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There's something strange and big swimming in the canals of Madeira Beach along the Pinellas County coast. Those who have seen it say it's no fish and think it could be a sea serpent. Russ Sittlow, 78, has seen it. He calls the creature "Normandy Nessie" because he lives on Normandy Road. The retired engineer said he first saw "Nessie" in April. "His head come up out of the water, and then he rolled up in a double roll behind him and he was long he was huge," he said of that first sighting.

A possible new species of giant prehistoric lizard—bigger and badder than the deadly Komodo dragon—may have stalked the ancient Australian outback, a new study says. Three fossilized bones of the mysterious 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) lizard were collected in 1966 in western Timor island, part of Indonesia. When study leader Scott Hocknull recently examined the fossils, he was "astounded" to find that they belonged neither to the Komodo dragon—the only giant lizard species alive today—nor Megalania, a 16-foot-long (5-meter-long) extinct monster that's among the largest lizards known to have ever lived. Giant Lizard "a Nasty Piece of Work" The "tantalizing bones"—which date...

Cryptozoologist to search Cameron Lake for monsterWESTERLY NEWSSEPTEMBER 17, 2009 Cryptozoologist John Kirk is anxious to find out more about an elusive lake creature people have reported seeing in Cameron Lake for years. "Our organization has received reports coming from Cameron Lake since 2004," Kirk said in a release. "Witnesses have been describing what looks like a dark creature in the lake." He will get his chance to find out on Saturday, Sept. 19, when he and his crew plan to look for scientific evidence of a creature -- traversing the lake and attempting to lure it to the surface...

THE community of Lower Gweru and its surroundings in the Midlands Province was left shell-shocked when a goat gave birth to human-like creature that had the combined features of a man and a goat. A report in The Chronicle newspaper said the goat gave birth to the 'creature' on Sunday morning in Maboleni area. The creature had a human head, face, nose, shoulders and human-like skin that had very scanty furs. It had goat features from the “shoulders” to the legs. Its sagging stomach prevented curious villagers from determining whether it had human or animal sex organs as it protruded...

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KU -- Conspiracy theorists have tried to prove the possibility of aliens, sea monsters, and even shape shifters, now there is a mystery in Jefferson County. Kenny Mahoney, born and raised in Fairdale, snapped a picture of what some people are calling Big Foot. His hunting camera, which is operated by a motion detector, normally picks up rabbits, deer and turkeys, but on September 1st around 2:15 p.m. it picked up a strange image that looks like some sort of large black creature, one Mahoney estimates taller than he. "It looked like it had the outline of a...

The London Monster The Saturday Strangeness Neil Arnold on August 22, 2009 3:00 PM 29. Phantom Assailants: Part One One hundred years previous to Jack The Ripper’s reign of ghastly terror, London was overshadowed by another spectral attacker – a phantom aggressor that, although seemingly dreadful and unique, would simply become one of many urban legends pertaining to mysterious and elusive assailants across the world, with many actually analysing the peculiar cases of ripping, and asking ‘did such psychopaths exist or were they the product of local hysteria’? Between 1788 and 1790, an evil jester of an attacker prowled the...

Two men in Texas believe they may have discovered the body of a chupacabra – a mythical beast rumoured to suck all the blood out of its prey. Published: 9:18AM BST 03 Sep 2009 Lynn Butler, a taxidermist, says that he found the mystery creature's corpse in a chicken barn three months ago, the morning after an unseen predator was heard running amock. While its hairless, leathery body and pointed muzzle resemble a dog with severe mange, other animal eerts who have inspected the corpse have suggested it may be a chupacabra, a predator first sighted in Puerto Rico in...

Tracking monsters in the world of man Odd Jobs by Diane Peters METRO CANADA August 31, 2009 5:43 a.m. Throughout his career, John Kirk has made a living as a journalist and working for the government. His other occupation doesn’t make him much money — in fact it costs him — but he still can’t give up the hunt for undiscovered wildlife. It all began when Kirk first emigrated from Hong Kong in 1987. As a new resident to Canada, he went in a tour of B.C. He was passing by Sproat Lake on the way to Nanaimo when he...

The Dyatlov Pass Incident February 1959, Ural Mountains, Russia. Nine missing skiers found dead. Cause: Unknown By Svetlana Osadchuk and Kevin O'Flynn February 2009 FT245 The story sounds like something out of a low-budget horror movie: nine young students go on a skiing holiday in Russia’s Ural Mountains but never return. Eventually, their bodies are discovered – five of them frozen to death near their tent, four more bearing mysterious injuries – a smashed head, a missing tongue – buried in the snow some distance away. All, it seems, had fled in sudden terror from their camp in the middle...

