Those opposing the bigfoot theory claim that most, if not all sightings can be attributed to people catching glimpses of bears on their hind legs, and the rest can be chalked up to hoaxes or pranks.

FILM LINK:
Has been removed by user sad  

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THE CHUPACABRA

The chupacabra is a cryptid whose legend originates in Puerto Rico. The word 'chupacabra' literally translates to 'goat-sucker', a name owed to the creature's feeding habits. A particular form of livestock mutilation in Latin America and the southwestern United States has traditionally been attributed to the chupacabra, in which the animal appears to have been completely drained of their blood through a pair of puncture wounds. Though physical descriptions vary, the creature is typically described as a partially or completely hairless coyote-like creature, with an elongated face, and hind legs disproportionately larger than the front. This difference in leg lengths gives the chupacabra a distinctive rocking gait.

The chupacabra of legend is said to be the size of a small bear, almost reptilian in appearance, with a row of spines or quills on its back. It has red eyes which glow when it is startled or frightened, and kangaroo-like feet which allow it to hop up to 20 feet in a single stride. It is also said to leave behind a sulfuric stench.

SIGHTINGS

Although attacks have been officially reported since 1975, most reported chupacabra sightings are relatively recent. In July of 2004 a rancher in Texas killed a hairless dog-like creature that was attacking his livestock. Though the animal was initially suspected to be a chupacabra, DNA testing concluded it was simply a coyote with severe mange. In the same year, two more carcasses with the same attributes were discovered in the area, and testing proved the same conclusions.

In August of 2005, another rancher by the name of Reggie Lagow caught an animal in traps he set after the deaths of several of his chickens and turkeys. He described it as a mix of a hairless dog, a rat, and a kangaroo. The creature was sent to Texas Parks and Wildlife for identification, but no further information on the creature is available.

In April of 2006 the chupacabra was reported to have been sighted in Russia for the first time. More than 60 animals were killed and drained of their blood by an unknown predator.

In August of 2006 Michelle O'Donnell, a resident of Maine reported a the carcass of an animal that had been struck by a car lying at the side of the road. She described it as an "evil looking" rodent-like animal with fangs, and though it was canine in appearance, it did not resemble any dogs or wild animals known in the area. The carcass was picked clean by scavengers before tests could be conducted.

In August 2007 Phyllis Canion and her neighbors discovered three mysterious carcasses on the edge of her property. She took photos, and preserved the head of one in her freezer. A mammologist named John Young examined the photos taken, and guessed that the creature was a grey fox suffering from severe mange. Later tests on the head proved it to be a coyote, with elongated fangs and a sparse, blueish fur coat.

The following video was captured by the dashboard camera of DeWitt County deputy on August 8, 2008.
LINK: I think this is it

In September of 2009 the proprietor of a Texas taxidermy school received a carcass from a former student. The student's cousin had found the creature in his barn, where it had ingested and succumbed to rat poison. Though the taxidermist first made claims that it was the carcass of a chupacabra, the resulting media onslaught and constant phone calls to his small school resulted in a change in story, and he now insists it is simply a mutated coyote.

LIKELY EXPLANATIONS

The most likely explanation for recent sightings is simply coyotes with severe mange. Mange is a skin condition that can vary in severity, but causes inflammation and hair loss in infected animals. This accounts for the hairless, almost scaly appearance the chupacabra is said to have, as mangy skin will become very dry and flake away. Malnutrition, a condition very common in coyote populations, will cause mange to rapidly worsen.

The other physical characteristics of the chupacabra, including the elongated face, fangs, and disproportioned legs can be chalked up to a physical, genetic deformity.

I have a pick of a dead one but I dont think its appropriate  

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BLOOP

The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency and extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) several times during 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown.

The sound, traced to somewhere around 50° S 100° W (a remote point in the south Pacific Ocean west of the southern tip of South America), was detected repeatedly by the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array, which uses U.S. Navy equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines. According to the NOAA description, it "rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km." NOAA's system ruled out its origin as any known man-made sound, such as a submarine or bomb, or familiar geological sounds such as volcanoes or earthquakes. While the audio profile of the bloop does resemble that of a living creature, the system identified it as unknown because it was far too loud for that to have been the case: it was several times louder than the loudest known biological sound. Five other significant unexplained sounds have been named by NOAA: Julia, Train, Slowdown, Whistle, and Upsweep.

