Almas
This hairy biped resides in China and Mongolia and has been thought to be the cousin of Bigfoot and the yeti. The earliest mention of the Almas was in a nobleman's journal in the 1420's. It is manlike and has a body covered with hair, hairless face and hands, large jaws and an eyebrow ridge. The average height is 5 ft. The sightings have slowly dwindled off in the late 19th century.
The sightings were more common earlier and the local considered the Almas real animals by the locals who saw them frequently.
Yeren
The Yeren is another hairy biped that resides on the Asian Continent, particularly in central/southern China. The Yeren is 6-9ft tall, manlike features, covered with hair and lives in caves. A biologist, Wang Tselin, claimed to have seen a dead female yeren in the 1940's. He described it as half ape, half man with grayish brown hair. In 1976, 6 local government officials observed a manlike creature on a road in Chunshuya. They described is as 6ft tall, brown red hair, human-like eyes and monkey -like face. There has also been reported sightings of a smaller version of the yeren which stood 3ft tall. Hair samples were were found and tested at East China Normal University. They found that the samples were different from any known primate but more closely resembled human hair.
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Sirrush
In 600 B.C., an artist carved 3 animals in the archway of the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. The three animals were a lion, an wild ox and the sirrush. Why was this supposedly mythical creature pictured with two known animals? Was it because it wasn't a myth? The sirrush was described as slender bodied, scale covered creature with a horn atop it's head. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylonia at the time and The Bible mentions that his priests kept a great dragon or serpent that they worshipped. The creature closely resembles a type of dinosaur, a sauropod. Since the Babylonians did not have the ability to reconstruct fossil remains it is more likely they were drawing a living animal that they has seen. The drawings and carvings of the sirrush were always the same and never varies which normally indicates they were based on a real creature.
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Lizard Men
One of the most bizarre creatures reported in recent times is undoubtedly a nightmarish entity from South Carolina, which has been aptly nicknamed Lizard Man. According to eyewitnesses, it walks on its hind legs, stands just over 7 feet tall, and has glowing red eyes and green scaly skin. It has only three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand, but every toe and every finger has a 4-inch long black claw at its tip. Lizard Man first made its presence felt at around 2 A.M. on June 29, 1988. This was when 17-year-old Christopher Davis was changing a flat tire on his car near Scape Ore Swamp, which is just outside the backwater village of Bishopville in South Carolina's Lee County. Chris was placing the jack into his car boot when he spied something very large running on its hind legs towards him, across a field close by. As it drew near, Chris jumped inside his car and tried to slam the door shut, but the horrifying reptile-man seized it from the other side, gripping the mirror as it attempted to wrench the door open! And when Chris tried to escape by accelerating hard, his scaly attacker jumped on to the car's roof! Luckily, it soon fell off as the vehicle sped away. When Chris arrived home he was trembling with fear, the roof of his car bore a series of long scratches and the wing mirror was severely twisted. The massive media publicity generated by this incident led to many other Lizard Man reports emerging during the summer of 1988, but the same could not be said for Lizard Man itself, who eventually disappeared without ever having been satisfactorily explained. Interestingly, this bizarre episode is far from being unique. Long before Chris Davis's frightening experience, many other parts of North America had also hosted encounters with reptilian man-monsters, astonishingly similar in appearance to the amphibious "gillman" starring in Hollywood's classic Creature from the Black Lagoon movie. On August 19, 1972, for example, Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike were allegedly chased away from the beach around Thetis Lake in British Columbia, Canada, by a 5 foot tall bipedal monster with six sharp points on its head, which had unexpectedly surfaced in the lake. Four days later, at around 3:30 P.M. on August 23, Russell Van Nice and Michael Gold could only watch in amazement when what was presumably the same creature suddenly stepped out of the lake, looked around and then walked back into the water, disappearing from sight. According to their description, it was humanoid in shape, but with scaly silver skin, huge ears, the face of a monster and a pointed projection on its head. In 1977, a State Conservation naturalist called Alfred Hulstruck claimed that a scale-covered man-beast regularly emerged at dusk from the red algae-choked waters of Southern Tier in New York State. Five years earlier, in March 1972, two policemen saw a frogfaced humanoid creature, about the size of a dog, plunge into Little Miami River near Loveland, Ohio. In this same area, back in 1955, a respectable businessman