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Bill McDonald

CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Art Gallery & Definitions
(The Study Of Hidden Species)
THIS IS MY CURRENT OPINION REGARDING ANIMALS AND BIOLOGICAL LIFE FORMS NOT CURRENTLY CLASSIFIED IN MODERN ZOOLOGICAL DATA BASES.
By William L. McDonald

CRYPTOZOOLOGY:   Is defined as the study of and the search for animal species not currently catalogued in the world's zoological databases. 

CRYPTIDS: Are any animal species of the sea, fresh water habitats, land or air that are not currently recognized in
the international zoological catalogues.  This may also include species from the fossil records such as dinosaurs, reptiles, fish, mammals, and even birds that were thought long extinct, which may in fact still survive in remote geographical locations around the world.   These animal species may include unidentified primates and unknown species of human beings that have successfully hidden themselves away in remote wild places around the world.  A cryptid is any unknown living animal.

NEOGIANTS AND HOMINOIDS:  Are any one of a collection of purported giant, hairy, man-ape like creatures living in high mountains, remote valleys and heavily wooded areas around the world, most especially central and eastern Asia and in North America.  All are known for their characteristic giant foot prints in mud, snow or soft soil.  Some in the southeastern United States and the Ohio Valley are known for their unusual three-toed foot prints.  Others are known
for their classic, giant sized, five-toed prints which more closely resemble a regular Homo sapiens foot pattern.  Some in Asia demonstrate a five toed pattern wherein the big toe is enormously broad, the middle toe is excessively long and the other three are tiny on a foot resembling a baseball catcher's mitt.

HOMINIDS: Any one of a long line of primate species, within the Genus Homo, NOT apes, that could be categorized as human beings or something very close.  We human beings, Homo sapiens sapiens, are the most advanced and well known species (And subspecies) of hominid--Because we are the only current species of hominids known to inhabit our Earth at this time in history.  Our direct line of ancestor species, Homo sapiens archaic, Homo Antecessor, Homo erectus,  and Homo habilis, are all hominids.   Our recently extinct (Most paleoanthropologists assume) sister species, Homo neanderthalensis and the Australopithecine genus (Currently five identified species) that begot our original common ancestor, Homo habilis (Most paleoanthropologists assume), were all hominids.  Hominids differ from all known ape species (Pongids) in that they are proportioned differently in the alignment of the spine to the pelvis allowing for permanent upright bipedal locomotion (Walking) and pronounced buttocks in both sexes.   No ape has enlarged glutial muscles which produce buttocks.  Unlike all known ape species, all hominid females show pendulous breasts in varying sizes to contain the mammary glands, and all males demonstrate enlarged external genitalia (Proportionally) unlike all ape species for purposes of display.  Body mass is of far less use in retaining the interest of female mates.

HOMINOIDS:  A catch-all word to describe bipedal or semi-bipedal primate species that are closer to humans or hominids but are technically outside the Genus Homo.  This includes the Genus Australopithecus and the proposed genuses of Paranthropus, Meganthropus, and in an unusual move, the Genus Gigantopithecus, should this giant Orang utan-type ape prove to be mostly bipedal (Walking upright all or most of the time).

PONGIDS (Knuckle walkers): All known species both living and extinct of the great anthropoid apes.  Pongids can walk upright but prefer to assist themselves on the ground by walking on their knuckles making them more quadraped and bipedal.  Unlike all hominids (Humans), all apes have massive or not so massive fangs for display, fighting and in rare occasions hunting and tearing meat from prey.  Ape Females show little to no chest tissue enlargement for the mammary glands, at least not as is common in human females.  Male apes display massive arms, chests and overall body weight and use their bulk to assist them in keeping their harems of multiple females intact.  They do not require large pronounced genitalia for display to entice females.  Only male chimpanzees and the Bonobo chimp subspecies have genitalia mass to overall body mass ratios approaching the measurements in hominids.   Larger male Gorillas and Orangs have proportionally tiny genitals.

YETI / MEH-TEH / DZU-TEH: Otherwise known as the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayan Mountains and valleys of Nepal and Tibet.  All claims of close-up encounters by indigenous Sherpa tribesmen and some mountaineers from the Western Hemisphere trend towards HOMINID beings in two, possibly three separate sizes or sub-varieties.  The "Giant" is called "Dzu-teh" or "Yeti" as is the one proportioned more like that of a heavy man which is known as "Meh-Teh" or "Yeti" in accordance with the field research of the late Ivan T. Sanderson.

SASQUATCH / BIGFOOT / OH-MA:  The most famous and well known potential hominid of the Western part of North America.  Called Bigfoot by the popular press, it's real name is "Sasquatch" or "Oh-Ma" (Big Foot) by the various native tribal cultures of the Pacific Northwest.  In recent decades, sightings of Bigfoot have expanded to include wooded areas of the Northern Great Plains and even the Ohio Valley.
 

