news of Mokele-mbeme and New Jersey Devil

Explorers embark on hunt for 'African Loch Ness Monster' Mokele-mbeme

A group of intrepid explorers are embarking on an expedition to track down the elusive lake monster Mokele-mbeme – known as the African Loch Ness Monster.This modern-day dinosaur is believed to live in the jungle rivers of the Congo in Africa.Now a team of explorers is setting out to discover once and for all whether Africa’s monster is fact or fiction. The team of dino hunters arrived in the Congo capital of Brazzaville on Tuesday with an array of firearms for protection. ‘It would be wholly unwise to travel where we are going without firearms,’ said spokesman for the group Joe Marrero, 28.‘We plan to be in the jungle for three months searching for the mokele and other new species and can only carry so much food.’He and two others - expedition leader and biologist Stephen McCullah, 21, and Sam Newton, 22, all from the US - begin their search next month.Over 80 per cent of Congo remains unexplored, according to recent government figures.
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/903666-explorers-embark-on-hunt-for-african-loch-ness-monster#ixzz1zGyAEl4f

The 'Jersey Devil' was on the prowl in 1987 - Almanac June 30, 2012

The Express-Times By Pete Brekus

1987: They only come out at night: (from the AP): "Mysterious roars and growls from the darkened woods have spurred residents of Woodbury, N.J., to form search parties and police to try to trap what may be a wild animal on the loose in the Pine Barrens. 'They think this is just another one of those incidents like the Jersey Devil,' said Carol Davis, referring to the mythical creature said to have stalked the Pinelands for generations. She and her husband have been afraid to let their daughters play outside their Pittsgrove Township home after they heard the sounds and saw some type of wild animal in the woods outside their home last week. Police and state wildlife officials are trying to track down the mysterious animal causing the noises, which are only heard at night."

Read rest here : http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/entertainment-general/index.ssf/2012/06/the_jersey_devil_was_on_the_pr.html

I have intermittent internet access so will update when I can. 

apologies will be no updates for a couple of days as my house flooded yesterday and had fire engines in attendance. The mud left by the water when it went down  has left a terrible mess. Myself and the cats are ok though so could have been worse. normal service will resume as soon as possible :-)

New species discovered and were Dinosaurs warm blooded?

Divers discover new-to-science species Wednesday, 27 June 2012, 10:16 am Press Release: NIWA

NIWA Media Release Divers discover new-to-science species in one of the deepest flooded caves in the world

In a recent diving expedition, Australian cave divers found three new-to-science species – a transparent amphipod, a worm, and a small snail – down in one of the world’s deepest underwater caves, near Nelson. “It’s not easy to get inside the caves, and we want to know about the very specific life in them,” says NIWA expert Dr Graham Fenwick.The discoveries were made in the Pearse Resurgence, a cave in the Mt Arthur Range, close to Nelson, where the divers were exploring underwater cave systems. They were collecting samples of stygofauna, which literally means animals from the River Styx, the mythical river that leads to the underworld.
Read rest see pics here: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1206/S00058/divers-discover-new-to-science-species.htm

Total of 79 Potentially New Shark Species Found
A genetic analysis suggests more overlooked species than scientists anticipated, raising concerns that populations of new species are quite small and endangered
By Daniel Cressey and Nature magazine 
A genetic study of thousands of specimens of sharks and rays has uncovered scores of potential new species and is fuelling biologists’ debates over the organisation of the family tree of these animals. The work also raises the possibility that some species are even more endangered than previously thought.Sharks and rays are key predators in marine ecosystems, but the life cycles and population numbers of many species remain poorly understood. The family tree of these animals — which are part of the elasmobranch subclass — has proved similarly opaque, with little agreement among researchers over their evolutionary relationships.Gavin Naylor, a biologist at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and his colleagues sequenced samples from 4,283 specimens of sharks and rays as part of a major effort to fill the gaps. The team found 574 species, of which 79 are potentially new, they report in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.Naylor says that he was “flabbergasted” by the result, especially because the sequencing covered only around half of the roughly 1,200 species thought to exist worldwide.
Read rest here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=total-79-potentially-new-shark-species-found

