Friday 27 April 2012

article on Loch Ness (including interview with the late Frank Searle)



Sponsored byUFOs and the paranormal with Malcolm Robinson: The Loch Ness monster - part 1
Published on Thursday 26 April 2012 14:35
IN PREVIOUS articles we have looked at ghosts, UFOs and touched on the subject of Cellular Memory. In the following articles, we turn our attention to another one of the world’s most elusive mysteries, one of which can be found right here in the British Isles.It has done wonders for the Scottish tourist industry ad thousands of people come to visit the area from all around the world. I am of course referring to Scotland’s Loch Ness monster. Doing well from the tourists is all well and good but the fact remains, is the Loch Ness monster really real in so far as whatever is in Loch Ness is as yet unrecognised (to science) as a living creature, or are all the sightings of ‘Nessie’ throughout the centuries all misinterpretations? Well in the following articles we’ll take a look and journey through the mystery that is the Loch Ness monster. Sightings of ‘Nessie’ go well back into antiquity, indeed the first official recorded observation of a strange creature in the loch was made by St Columba way back in 565AD. St Columba was a Christian missionary who was visiting Scotland from Ireland.
Extract from frank Searle interview:
(MR) Now, do you think you could have been mistaken with any of these sightings, and that they may have been due to natural explanations?
(FS) No, that is rubbish. I was a professional soldier in a specialised regiment for 18 years; the government spent a lot of time and money training me. I’ve been all around the world, when I’ve seen an animal I know I’ve seen an animal.
(MR) Have you ever seen more than one animal on the loch at the same time?
(FS) Yes, in 1975, it was written up in my first book. A French Canadian girl and I saw two small ones near the mouth of a river; they were about four and a half feet long. It was written up in my first book.

Thursday 26 April 2012

sea monster plant?


Mysterious 'sea monster' plant fossil baffles scientists
450-million-year-old 'blob' was about 7 feet long and 3.5 feet wide
A mysterious fossil that has evoked images of a sea monster roaming the shallow waters of prehistoric Cincinnati may not be the remains of such a complex life form, but even so scientists are stumped as to what kind of creature (or sea plant) it was.
The researchers, who presented the finding at a Geological Society of America meeting in Dayton, Ohio, say one thing is sure: The enigmatic "blob" — discovered in elliptical pieces that, when fitted together, extended about 7 feet long and 3.5 feet wide — was once alive.
The team of scientists, along with the fossil hunter who discovered the 450-million-year-old specimen, suggest a range of possibilities: a type of huge algae or microbial mat, or even a member of the cnidarian family, which includes jellyfish (though scientists concede the jellyfish idea is highly unlikely).

Wednesday 25 April 2012

new limbless species found


Limbless amphibian species found
By Sivaramakrishnan Parameswaran
BBC Tamil Service
A UK-Indian team of scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of limbless amphibian.The animal was identified by accident in the Western Ghats area in the state of Kerala, South India. The specimens were found inside moist soil after digging the shrub-covered bank of a mountain stream. The creature - about 168mm in length and pink in colour - belongs to an enigmatic, limbless group of amphibians known as the caecilians. Ramachandran Kotharambath, lead author of the report, told the BBC Tamil Service that the animal was identified as a new species following extensive comparisons with other, similar examples from this amphibian group.According to the researchers, specimens of the novel caecilian - named Gegeneophis primus - were collected during field works in two consecutive monsoons, first in October 2010 and then in August 2011.They were discovered at a valley on a plantation in the Wynad district of Kerala.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

new wildcats discovered


Camera traps capture new Scottish wildcat sites in the Cairngorms
By David Miller
BBC Scotland environment correspondent
Previously unknown populations of Scottish wildcats are living in the Cairngorms National Park, conservationists have discovered.The new pockets of habitation have been identified by camera traps which captured images of the animals across the park and beyond.The Cairngorms Wildcat Project has also helped raise awareness about the cats.However, scientists warn the species remains under threat because of cross-breeding with domestic and feral cats.
The Scottish wildcat, or Highland Tiger as it is sometimes known, is larger and much fiercer than its domestic cousin.It is estimated there are only about 400 left in the wild and for the past three years researchers have been using camera traps to gain an insight into the lives of the animals.
See pics read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17820001

Friday 20 April 2012

New sonar picture:does it show giant eel in Loch Ness?