HOMO ERECTUS GIGANTICUS:

A hypothesized newly evolved subspecies of the highly successful hominid, Homo erectus, which is the only species of hominid prior to Homo sapiens archaic, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo antecessor and Homo neanderthalensis ever found by it's fossil bones to have left the southern and eastern valleys of prehistoric Africa.  It first appeared in the fossil record approximately 1.8 million years ago and was assumed to have become completely extinct approximately 250,000 years ago.   In that time it became the only other species of human (Other than we Homo sapiens) to migrate further into Asia than the Middle Eastern countries.  Recent fossils suggest that Homo erectus conquered all of central and eastern Asia to include Southeast Asia and portions of Indonesia (Java).  We Homo sapiens soon followed.  Bill McDonald's Landmark hypothesis is that to escape predation, interspecies warfare, and decimation, Some clans and families of Homo erectus escaped to remote mountain valleys and forests, abandoned the use of fire and encampments, and over a 450,000 year period, evolved into larger, hairy, hominid erectuses highly skilled in the arts of woodcraft and camouflage.  He puts forward the idea that larger bodies allowed for better insulation from cold and increased the chances of a group against the large 18 foot voracious predatory bears of Siberia, Kamchatka, the Bering land bridge, and North America. Oily fur also improved the protection of the erectus clans from dampness during winter snows, monsoon rains and even early morning mists.  Witness descriptions of intense body odor in Neogiant encounters would lend credence to this guess.  The enlarged conical Sagital Crest, similar to some Australopithecines and apes would have been necessary to anchor the enlarged jaw muscles needed to chew acorns and pine nuts, a dietary staple of temperate forest dwellers.

From Bill McDonald's contributions to the CRYPTOLIST @ ONElist:
While I'm not a lettered forensic anthropologist, primatologist or zoologist, my reconstruction assignments for the classic "Neogiants" of legend have brought me to a set of very strong opinions on the possible origins for Sasquatch and the purported larger Dzu-Teh hominids: That they are descendants of retreating tribes and clans of Homo erectus fleeing the constant hunting & warfare pressures of the rapidly expanding populations of Homo sapiens archaic and Homo sapiens sapiens. Possible pressures from H. neanderthalensis, H. heidelbergensis and H. antecessor may have also played a factor in Europe and the Middle East. I believe that H. erectus was preyed upon by it's descendant species and that only a few populations that abandoned fire and obvious signs of encampment survived the unrelenting advance of the modern human populations. Loss of fire, the extreme cold of the ice age winters, and the predations of the immense species of preditory bears made for the size increase over successive generations. Larger, heavier, more massive bodies helped retain heat.  In a group, H. erectus giganticus (With large wooden spears) could have possible fended off a marauding 18 foot short faced bear and/or large polar bears especially in the Kamchatka and Bering land bridge steppe regions.  Like larger pongid (Ape) species and Australopithecus robustus (Hominid), H. erectus giganticus could have evolved longer, more massive arms for trekking through heavily wooded mountainous country, and the sagital crest over their skulls to anchor the massive jaw muscles needed for masticating the pine nuts and unpounded, bitter acorns that would be the dietary staple for both themselves, and the tribes of sapiens sapiens that followed them hundreds of thousands of years later to become the progenitors of all native Siberian and American tribes today, who also use acorns and pine nuts for flour.   Pounding flour from acorns, building outside huts, lighting fires, gave away their positions and the locations of their females and babies to the modern humans that feared and hunted them by the the influence of thousands of generations of traditions. H. erectus giganticus learned the woodcraft practiced today by the natives of New Guinea and the prehistoric Filipino tribesmen, not to mention Australian Aborigines, Russian Spetznaz, Navy SEALs, and U.S. Army Commando and sniper teams. Large evolved feet with the bone spread to carry excessively heavy body weights over mud and snowy terrains also assist in the woodcraft needed to trek through the woods in virtual silence.
Homo erectus had no sagital crest and was generally smaller than Homo sapiens, especially the modern version of the past 1000 years. But in his genetic code was the instructions neccissary to access recessive traits not seen since the Australopithecines. This is my current opinion.

Bill McDonald

HOMO ERECTUS, "TEH-LMA" AND THE SMALLER HAIRY "APEMEN" OF ASIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST:  The Smaller, reddish furred, "Hairy Apemen" as described by the wandering hebrew tribes of Moses, assorted desert Beduin tribes, and Nepalese Sherpa tribesmen some of whom are described as having "Splayed toes" and "Pointed heels."  According to Ivan T. Sanderson, the Sherpa named the smallest of the three Yeti types as the "Teh-Lma."  Bill McDonald postulates:  If this third, mysterious mini/pygmy version of the neogiants is real, it is perhaps a last remnant of the original Homo erectus stock, the last of the original species which remained in it's basic form.  Homo erectus was of moderate height by modern standards, most specimens being between 5' 1" and 5' 5" with a few individual males approaching six feet.   The mid to far east "Apemen" all are described as smallish, matching the H. erectus averages.  These smaller reddish  furred apemen are described as having roundish, not pointed or conical heads.  This is consistant with Homo erectus, who had no sagital crest in their original form.  Homo erectus averaged 950 cubic centimeters of cranial capacity, some as low as 800 ccs,  and others up to 1000 ccs just 200 ccs less than the first Homo sapiens types, namely Homo Antecessor, H. heidelbergensis, and H. sapiens archaic. Modern Humans average 1400 ccs (1100-1425ccs) as stated in the "StarChild" article on the Forensic Faces page.
 

HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS: The "Sister" species of Homo sapiens and it's two accepted subspecies.   Slightly shorter on average, more robust in build, "Barrel chested," stronger musculature, thicker boned with slightly more pronounced eyeridges and a receded chin.  These humans were for all intents and purposes the intellectual equals of their Homo sapiens "Cro-magnon" cousins, us modern humans.   Some forensic anthropologists believe that their verbal language abilities may have been lessened by the physical construction of their glottal (Voicebox) structures in their throats.  Further, recent hypothesies have been profered that to compensate, the neanderthal language may have used more hand gestures and signing as do modern persons who are def.  Another intriguing hypothesis suggests that they may have had advanced psychic abilities, such as what the American military and intel agencies have labeled as "Anomalous intuition" and "Remote viewing."  Special talents that have perhaps become more latent and recessive in the "Fast talking" Homo sapiens sapiens cultures.  Legends from Russia, Afganistan, and the surrounding countries suggest that a lost tribe or two might still exist in the Pamir Mountains.  Of further interest, Neanderthal characteristics can still be observed in the island tribes of New Guinea.  In Europe, the last undiluted stocks of neanderthals may have been the Picts of northern Scotland.  The Pictish warriors were legendary fighters who won the respect of the ancient Britons, the Celts and the Saxon peoples who invaded, conquered and intermarried to become the peoples of the modern United kingdom.  The Picts were said to fight to the last man, and since the women (Who were described as extraordinarily ugly--Thus suggesting a separate species or subspecies) fought with the ferocity of naked wild animals, beside their men; at last genocide was the only remedy for containing them.   What was begun by the Celts was completed by the Saxons and early Scot settlers:   The killing of every last Pictish man, woman, and child.  In the opposite extreme, Neanderthals were said to peacefully coexist with modern humans for over 120,000 years in the valleys of prehistoric Israel and Lebanon.  No significant evidence of protracted conflict or warfare has ever been found in any of the modern archeological digs.

MEGANTHROPUS PALAEOJAVANICUS (The Giant Man of Ancient Java):    Loren Coleman writes:  Some anthropologists have written that the Indonesian discoveries of Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald (discussed foremost by von Koenigswald and Franz Weidenreich) demonstrate evidence of an Asian Paranthropus. Specificially, von Koenigswald found a jaw that was twice the size of a typical modern human mandible, and named the find Meganthropus palaeojavanicus ("giant man of ancient Java"). Why is there so little talk of this?  This species or collection of specimens exibit traits that could be suggestive of both Homo erectus and Australopithecus (Paranthropus) robustus.  The major claim to fame this species has is the controversy it has generated among the east Asian paleoanthropological community.   It's believed to be hominid (Genus Homo like the species erectus) as opposed to hominoid by some and others swear it is the proof of an Asian wing of the hominoid Australopithecine clan--I.e. an Asian Paranthropus and progenitor of the Alma of Russia and the Bigfoot of North America.

GIGANTOPITHECUS: A giant genus--Identified by Palaeoanthropologist Dr. Grover Krantz--With at least one well established species of extinct Orang Utan ape which lived in Bamboo forests and rain forests of Southern China and throughout Southeast Asia including Northern Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Campuchea (Cambodia).  This giant ape shared it's forests peacefully with giant pandas and tapirs.  It is believed to have stood between eight and fifteen feet tall when walking erect.  It would have weighed in at over eight hundred pounds on average.  This species was first identified by the regular supply of molar teeth which many anthropologists and paleontologists found in Chinese apocathery (Pharmacological) shops, which upon examination proved to be the fossil teeth of a gigantic Orang Utan ape. A major contingent of cryptozoologists believe that this animal may be the source of the Neogiant sightings throughout Southeastern China through to the jungles of Vietnam and all along the watercourse of the Mekong River.  Many scientists believe that if Bigfoot and giant Yetis are real, that Gigantopithecus is an extremely likely candidate species of origin.  Indeed many feel that at least some of the giant as opposed to man-sized Yeti sightings could be from a surviving population of Gigantopithecus.  The fact that reddish hair and fur is described in many situations as opposed to black or brown further enhanses this supposition.  Bill McDonald feels that with the exception of the Southeast Asia "Wildman" sightings, Gigantopithecus could NOT be a possible candidate because many Yeti sightings through history describe proportionately enlarged genitalia.  If Gigantopithecus is a giant ape, let alone a giant Orang, then it's genitalia would be far less noticeable to the majority of witnesses.

Loren Coleman writes:  The four mandibles of Gigantopithecus found in China and India are definitely evidence of the longterm, widespread nature of this giant hominoid, and Grover Krantz is to be congratulated for continuing to bring this to the forefront regarding the classic PNW Bigfoot/Sasquatch. As Patrick Huyghe and I noted in The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide (NY: Avon, 1999), as Mark A. Hall has written, and others elsewhere, there exists an intellectual disagreement with Krantz on these matters.

