A modern day Basilisk in the UK?

 This recent notice appeared in Durham :

A basilisk is a legendary beast said to have been hatched by a cockerel from the egg of a serpent.One of the earliest accounts of the basilisk is in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, written in approximately 79 AD.

 "There is the same power also in the serpent called the basilisk. It is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not more than twelve fingers in length. It has a white spot on the head, strongly resembling a sort of a diadem. When it hisses, all the other serpents fly from it: and it does not advance its body, like the others, by a succession of folds, but moves along upright and erect upon the middle. It destroys all shrubs, not only by its contact, but those even that it has breathed upon; it burns up all the grass too, and breaks the stones, so tremendous is its noxious influence. It was formerly a general belief that if a man on horseback killed one of these animals with a spear, the poison would run up the weapon and kill, not only the rider, but the horse as well.”

There is an account of one being killed in Warsaw in 1587:

 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/07/on-the-trail-of-the-warsaw-basilisk/

The nearest thing in modern Cryptozoology to the basilisk is The Crowing Crested Cobra:

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/crowing-crested-cobra.html

So lets be glad they vanquished it lol  

 

new cryptozoological thriller

The Weird Shield by Tabitca Cope

The Knights of the Talisman and Henry are back and this time their modern day quest pits them up against a dangerous new adversary. Did Laura Loomis survive to join this new quest? An old house once the place of great depravity is again in use near the city of York. What is the strange creature attacking people and what key does the York Minster hold to finding the Weird Shield? You will need to read the book to find out.

“There was a sound behind him, a curious sound. He turned slowly but there was nothing there. Terry shook himself, imagining things now. A few steps along the pavement later he was stopped in his tracks by the snarling winged creature that stood in his way. Terry just stood there in shock and then as it came towards him he felt the warm trickle of urine down his leg. He was too scared to notice as the creature slashed at him with its clawed hands cutting his face. Terry let out a scream and started to run , suddenly finding the strength to move breaking through the fear that had rooted him to the spot. The blood dripped as he ran but it was a wasted expended burst of energy as he felt himself being lifted in to the sky. The creature was fast.”

Find it on Amazon Uk Kindle and on Smashwords.Will be available on Amazon  USA soon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Shield-Knights-Talisman-ebook/dp/B00CVUYGZM/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1369039347&sr=8-7&keywords=tabitca+cope

Ice Age giant creatures in the news

Uncovering the secrets of North America's Ice Age giants

By Alex Campbell BBC News

Eighty thousand years ago the Earth began to cool, marking the start of the last Ice Age. Experts are still discovering how the big freeze affected the giant mammals which prowled its dramatically changing landscape. Scientists are helping to uncover the secrets of giant Ice Age beasts like the sabretooth cat - by foraging in crates of dirt which were collected during the building of a car park. Wooden boxes were built around deposits of earth in 2006 after construction workers discovered the near-complete skeleton of a woolly mammoth while digging underground parking spaces at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The 23 crates, which each have a resident palaeontologist, and 327 buckets of fossil material are yielding vital discoveries and are expected to take several years to examine in full

Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22508888

ancient water found and a lake creature sighting from last summer

Deep Canadian mine yields ancient water

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Water drilled from rock in a North American mine is among the oldest yet found on Earth, say scientists. Novel dating techniques used by the Canadian and UK team suggest the fluid is at least 1.5 billion years old. The water was probably once on the surface and then percolated through the ground where it became trapped at a depth of 2.4km.The discovery, made under Timmins, Ontario, is reported in this week's edition of the journal Nature.Although far from any light source, particular types of micro-organism could survive in the water - it has the right chemistry; it is rich in dissolved gases like hydrogen and methane.

Read rest here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22544761

I found this from last summer. I wonder if there will be more sightings this summer.              

Monster at Lake Hornindal in Norway

August 3, 2012 By snoma

Guys claim to see lake monster.

“We’ve seen it, there’s no doubt about that” says Andreas Solvik to NRK.no.Together with his friends Finn Nyhammer and Arvid Otterdal he was out on Lake Hornindal in Sogn & Fjordane on a short trip Wednesday this week.All of a sudden they became aware of some ripples in the water, Fjordingen newspaper writes.For decades there has been talk about the existence of a lake monster in Lake Hornindal, which is the deepest lake in Europe. At the deepest it’s 514 meter to the bottom and many people have wondered over the years what can be hiding in its depths.

Read rest here : http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/monster-at-lake-hornindal-in-norway/

marine predator fossil confounds experts

Dolphin-like fossil confounds dinosaur experts

By JOHN VON RADOWITZ


A FOSSIL from Iraq has deepened the mystery surrounding the fate of ichthyosaurs, dolphin-like reptiles that swam in the oceans millions of years ago. The partial skeleton belongs to a creature that lived alongside the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Period. Scientists previously thought that this type of ichthyosaur vanished more than 66 million years earlier during the Jurassic Period.The “living fossil” had hardly evolved in all that time, a study published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters shows. Until recently, experts believed ichthyosaurs declined gradually during a number of Jurassic extinction events. The new research, together with the discovery of another ichthyosaur last year, indicates the creatures still thrived during the early part of the Cretaceous Period.

Read rest here :http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/dolphin-like-fossil-confounds-dinosaur-experts-1-2929868

controversy over dinosaur stampede

The great dinosaur stampede that never was?

By Ari Daniel Shapiro PRI's The World, Lark Quarry, Australia

It's billed as the world's only known example of a dinosaur stampede - but new research is challenging the established version of events at Lark Quarry, in the Australian outback, almost 100 million years ago. Rewind the clocks 95 million years, and imagine the scene. You're at the edge of a watering hole in what today is north-eastern Australia. And you're not alone. More than 100 little dinosaurs are here, ranging from the size of chickens to ostriches. They're drinking peacefully, when - all of a sudden - a giant meat-eating dinosaur tears out of the brush. Its teeth and claws flash as it races in for a meal. 

Read rest here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22382503