claimed that he had seen a quartet of 3 foot tall, frog-faced creatures squatting under a bridge like fairytale trolls. Another longstanding tradition of scaly humanoids features the fish-men of Inzignanin, near Chicora- an area sandwiched between North and South Carolina. These beings were said to be covered with scales and had webbed hands. Most distinctive of all, however, were their tails, which were as thick as a man's arm, about 18 inches long and relatively inflexible, like those of crocodiles or alligators. According to local lore, they lived only on raw fish and therefore soon died out when the area's fish supplies became exhausted. Equally strange was the 6 foot tall, fluorescent-eye monster that clawed Charles Wetzel's car on the evening of November 8, 1958 as he drove by the Santa Ana River near Riverside, California. Although often placed in the bigfoot category of mystery beasts, it was much more akin to the reptilian monsters, as noted by the writer Loren Coleman, because it was covered in leaf-like scales and had a protrusible beak-like mouth. Needless to say, no real-life creatures of the "Black Lagoon" variety have ever been proven by science to exist on earth, either during the present or the past. Yet, if the course of evolution had taken a different turn, our planet may indeed have been home to life forms of this type. In 1982, the scientific journal Syllogeus published a very unusual but highly original paper by two well-respected Canadian paleontologists, Dr. Dale A. Russell and Dr. R. Seguin from the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa. Its subject was the fascinating possibility that, if the dinosaurs had never died out, they would have eventually given rise to a dinosaurian counterpart of human beings. In their paper, Russell and Seguin speculated about the likely appearance of such a creature and suggested that it would have stood upright on its hind legs, with three fingers on each hand. They even constructed a model of this ‘dinosaur man' and what is so amazing about it is that in overall appearance it is remarkably similar to the descriptions of Lizard Man and other reptilian man-beasts reported from modern-day North America!
This article is courtesy of The World of The Strange
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What is the Yowie?
There has been much written in by scientists, natural history researchers,cryptozooligists,historians and collectors of fokelore, about the elusive "Yowie". Just where does all of this come from. Many
Aboriginal groups from around Australia have oral traditions that date back thousands of years. Included in much of their lore are Dreaming stories concerning large, often black giants. Many of their stories contain references to long extinct megafauna. Diprotodons, marsupial lions, giants
wombats, giant red kangaroos, just to name a few.
Many of these animals died out when the climate changed. Others succumbed to the predations of humans, particularly when they introduced the wide spread use of fire as a hunting and environment altering tool. Along with humans came the dingo about 10000 years ago, the introduction of this animal and its impact on native fauna cannot be underestimated. Yet other evolved down into their more compact modern forms.
Many people mistakinly believe that Aboriginal people have always occupied all parts of Australia. THIS IS NOT SO! Different parts of the continent were occupied at different times, and there were at least 3 waves of aboriginal people who migrated down through the south eastern parts of Australia. I use the example of the indigenous people of Tasmania. Tasmania had been cut off from the Australian mainland for at least 5000 years before settlement. The people who lived on the island prior to 1788 were different.
Contrary to popular opinion they were not wiped out by early European settlers. The survivors who took refuge on off shore islands are descended from a people whose, language, culture and physical appearance was distinct from the Aboriginal people at the time of settlement in 1788. Their culture
and tools were very much like those of the people whose cultural remnants have been found on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia. The last known indigenous inhabitants disappeared some 5000 years ago. The physical evidence is further enhanced by the discoveries made in the Lower Murray Valley at a place called Tartanga. Found in a grave on an island in
the river was the body of a Tasmanian. Further archaeological evidence suggests that the original inhabitants of the Lower Murray Valley were directly related to the Tasmanian people, and were either driven out or intermarried with later waves of Aboriginal people who moved down the valley.
Why go through all of this to try to explain the origins of the Yowie? As already mentioned Australia was a land of giants long before its current state. The land was much greener in many places, particularly in the 'Dead Heart', 10000 years ago that all changed. Historical records from around
the world state that in many places indigenous peoples were generally larger than many who migrated to those areas. Remember we are talking about eons of existence in one place. As the climate of the world changed, many people migrated, animals and plants evolved into smaller forms of themselves. If animals did, why couldn't humans?