It is worth noting that the location of the Bloop is close to the coordinates of the great sunken city of R'lyeh, resting place of Cthulhu, as given by Lovecraft himself, at 47°9′S 126°43′W.  

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Sea Creatures of the Deep~

I did not write this ;D

Last November, the Centre For Inquiry (CFI) hosted Monsters of the Deep! at Conway Hall in London’s Red Lion Square. Meetings devoted to marine cryptozoology are few and far between, but then the same might be said about crypto­zoology meetings in general. Meetings about academic crypto­zoology are rarer than sightings of crypt­ids themselves. Organised by Stephen Law, the meeting featured talks by Dr Charles Paxton, a fisheries ecologist at the University of St Andrews, and yours truly, a vertebrate palæontologist who works on dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles at the University of Portsmouth and dabbles in academic cryptozoology. In addition to the talks, we held two workshops. As Charles stated early on in his talk, academic funding for cryptozoological research is essentially non-existent, so the audience could rest assured that their valuable tax pennies were not being frittered away on any of the research they were going to hear about.

Sea monsters inspire wonder, and that can’t be bad. But Charles explained that they also raise the very important question of how science deals with anomalous data. Forteans (indeed, Fort himself) have asserted that science ignores what it cannot explain. In fact, scientists have a tendency to ignore anomalous data only so long as they’re poorly recorded (in other words, are known only from anecdotes); irrefut­able records of such things as St Elmo’s fire, rogue waves and sprites – all origin­ally known entirely from anecdotes – show that science is ‘happy’ to accept the validity of low-frequency anomalies once the data are good enough. Furthermore, while there’s a widespread belief (particularly prevalent among scient­ists) that anecdotal data are worthless, anecdotes are important at several levels of the scientific process, including in hypothesis formation. Indeed, once a hypothesis (random example: that hippos might practise cannibalism) becomes accepted by a given research community, the chiming in from others in that community is often taken as verification, even though these addit­ional records are typically anecdotal (“I want to report that I’ve also seen hippos practising cannibalism”).

As was noted by both speakers, the possibility that unknown animals might really be at the bottom of sea monster reports should at least be considered as a possibility, and indeed it is already widely thought among biologists that large marine animals (large = more than 2m long) remain to be found. Animals of exactly this sort have been found in recent years and include several new cetaceans, an oarfish species and some deep-water rays. Furthermore, cumulative discovery curves for large marine animals suggest that – while discovery rates have slowed – there are almost certainly a few such species yet to find (between 10 and 50, depending on the study).

There’s no denying that many people (scientists included) have gotten involved in sea monster research because they really do like the idea that big, monstrous vertebrates might await discovery. But it’s evident that we should consider as many other options as possible before approaching this conclusion, and it can be argued that this hasn’t been the case so far. Hoaxing remains a problem. Sea turtles, leopard seals and other known species may account for some sea monster accounts, and Charles and colleagues achieved global notoriety in 2004 by proposing that the serpentine genitals of male whales might explain some sea-serpent accounts.

Whether sea monsters are real or not, the large number of catalogued sightings (over 1,000) means that a substantial amount of data is available for statistical analysis. Charles recently published the results of one such study in Journal of Zoology (a significant accomplishment) and some of the conclusions are surprising, especially to those who might assume that sea monster sightings all represent misid­entifications or hoaxes.
For one thing, most recorded monster sightings don’t normally occur at great distance, but at relatively close range. So the ideas that sea monsters (whatever they are) might be timid, or that people are seeing known species at great range and misidentifying them, are not supported by the reported data. A number of possibilities might explain the counter-intuitive closeness of the reported creatures. Maybe sea monsters are attracted to boats, maybe boats approach sea monsters in order to get a better look at them, maybe sightings are embellished in order to sound more impressive, and so on. Perhaps the most likely explanation is that the reporting of anomalous marine phenomena is biased, and that people only tend to report observations made at relatively close range. More distant objects, whether they’re anomalous or not, are less likely to be reported. This implies, suggested Charles, a strong reporting bias that might swamp any original biological signal.

Moreover, Charles discussed the results of experiments which show that people consistently underestimate the distances involved when viewing objects on the water. And while descriptions of an object are generally good, size estimates are not so hot, with women generally underestimating sizes while men generally overestimate them (insert hilarious wisecrack). One nice point Charles made is that what is reported is not the same as what is remembered; what is remembered is not the same as what is perceived; and what is perceived is not the same as what is seen.