Sky SerpentsThe flying snakes that terrorised America! Text: Jerome Clark / Images: Alex Tomlinson July 2009 One day in early 1833, a native chief approached two Western missionaries working on the Indonesian island of Sumatra to relate a bizarre experience. The chief, Tam Basar by name, swore that he and a companion had seen a snake flying through the air. Fearing that it was danger ous, they killed it when it landed near them. When the missionaries expressed incredulity, the chief insisted that he was telling the truth. He added that the snake, 4ft (1.2m) long, had no wings, which...

A mysterious looking body found along the shore of Okanagan Lake might be the remains of the legendary Ogopogo, an expert says.

SCIENTISTS looking for aliens in space should be hunting them on EARTH, it has been claimed. Prof Paul Davies said creatures totally different from life as we know it may exist on our planet. The UK-born cosmologist, now in Arizona, believes they might not have DNA - meaning they would not have been found by usual life-detection techniques. He called for searches for "weird life" in inhospitable places, such as hot, undersea vents. Prof Davies said finding alternative life "would be the biggest discovery in biology since Darwin and evolution".

BURLINGTON, Vt.- A cell-phone video of a mysterious object in Lake Champlain has some wondering if it's "Champ," a legendary Loch Ness-style monster said to roam the lake's depths. The video, taken by Eric Olsen, of Burlington, shows an object moving through the water in a small cove, apparently swimming and raising its head above the surface several times.

Fifty years ago sightings of the Loch Ness Monster or ‘Nessie’ were common and few Scottish locals doubted the presence of an exotic water creature in their locale which might have been the last living member an isolated relic Plesiosaur population. Sightings of Nessie have decreased over the last few years and extensive and thorough scanning of the Loch Ness by scientists and researchers have failed to produce any evidence of Nessie. This has led many to believe, sadly, that this gentle, secretive creature had passed on. Now, astonishingly, frequent sightings are being reported of a creature living in the...

Sir David Attenborough believes there is "very convincing" evidence that Yetis exist. Speaking on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, the revered wildlife expert said: "I'm baffled by the Abominable Snowman - very convincing footprints have been found at 19,000ft. No-one does that for a joke. I think it's unanswered."

Scientists have detailed a significant proportion of the genes found in the extinct Tasmanian "tiger". The international team extracted the hereditary information from the hair of preserved animal remains held in Swedish and US museums. The information has allowed scientists to confirm the tiger's evolutionary relationship to other marsupials. The study, reported in the journal Genome Research, may also give pointers as to why some animals die out. The two tigers examined had near-identical DNA, suggesting there was very little genetic diversity in the species when it went over the edge. I want to learn as much as I can...

Two missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints received a scare on the night of Dec. 2 when they saw what they think was a set of sasquatch footprints outside of their Burns Lake home. Tyler Beck and Brad Blazzard are in B.C. for two years, rotating in different communities throughout the Smithers and Burns Lake area for the past seven months. "The first thing we thought was that someone was playing a trick on us," Beck said."But we don't know anyone our age who would do that and our house in on the southside, so...

Believe it or not, the news of the day that is likely to be of the most lasting significance is this: AN ACTUAL BIGFOOT, SASQUATCH, HAIRY MAN OF BIRCH CREEK, HAS BEEN FOUND!!!

Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive. Ape expert Ian Redmond says the hairs bear a "startling resemblance" to similar hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary. He told the BBC the Indian hairs are "potentially very exciting". After extensive microscope examinations, the hairs will now be sent to separate labs for DNA analysis.

‘It’ attacked a van in Bishopville and attracted a Bigfoot-hunting team to the state BISHOPVILLE — Something apparently attacked Bob and Dixie Rawson’s van in the early morning hours of Feb. 28. The Rawsons live about two miles southeast of downtown Bishopville. They woke up Feb. 28 to find the front fender of their 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan chewed up, bite marks through the front grill, wheels on both sides bitten and metal crumpled in a wad. There was also blood on the front and sides of the car. While there has been no “official” sighting of the Lizard Man...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the woods, East Texans prepare for another expedition to find Bigfoot in East Texas. A professional and well equipped group says it's ready to prove the mysterious hairy giant is roaming our neighborhoods. "Actually, I found that there were a lot of sightings and things in the Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana error," said Bigfoot researcher Mike Hall. "Strange things happen." Several dots on a map represent Bigfoot sightings in East Texas since 2000. Mike Hall is assembling a research team to answer questions. "What's going on here, what is...

