new discoveries:giant fish and links to Iceman

New Species of Giant Fish Arapaima Discovered in Brazil

Oct 11, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Prof Donald Stewart from Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at State University of New York has described a new species of arapaima from the central Amazon of Brazil. Arapaima, one of the world’s biggest freshwater fish and the largest freshwater fish of South America, is unique among fish – it can breathe air. The largest specimens can reach more than 2.5 m in length and weigh up to 200 kg.

Read rest and see pic here:http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-giant-fish-arapaima-brazil-01455.html

Link to Oetzi the Iceman found in living Austrians

Austrian scientists have found that 19 Tyrolean men alive today are related to Oetzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old frozen body was found in the Alps.Their relationship was established through DNA analysis by scientists from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University.The men have not been told about their connection to Oetzi. The DNA tests were taken from blood donors in Tyrol. A particular genetic mutation was matched, the APA news agency reports.

Read rest here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24477038

 wonder if any of us are related to bigfoot?

Typhoon exposes giant fish

Chinese villagers catch huge fish in flood waters

When Typhoon Fitow pummelled eastern China two days ago, much of the water in a reservoir near the city of Huangyan was discharged  to alleviate pressure from flooding. It turned out this water contained an abundance of fish, some of them enormous. Hundreds of local villagers rushed to catch them and took photos of fish measuring over a metre long. They say some weighed more than 100 kilos.

 Read rest see pics here :http://observers.france24.com/content/20131010-china-huge-fish-typhoon-fitow

Mutant caught

Mutant skate named Elvis caught by Portsmouth fishermen

A Museum fish curator has identified a skate's unusual appendage as an extra pelvic fin, rather than a genetic throwback to its shark relative. An unusual skate has been caught by fishermen in the Solent with an extra fin.It was taken to the Portsmouth Blue Reef Aquarium for identification, where it is now being held for safekeeping.Aquarium staff have nicknamed it Elvis because the fin resembles a quiff. Read rest here :

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2013/october/mutant-skate-named-elvis-caught-by-portsmouth-fishermen124280.html

It does beg the question could  cryptids be mutants or hybrids  or even mutated as the result of interbreeding? Would explain their scarcity.

eye witnesses and memory

Why does the human brain create false memories?

By Melissa Hogenboom Science reporter, BBC News

Human memory constantly adapts and moulds itself to fit the world. Now an art project hopes to highlight just how fallible our recollections are.All of us generate false memories and artist AR Hopwood has been "collecting" them. For the past year he has asked the public to submit anecdotes of fake recollections which he turns into artistic representations. They have ranged from the belief of eating a live mouse to a memory of being able to fly as a child.

Read rest here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24286258

Most people are aware of how faulty eye witness accounts can be. We fill in the gaps and will pass a lie detector test if questioned about what we think we saw. Over time that retelling of the event can also change and we will still think it is true. This is why science doesn’t accept eye witness accounts of sightings of cryptids. Which is understandable  ....but ..one of the scientific methods in experimentation is observation. So why is observing a cryptid any less credible than watching an experiment? Because a scientist says so. If we believe what the article says then all that scientific observation could be wrong and leaves it just as likely to be believed as seeing Nessie or bigfoot. Yet people do believe it because it is science but don’t believe in sightings of Bigfoot etc. Maybe if cryptozoology was accepted as a science that might change.

A real monster

Absurd Creature of the Week: The Half-Ton Giant Freshwater Stingray With a 15-Inch Poison Barb

    By Matt Simon

Sailor lore once told of a whale so enormous that captains would mistake it for an island, anchoring their ships to the beast and ordering men ashore. When the sailors built a fire on this “island whale,” though, the fiend would heave up and dive, dragging the crew to their deaths and perhaps into starring roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. And on the way down they likely thought, I knew I saw an eyeball back there. I should have said something. But also, Well isn’t this just a doozy. Something so big, yet we didn’t realize it was right under our feet.Scientists were probably thinking the same thing when in 1990 they first described Southeast Asia’s giant freshwater stingray, which can grow to more than 16 feet long and 1,300 pounds. And while it packs a 15-inch, poisonous, serrated stinger, it’s actually a gentle, inquisitive creature, an endangered titan that researchers are scrambling to understand before humans drive it to extinction. Read rest here :

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/absurd-creature-of-the-week-giant-stingray/