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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

MARKUS HEMMLER: The dinosaur carcass of Framboise

The dinosaur carcass of Framboise

The pseudo-plesiosaur-prozess shown simplifiedSome Globster seem at first to look with their external shape, often with a small head, a long thin neck, a large body with fins and a pointed tail, at the first sight like a representative of the extinct marine reptiles group of the plesiosaurs. In fact, however, in all cases where sufficient material or data for identification was present, it turned out without exception as the carcass of a basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), which ultimately led to the coining of the term "pseudo-plesiosaurs" by Daniel Cohen in his book The encyclopedia of monsters“.

The underlying process can be generalized described as follows: Once the tissue of the shark is soft the whole gill-apparatus of the filter-feeding fish falls off including the lower jaw. Starting from the front of the body from the pectoral fins, only the spine is left and - in relation to the body - the small skull. The spine runs heterocercal as with all sharks that are the vertebrae of the tail fin always run upward. The lower lobe fins rot or disappear for other reasons so in result it seems that the animal just has a long, pointed tail. There are also more general processes and factors: the skin, the flesh and the dorsal fin rot or be eaten by fish, the fibers of the muscles break up, what gives the impression of hair or the presence of a mane, etc., etc. Many cases of such pseudo-plesiosaurs have become known over the years and were described including for example the Querqueville carcass of 1934 from France, the carcasses of Deepdale Holm and Hunda of 1941 from Scotland, the Scituate monster of 1970 from Massachusetts or even the Canadian " Parkie "from 2002. To better understand this process, it is obviously important to record every case and therefore a previously little-documented and seemingly forgotten case will be presented:

Read on...







THE BIGFOOT HUNTER: STILL SEARCHING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PARANORMAL ADVENTURERS PULL OUT ALL STOPS FOR PREMIERE OF DEBUT FILM THE BIGFOOT HUNTER: STILL SEARCHING

Seasoned paranormal adventurers to debut independent documentary film about New York Sasquatch hunters to sold out crowd in Bigfoot's back yard.

WAVERLY, NEW YORK: THE BIGFOOT HUNTER:STILL SEARCHING, the first feature length film from WF? online magazine, the legend chasing curators of all things weird, returns home to Waverly for a very special world premiere screening filled with legendary monsters, local curiosities, and lots of fun surprises. Not only does the documentary feature the exploits of the Elmira Bigfoot Watch, but marks the second big screen outing of infamous paranormal provacateurs Ghost Hunters, Incorporated.

Shot in and around Elmira, New York in the summer of 2006, THE BIGFOOT HUNTER: STILL SEARCHING follows the members of GHI as they meet Tim Holmes, the eccentric leader of the Elmira Bigfoot Watch, an internationally recognized monster hunting organization. When Tim invites the gang to tag along on a weekend expedition in the hills of the Southern Tier, the group discovers, much to their surprise, that the legend of Sasquatch is alive and well in their own backyard.

The film's creation was a happy accident with an interesting outcome according to director Greg Newkirk (of GHI Presents: The Graveyard Shift). "We took videocameras with us everywhere as kids, so when we found out that there were a couple people chasing down a legendary monster right next door, we just so happened to capture the whole experience on tape," Newkirk said. "Tim Holmes ended up being one of the most interesting people I've ever met, and as we trekked further into the woods with him it became clear that he honestly believes in what he's doing whole heartedly, and furthermore, that there might be good reason for us to believe in it as well. We didn't set out to make a documentary, it just ended up being the natural outcome of our weekend with the Elmira Bigfoot Watch. It was too bizarre, too funny, and too interesting not to share with the world."

It was important for producer Jason Gowin (of A&E's Extreme Paranormal) to stress that this film was as independent as a documentary can get. "Our documentary is an impressive film that was made with a lot of unimpressive equipment," he explains. "We were able to create something out of next to nothing, and when people hear what our budget was they're shocked. I love that reaction because it really goes to show what can be achieved when you just plain love what you're doing. When people see the film, it's really going to drive that point home in more ways than one."

It would appear that fans of the unexplained love what they're doing too. Within two days of it's online annoucement on the Facebook social network, the premiere screening of THE BIGFOOT HUNTER: STILL SEARCHING sold out, prompting the Waverly Opera House to open up a second evening of festivities loaded with never-before-seen clips from the group's previous adventures, door prizes, and even a special question and answer session with the film's star.

"The response has been amazing," said Newkirk. "We've pulled out all the stops for this one, and I can say with a good amount of certainty that the paranormal community has never seen anything like this before. It's the funniest film you'll ever see about Bigfoot hunters, but it's also got a lot of heart. We've made sure that this is going to be an event that celebrates strangeness in a way that people haven't seen for a very long time.

THE BIGFOOT HUNTER: STILL SEARCHING screens Friday and Saturday, the 21st and 22nd of October, at 7:30 PM at the Waverly Opera House in Waverly, NY.