Last weekend I went to visit my Dad in Idaho, and one of our conversations got around to Bigfoot, and he related an interesting story to me. It’s quite long, but I think you’ll find it’s worthwhile to read. I enjoyed hearing it from my Dad, and I enjoyed writing it down here. Got a few goose bumps looking over my notes and writing it all out with my back to set of windows facing a thick Northwest forest at three in the morning. But they were the good kind of goose bumps that accompany that anticipatory thrill one gets...

February 18, 2008 The skunk ape: Florida's answer to the abominable snowman Jacqui Goddard Deep in the swamps of Florida, something is stirring. Witnesses to its haunting presence speak of howls in the night, unexplained footprints in the mud and glimpses between the trees of a fiery-eyed creature that reeks of death. Now, a 30-strong team from The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) has embarked on an expedition to try to flush out the mighty skunk ape - the Sunshine State's answer to the abominable snowman. They have thermal imaging equipment, video cameras and microphones poised to capture the secrets...

Killer dolphins baffle marine experts By Nigel Blundell Last Updated: 12:01pm GMT 25/01/2008 It's hard to visualise but the intelligent and ever-friendly dolphin can also be a determined killer. New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind. Film taken of gangs of dolphins repeatedly ramming baby porpoises, tossing them in the air and pursuing them to the death has solved a long-term mystery of what causes the death of so many of these harmless mammals -...

(12-17) 21:46 PST JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Researchers in a remote Indonesian jungle have discovered a giant rat that is about five times the size of a typical city rat and a tiny possum, scientists said Monday. Unearthing new species of mammals in the 21st century is considered very rare. The discoveries by a team of American and Indonesian scientists are being studied further to confirm their status. The animals were found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said U.S.-based Conservation International, which organized the trip in the Southeast Asian nation along with...

Accused jihadist: We were hunting Loch Ness Monster Uh huh. And then when they went to find Bigfoot, they inadvertently left some explosives in the trunk of their car... "Terror Accused: We Were Hunting Loch Ness Monster," by Paul O'Hare for the Daily Record (thanks to Twostellas): AN ELECTRICIAN accused of being a Muslim holy warrior claimed he was hunting Nessie during an alleged jihad training course. Somali-born Kader Ahmed, 20, told a court he went on a trip arranged by preacher Mohammed Hamid, 50, to Scotland at Christmas 2004. He said they visited Inverness and Loch Ness and added:...

I-Team: Expert trying to identify mysterious bird flying around S. Texas Web Posted: 11/16/2007 12:42 AM CST Joe Conger KENS 5 Eyewitness News More sightings of a huge flying creature, originally reported by KENS, have prompted an investigation to determine if it is a monster or myth. "Even though it was dark, the thing itself was black. The blackest I'd ever seen," said Frank Ramirez.

The remains of a shark lies on a truck as it is transported to the college of science at Thi Qar University in Nassiriya south of Baghdad, October 24, 2007. The two-meter shark was caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 160 miles from the sea. Karim Hasan Thamir said he was fishing with his sons last week when they spotted a large fish thrashing about in his net. "I recognized the fish as a shark because I have seen one on a television programme," he told Reuters.

These images were obtained with a Bushnell trail camera in Northwest Pennsylvania on the evening of September 16, 2007 by R. Jacobs. Jacobs had placed the motion-sensing camera on a tree along a game trail in a remote forest area in order to photograph any deer that might be using the trail. He did this in preparation for the Fall deer hunt. Jacobs was not trying to obtain images of a bigfoot/sasquatch. The area in the foreground was baited with a deer attractant mix and a mineral lick block. In the first image (the one with the bear cubs) the...

Fewer people are reporting sightings of the legendary Loch Ness monster in Scotland, prompting concerns that skepticism about its existence could threaten tourism in the region. There have only been two reports of sightings this year, compared to three in 2006 and much lower than a decade ago, when the annual number sightings was consistently in the double digits, The Times newspaper said Saturday. "It's becoming a potential crisis," said Mikko Takala, 39, a founding member of the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club who runs four webcams on the lake's north shore.