Is this the Loch Ness Monster? Sonar picture shows 'serpent-like creature' at bottom of mysterious loch
New sonar image described by monster hunters as totally unexplained
Experts have ruled out the ‘sighting’ being any other fish, seal or debris
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2132574/The-Loch-Ness-Monster-Sonar-picture-shows-serpent-like-creature-mysterious-loch.html#ixzz1saTDtu5M

Thursday 19 April 2012

ten most likely places to see Bigfoot

10 Most Active Bigfoot Sites in North America
When it comes to bigfoot sightings, at Top Secret Writers we remain agnostic when it comes to whether or not sightings represent that of a new species of creature. It is difficult to believe that such a species could remain so elusive and hidden within a country where it can be very difficult to find any location without sign of human presence.With that said, bigfoot sightings continue. Furthermore, while some sightings are surely a result of someone ignorant of the wildlife in their area, there are an impressive number of sightings that come from perfectly sane, educated people. In fact, as we mentioned in our Bigfoot article last year, even Jane Goodall told reporter Ira Flatow on NPR that she found the evidence compelling, and while it hasn’t been proven they exist, she hopes that they do. In fact she told Ira, “…you’ll be amazed when I tell you that I’m sure that they exist.” (1)

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Big Cats

Sightings of Sabre toothed cats.
There seems to have been little interest in Sabre Toothed cats sightings .Considering that sabre toothed creatures only died out about 10000 years ago and therefore there could be an ancestor around that was the result of interbreeding between cats as the last remnants of the sabre toothed fought to survive, it seems strange that this big cat is virtually ignored by cryptozoology. There is very little mention of it , even by those who research big cats. These cats were powerful hunters with large canine teeth that protruded out of the mouth, presumably for ripping prey apart or perhaps to get a grip on a prey that could not be broken if the teeth sank well in. The name sabre tooth comes from these teeth. Reports of sabre toothed cats have come from Africa, South America and even Europe. Some of these modern reports describe sabre-toothed cats as being aquatic, in that they lurk in water to seize prey or live in hidden dens with underground entrances. They may of course be mixing up the cat with something such as a crocodile, stories do get distorted over time as the “Chinese Whispers” go on. Some of the stories/ accounts of sightings are below:

In 1940 there was an account of the Mexican Ruffed Cat by zoologist Ivan Sanderson.. He obtained a large, tough cat skin from local people. The skin was about 6 feet( 2 metres) from nose-tip with a short 1.5 feet( 45 cm) tail.( Bear in mind pelts can stretch or shrink depending on how they are dried). The flanks and upper limbs had a series of wavy stripes in alternate light and dark shades of brown. The lower limbs were very dark brown, almost black as was the tail. The cat also had a large ruff that started just behind the shoulders and encircled the neck and covered the ears from above and behind. A second skin of a smaller specimen was obtained but found to be in poor condition, but had sharper stripes. They were stored with other skins in Sanderson's base, but the base got flooded and the skins lost or ruined. Several candidates have been put forward including the extinct Samilodon (sabre-tooth tiger) . Sabre toothed animals have been depicted by indigenous Indians in their art work. However this does not mean they have been seen recently but could simply be the stories of them are still alive and passed on through the generations.
In 1966 a report of a sabre-toothed cat came from South America, by naturalist Peter Matthiessen While in Paraguay, Matthiessen was told by a seaman named Picquet about the existence of a mysterious cat :"[He] described a rare striped cat not quite so large as a jaguar and very timid, which is possessed of two very large protruding teeth : this animal, he said, occurs in the mountain jungles of Colombia and Ecuador, and he has glimpsed it once himself." (Matthiessen 1966: 32, 33).(N.B. Science Illustrée of September 1998 reports an observation by a French sailor, François Piquet , of a sabre-toothed cat in Paraguay in 1984 coming out of a cavern. It may be the same story as above but the date was mixed up)
In 1975 a "mutant jaguar" was shot and killed in Paraguay. Upon being examined by zoologist Juan Acavar, he described it as having a foot (30cms) long sabre-teeth. Acavar felt that the animal was in fact a Smilodon, which supposedly died out over 10,000 years ago. The story goes that fearing the report would frighten the public and attract ridicule he decided on the mutant jaguar story. However nothing more has been heard of the carcass.( N.B. Cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that sabre-toothed tigers, like Smilodon, may be involved in such sightings, but it's more likely that the Thylacosmilidae, extinct sabre-toothed marsupials indigenous to South America, are the real culprits. )