THE WILDMAN OF CHINA & SOUTHEAST ASIA:  A unique subset of Neogiant sightings centered around heavily enforested areas of Central and Southern China, Northern Tailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  Usually seen by the extremely primitive mountain and forest tribesmen in all of these countries, they are also occasionally seen by government officials and tourists.  Since Genitalia is not emphisized in most if not all of these sightings,  in Bill McDonald's opinion, It is very possible that the Wildman is a Gigantopithecus descendant.

ORANG UTAN:  Two varieties in Borneo and Sumatra.

GORILLA GORILLA:   Two varieties, the Mountain Gorilla and the Lowland Gorilla. 
Dr. Penny Patterson and her partners and staff proved that gorillas, the second closest ape cousins to humans, were sentient, abstract thinkers capable of intelligent interspecies communications. Established in 1976, The GorillaFoundation/Koko.org promotes the protection, preservation and propagation of gorillas. Project Koko, a primary focus of TGF/Koko.org, involves teaching a modified form of American Sign Language to two lowland gorillas, Koko and Michael.

TWO SPECIES OF CHIMPANZEES:  Pan Troglodytes and the Pygamy Chimp, Pan paniscus.  Both are nearly 99% identical to modern human beings by DNA comparative analysis.  The Pygamy Chimpanzee also called a Bonobo, is genetically the closest ape to humans.  Testimony exists in the American intelligence community suggesting that in top secret experaments in Italy and Red China, artificially bred hybrids of Bonobos and human beings (Homo sapiens sapiens) have been successfully gestated, raised and studied.  This is a highly illegal (By international laws and ethics) and completely secret study by those two offending nations.  The proponents of the study stated to some fellow researcher colleagues that this study was part of a worldwide multinational corporate program cataloguing and mapping the human genome (The complete amino acid code sequence for an entire human DNA strand). In the 1970s,  A male chimp named "Walshoe" achieved a limited ability to communicate abstract and self aware concepts using American Sign Language for the def with human beings, thus proving that our closest ape cousins were sentient, self-aware beings that could be more than trained, they could become companions able to learn to communicate outside their own species.

DRYOPITHECUS:  Is a 3.5 to 2 million year old gorrilla-like ape that many paleoanthropologists have theorized may be the genus of ape where the evolutionary line that led to all known modern ape species and the line that led to the hominid Australopithecines diverged.  This prehistoric ape was a descendant of the chimp-like Proconsul species.

MOJO / "SKUNK APE" / FOUKE  MONSTER:   Otherwise known as the "Legend of Boggy Creek" Arkansas.  A hairy, slightly less massive three-toed variety of Bigfoot indigenous to the thickly wooded swamps and bottom lands of the Southern and Southeastern United States.

JERSEY / CAROLINA DEVIL: Another possible population of these purported hominids in the deep back woods of New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas.  This population could also be one or several clans of feral humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) who became woodland scavengers over successive generations after being shunned in the last two centuries  of the history of the American Colonies.

HOMINOIDS AS ALIENS: Another long term belief by many people is that Bigfoot and the other "Skunk Ape" hominids are alien beings who are seen around UFO sightings or activities in the back woods.  Bill McDonald absolutely refuses to consider this as a possibility at this time.  McDonald believes that if Neogiants are indigenous hominids to planet Earth in the same way our six billion human inhabitants are, then perhaps they get abducted also and for the same reasons:  To be used in laboratory experiments and to have their DNA extracted and analysed in the same way in which multiple alien species factions have been culling and harvesting humans.

BIPEDAL HUMANOID REPTILIANS:   Another part of the Bigfoot, "Skunk Ape" myths and legends are the claims of very tall, robustly built, reptilian aliens, vaguely shaped like a human but covered in scales with faces and mouths more closely akin to a massive lizard's or snake's.  Two claims for their origins persist:  That they are A)   An ancient indigenous species of reptiles from our ancient past who now congregate and live in hidden cities deep beneath the surface of the Earth, or B)   An ancient diapsid (Birds, lizards) species that evolved from dinosaurs or lizards on Earth or on another similar planet and became another spacefaring alien species almost as common in the "Experiencer" testimonies as the three subspecies and castes of the "Gray aliens."  John Rhodes and several others have done outstanding compilations of the popular Lore and witness stories concerning these Reptilians.   Fascinating theories abound that these Reptilians may be the origins of the Aztec Quetzalcoatl and Mayan Kulkulcan myths.