THE long-held belief Tasmanian tigers killed livestock is being challenged. Using advanced computer modelling, an Australian research team has found that, while strong-jawed, the thylacine would have had trouble killing and eating prey any larger than itself. From about 1830 until 1909 the Tasmanian Government paid a 1-a-head bounty,

Has a mythical beast turned up in Texas? By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer August 31, 2007 Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. "It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the...

As soon as he viewed the photo - those fanglike teeth, like something out of a horror movie - John Lundberg knew what the mystery creature was. "Once you see one of these things, you don't forget it," says Lundberg, curator of fishes at the Academy of Natural Sciences. It was a wolf eel, a 6-foot-long - docile, despite appearances - inhabitant of deep waters off the North Atlantic coast, including New Jersey. The puzzle: How did the smelly, half-decomposed specimen get to a fox den in Hunterdon County? Susan Goeckeler had been walking with her dogs on her...

A University of Adelaide project led by zoologist Dr Jeremy Austin is investigating whether the world-fabled Tasmanian Tiger may have survived beyond its reported extinction in the late 1930s. Dr Austin from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA is extracting ancient DNA from animal droppings found in Tasmania in the late 1950s and ‘60s, which have been preserved in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. “The scats (droppings) were found by Eric Guiler, Australia’s last real thylacine expert, who said he thought it more probable they came from the Tasmanian Tiger rather than a dog, Tasmanian Devil or quoll,” Dr...

Mon 11 Jun 2007 Sniffer dogs sacked for lewd behaviour ETHAN MCNERN TWO Thai strays who became ace sniffer dogs at an airport near the notorious "Golden Triangle" opium-producing region have been fired for urinating on luggage and sexually harassing female passengers. The pair, Mok and Lai, had been plucked from obscurity under a programme initiated by King Bhumibol Adulyadej to turn strays into police dogs, the Bangkok Post said on Sunday. They won plaudits from police for their work in sniffing out drugs at northern Thailand's Chiang Rai airport, near the border with Laos and Myanmar. But so many...

An Indonesian fisherman has caught a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs, a fishery expert said on Monday. Yustinus Lahama and his son caught the fish on Saturday in the sea off North Sulawesi province and kept it at their house for an hour, said Grevo Gerung, a professor at the fisheries faculty at the Sam Ratulangi University. After being told by neighbours it was a rare fish he took it back to the sea and kept it in a quarantine pool for about 17 hours before it died. "If...

Bigfoot, the legendary hairy man-like beast said to roam the wildernesses of North America, is not shy, merely so rare it risks extinction and should be protected as an endangered species. So says Canadian MP Mike Lake who has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act, alongside Whooping Cranes, Blue Whales, and Red Mulberry trees. "The debate over their (Bigfoot's) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing," reads a petition presented by Lake to parliament in March and due to be discussed next week. "Therefore, the petitioners request the...

Bigfoot, the legendary hairy man-like beast said to roam the wildernesses of North America, is not shy, merely so rare it risks extinction and should be protected as an endangered species. So says Canadian MP Mike Lake who has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act, alongside Whooping Cranes, Blue Whales, and Red Mulberry trees. "The debate over their (Bigfoot's) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing," reads a petition presented by Lake to parliament in March and due to be discussed next week. "Therefore, the petitioners request the...

AN English holidaymaker thinks he may have taken the first picture of the season of the elusive Loch Ness Monster. Sidney Wilson was in the city with his wife Janet when they decided on a cruise down the loch to take in the sights. And it was as they approached Urquhart Castle that he ended up taking this intriguing photograph. Sidney, who comes from Nottingham, said: "I was just taking pictures of everything as we sailed down the loch. "As we approached the castle, two power boats appeared and circled us at speed, leaving a large wash in their wake....

Thu Mar 15, 3:30 PM ET JAKARTA (AFP) - A clouded leopard found in the rainforests of Indonesia's islands of Borneo and Sumatra is a new species of big cat, conservation group WWF said Thursday. The cat, covered in small cloud markings containing many spots, was thought to be the same species as a mainland Southeast Asian leopard, but tests have shown otherwise. "Genetic research results clearly indicate that the clouded leopards of Borneo should be considered a separate species," Stephen O'Brien, from the US National Cancer Institute, was quoted as saying in a WWF statement. The difference between the...

Alleged sightings of flying reptiles cause residents to reconsider history Mike Smith Posted: 2/15/07 by Mike Smith Daily Lobo One hundred million years ago, New Mexico lay nameless and borderless and partially submerged beneath sprawling, shallow seas. Dinosaurs of every size and appetite wandered to the edge of such seas, in search of plants, water or smaller creatures further down the food chain. The air above them hung hot and dense, sagging with humidity, and pterosaurs flapped and glided against it. Pterosaurs - or pterodactyls, as they're often called - once filled our Western skies, flying on leathery, membranous wings...