In 1975 in Chad Africa, Christian Le Noel was leading a game hunt from Derby near the river Ouandja 25km from Tirongoulou on the Chad-Sudan border when he heard a howling from a cave like nothing he had heard before. His tracker refused to go any further, saying that it was the sabre-tooth. The people of Temki, Hadjeray in south-west Chad call the sabre-toothed tiger the "hadjel." The Zagaoua people of the region describe the creature as being as tall as a lion, with red fur and white strips, tailless, and possessing a pair of large fangs/teeth projecting from its mouth. Wounds have been found on hippopotami that could have been inflicted by the teeth of a sabre-toothed tiger. Christian Le Noel witnessed a hippo that died of strange wounds which could have been made by an attack by a cat with large upper canine teeth.
In the UK there are stories about Hackney Marsh. There are tales of the Hackney Marsh Big Cat which is thought to be a sabre-toothed tiger. Witnesses have described it as four feet tall with very long canine teeth.
So could there be a remnant of the sabre toothed cat still around or even a hybrid, the result of interbreeding? Anything is possible . I just wonder why no one seems to have pursued the research for their existence , which is more likely than a living dinosaur in Africa or South America. If anyone has any thoughts please post a comment.

1998 Le félin aux dents de sabre. Science Illustrée, n° 9 : 62 (septembre).
Le Noel ,Christian 1999 On Target : History and Hunting In Central Africa Trophy Room Books; Limited edition
Matthiessen, Peter 1966 The Cloud Forest Pyramid Books New York.

In view of all the recent big cat sightings I thought I would re post this. 

Saturday 14 April 2012

Big Cat Fever and a baby mammoth

Cougar sightings reach fever pitch
By Trevor Wilhelm, The Windsor Star
Step aside Bigfoot, take five Nessie, and make way for the Essex County cougar.After the Amherstburg area has been abuzz for weeks with stories about unsubstantiated sightings, the big cat seems to be on the move. But now, Bigfoot-style, there are photos.Jim Dufour from South Woodslee thinks he saw a cougar Friday in his back yard. While he was scratching his head trying to figure out what the animal was, it occurred to him to snap some pictures. But just like the famous fuzzy photos of hard-to-find creatures including Big Foot, the Loch Ness monster and the chupacabra, these do little to make the cougar mystery any less mysterious.Even Dufour isn't convinced. One thing he's certain of is that it was far too big to be a regular house cat. He took the photos to work on Friday."We've been looking at them all morning at my work," said Dufour, 43, a teacher at New Beginnings."I'm trying to get others to convince me what it was. I'll be honest with you, I'm not 100 per cent convinced what it was but it certainly wasn't a cat. We got a lot of cats in the neighbourhood, see them all the time. But this looked way too big to be a cat."

And in pictures.....A baby Mammoth:

Friday 13 April 2012

New Find of feathered dinosaur ,will it answer evolution questions?

Bird-like dinosaur found with eggs in Patagonia
The bones and eggs of a new 70-million-year-old dinosaur that resembled a flightless bird have been found in Patagonia, scientists say. Palaeontologists said they expected the eggs, which were fertilised and well-developed, to help explain how birds evolved from dinosaurs. Some of the eggs were probably still inside the mother dinosaur when she died - other eggs were nearby. The new species, Bonapartenykus ultimus, is a member of the small, long-legged, fast-moving Alvarezsaurid dinosaur family, they report in Cretaceous Research. Although the link to modern-day birds has been disputed in the past, palaeontologist Fernando Novas said the current batch of bones resembled the skeleton of the Nandu, a modern flightless bird of the Rhea genus, native to Patagonia.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Living Fossil older than first thought.


Living fossil' fish gets a little older
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
A "living fossil", the coelacanth, swam the seas some 409 million years ago, a fossil skull reveals, pushing back the age of the lobe-finned fish family by 17 million years. Scholars documented the discovery of the primitive-looking fish (given the species name, Latimeria) in 1938, a finding that made headlines with news that a critter found in ancient fossils still swam in modern seas. Fossils later revealed fish that resembled modern-looking coelacanths were swimming around and had evolved complicated body plans by more than 380 million years ago, in the Middle Devonian era when the earliest land animals were still finding their footing. In the journal Nature Communications, a team led by Min Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reports the discovery of a coelacanth skull found in the Yunnan province of China, dating even further back, to more than 400 million years ago. That moves the ancient fish into the Early Devonian era, "The Age of Fish", a time marked by the first forests, when the large continent Gondwana was moving into position to form the super-continent Pangaea.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Kentucky Bigfoot Hunters in the news