The second talk of the day (my own ‘Sea monsters and the prehistoric survivor paradigm’) was more concerned with the various sea monster identities that have been proposed over the years, particularly those invoking the alleged survival to the present of large tetra­pods known only from the fossil record, specifically plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and basilosaurid whales (zeuglodonts). The idea that such creatures might have survived to the present day without leaving any fossil record really is untenable based on what we know, and the annoyingly persistent suggestion that cœlacanths demonstrate how a group of Mesozoic marine animals might persist without leaving any fossil record is a red herring. [1]

In any case, the prehist­oric survivor paradigm (or PSP) really isn’t the best explanation for the crypto­zoological data. Modern sea monster reports really don’t describe creatures that sound at all like the fossil animals they’re sometimes likened to. Long-necked sea monsters sound only very superficially like plesiosaurs; the modern creatures are reportedly hairy, have whiskers or external ears, can hold their heads and necks well out of the water in an erect pose, and are sometimes noted as lacking tails. If such creatures are real, it seems reasonable to interpret them as weird marine mammals (perhaps as large peculiar seals), not as strongly modified post-Cretaceous plesiosaurs.

Long-bodied sea monsters – apparently able to form hoops, loops and a series of waves along the body – cannot be basilosaurid whales, which were incapable of oscillating in this way and are absent from the fossil record for the last 30 million years at least. The fact that basilosaurids were conventionally (but very incorrectly) reconstructed as serpentine creatures capable of furious vertical wriggling has helped fuel the notion that they might have been the ancestors of modern sea serpents.

Bernard Heuvelmans regarded two of his nine sea monster kinds as basilosaurids. However, rather than regarding the long-bodied, serpentine types as modern representatives of this group, he proposed that the armour-plated ‘many-finned’ and bumpy-backed ‘many-humped’ were both basilosaur­ids. His logic was somewhat obtuse: absolutely integral to his identification of the ‘many-finned’ was his interpret­ation of the 1883 Vietnamese con rit account conveyed by Dr A Krempf in 1921. Yet this account described a gigantic segmented creature, covered in plate-like armour sheets that “rang like sheet metal” when struck. This fantastic description remains an enigma, but Heuvelmans’s conclusion that the creature was an armour-plated whale is peculiar and rests on the idea that basilosaurids were armoured, a proposal that had been disproved decades earlier.

While it might seem like an unfair criticism, a major theme that emerges from these considerations of the PSP is that those who have endorsed it are often behind the times as regards the state of palæontological knowledge, or have indulged in a remarkable amount of special pleading and speculation. Ideas about plesiosaur and basilosaurid survival seem to have been influenced by popular artwork more than by technical data. Sea monsters might be real, but we’re really not at the stage where we can say what they are. Interesting things can be done with the data we have (whether or not it represents sightings of unknown giant creatures), but the main problem afflicting the cryptozoological literature concerns interpretation. It’s evident that more intellectual rigour is often needed within the field.

In the first workshop session that followed the talks, Charles – working with a bold volunteer from the audience – used ‘fishes’ (marked straws) in a bucket to show how biologists can generate hypotheses about species divers­ity in the deep sea. With every handful, a different combination of ‘spec­ies’ is trawled up, and by counting the new ones Charles was able to generate a discovery curve. As is the case in the real world, the curve of the discovery graph rose to a plateau, but problems in distinguishing the new ‘species’ from those encountered earlier on in the experiment echoed a huge, genuine problem that plagues diversity studies.

In another workshop event, we used a computer program to show how extinct­ion dates can be estimated for extinct (or supposedly extinct) organisms. When good ‘proof of life’ data (that is, dates) are available, the computed extinction results look robust. However, a spotty or gappy pre-extinction record results in uncertainty over the extinction date – and here’s the fun part – because the creatures affected by such results are sometimes those hypothesised to have survived later than ‘officially’ thought. Cœlacanths, Steller’s sea cows, thylacines, megatooth sharks and many others were all subjected to the treatment. This technique has great promise and enables hypotheses about ‘prehistoric survivorship’ to be properly tested.

Overall, the meeting was a great success, and our interested audience made wholly positive noises about the event. Frankly, it was good to be at a crypto­zoology-themed event where scientific approaches were very much to the fore. Indeed, what might be the take-home message from the day was that crypto­zoological data and hypotheses are very much amenable to scientific testing. It goes without saying that there remains an enormous role for amateurs within the field of mystery animal research.

In a 2004 Nature article (yes, Nature: one of the most august scientific journals in the world), Henry Gee – inspired by the then-new discovery of the small, recently extinct hominids of Flores – wondered whether it really is time for crypto­zoology to “come in from the cold” and be recognised as a valid scientific endeavour. Some might say this already happened back in the 1980s when the International Society of Crypto­zoology published its technical journal Crypto­zoology, but such efforts seem all but forgotten nowadays and the death of the ISC arguably created the impression that crypto­zoology is a fringe discipline best avoided by anyone serious about doing science. The fact is, we seem to be at the start of what is (I hope) a modest renaissance in ‘scient­ific crypto­zoology’. Charles and I – and others – have published several crypto­zoological analyses within the pages of technical journals, such as the august Journal of Zoology and Historical Biology, and we have other technical studies in preparation. How far can we go with this, and can cryptozoology really ‘come in from the cold’?

 

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Reported Sasquatch Sighting in Leaky, Texas

LEAKEY, Texas - Last fall, after several people called police saying they saw something that looked like Bigfoot on the Northwest side of San Antonio, we were contacted by a group of men who call themselves Bigfoot investigators. They said they're convinced that Sasquatch is here and probably always has been. So, our Delaine Mathieu said -- prove it!

Last December, a homeless couple in San Antonio called 911 saying they saw something in the woods off Highway 151 and Culebra. "I would be a liar if I said I thought I knew what it was, but I don't know. I know it picked up that deer and walked," reported the caller. Police checked it out, but nothing was ever found.

Troy Hudson believes Bigfoot is here. He used to work for the Department of Homeland Security and now runs TBIG -- The Bigfoot Investigation group in Dallas. "I've been in the woods a lot as a child and I've seen things I can't explain to you," Hudson told us.

We set up camp with him and his colleague, Chase Robinson at Garner State Park in Uvalde County near Leakey -- where a man in a truck reportedly saw a Bigfoot on Highway 83 in 2006. "It was in December, early December around 10:30pm," Hudson said. "He was messing with something and he happens to look up and notices movement." He says the creature ran across the highway and disappeared.

"But that sounds crazy!" Delaine told Hudson. "That sounds almost ridiculous, right?" Hudson told her there are too many witnesses, too many reports across the country, too much documentation, too much data that suggests what are these people seeing?

Crazy is a word Troy and Chase say they hear a lot in their line of work, but there are several Bigfoot investigative groups in Texas like TBIG -- determined to find Bigfoot. "If people in Vermont are reporting a tree knock and a whoop as well as someone in California, Florida, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas -- it only leads you to believe that there's something out there."

And to the unbelievers out there who call these guys nuts? They say, just go on an expedition. "Try it. Before you condemn us, go out and try it," Chase told us. "See what they see and listen to the sounds of the night."

 

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LOCH NESS MONSTER

The Loch Ness Monster, also referred to by the nickname Nessie, is a creature rumored to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland. Its description varies from one account to the next, but it's generally regarded to be similar to a plesiosaur in appearance. Other descriptons depict a serpentine creature. Evidence of Nessie is largely anecdotal, many photographs have been proven hoaxes, and what little sonar readings exist are largely inconclusive. Nessie was first brought to the world's attention in 1933 by a journalist named Alex Campbell, and the first photograph, taken by Hugh Gray, was published in December of the same year.

SIGHTINGS

In the Life of St Columba, written in the 7th century, there is an account of a monster associated with the River Ness. The creature mauled a man swimming in the river, and only his corpse could be recovered. Columba sent another man to swim across the river, and the beast attacked this man as well, but retreated when Columba made the sign of the cross and commanded it to stop. The occurance was hailed as a miracle. Those that believe in the Loch Ness Monster frequently cite this story as the earliest evidence of a creature in the region, though skeptics point out the source of the story. Water beast stories were a frequent occurance in medieval saints' stories.

What is widely regarded as the first true sighting of Nessie, and where modern interest in the creature was first sparked, took place in July of 1933. George Spicer and his wife saw a creature cross the road in front of their car. They described it as about 25 feet long and 4 feet high, with a long, undulating neck. After crossing the road it moved towards the loch, about 20 yards away. While several sightings are on record prior to 1933, they have been largely discredited.

In June of 1933 a young woman named Margaret Munro claimed to have observed the creature onshore for about 20 minutes. She described elephant-like skin and a long neck with a small head.

In August of 1933 a man named Arthur Grant claimed to have nearly struck the creature while out on his motorcycle around 1am. He claims to have gotten off his motorcycle and followed the creature from the road to the loch, but only saw ripples in the water.