Dinosaur cold-blood theory in doubt
By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News
One of the strongest lines of evidence that dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like modern reptiles, has been knocked down.Prior studies of dinosaur bones uncovered what are known as "lines of arrested growth".The creatures were presumed to be cold-blooded because modern cold-blooded animals show these same lines.But scientists reporting in Nature have studied the bones of 41 modern mammal species from around the world, finding every one had these lines as well.The idea that dinosaurs are cold-blooded, or ectothermic, goes back to the 19th Century. But a number of discoveries 1960s have been challenging that notion.Because soft tissues such as organs and skin are not preserved (with a few notable exceptions), much of what is known about dinosaurs must be inferred from their bones, and comparisons made with modern animals that can be studied in greater detail.
Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18602965

Giant Tortoise now extinct as last one dies

Last Pinta giant tortoise Lonesome George dies

Scientists estimate he was about 100 years old. Park officials said they would carry out a post-mortem to determine the cause of his death. With no offspring and no known individuals from his subspecies left, Lonesome George became known as the rarest creature in the world. For decades, environmentalists unsuccessfully tried to get the Pinta Island tortoise to reproduce with females from a similar subspecies on the Galapagos Islands. Park officials said the tortoise was found dead in his corral by his keeper of 40 years, Fausto Llerena. While his exact age was not known, Lonesome George was estimated to be about 100, which made him a young adult as the subspecies can live up to an age of 200.

Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18574279

Giant Wombat remains found

'Giant wombat' grave found in Queensland, Australia

Scientists have unearthed the biggest find yet of prehistoric "giant wombat" skeletons, revealing clues to the reasons for the species' extinction.The find, in Queensland, Australia, of about 50 Diprotodons - the largest marsupial that ever lived - has been called a "palaeontologists' goldmine". The plant-eating giants, the size of a rhinoceros, had backward-facing pouches big enough to carry an adult human.The fossils are believed to be between 100,000 and 200,000 years old.Lead scientist Scott Hocknull, from the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, said: "When we did the initial survey I was just completely blown away by the concentrations of these fragments.

Red rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18533038

bigfoot tracks found and more on Yowies

Tracks leave bigfoot imprint

By KEITH KINNAIRD News editor

SANDPOINT — Bonnie Thompson never set out to look for bigfoot, but can’t help but can’t help but wonder if she stumbled onto a sign of the elusive bipedal humanoid. Thompson was fishing with friends in the Trestle Creek drainage 30 years ago this month when she glanced down at the game trail she was walking on and saw a large footprint.“As soon as I saw it, I knew it was something unusual,” said Thompson. Looking behind her 6 or 7 feet away, she noticed another footprint of equal size and took off running to find her fishing companions while repeatedly shouting “bigfoot!” Thompson said her companions were dubious of her assessment, but the laughing stopped once they saw the tracks. Other similar tracks were found on the forest floor, but due to the ground cover they weren’t as discernible as the other two. Thompson later went to Merwin’s, purchased plaster of Paris and returned to the creek, where she made impressions of the footprints.
Read rest see pics here: http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/news/local/article_dd2dd3fe-ba98-11e1-9372-0019bb2963f4.html

Yowie sightings and other weird beasts in western New South Wales
Mysterious, fearsome, fascinating, and very hairy - do "yowies" and other weird beasts roam the state's isolated regions?When Brooke Daniels spoke to Rob Willis from the National Sound Archive about yowie sightings, it triggered a flurry of discussion and controversy."They crop up quite a bit," Rob says of sightings of the folklore creatures. "There's this great debate as to whether the yowie is a latecomer, or an earlycomer, or how long they've been around."I first came across this in Indigenous culture, particularly around the Condobolin area. It's quite common in Indigenous culture.From Indigenous legends to the hazy visions of truck drivers passing through the Pilliga, tales of weird beasts just won't go away.
Read rest and hear MP3 file here: http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/06/21/3529867.htm?site=centralwest