Bigfoot hunters in Kentucky hope to save 'beast'
Bigfoot is big news again in the United States. Not since the late 1960s, when grainy footage first emerged of a giant, ape-like creature walking upright through the woods, has there been so much interest in proving its existence. So how exactly do you go about tempting a creature most believe is just a myth out into the open, where it can be filmed and studied? The Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization is a group of friends who spend their spare time investigating sightings and attempting to communicate with the elusive beasts some call the Sasquatch. They demonstrated their methods for the BBC.
Produced by the BBC's Matt Danzico

Saturday 7 April 2012

free crypto fiction book

My book Dark Wear, which includes Big cats and witches is free on kindle for the next 4 days. get it whilst you can. Available free on kindle UK. USA and EU.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Wear-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B005OJF2CI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1333862910&sr=8-3




Big Cat Attacks

Tiger and leopard attacks in Nepal
There have been few reported tiger attacks in Nepal in recent years
A teenager has been killed in what officials in Nepal have described as a "rare" attack by a tiger.Police say that the attack took place as the 17-year-old went in to the Chitwan National Park to cut grass with four friends. The others escaped. Experts say there have been fewer tiger attacks in Nepal in recent years because of their declining numbers. Meanwhile three people were hurt by a leopard in a village near the capital Kathmandu. Newspaper reports say villagers were left terrorised by the attack. Unlike most "man-eating" tigers, aggressive leopards are less afraid to enter human settlements, experts say.
The leopard responsible for the latest attack has not yet been captured and is still reported to be roaming the area. A policeman was among the injured. Experts say that tiger attacks in Nepal are rare compared with 100 years ago when one of the country's most famous "man-eaters" roamed the forests. The Champawat Tigress is reported to have killed about 200 men and women before being driven out of Nepal into what is now the state of Uttarakhand in northern India.She continued to kill there, and her total number of human victims was estimated at 430.

Thursday 5 April 2012

old theories re hashed...did dinosaurs live in water? new discoveries may have found that difficult.

Dinosaurs lived underwater, British scientist claims
LONDON –  Dinosaurs were too big to have roamed the earth and must have lived in water, a British scientist controversially claimed Tuesday. Professor Brian J. Ford, an independent research biologist, told scientific magazine Laboratory News that the prehistoric creatures could not have supported their own huge frame and cumbersome tails on two legs alone. Ford believes that the prehistoric creatures evolved in shallow water and lived in an aquatic environment to support their weight."Every time you see these images, they are always the same," Ford wrote at Laboratory News. "These huge dinosaurs crunching across arid deserts holding these huge tails erect as they are looking around for prey. It makes no sense." "Just imagine that the landscape was water -- it suddenly makes sense," he added. "This huge tail is buoyant, floating in the water. It becomes a swimming aid. Suddenly his environment is sympathetic to him." Ford said the fact that archaeologists rarely find tail marks along with dinosaur footprints supports his theory, because the creatures' muscular tails were aiding their movement through water, rather than being dragged along the ground.
I thought this theory went out in the 50’s? He has some opposition:

Paleontologists Sink Aquatic Dinosaur Nonsense
Posted By: Brian Switek
Earlier this week, the rotting corpse of a discarded dinosaur idea rose from the depths. Brian J. Ford, a television personality and self-styled independent researcher, decided that Apatosaurus, Allosaurus and kin just looked wrong ambling about on land. Unfettered by the accumulation of scientific evidence about how dinosaurs moved and the environments they lived in, Ford decided to set scientists straight by floating an idea that had been sunk decades ago—that all large dinosaurs spent their lives in water. And, like the bad science it is, the idea strained to explain everything about dinosaur biology. Not only did the idea supposedly explain why non-avian dinosaurs went extinct—their watery homes dried up, of course—but the aquatic setting also explained the small arms of the tyrannosaurs. The great tyrants, Ford said, would catch fish and hold them close for visual inspection before downing the sashimi. Ford’s speculation is a buffet of nonsense. There is so much wrong with it, it’s hard to know where to start.

