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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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Saturday, December 13, 2014

CRYPTOLINK: Russian sea monster identified after eight years

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. 


When a mysterious skeleton washed up on shore in Russia, many thought they finally had proof of sea monsters. According to a Dec. 4 report by Above Science, scientists determined the monstrous skeleton was not a fish or a crocodile, lending more credibility to the theory that the skeleton belonged to a sea monster. The identity of the creature remained unknown for eight years.
Marine scientists have recently determined that the skeleton doesn’t belong to a sea serpent or sea monster. They claim the skeleton belongs to a beluga whale. The skeleton was discovered on the beach in Sakhalin, an island located in eastern Russia near Japan by soldiers who took pictures of the skeleton. It measured more than 15 feet long and was covered with hair or fur.
Beluga whales are known to inhabit the icy waters surrounding Russia. As mammals they may also have hair when they are young, but do not have hair as adults. According to Sea World, adults typically reach lengths of about 9 feet with large males reaching lengths of just over 15 feet. In addition, beluga whales have a distinct beak and approximately 34 peg-shaped teeth lining the upper and lower jaw. While identification as beluga whale does explain many of the characteristics observed in the skeleton, some wonder why it took eight years to identify the mysterious beast.
Read on...

1 comment:

Markus said...

This story was published some days ago, as it seems first from the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2857254/Creature-deep-Horrific-images-surface-mystery-monster-skeleton-washed-Russian-beach-seems.html). The story about those "scientists" only after 8 years have been able to identify the animal is seemingly completly invented. Just the story has been re-published after 8 years... It was easy to acknowledge for trained people identify it immediately in 2006: its a whale. But was it really a Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) or was it an Orca (Orcinus orca)? Examinations of the pictures have different people led to different identifications...

It was a little bit tricky due to the foreign language, but I was able to get "official" informations. This carcass was found near the village of Tangi (fifty kilometers north of Aleksandrovsk). The pictures in the link below have been taken by an employee of the city administration and therefore you will notice that they are different to those we've seen until now. An necropsy has been done from chief district veterinarian Andrew Senyukov,, showing that the stomach was filled with undigested fish. Employees of Sakhalin State Regional Museum for Science have taken samples for laboratory analysis showing that it was an killer whale.

http://www.sakhalin.info/search/38577/?b=%CF%EE%E8%F1%EA&search=search&search_dd=10&search_mm&search_place=aleksandrovsk&search_rubric&search_theme&search_yyyy=2006