In December of 1954 the fishing boat Rival III detected a large object moving along with the boat at a depth of 480 feet. The crew observed this occurance for half a mile before contact was lost.

EXPLANATIONS

Skeptics have listed everything from ducks and otters to elephants swimming underwater to explain what some hav seen disturbing the surface of the loch. A relatively small bird, or a group of birds, can create an enormous wake in the dead calm conditions common in the loch. A giant eel was among the first suggestions made, eels do naturally inhabit the loch, and an eel would fit the description given in many sightings. This has been dismissed largely because the side to side undulation of an eel moving through the water is not a feature of any sightings, and eels do not lift their heads above water.

The elephant theory was first post by a bioligist named Dennis Power and a geographer named Donald Johnson. They cclaimed the Surgeon's Photograph was the top of the head and extended trunk of an elephant, taken in another part of the world and simply claimed to be taken at the loch. In 2006 Neil Clark suggested an elephant from a travelling circus could have been allowed to refresh itself in the loch.

Seals have also been a confirmed presence at the loch for up to months at a time, though their visits are infrequent enough to call them visitors, as opposed to a permanent colony.

Rotting trees are another explanation for some of the anomalies visible at the loch. Pinewoods are present around the perimeter of the loch, and because of the high resin content of this type of wood, the rotting gasses of any sunken logs are sealed inside until pressure builds enough to launch them out of the depths and through the water to the surface.

SURGEON'S PHOTOGRAPH

Nessie's legend has attracted its share of tricksters as well. One of the most famous photographs, taken in 1934 by a London doctor named Robert Kenneth Wilson became known as the Surgeon's Photograph, due to Wilson's reluctance to have his name associated with it. The photo was published in the Daily Mail in April of that year. In 1994, the photo was exposed as a hoax, and several men stepped forward to reveal the elaborate plot surrounding it.

The creature itself was a sculpted head and neck attached to a toy submarine, built by Christian Spurling, the son in law of big game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell, who was ridiculed by the Daily Mail after his search for Nessie. He had discovered footprints in the land around the loch and sent them to scientists for analysis. They were determined to be hippopotamus tracks, left by some prankster with a hippo foot umbrella stand.

The Surgeon Photograph hoax was an act of revenge, apparently meant to make a mockery of he paper for spurning Wetherell. The story was disputed by a man named Henry Bauer, who asked why the perpetrators didn't reveal their elaborate ploy sooner if their goal was revenge. Regardless, analysis of the uncropped version of the photograph revealed the creature to be a mere two to three feet long, hardly the monster one would expect Nessie to be.  

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I was debating putting this here but I figure it's close enough

THE GIANT BOLSTER OF SAINT AGNES

During the time when giants were found all over Cornwall, there lived a particularly troublesome giant called Bolster in the Penwith area who was so named because of his habit of smothering his old wives with a Bolster once he had grown tired of them.

Although a troublesome giant much inclined to trampling the farmers crops and stealing their livestock, Bolster had a weakness for a pretty face and became infatuated with a local girl by the name of Agnes. But the young maiden did not relish the attentions of The giant and resolved to put an end to the matter.

Drawing the giant's attention to a hole in the cliffs at Chapel Porth, Agnes calmly asked the giant to prove his love for her by filling it with his blood. Bolster readily agreed as it was such a small hole and he was such a big giant.

Unfortunately for the poor giant, the crafty Agnes had neglected to point out to Bolster that the hole actually drained into the sea and as fast as Bolster's blood flew into the hole, it emptied out into the ocean below the cliffs. So the giant Bolster slowly bled to death, leaving behind the red mark that you can see on the cliffs today.

As for Agnes, they made her into a saint in recognition of her deed.  

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This is another difficult one to put here but I dont feel like making a seperate section just for like 2 things

A lot of people say this is total crap fiction, but i figure anything is possible and I've heard about Cthulhu summons before this so here it is

CTHULHU

Cthulhu is a cosmic entity written about by horror author H. P. Lovecraft in 1926, first appearing in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu" when it was published in Weird Tales in 1928.

Cthulhu is one of the central Great Old Ones. He is often cited for the extreme descriptions given of his hideous appearance, his gargantuan size, and the abject terror that he evokes. Cthulhu is often referred to in science fiction and fantasy circles as a tongue-in-cheek shorthand for extreme horror or evil, but we know his name should not be taken so lightly.

