Cryptozoology.

[That Dude]

I was just wondering if anybody else was interested in this area of science. And for those who don't know Cryptozoology is the study of unknown animals. Some famous cryptozoological discoveries have been the Komodo Dragon and the Cealocanth. Anyway all who want to discuss and post things pertaining to this, well here's the thread to do it at.

[Sapphire225]

I'm taking zoology as my magnet at my school, and I want to become a vet surgeon, but Cryptozoology sounds very interesting to me. Maybe I'll go into it further.

[Fionn Fael]

I find this subject very intriguing! It's good to know that someone else in the world feels the way I do. But I think your definition of this science is a little insufficient. The Encarta online dictionary defines cryptozoology as "the study of imaginary creatures or fabled creatures". You're right, though, the coelacanth is a good example, because it was previously thought to be extinct until more were discovered living in the waters off of South Africa. So if a prehistoric fish can be found after all this time of us thinking it was gone, who knows what else my be out there?

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Yeah, Cryptozoology usually deals with the pseudoscience stuff like Bigfoot and the Lock Ness monster. It's interesting, but really much closer to the study of mythology and folklore - almost an anthropology field than a biology field.

[mitsuki lover]

There have been plenty of stories of sightings of creatures like the Yeti and Sasquatch from around the world,the only problem is that there has not been any definite evidence found of their existance.

[creed4]

There are more things in Heaven and earth then are dream of in our philosophies. - hamlet
I believe that there is more to this world them what we see, and that these creatures may exist in some form

[mitsuki lover]

If we do find them,or evidence for them then they will or should go from the area of cyrptozoology to zoology.

[That Dude]

Yeah they do kinda transfer over to zoology after they've been discovered by the cryptozoologists. They just like to make sure that people remember that not all they study are just legends.

Anyway what does everybody think of, well lets start with a fairly well known one...What do you think of "Champ?" the Lake Champlain monster?

[mitsuki lover]

Wasn't that supposed to be a rather large sturgeon or am I thinking of something else?

[creed4]

Yeah they do kinda transfer over to zoology after they've been discovered by the cryptozoologists. They just like to make sure that people remember that not all they study are just legends.

Anyway what does everybody think of, well lets start with a fairly well known one...What do you think of "Champ?" the Lake Champlain monster?

I think that it is interesting that many lakes at similar levels have lake monsters, like Lock ness, ogpogo? ect. and the sighting say they all look simular

[AsianBlossom]

I saw the title for this thread and immediately thought of Teen Titans Go! issue 45.

Sorry, just had to say that. Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

[Nate]

I think that it is interesting that many lakes at similar levels have lake monsters, like Lock ness, ogpogo? ect. and the sighting say they all look simular

Except the Loch Ness Monster is confirmed to be a hoax, as the guy who took the first photo of it admitted it was a phony.

[mitsuki lover]

The Loch Ness Monster hoax though was based on the fact that there were legends of a creature inhabiting the waters that go back to the time of St.Columba.

[That Dude]

Yeah though the famous "surgeon's photo" that you are talking about has been confirmed a hoax, there are still many sightings of nessie that haven't been proven to be hoaxes, honestly with the Loch Ness Monster there's about a half and half between real sightings of some unknown creature and hoaxes.

And as far as Ogopogo and the Lake Champlain Monster, giant sturgeon fish a high on the list of possibilities of what they could be but there hasn't been enough evidence for a strict conclusion as to what they are.

[Nate]

The Loch Ness Monster hoax though was based on the fact that there were legends of a creature inhabiting the waters that go back to the time of St.Columba.

Yes, but the source of these legends come from a book where a guy kills a wild boar with the power of his voice...so it's kind of like saying vampires exist in San Francisco after reading an Anne Rice novel.

there are still many sightings of nessie that haven't been proven to be hoaxes

Simply because there's no evidence other than "I saw something in the water." You can't prove that right or wrong because it boils down to your word versus theirs. While that doesn't make the statements false in and of itself, it hardly provides support for the theory.

If you tell someone something, it can influence their thinking. Instead of seeing a log in the water, they see a neck or a tail. Instead of seeing seaweed, they see a hump. Things like that. If you were to take ink blots and tell someone what they're supposed to be, they'll be more likely to see it that way.

Basically the word of tourists cannot be trusted because they have been influenced to believe that natural events are now a monster, as far as I'm concerned.

Studies of the Loch by scientific methods have yielded mixed results, with any positive evidence of the creature "mysteriously vanishing." Monster or not, no creature that exists has the power to vanish on a whim...which proves to me that it's a complete fabrication, nothing more.

To put it simply, if such a creature DID exist, after 70 years and huge leaps in technology, we should have found SOME irrefutable evidence of the creature's existence. Yet all we have are word of mouth, doctored photos, and mysterious noises, none of which are solid proof.

[Sammy Boy]

In my limited readings regarding cryptozoology, I have discovered a few interesting things:

[1]. Often scientists do not make the time to research things which are claimed by people to exist, or even when odd discoveries are made (e.g. gigantic human bones in North America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries being dug up).

This is either because the scientists do not have the time, or because they do not wish to make the time (perhaps because it will strongly challenge some of their well-loved theories concerning the living world).

[2]. We overestimate our abilities to discover things which are supposed to exist, and underestimate the abilities of these undiscovered things to remain hidden from us.

[3]. Much of our way of thinking is theory-driven as opposed to data-driven. That is, we sometimes preserve a way or a system of seeing the living world to the extent that we'd discard data which contradicts our system.

[Technomancer]

I'm not sure anyone could call cryptozoology a 'discipline' given that the focus itself isn't so much a study of something, or a body of knowledge. While there is much to be gained by a scientist from discovering something new (especially if it's radically new), real scientists are justifiably cautious in what they think is likely to be found. Modern scientific theories are very much data-driven, and the reality is that the most extravagant claims are notoriously data poor and often outright fraudulent.

[K. Ayato]

In regards to the Loch Ness monster, I heard that the lake itself is rather deep and full of tunnels and crevices. I'm not sure if anyone has accurately mapped out what it looks like under the water. However, if a creature in fact DOES live in the lake, it'd have a lot of places to hide.

Is it true that trilobites have been found in the mountains in the U.S.?

[Technomancer]

Is it true that trilobites have been found in the mountains in the U.S.?

If you mean as fossils in the rocks that make up those mountains then yes. You'll have to consult a geological map though to find out which locales are the most likely to contain them though. Unfortunately, all trace of these creatures vanished at the end of the Permian.

[mitsuki lover]

I meant that Champ was supposedly a sturgeon not Nessie.
Nessie actually was used in The Saint short story 'A Convenient Monster'
(I think that was the title)as an alibi for a murder until the murderer was
eaten by the real deal.(No-one actually SEES the monster but it leaves it's tracks about,unlike in reality.)
My own interest tends toward Bigfoot though as it inhabits my neck of the woods,so to speak.

[That Dude]

Yeah the bigfoot/sasquatch deal is pretty interesting. It's also interesting that nearly all the continants have their own "bigfoot."

Austraila - Yowie
Asia - Yeti and Almas
Europe - Almas
America - Sasquatch.

[K. Ayato]

Seems like all the places in the world with deep lakes have something lurking in them too.

Ogopogo

Loch Ness Monster

Champ

There could be more, but who really knows for certain?