CHUPACABRA:   "Goat Sucker" en Espaniol (In Spanish)--A bizarre vampire-like wolf sized reptilian animal with large reddish or black eyes, spines, and membranous skin under it's forlegs (The possible remnant of wings).  Witnesses describe clawed hind legs designed for hopping similar to those of rabbits or kangaroos.  It is described as having a small mouth at the end of a pointed snout, with one or possibly two needle sharp teeth and/or two ridged needle sharp prongs on a long tongue thit flicks in and out.  Said by all witnesses including veterinarians to be a consumer of animal blood, this animal is  believed by many to be of alien or non-terrestrial origin.  Reports by farmers who have lost dogs, goats, rabbits, chickens and pigs to this cryptid are centralized in Mexico, Guatamala, Puerto Rico, and Honduras.  Tiny single or dual bleed holes are described in the small animals completely drained of blood. Since an intense wave of chupacabras incidents began in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s, reported attacks have spread throughout Mexico, parts of Central and South America, and occasionally into the southern U.S. Witnesses often describe a bizarre predator that stands about four feet tall on its hind legs, has heavily clawed hands, large fangs, piercing red eyes and sometimes a row of spikes down its back. The creature has been said to fly but is more often reported to make long jumps with its heavily muscled hind legs.From the Mexican border with the United States south to the mid latitudes of Argentina, three species of vampire bats range with near impunity, gently lapping uncoagulated blood from cattle, sheep, horses, and dogs (Their prefered prey) and nipping at the occasional human.  The largest and most widely photographed species, Desmodeus rotundus, is also the most common vampire bat with the widest range.  Even at it's largest, the body of D. rotundus is smaller than the average child's fist.  Two smaller species have a preference for chicken blood and other domestic fowl.   Bill McDonald believes that while the alien "Pet" hypothesis is the most prevalent, it is possible that the "Goat sucker" could have originated as a bizarre and illegal genetic engineering experiment in gene splicing, or it could be some mutated relative of the vampire bat.

SEA SERPENTS: Centuries of logged sightings of giant marine organisms vaguely resembling dragons or serpents (Snakes) in the open ocean.  Ribbon (Orr) fish, giant eels, giant octopi or squids (Cephalopods) seen in the oceanic swells may have contributed to these legends.   Bill McDonald currently subscribes to the hypothesis of massive shoals of successively larger eel species in the open ocean, and that they are in fact the "Missing Link" in the abysso-pelagic food chain where the giant shark species, voracious predatory squids Archteuthis princeps or dux), and great sperm whales (Physeter Catodon or Mystoceti) compete.  Eels are one of the hardiest species of any fish, and they absolutely thrive in cold, dark waters as voracious predators and scavengers.

MER FOLK & SELKIES:  Mythical mermaids and mermen, half human, half fish.  The mer-people ("The sea nymphs and 'Nereids'") of the Greek and Roman myths are portrayed as being of exceding beauty, while the Selkies of Ireland and Scotland are frightening in the fish-like appearance and textures of their faces and bodies.  Selkies have always been characterized as evil and predatory in Celtic lore.  Noted author, now deceased, Martin Caidin theorized that if a subspecies of ancient humans was artificially bred to live in the sea they would be taxonomically labled as something akin to Homo Aquatis or Homo sapiens aquatis.   All so-called monkey/skate mummified mermen have proven to be well crafted hoaxed relics by fishermen artists in the South pacific.  Many scholars and maritime historians continue to claim that the origins of all mermaid sightings in all oceans were inspired by long distance observations of oceanic mammals species, Manatees and Dugongs (Order Sirenia), nursing their calves with their heads clear of the water and cuddling their calves with their flippers.  This is NOT a behavior seen often and to this date, no known video exists of this maneuver in the water by either genus.

GILLMAN: A legendary scaled man-like aquatic amphibian from both Africa and South America that can walk upright when it leaves the water.  It supposedly breathes through gills but can leave the water and gulp air for a period of hours as do eels, lungfish, and mudskipper fish.  This legendary cryptid was a partial inspiration for both the Universal Studios' "Creature from the Black lagoon" series and the "Shadow Over Innesmouth" and other "Innesmouth" short stories of horror author H.P. Lovecraft.  In the deep Sahara, for thousands of years, generations of the Dogon People have described two of these beings as being godlike beings which appeared to walk on  two legs, yet have many characteristics in common with fish.  They told the Dogon people that they were from the star system of Serius, that it was a white star with a smaller white companion sun.  It was not until 1974 that astronomers confirmed that the "Dog Star" Serius,  the brightest star in Earth's skies, was in fact a binary star system.   The two fish god ancient astronauts of the Dogon people of North Africa correspond to "Oa" and "Oannes" of the various Sumerian City States.  These two may be connected or even be the same to gods as "Enki" and Ea" or "Enki" and "Enlil," depending upon which which clay tablets from which Mesopotamian digs are translated from cuneiform and studied.

KRAKEN:  Giant Cephalopods (Free swimming octopi, squids and cuttlefish) are assumed to be the inspirations for this Danish seafarer's myth.

GIANT CEPHALOPODS: The Giant Squid (Archteuthis princeps / Archteuthis dux), Giant Octopus, & Cuttlefishes (Poulps as refered to by author Jules Verne).   Voracious gigantic predators displaying intelligence rivalled only by the marine cetaceans (Dolphins and whales) they sometimes feed upon.  All cephalopods hunt and all have destructive parrot-like beaks that can inject venom/digestive enzyme compound and strip of living animal of it's flesh in seconds.  All have suction disks on their eight arms and any extra "whip" tentacles.  All squids and cuttlefish carry chitonous hooks and teeth inside and on the rims of each suction disk.  The six foot humbolt squid and larger species are identified and recorded as attacking humans in small boats and/or fishermen and sprtsmen in SCUBA rigs.  Several hard hat divers have been attacked by a large octopus on at least two recorded occasions.