After his first appearance in "The Call of Cthulhu", Cthulhu makes a few minor appearances in other of Lovecraft's works. August Derleth, a correspondent of Lovecraft's, used the Old Gods name to identify the system of lore employed by Lovecraft and his literary successors, the Cthulhu Mythos.
Spelling and Pronunciation

Cthulhu has also been spelled as Tulu, Clulu, Clooloo, Cthulu, Cighulu, Cathulu, Kutulu, Q’thulu, Ktulu, Kthulhut, Kulhu, Thu Thu, and in many other ways. It is often preceded by the epithet Great, Dead, or Dread.

Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as "Khlûl'-hloo". S. T. Joshi points out, however, that Lovecraft gave several differing pronunciations on different occasions. This is merely the closest that our pathetic human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language. Long after Lovecraft's death, the pronunciation kə-THOO-loo became common, and the game Call of Cthulhu endorsed it. In the end we know that how we pronounce his great name will mean nothing once our minds and souls are blasted into infinity.
Physicality and Origins

While the birthplace of Lord Cthulhu is not definitively established, it is suggested that his birthplace is that of the planet Vhoorl; with his advent somehow connected with supernovae: "I learned whence Cthulhu first came, and why half the great temporary stars of history had flared forth" as quoted in "The call of Cthulhu." It is also suggested in both “At the Mountains of Madness” and “The Whisperer in Darkness” that Cthulhu is made up of some unknown and foreign matter.

The most detailed descriptions of Cthulhu appear in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", and are based on the statues of the creature. One, constructed by an artist after a series of baleful dreams, is said to have "yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature.... A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings." Another, recovered by police from a raid on a murderous cult, "represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."

When the creature finally appears, the story says that the "thing cannot be described", but it is called "the green, sticky spawn of the stars", with "flabby claws" and an "awful squid-head with writhing feelers." The phrase "a mountain walked or stumbled" gives a sense of the creature's scale.

The statues and fetishes created by those whose minds have been touched by the Great Cthulhu are the ones that should be worshiped, as they are the closest our minds can get to comprehending his awesome form.
Cult of Cthulhu

Cthulhu has a worldwide doomsday cult centered in Arabia, with followers in regions as far-flung as Greenland and Louisiana. There are leaders of the cult "in the mountains of China" who are said to be immortal. Cthulhu is described by some of these cultists as the "great priest" of the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky.

The cult is noted for chanting its heart rending phrase or ritual: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," which translates as "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." This is often shortened to "Cthulhu fhtagn," which might possibly mean "Cthulhu waits," "Cthulhu dreams," or "Cthulhu waits dreaming."

One cultist, known as Old Castro, provides the most elaborate information given in Lovecraft's fiction about Cthulhu. The Great Old Ones, according to Castro, had come from the stars to rule the world in ages past.

They were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape...but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them.

Castro points to the "much-discussed couplet" from Abdul Alhazred's Necronomicon:

That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die.

Castro explains the role of the Cthulhu Cult: When the stars have come right for the Great Old Ones, "some force from outside must serve to liberate their bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented them from making an initial move." At the proper time, the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from his tomb to revive His subjects and resume his rule of earth....Then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

Castro reports that the Great Old Ones are telepathic and "knew all that was occurring in the universe." They were able to communicate with the first humans by "moulding their dreams," thus establishing the Cthulhu Cult, but after R'lyeh had sunk beneath the waves, "the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse."

Additionally, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" establishes that Cthulhu is also worshiped by the nonhuman creatures known as Deep Ones. While “The Whisperer in Darkness” establishes that Cthulhu is one of many deities worshiped by the Mi-Go.

 

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NIBIRU ALIENS

Alleged home planet of the Anunnaki; its orbital period, a Shar equals 3,600 Earth years. After the Celestial Battle, according to the hypothesis, it became the 12th member of our solar system. This is sometimes referred to as Planet X.

THE CELESTIAL BATTLE

According to Sitchin's texts. When entering the solar system (in orbit opposite of the other planets), Nibiru came close enough to a planet called Tiamat (between Jupiter and Mars) that one of Nibiru's satellite moons, the size of Mars, collided with the watery planet and sent fragments of its crust out into space (becoming the asteroid belt) and shifting the remains into a new position between Mars and Venus. The remains then reformed with the water due to gravity to create what is now known as Earth. Initially the water reformed freely around the crust creating the super continent, Pangaea, but due to the initial collision, Earth now had plate tectonics which eventually shifted the position of continents into more stable positions over the course of time.