For more information on THE BIGFOOT HUNTER: STILL SEARCHING please visit:
http://www.whofortedmag.com/
www.facebook.com/bigfootfilm

For more information on the cast and crew, please contact:


Jason Gowin - gow2099@hotmail.com
Greg Newkirk - editor@whofortedmag.com

NEIL ARNOLD: REMEMBER THE RED GHOST ?

The Pittsburgh Press of November 27th 1982 commented on a long forgotten monster story known as the ‘red ghost of Arizona’. As you will read from the original report, although the mystery was cleared up, another was created, making the ‘red ghost’ a rather eerie enigma.

In 1883, a huge red monster mounted by a ghostly rider killed a woman in the south-eastern corner of the Arizona Territory. The beast left behind cloven footprints and long, red hairs. Nicknamed the Red Ghost it inspired many scary tales. One rancher, however, identified the creature for what it was: a camel with a man – perhaps a dead man – on its back.

Camels were not uncommon then in the West. But who was the rider ? That the man was dead was verified when five miners came across the camel and shot at it, dislodging the skull from a human skeleton on its back.

The camel attacked several other people, but there were no more reports of the Red Ghost after 1884. In 1893, a rancher shot and killed a camel in his turnip patch, and it turned out to be the Red Ghost. The camel’s body was covered with a network knotted rawhide strips. It became clear that the skeleton had been tied to the camel’s back. Perhaps it was a grisly joke, or perhaps a murderer had bound his victim – alive or dead – to a walking coffin.’

A similar misinterpreted beast is the ‘Black Devil’, or the ‘cannibal stallion’. This confused legend originates from the Shoshones (the Shoshoni tribe are Native American people) and was once said to concern a centaur-like monster although some argue that the beast came about due to a misinterpretation of a horse and its rider in the distance.

And he who rides the tiger…

And whilst on the subject of the dead riding around on the back of a phantom animal. The Carp Review of 7th October 1909 speaks of ‘Strange Hindu Beliefs – Say Ghost of Man Killed by Tiger Ride’s on Beast’s Head – The uneducated Hindu (and he is in the great majority) believes that the ghost of a man killed by a tiger rides on the head of the beast that slew him, to warm him of danger and to guide him to new victims. It is declared that God provides the tiger’s daily wants to the amount of one rupee a day; that is to say, if the tiger kills a calf worth six rupees he will not be allowed another victim for five days. Eating the flesh of a tiger is supposed to give one great courage and alertness, but the whiskers must first be singed off the beast or his spirit will haunt the man who fed him and he is likely to be turned into a tiger in the next world. In a small Indian village in the interior a villager was killed by a tiger, says the Washington Star. The police investigated the accidental death and rendered the verdict: “Pandu died of a tiger eating him; there was no other cause of death. Nothing was left of him save his bones and some fingers, which probably belonged to either the right or left hand.”

HAUNTED SKIES: Mansfield, August 1969


http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/10/ufo-clippings-august-1969-mansfield.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

Yesterday’s News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1907 Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company started the first wireless broadcasts across the sea
And now the news:

Cichlid Male Nannies Help Out, Especially If They'...
Super-Sized Muscle Made Twin-Horned Dinosaur a Spe...
Friendly croc croaks
Fire engulfs Bosnia's largest nature reserve
Stromatolite colony found in Giant's Causeway
Polar Bears Ill from Accumulated Environmental Tox...
Some species and regions won’t be troubled by clim...

The murderer Dr Crippen was apprehended as he attempted to escape justice by crossing the Atlantic ocean to the Americas, thanks to the new wireless system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iA_i47kbvA

CFZ CANADA: Newfoundland and Labrador Cryptids

The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador encompasses a total area of 405,212 square kilometres (156,453 square miles) yet has a population of only about half a million people. Its capital city of St. John’s lies on the same latitude as Seattle, Washington and Paris, France, but the temperatures can range from a balmy 20C to a frigid -18C. First inhabited about 9000 years ago, Europeans arrived about 1000AD. These Vikings didn’t stay, however, and it wasn’t until the 15th century that regular inhabitants graced this pristine environment. Until 1949, Newfoundland was a colony of England, so it is one of Canada’s newer provinces. Made up of vast coastline, thick boreal forest, dense barrens, and ancient rock formations, the area is a great place for spotting whales, seabirds, icebergs, and occasionally, something even more fantastic.

Check it out...

DALE DRINNON: Three more 'Cedar and Willow' posts

Three more for today:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/some-other-austins-including-six_16.html

http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/heroes-invulnerable-hayden-panettiere.htmlAnd

http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/thomas-mopotherpucker-in-land-of.html

A REMARKABLE RECORD FROM THE DEVONSHIRE BRANCH OF BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION