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

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

DALE DRINNON: Final appendix to Cryptozoological Checklist

Dale started at IUPUI hoping for a degree in Biology before changing to Anthropology and as a result, has a very diverse background in Geology, Zoology, Paleontology, Anatomy, Archaeology, Psychology, Sociology, Literature, Latin, Popular Culture, Film criticism, Mythology and Folklore, and various individual human cultures especially mentioning those of the Pacific and the Americas. He has a working knowledge of every human fossil find up until his graduation and every important Cryptozoological sighting up to that point. He has been an amateur along on archaeological excavations in Indiana as well as doing some local tracking of Bigfoot there. Now he is on the CFZ bloggo....

Additional Forms listed by Eberhart outside of Heuvelmans, Shuker and Drinnon Checklists

Eberhart, in Mysterious Creatures, lists several purported cryptids outside of the ones listed in former checklists. Since the book came out while my checklist was in press with the CFZ (ultimately never printed by them), I have deferred to his listings preferentially when we had listings in common. He does, however, list things with different categorisations and for different purposes than the others of us, and he has multiple entries under separate names for things that would appear to be synonymous while at the same time dumping several things together under one heading where they would not appear to go together. For instance, he lists all of the New Zealand Moa reports under one heading and that under the name of the SMALLEST alleged kind, rather than the more widely-understood name of Moa. With that in mind, here is a list of the otherwise uncounted listings and subtracting everything mentioned at least peripherally by Heuvelmans and Shuker.

I. Marine Forms

1. Amikuk
2. Bobo
3. Caribbean Monk Seal
4. Carabuncle
5. Challenger Deep Flatfish
6. Giant British Octopus
7. Giant Cookiecutter shark
8. Giant Mediterranean Octopus
9. Giant Pacific Octopus
10. Great Auk Survivals
11. Maggot (Sea Monster)
12. Malpelo Monster
13. Pink Dolphin

II. Freshwater Forms

14. Ahuizotl
15 Afa (Possibly a Mesopotamian Buru)
16. Anfish
17. Balong Bidai
18. Bennu Bird
19. Boobrie (I have information which leads me to believe it is a larger version of the Great Auk)
20. Camahueto (Also the proper local name for the elephant seal in Chile)
21. Guarcai Air-breather
22. Guirivilu
23. Hippoturtleox (evidently an unknown amphibious bovid in Tibet)
24. Kipumbubu
25. Lipata
26. Japanese Hairy Fish
27. Mahamba
28. Muhuru=Mbeleu-Mbelieu-Mbielu (a crocodile with an exaggerated spiny back is more likely than a Stegosaur)
29. Ndendeki, giant Softshelled turtles
30. Nhang
31. Oil Pit Squid (actually a known species of worm but unrecognized in the context)
32. Pink Alligator (possibly only a freak coloration)

III. Terrestrial Forms

A. North America
33. Bluenosed Frog
34. Camazotz (Kamazotz)
37. Giant Centepedes
38. Itzcuintlipotztl
39. Lummis' Pichu-Cuate
40. Marked Hominid of Coleman and Hall, probably inseparable from other Wildmen types.
41. Partridge Creek beast - probable hoax or extremely exaggerated sighting of something entirely different from the given description.
42. Shunka Wirak'in - the mountain specimen is evidently a Brown hyena.
43. Tinicum Cat
44. Wolf-deer (alleged only twice, suspicious)

B. Eurasia
45.Arabian Flying Snake (* now allowing this entry for ALL similar flying snakes)
46. Dragon-bird
47. Earth Hound. Not even a mystery; a name applied to the European badger.
48. Hibagon and Yeren, probably relatable to "Fossil Pongo"
49. Huang Yao
50. Irish Elk (persisting, although usually thought extinct at present even by promoters)
51. Jumar
52. Kaha, Central Asian wonderbird; possibly only an ostrich at base.
53. Ki-Lin
54. Ossun Lizard (outsized Lacerta?)
55. Pearl Turtle
56. Posok
57. Ren-Xiong, possibly Qa also, Giant Macaque monkey
58. Welsh Flying Snake (possibly an unusual gallinaceous bird: cannibalism is known in squabbles between rival males among domestic fowls, so possibly the henhouse-raiding reputation stems from such fights. At any rate it is actually feathered, and hence MUST be a bird.)

C. South America
59. Caitetu-Munde
60 Columbus' Ape-faced cat
61.Esar-Paki
62. Macas mammal
63. Onca-cangucu
64. Peruvian Jungle Wildcat
65. Rainbow tiger (evidently a bizzare colour mutation)
66. Red Jamacan parrot
67. Tapir Tiger, ie, "Tapir-killing tiger", not a really unusual allegation
68. Bagge's Black Bird
69. Booaa
70. Kikiyaon
71. Mulilo (herein a caecilian, actually probably a melanistic Gaboon viper)
72. Muhlambela
73. Ngoima
74. Sandewan
75. Waterbobbejan
76. Whiskered Swifts
77.Wolly Cheetah (probably only a coat variant)
78. Kavay
79. Bokyboky
80. Surviving Dodos
81. Fontoynot's tenrec
82. Giant Malagassy Tortoise.
83. Malgassy Lion
84. Tsy-Aomby-Aomby, surviving Pygmy hippos on Madagascar

D. The Orient
84. Bis-cobra
85. Phillipines Secretary bird
86. Harimau Jalur (Tiger with horizontal stripes)
87. Murung River bear
88. Packda, possibly a Phillipine orangutan-like ape
89. Thai Mammoth
90. Mawas and Tua Yeua. Probablre "Fossil Pongo" survivals like Heuvelmans' version of the Kra-Dhan

E. Oceana.
91. Du
92. Giant Tongan skink
93.Huia
94. Ngani-Vatu
95. Poua

I have a tabulation of the breakdown by classifications such as per the Heuvelmans and Shuker checklists, but this list has severe problems as to exactly how many forms are indicated by the entries and how the forms may or may not relate to forms on the other checklists, or indeed to "known" species (I have left off several entries that seem to be already-known species and not even cryptids by definition). The tabulation does break down to about the same proportions with only the difference that a finer distinction is possible in the listed species of mammals and birds indicated. This is a trade-off for a much more vague classification for the reptiles, amphibians and fishes: this list has an even more exaggerated sense of a preference toward listings of land mammals while aquatic forms are given a less exacting treatment. Realistically speaking, the listings should actually be skewed the other way.

Another problem is that a great many listings are only minor colouration variants of known species or known species in unusual ranges. I have left the majority of these off. Eberhart did indicate a cut-off at a "High Weirdness" level that did not consider the "Supernatural" sightings such as Mothman as being on the same level. I have deleted anything which Eberhart considered to be in the "High Weirdness" categories also.





1 comment:

Lance M. Foster said...

I have seen both the mounted (not mountain) "Sunka Warak'in" aka "Ringdocus" at the museum in Ennis, Montana. It is not a brown hyena. The Shunka does not have striped legs, the long coat, etc. of the brown hyena.