ENVIRONMENT

The planet is reddish in radiance. Its volcanoes constantly belch and help form their atmosphere. The inner heat keeps the planet warm in its cold period away from the sun. The atmosphere shields the planet from the suns scorching rays when in the close hot period. Their atmosphere holds and releases rain giving rise to streams and lakes, sustaining all life and lush vegetation.

Nibiru is covered in clouds so thick that it could sustain heat for the 97 percent of time it spends outside of the solar system in a 3600 year orbit. Before their first landing on Earth, there was a crisis involving the planet's inability to sustain this state of absorbing heat for a period of only 108 years and keeping it for the other 3,492 years. One of two ways to save their planet was to disperse a solution entirely dependent on gold. The other was to use nuclear weapons to force the volcanoes to blow.

During this time it is stated that the colder periods were getting colder and the hotter periods were getting hotter. It was discovered there was a breach in the atmosphere. The volcanoes were erupting less. This effected the abundance of resources in the land and even fertility of inhabitants.

At the time, the deposed king of Nibiru, Alalu, has been the first to escape Nibiru's atmosphere and land on Earth where conditions were found to be highly livable, and the sky was clear compared to Nibiru. He drank from the water freely and there is no mention of worry regarding microorganisms. Finding gold, Alalu demanded that he be reinstated as King for being the one to save the planet, but this action never passed. Alalu later died on Mars where an image of him was carved on a rock that was his tomb.

This action led to the creation of human workers to mine gold.

TECHNOLOGY

Space travel is possible on Nibiru and several demonstrations on Earth show that nuclear weapons seem to be the greatest tools of destruction available to them. While human workers were fashioned from primitive beings on Earth and present civilization may exist entirely of hybrid Earthling-Anunnaki beings, there is no mention of biological weapons used. It is possible that since humans were given alien chromosomes to perform required functions such as mining resources, that any biological weapons would have also affected the Anunnaki.

INHABITANTS

This section pertains to beings native to Nibiru.

ANUNNAKI

Translated as "Those who from Heaven to Earth came". The reigning species of Nibiru belonging to a monarchy in which succession is similar to that of monarchies on Earth.

GEOGRAPHY AND REGIONS

Initially, the Anunnaki were divided into North and South and war engulfed the world for ages. Peace was then declared with the son of one region marrying the daughter of another. An would become the first unity king on Nibiru.

The people live in valleys or mountains.

NEPHILIM

In addition to the Anunnaki, the only details regarding any other beings on the planet are of the Nephilim, whose definition has been confused over time.

* One version, they are described as grey people and likely to resemble the typical human perception of a gray alien. Nephilim are likely biological robots of a sort, designed with no free will as perfect angels to do their bidding. If this version was true, it is likely they could be sustained while on Earth and continue to watch over mankind during the peculiar Nibiru orbit cycle, being responsible for several alien sightings.
* In another version, they are names used to refer to half-Anunnaki human workers, but this theory falls apart considering all non-mixed bred humans were destroyed in the flood with the exception of Ziusudra, who was a half-son of Enki. Those that perpetuate this theory like to refer to them as fallen ones.

NIBIRU AS A BROWN DWARF

Following the Lieder predictions and the 2012 doomsday predictions Sitchin's work received attention from these groups. Lieder used the original Sitchin hypothesis to give credibility to her own predictions, although Sitchin himself never approved it.  

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I found a site with a lot of Cryptid info so Ill be posting a lot more here  

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THUNDERBIRDS

The Comanche tribe call it ba'a' and the Potawatomi use the name chequah, but most people know of this mystery animal as Thunderbird. Although gigantic birds are reported in the past and present from various areas of the globe, the Thunderbird is isolated to North America. Native Americans believed that these giant birds brought thunder and rain with them as they flew through the air by flapping their wings, and lightning by closing their eyes. Nevertheless, the distinction between the stories of the Native Americans and people of today are not too far apart. Modern reports of Thunderbirds arise from various locations in North America, with a large occurrence from Pennsylvania to the Central states. Mark A. Hall, one of the foremost investigators of the Thunderbird story, gives the following description of the avian cryptid drawn from numerous sightings:

"The bird is distinguished by its size and lifting capabilities exceeding those of any known bird living today anywhere in the world. Wingspan estimates are necessarily all guesswork. But observers sometimes have had the benefit of a measurable object for comparison or the benefit of time to observe a resting bird. The results most often provide sizes of 15 to 20 feet. The bird at rest or on the ground appears to be four to eight feet tall. Typically the coloring of the birds overall is dark.."