The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains have a story that records the flooding of the Gulf, this occurred over 5000 years prior to today. They also have stories that cover their migration form central Australia. The language of the Kaurna people whilst distinct traces its origins back to the
central desert of Australia. It shares a common root with Pitjantjatjarra. The Kaurna people migrated south when the climate changed, along the way they fragmented into different groups who occupied different geographical regions . This way those who migrated from central Australia became The
Kaurna, the Peramangk, the Ngadjuri, the Narranga, the Adnyamathanah, the Nauo and the Nukunu. When the Kaurna arrived on the plains they encoutered a people who were different to themselves. The people resembled the Tasmanians and the cultural debris left behind supports this. In many of
the Kaurna stories these people fled to the hills. The Kaurna people referred to them as giants with po! werful magic and sorcery. The Kaurna people also reffered to a large,hairy giant called a Nookoona. It would come in the middle of the night, creep up to people as they slept and kill them very quietly.
To explain both of these Yowie like occurrences we need to look at the historical evidence. In the languages of the gulf of South Australia the word Yura means both monster, and man, depending on which group dialect isbeing spoken and in what context the word is being used. The Aboriginal
people of the region would often refer to their enemies in other districts as evil giants as a way of denigrating them and to instill fear of outsiders into the young members of their society. The people who lived in the hills over looking the Adelaide plains were said to be eight foot giants who would
kill for pleasure. The Peramangk people were certainly physically more robust than their cousins on the plain but this was more to do with their intermarriage with the people on the far side of the hills than with being primitve neanderthals. The Peramangk people spoke a similar laguage to the
Kaurna but had different religious practices, and were on good terms with the people of the low!
er River Murray, who were mortal enemies of the Kaurna. Thus the Peramangk people were worthy of fear and respect and became those loathsome giants the Pootpotberrie.
The Kaurna people also had another enemy, the Nukunu. The Nukunu were religious undamentalists who would often go on punishment raids. This involved killing people from other groups as a way of punishing them for not strictly following age old religious customs and practices. The Nukunu way of killing was to sneak up on a sleeping person and insert a small bone awl (Stilletto), into the neck just above the hair line' or into the navel, then clean off the wound. From this developed the Yowie like creature the Nokunna. From available record it woluld seem reasonable to suggest that the very first Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia may well have been
protohuman, homonids not unlike neanderthalic humans. it may well have been the tasmanian people who first encountered them and recorded their existence in their own oral traditions. The tasmanian people were quite small compared to may of the maniland Aboriginal people, but that does not always mean they were. When first! encountered by lated waves of migrating people they may well have been proverbial giants who later, evolved into a smaller version of themselves to
suit their island homes. We will never know for sure but it seems a pity that people are willing to listen to any half baked idea. There has never been any record of Megahomonids living on this continent. Stone age. Yes! But never pre- homosapien. The Aboriginal people have been here for 100000 plus years, they should know. Most, if not all of their giant traditions can traced back to a reliable, and historically accurate source.
So ask yourself what is the Yowie? Is it real or fiction? Hoefully this article will help people think and find an answer for themselves.
by LePhantome@theshadowlands.net
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The Lindorm (Swedish for Dragon)
A 19th century Scandinavian creature rumored to be a mythical dragon-like beast. It is often seen in the country around marshes, caves, and large bodies of water. There have been 40 plus eyewitness
accounts of this creature.
Reports have the Lindorm being 10-20 feet long, with a body as thick as a man's thigh, black with yellow-flamed belly, a mouth full of white shining sharp teeth, large saucer like eyes, and an unwieldy
body. It behaves like a snake when cornered. It will rear up on it's tail in a strike or pounce stance, behave in an aggressive and powerful manner and is also very ill tempered. It is difficult to destroy and when successfully killed will emit a foul smelling odor when in its final death throes.