MEGALODON: Carcharodon megalodon--Giant 55 to 80 foot Cretaceous cousins of the great white Shark (Carcharodon Carcharias), which are postulated by some paleoichtheologists to still frequent deep sea warm water hydrothermal vents in the deep trenches of the Pacific Ocean.  Fossil teeth collected from all over the world, most notably the Eastern Seaboard of the United States demonstrate that these sharks survived from seventy million years ago when they would have seized an unfortunate titanosaur or tyrannosaurid from the surf line, until less than 250,000 years ago.   Several teeth are in dispute as to their age being possibly less than 11,000 years old.  Current theory is that they were/are warmwater feeders specializing in large prey--Cretaceous Pliosaurs such as the Kronosaurids and that they are a major natural predator of migrating whale species along the Pacific Rim, where they can quickly return to their warm hydrothermal currents in the abyssal canyons at extreme depth.  This shark is well known due to the Megalodon books, "MEG" and "The Trench," by bestselling author/producer Steve Alten of Boca Ratan, Florida.

LAKE MONSTERS:  Four are commonly known,   "Nessie"--The Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, "Champ"--The monster of Lake Champlain in Canada,  "Ogopogo"--Another North American lake monster, and "Ishi" of a Japanese lake.  All have been observed and spoken of in legend for centuries.  All appear to be based on some living organism or other.  Many hypotheses abound.

PLESIOSAURS & PLIOSAURS:  Extinct families of prehistoric marine reptiles swimming in shallow Mesozoic seas worldwide from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, 135 million to 65 million years ago, prior to the impact of the Chixulub meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs.  Both families evolved the long necked, short tailed spindly bodies with four flippers for gliding swiftly through the waters as they chased and seized fish, ammonites and any other unfortunate critter for food.  Their heads were equipped with needlelike teeth for seizing prey.  All required warm ocean temperatures and all were air breathing and none had the ability to drag themselves up out of the water as lake monsters are said to.  The most likely Loch Ness candidate, Crypotocleidus oxoniensis. very popular in global pop culture , was demonstrated by Paleontologist, Dr. Robert Bakker to be completely unable to fulfill the requirements of being "Nessie" based on the testimonies of the local Scots and their traditions through the last 1500 years.  It could not succeed on land, and it could not mimic "Swan" motions with it's neck as it's vertebrae would not allow for that latitude of motions.  Extreme cold water as all "Lake Monsters" are said to be found in would have killed large marine reptiles with extreme rapidity.  At present, most "Swan neck" sightings have proven to be fabricated and the photos hoaxed.

GIANT SEMIAMPHIBIOUS EELS:

Bill McDonald currently subscribes to the hypothesis that all Lake Monsters are in fact any one or several species of giant prehistoric abysso-pelagic oceanic eels, sustaining populations of which became trapped in their current glacially carved lakes between successive ice ages.  Having raised several species of true fresh water eels, Amazonian electric eels which are in fact much more closely related to carp, goldfish, and koi, African lung fish, walking catfish and several giant Japanese salamanders, he hypothesized that the motions of eels swimming at the surface of a large tank in fact duplicated the multihumped appearances of the "Lake monsters" at the surface of the lakes.  The rolling, rotating motion as an eel glides into a surface turn while diving in fact so duplicated the humps and thrashing motions described by the Japanese, Canadian and Scottish lake residents, that McDonald now espouses the giant forty to ninety foot "Thick bodied" eels that Monster hunter Roy P. Mackal postulated in his 1976 book, "The Monsters of Loch Ness, Swallow Press.  Eels can leave the water to seek out better ponds, pools or rivers.  They can feed upon small or dead animals and insects in leaves and soil on dry land.  They thrive in cold water. They'll eat almost any kind of prey organism they can catch.   They can also feed by gorging seasonally and go without food for over six months at a time.

© Fred Gunn 2000
"Urquhart Castle" Loch Ness, Scotland
Note: Nessie Sightings are common here!