Remarkably, a bird of 15 feet in size would be the largest bird known in the world today. The largest wingspan known on a living bird is that of the wandering albatross (diomedea exulans) with a wingspan to 12 feet, and while not a predatory bird, it still boasts an impressive span. The Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) and the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) are among the largest predatory birds in the world, with the Andean condor reaching a wingspan of 10.5 feet and the California condor (the largest North American predatory bird) reaches a wingspan of up to 10 feet. These are all truly marvelous birds and respectable in their majesty.

But consider the Thunderbird, reputedly capable of lifting a deer or a person from the ground. The current predatory birds are not equipped with grasping feet that are strong enough to hold much weight, instead they live primarily as carrion eaters and are only seldom predatory, and then usually on smaller animals. Reports of the Thunderbird, however, describe lifting deer and humans off the ground.

Perhaps the most controversial inclusion of the Thunderbird capable of lifting a human comes from 1977 in Lawndale, Illinois. It was here that on July 25, 1977 towards 9:00 pm a group of three boys were in the backyard. They saw two large birds coming, and as the birds came in closer they went after the boys. Two of the boys escaped, but the third, Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds clamped onto his shoulder with its claws and proceeded to lift the ten year old boy about two feet off the ground for a distance of at least 30 yards. With screams of distress calling adults outside and coupled with a series of blows by the 65-pound boy, the bird finally released him. The boy was relatively unharmed, with psychological damage instead of physical.

Although viewed by some as a tall tale, the descriptions given by the witnesses of these birds describe a large black bird, with a white ring on its neck and a wingspan of up to 10 feet, traits oddly reminiscent of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) which exhibits the same basic physical characteristics as that of the Lawndale bird. To this day, no one can explain away the incident from 1977 in any convincing manner, either the incident didn't happen or a large bird (of known or unknown status) attacked and carried a small boy one summer night to his and his family's terror.

The evidence thus far for the existence of a large undescribed predatory bird in North America is based on historical and modern anecdotal evidence with no physical evidence. There are however two tantalizing images of the Thunderbird, or at least of a large bird. The first was taken in the same year as Marlon Lowe's attack and in the same state. On July 30, 1977 John Huffer, an ex-marine and photographer, took a 100 foot roll of color film of two birds taking off from a tree in an inlet of Lake Shelbyville. The film concentrates on one of the birds only. Highly controversial, and thought by many to be of a turkey vulture, it sits as a little known film of a possible mystery animal. To date little, if any, evaluation of the birds in the film has been done. The Discovery Channel in their program "Into the Unknown" did give the film some mention, with a dismissal of a medium sized bird, probably a vulture.

The other possible photographic evidence is even more of a mystery, as it may not exist at all!! The image in question is the "Thunderbird Photograph" taken at the end of the nineteenth century in Texas. The image is said to depict six western clothed adult men, standing fingertip to fingertip in front of a barn where a large bird is nailed to the wall. Many have claimed to have seen or held this infamous image, including the late Ivan T. Sanderson who reportedly had acquired a photocopy of the image in 1966, the same year in which Sanderson gave the image, later lost, to a couple of men from Pennsylvania who were searching for the Thunderbird. The image has yet to surface, and may well not exist at all. The image was reported to have been published in 1886 in the Tombstone Arizona Epitaph, however this was somewhat dubiously reported in a 1963 article by Jack Pearl called "The Monster Bird That Carries Off Human Beings!" in Saga magazine. Searches of the Tombstone Epitaph have come up empty, aside from an article from April 26, 1890 of a 16 foot bird found in the desert by a couple of ranchers. So the mystery of the "Thunderbird Photo" is no closer to being solved then it was nearly 40 years ago during its first mention.

What then is the Thunderbird? It is a mystery. It has been reported by Native Americans and people today from all walks of life as an enormous bird, larger than any known species, but similar in appearance to a condor. Theories as to what the Thunderbird may be have run the gamut from surviving pterodactyls to the teratorns. The teratorns were large predatory birds from the Pleistocene that exhibited wingspans of upwards of 25 feet. Although thought to be extinct, their general presumed appearance is that of a giant condor-like species, similar in appearence to the Thunderbird. North America has many mysteries, among them the Thunderbird. These creatures are surely one of the most enigmatic cryptids in the world. With misinformation abounding, such as the "Thunderbird Photograph," and the lack of support in searching for these birds, it is no wonder that these creatures have evaded discovery like so many others from around the world.