Several strange creatures including a psychedelic octopus have been found in frigid waters off Antarctica in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments. Others resembled corals and shrimps. At least 30 appear to be new to science, said Julian Gutt, chief scientist of an expedition that was part of the International Polar Year research effort set to launch on March 1. The researchers catalogued about 1,000 species in an area of the Antarctic seabed where warming temperatures are believed to have caused the collapse of overlying ice shelves, affecting the marine life below. “This is virgin geography,” said expedition...

This week’s column is somewhat different in that the focus is not on a long-lost motion picture classic or a bizarre bit of cult-worthy obscurity. Instead, the film in question is a brief ribbon of celluloid that provides the final glimpse of an animal that fell victim to years of brutal persecution and government-sponsored hunting. The film itself does not have a formal title, and it is called “Footage of the Last Thylacine” just for the sake of temporary identification. What was a thylacine? It looked like a canine, but it was actually a marsupial that was concentrated in Tasmania....

The idea that humans and chimps interbred causes discomfort in some circles, even as science explores the potential benefits of hybrids and the blurring of what was once a bright line between species. In 1997, developmental biologist Stuart Newman did something relatively unusual for a scientist: He submitted a patent application for a technology he hoped never to use. In it, he laid claim to the humanzee, a chimera made by combining the embryonic cells of humans with those of chimpanzees. Though it was hypothetically possible to manufacture such a creature, he vowed to put the patent in a drawer...

The scene: the Everglades, mysterious in the darkness. Four college kids, armed only with a night-vision camera, trudge through a palmetto thicket, guided by a snake-booted man who claims to have had multiple encounters with the state's most elusive creature. They seek a half-man, half-simian, fully reeking legend known as the Skunk Ape. A curious rustling draws them closer. Nervous patter. Closer. What is making those sounds? Closer. Suddenly, a blinding flash, screams and . . . . This is not some cheesy monster movie. It's the real experience of Florida International University film students who spent months on the...

As we start another year, I know there are at least a few among us who will look back at 2006 and say, “Whoa, what a weird year that was!” In fact, 2006 might be the year that puts the Coulee Region on the map ... for weirdness. By far the weirdest news of the year was something we haven’t reported on ... UNTIL NOW! Now it can be told, the strange, bizarre and kinda spooky story of the Beast of Briggs Road, the Man Bat. I have to admit that this won’t be news to some of our readers,...

Sightings of a large hairy creature walking upright in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have sparked renewed interest in the legendary sasquatch. CBC Saskatchewan radio host Tom Roberts said he's talked with people from the northern community of Deschambault Lake who say a resident saw a sasquatch-like creature on Saturday. They say a woman from the village was driving to Prince Albert on Saturday afternoon when she saw a creature near the side of the highway at Torch River. "She slowed down, thinking maybe a bear," Roberts said. "She stopped and watched … and saw it going alongside the hill and knew...

(AP) GENEVA -- Scientists have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants on the southeast Asian island of Borneo since 2005, including a catfish with protruding teeth and suction cups on its belly to help it stick to rocks, WWF International said Tuesday. "The more we look the more we find," said Stuart Chapman, WWF International coordinator for the study of the "Heart of Borneo," a 85,000-square-mile rain forest in the center of the island where several of the new species were found. "These discoveries reaffirm Borneo's position as one of the most important centers of...

WWF hails discovery of 52 new species in Borneo - Deforestation hits island that fascinated Darwin It is perhaps the closest place on the planet to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World - the mythical prehistoric paradise of the Sherlock Holmes creator's 1912 book. But the Heart of Borneo, as it has been christened by conservation agencies trying to save it from destruction, is finally beginning to yield its secrets. A mission by WWF scientists to the south-east Asian island found 52 species previously unknown to science, including three types of tree, two tree frogs and a tiny fish less...

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Was it a wolf, or wasn't it? The mysterious, sheep-killing predator shot and killed a month ago between Jordan and Circle was initially thought to be a wolf. But now, wildlife officials aren't so sure. "Frankly, it has mixed characteristics," said Carolyn Sime, head of the wolf program for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Some clues indicate that it's not a wolf from among the 1,200 or so that live in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The animal shot in Garfield County in early November had shades of orange, red and yellow in its fur, unlike the Northern...