From Bill McDonald's CRYPTOLIST @ ONElist contributions:
As a detective, I have always known that listening to the locals is the key to any mystery. While working on a Loch Ness segment with Jonathan Gerald for Paramount Television's "Sightings," I was able to view video testimony from  several local scots who live on the lake and in Inverness. All four local residents described "Nessie" as a series of one to three "Humps" which moved in a specific direction while something akin to a roundish pectoral fin rotated briefly into view then vanished. This series of statements allowed me to recall several exotic aquarium "Pets" I personally owned from my early teen years working for the Russo's pet chain in South Orange County, CA. We used to run the largest retail collection of salt and fresh water aquarium fish and reptile species in the South Los Angeles Basin. I imported both legal and illegal species including a really great scam in which we shipped ten baby red pirahna with every batch of one hundred pacu  and no customs agent was ever the wiser. I loved my Pirahna. I personally owned and hand raised two American eels, four electric eels (Not true eels but fishes more akin to a carp with the juice to kill a horse), one African lung fish, several of those nasty walking catfish that so thoroughly  infested the southern states, and one very rare specimen of giant Salamander from Japan. All at different times and all along with far more valuable and exotic species; but these are worth mentioning as they all have specific characteristics that when composited together make a perfect "Nessie, Ishi, Champ" and so forth. As they grew larger, the eels ended up in 500 gallon tanks, divied by species as  they are voracious predators of goldfish, cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, baby mice, baby rats, baby chicks, ducklings and so forth. Both the American eels and the non-eel electric eels rolled around in their tanks generating near stationary humps as they rotated at the surface and dove again while their entire lengths rotated through the humps. As they grew larger they generated two and three humps at a time. My electrics grew to be six foot apiece before being sold to a corporate-type eccentic client at an outrageous profit. This rolling and humping glide of theirs was my first clue. While not as long, the lungfish was just as voracious and also mimicked some of this rotating and humping swimming motion.  All above mentioned species gulped air and could breath air for limited periods. All were predators who could go six months without eating if neccissary.  All Loch Ness salmon, trout, conger, and European eel species migrate seasonally through both ends of Loch Ness and then up the rivers from the lake to spawn.  So any overlarge preditory eel species would be seasonal feeders who would thrive in that cold, acidic, peat moss particle ridden waters, and whom would either not eat in the lean seasons or would attempt to seize prey from the land at night, as many eel and catfish species are able to climb out of the water scrabble about on land for up to eight hours out of the water at night from river systems all over the world. In China and Canada they are known to climb massive dams and artificial structures in their upriver migrations to spawn. In the open ocean in the abysso pelagic regions, eels abound. Most continental  freshwater spawning species do their growing and maturing in the coastal or mid oceanic regions. All are predatory, canniblistic and shoaling--Not loner--Species. Immense sharks, cephalopods (Octopi & Squid species), and cetacean species hunt each other in these depths but a huge gap in the food chain species exists in  the marine zoological books. I believe that gap is filled by immense shoals of successively larger eel species who live their entire lives in the ocean depths. Dead eels sink. Their carcasses rot fast. Occasionally a  population became entrapped in glacially carved freshwater lakes during the   successive ice ages and this would explain the Lake Monsters of Europe, Asia, and North America. Several six foot larval stage eels were found in the open ocean near the  Sargasso Sea. In most known species, the larval stage rarely exceeds one to six inches. If the growth ratios for all species are similar, then a six foot larval stage eel would grow into a sixty to ninety foot adult. So I have composited several possible versions of giant eel species with limited amphibious motile traits. All of whom rotate and hump when malingering at the surface, possibly trolling for birds, carrion, or fishing bait to eat.

Bill McDonald

NEW RESEARCH ENTERY RELEASED ON 22 JUNE 2003:   WHAT IF "NESSIE" IS A SUPERSIZED CONGER EEL, Conger oceanicus giganticus ???  

Additional research was conducted on possible oceanic / fresh water candidates for the Loch Ness Monster due to a science fiction book manuscript and movie project conceived and written by Megalodon supershark series associated author Steve Alten.  This project is called "The Loch."   Due to Steve's contract to write the book and pitch it as a movie, a suitable "Nessie" was needed and the most viable candidate seemed to be Conger oceanicus giganticus!

From the Conger Club fishing people in the U.K. and the folks at http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/pages/conger.html:

Identification:
There are eight distinct species of Conger found in the Atlantic, but Conger oceanicus is the largest and most common. Specimens up to 250lbs have been taken by commercial fisherman although any fish caught on rod and line over 70lbs would be considered a specimen. The Conger has a scaleless skin and its upper jaw extends beyond its lower. Colouring very much depends on the type of seabed it inhabits. On rocks, the back is charcoal grey and the underparts are pale, but over sand the back is a light-grey brown. The margins of the dorsal and anal fins are black. The conger can normally be differentiated from another eel merely by its size. However, small fish can be identified by the dorsal fin beginning at the pectoral fins and running the length of its body. The dorsal fin on a silver eel begins well back from its pectoral fins.

Breeding:
The breeding cycle of the Conger is still something of a mystery due to the enormous distances that they will travel to spawn. It is thought that the Conger migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the sub-tropical Atlantic to breed, spawning at depths of 10,000 to 12,000 ft. The larvae are transparent and flattened, and drift at the surface for up to 2 years before reaching the shoreline where they become cylindrical. At this stage they are still transparent and about 3 inches long. The full colouring appears by the time the eel is 12 inches long.

Habitat:
Conger Eels favour very rough ground and inhabit deepwater wrecks, reefs and broken ground. In shallow waters Conger are mostly nocturnal feeders, but in depths of 60ft or more they feed at any time.

Food:
Conger are bottom feeders more than capable of catching live food. They will hole up in a wreck or rough ground and ambush lesser species. They will take fish baits, crab, cuttlefish and squid. The most popular bait is a mackerel 'flapper' produced by taking the whole fish and removing the backbone and tail, allowing the flanks and innards to flutter in the tide. If it is available, a whole live pout can prove deadly.