T. rex relative is biggest ever feathered animal
A newly described relative of Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest known feathered animal - living or extinct.The feathered meat-eating dinosaur lived about 125 million years ago and is estimated to have weighed a whopping 1,400kg as an adult. The new species, known as Yutyrannus, has been identified from three fossils found in north-eastern China. The finds, detailed in Nature journal, challenge current theories about the evolution of T.rex and its relations. This group of dinosaurs is known as the Tyrannosauroids. Tyrannosaurus rex and its gigantic cousins lived until around 65 million years ago - when a huge asteroids wiped out the dinosaurs - but most of their earlier relatives are thought to have been much smaller.
However, Xing Xu and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now described three specimens of Yutyrannus, which represents an early example of the Tyrannosauroid form.The fossils include the one-and-a-half-tonne adult and also two juvenile specimens that would have tipped the scales at about half a tonne. The dinosaur, whose name translates as "beautiful feathered tyrant", shares some features with later tyrannosaurs like T.rex, but has three functional fingers (where T. rex had two) and a foot typical of other early tyrannosaur relatives.Perhaps the most notable discovery, however, is the creature's extensive plumage, which provides direct evidence for the existence of giant feathered dinosaurs.
Feathers might have been a problem in water.........

Wednesday 4 April 2012

more news on Woolly Mammoths

Woolly mammoth may have been killed by humans
By Ben Aviss  Reporter, BBC Nature
The discovery of a well-preserved juvenile woolly mammoth suggests that ancient humans "stole" mammoths from hunting lions, scientists say.Bernard Buigues of the Mammuthus organisation acquired the frozen mammoth from tusk hunters in Siberia.Scientists completed an initial assessment of the animal, known as Yuka, in March this year.Wounds indicate that both lions and humans may have been involved in the ancient animal's death.
"Already there is dramatic evidence of a life-and-death struggle between Yuka and some top predator, probably a lion," says leading mammoth expert, Daniel Fisher, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan."Even more interesting, there are hints that humans may have taken over the kill at an early stage."
If further investigation by Mr Buigues, Professor Fisher and fellow scientists at the Sakha Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk confirms this analysis, it will be the first carcass to show signs of interaction with ancient humans found in this part of the world.The Yuka mammoth was filmed as part of the BBC/Discovery Co-Production programme Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice.
Read rest see pics here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17525070

Tuesday 3 April 2012

more on giant snakes

The giant snake that stalked the Earth
By Jane O'Brien  BBC News, Washington
A recently discovered prehistoric monster snake provides answers about the past - and raises questions for the future. Around 58 million years ago a monstrous snake slithered out of the swampy jungles of South America and began a reign of terror. Weighing more than a ton and measuring 14m (approximately 50 feet) the giant reptile could swallow a whole crocodile without showing a bulge. But a few years ago scientists never even knew it existed.
"Never in your wildest dreams do you expect to find a 14-metre boa constrictor. The biggest snake today is half that size," says Dr Carlos Jaramillo, a scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and part of the team that made the discovery. The fossils were exposed by excavation at the massive Cerrejon open-face coal mine in northern Colombia. In 2002 scientists had discovered at that site the remains of a tropical rainforest from the Palaeocene epoch - perhaps the planet's first. As well as fossilised leaves and plants, they unearthed reptiles so big they defied imagination."What we found was a giant world of lost reptiles - turtles the size of a kitchen table and the biggest crocodiles in the history of fossil records," says Jonathan Bloch, an expert in vertebrate evolution at the University of Florida. They also found the vertebrae of a colossal snake.
Read rest see illustration here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17544885

There were stories in the past of giant snakes...perhaps descendants of these big guys?

Monday 2 April 2012

Mystery crocodile in Nigeria


Mystery crocodile terrorises Ikotun/Igando communities
RESIDENTS of Joshua Okeowo and Bepo Communities in Ikotun/Igando suburb of Lagos State have raised the alarm over the continued presence of a `mystery crocodile' in the area.Some of the residents stated yesterday that the reptile had lived in the area for 15 years and had constantly been tormenting them.
Extract 
Mrs. Atinuke Adewale, another resident, said that the reptile was unusually huge and behaved in a mysterious way.She said that she had twice seen the animal swimming on Okeowo Street, which was always flooded and could not stand the sight of its huge size and the way it behaved.`I have seen it twice. It is real. It is so big that I got confused if it was actually a reptile. It would swim back and forth and make some scary noise


I wonder what the scary noise was? Crocodiles growl I think. Unless of course it isn't a croc but something else? Be interesting to see if it is captured and what it turns out to be.