Lindorms remain on land until too large to move about easily then it takes to the water where it again begins to grow. Although there are many witnesses, there has been no physical evidence of the existence of Lindorms, which has led some to believe in "collective hallucinations." However, due to the high number of first hand accounts, not to mention the absurdity of collective or group hallucinations, it is more likely to have been a very live creature at one time and perhaps still! It does not seem likely that 40 plus people could describe the same creature unless they have actually seen it!
by charla@theshadowlands.net
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Beast of Bosco
Giant Turtles are common creatures to find in zoos, Galapagos and other such places. However, one would not expect to find one in Churubusco, Indiana. Bosco, sometimes referred to as Oscar, has been spotted several times since 1950. Witnesses have described Bosco as weighing between 100 to 500 pounds and supporting a shell that is 4 foot across. In 1950 two men drained 4 different swamps in order to create more farmland. A culvert was created to allow the swamp water to drain into the Little Calumet River. Another giant turtle was found in 1937 at the Neosho River in Kansas and it weighed a whopping 403 pounds.
While it seems unlikely that a creature that large could live so close to humans; remember, his natural habitat was destroyed and like most creatures he adapted to his new environment enabling him to
survive.
by charla@theshadowlands.net
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The Bunyip
by charla@theshadowlands.net
A fierce creature found in Australia. The Aboriginal People told of the Bunyip in their oral folklore. In the Aboriginal language Bunyip means spirit or devil. However, in today's language it means bogey.
Perhaps this is an early version of the bogeyman. Either way, the Bunyip is a featured creature in Children's Literature in Australia.
It is hard to describe the creature as the Aboriginal People gave different descriptions of the creature. It has been described as a large, hairy, semi-aquatic creature with the head of a horse; as a creature with a hippo size body and the features of a dog; and as having long jet-black hair, shiny, without a tail and large ears. While other reports indicate that only the head has been seen because it's only been spotted in the water.
The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature defines a Bunyip as "a monster of Aboriginal mythology with a huge body covered with fur . said to live in swamps, lagoons, and billabongs from which it emerges on moonlit nights to prey on humans, especially women and children."
We know the Bunyip has been around for at least 200 years based on the time period of the oral folklore. It is commonly agreed that the creatures live in lagoons, swamps, and billabongs and often heard by its loud piercing screams. Also, it is said that women are their favorite prey. The disagreements surround the description and the behavior of the creatures. It is also implied that the Bunyip searches out their human prey, however, in the folklore, Bunyip only takes human prey if their water habitat is disturbed (it needs calm water to survive) or if their food chain is interrupted.
Most would agree that the Bunyip is a myth or story told just to frighten young children and women mostly because no one has a clear -description of the creature. But think for a minute. Science has
proven repeatedly that animals and insects as well as humans adapt to their surroundings. If the surroundings of a moth go from colorful to all black or gray because of pollution, their physical being
adapts to it's surrounding so that it can hide from its hunters. Perhaps this is why there is not a clear description of the Bunyip.
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Elusive African Apes: Giant Chimps or New Species?
John Roach
for National Geographic News
April 14, 2003
A mysterious group of apes found in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa has scientists and conservationist scratching their heads. The apes nest on the ground like gorillas but have a diet and features characteristic of chimpanzees.
The apes are most likely a group of giant chimpanzees that display gorilla-like behavior. A far more remote possibility is that they represent a new subspecies of great ape. Researchers plan to return to the region later this month to collect more clues to help resolve the mystery.
The detective story began in 1908 when a Belgian army officer returned home with several gorilla skulls from near the town of Bili on the Uele River and gave them to the Belgium's Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. In 1927 the museum's curator classified the skulls as a new subspecies of gorilla, Gorilla gorilla uellensis.
Intrigued by the subspecies, Colin Groves, now an anthropologist at the Australian National University in Canberra, examined the skulls in 1970 and determined that they were indistinguishable from western gorillas, one of the two known species of gorilla. No further specimens of this gorilla from Bili have since been found.
In 1996, Swiss-born, Kenya-based wildlife photographer and conservationist Karl Ammann embarked on a quest to rediscover the mysterious gorillas.
To date, Ammann has not found the gorilla. But he has collected a wealth of information including skulls, ground nests, hair and fecal samples, footprints, and, most recently, photographs of what appears to be a chimpanzee that behaves like a gorilla.
A remote camera trap captured this shot of a "Bondo mystery ape" in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most experts believe the unusual band of apes are giant chimpanzees that display gorilla-like behavior. One countervailing theory, however, holds that the band represents a new subspecies of great ape