Range:
English Channel, North Sea, Irish Sea

Additional Notes:
Conger eels have extremely sharp teeth and strong jaws. Hook lengths should be constructed of wire or heavy duty monofilament to avoid being bitten through. Conger stay alive for long periods out of water and great caution should be exercised when unhooking. Conger flesh is relatively tough but eating quality is fair if cooked properly, often as Conger steaks.
Useful Contacts: British Conger Club
DIANNE BYRNE, BCC SECRETARY, 2 DRAKE COURT, 264 CITADEL ROAD,PLYMOUTH. PL12PY.
EMAIL. secretary@congerclub.org

From http://www.fishing-in-wales.com/wildlife/fishes/conger.htm:
Conger Eel (Conger conger - Conger oceanicus)

Congers are very common off the rugged western coast of Wales. They feed on just about anything that moves, and they are renowned for their fighting power when hooked on rod and line.

Conger eels can grow to well over 100 lb (50kg) in deep water, reaching a length of more than 2.5 metres; such big congers are usually caught while fishing from boats rather than from the shore. Beware the fearsome teeth and ferocious grip of the conger eel!

The dorsal fin of a conger begins quite near to the head, and its lower jaw protrudes; these two features help distinguish small conger eels from common eels.

Congers are slow in maturing, usually taking about 15 years before they are ready to breed. Then, rather like the eels that we find in inland waters, congers migrate great distances before spawning in very deep water - typically 3000 to 4000 metres (over 10,000 feet). They die after spawning.
 

MOKELE MBEMBE:  The purported surviving Cretaceous sauropod of the central African rivers and swamps in the Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire.  A sauropod is a prehistoric reptile in the dinosaur order--The long necked, long whip tailed, dinosaurs most closely related to the Brontosaur (Apatosaur) families.   Mokele Mbembe is the label the Pygmy and Congo River tribesmen call the animal which they recognize as a contemporary jungle and river animal.

THUNDERBIRDS:  Giant prehistoric Teratorn Condores,   Argentavis maximus, may in fact be the origins of the Thunderbirds of the North American Plains Tribes, most especially the Dakota Sioux.  Seasonally, these giant vultures with the wingspan enough to carry off a bison calf or a grown man, were said to precede the intense thunderstorms that generated funnel clouds.  Current hypotheses suggest that the winds preceding these storms could assist these birds in flying hundreds if not thousands of miles along their great seasonal migratory routes.

MEGAFAUNA: Any and all animal species and subspecies which average over 44 kilograms, or 100 pounds.  So many of these species are assumed died out suddenly, especially in Australia, Northern Asia and the Americas between 13,000 and 8,000 years ago, that the mystery of why they died out is a particular frustration and obsession with many paleozoologists.  The three top theories are "Human 'Blitzkreig' hunting, Drastic Shifting Climates," and "Hyper viral diseases." Especially in North America from the Bering land bridge and again in Australia, the American Clovis and Australian Aboriginal hunters merit special attention as being a major factor in big game extinctions as perhaps they and their Asian ancestors may have driven the Neogiant hominids into such extreme seclusion.

GIGANTIC AUSTRALIAN DRAGON LIZARDS: Megalania prisca is a Goana weighing over 4000 pounds, and dwarfing the Komodo monitor lizard by a factor of five.  At over 30 feet in length, this nightmarish predator fed on hippopotamus sized marsupial wombats,  rhino-sized herbivorous diprotodonts, and several large mega-kangaroo species (11.5 feet tall) in Australia, and approximately 40-60,000 years ago, began preying upon the first human colonists to reach Australia and the indonesian Islands.   Approximately 8-10,000 years ago, the climate changed and while the humans and smaller marsupial species continued to thrive, the giant lizards could no longer sustain themselves and most starved and stopped breeding.  As large as they were, they would have been ambush hunters, hiding then running down small prey, gashing and following the easier to hunt larger prey as it sickened from the infected wounds.  If they are extinct, the primary cause was the loss of their large game prey.  The smaller, faster marsupial ground species could hide more easily in the heavy brush,  meaning not only smaller meals but fewer ones as well.   Aborigines would have learned how to avoid and escape them after only a few generations of having been eaten by these largest of lizards in history.  Coordinated bands of hunters could also have engineered traps and ambushes designed to rid themselves of the menace of being eaten by Megalania prisca, perhaps eating their meat as well.   This would also have been true for the larger crocodilian species as well.

SHORT FACED BEAR & GIANT GRIZZLIES: Described by hunters in Northern Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula, these giant, predatory 18 foot tall (When reared up on their hind legs) bears would be the most dangerous and effective land predators in the world.  Fewer humans inhabit the Kamchatka Peninsula than nearly anywhere else, worldwide.  Their size and ferocity would make them predators of even the polar bears.  They had the stamina for a sustained run and had the speed to easily chase down Homo erectus and Homo sapiens hunters, and eat them.  These bears also inhabited all of North America both on the glaciers and below them, in slightly less numbers.  They are thought to have gone extinct following the extinction of most of the big game species in North America and Northern Asia sometime in the last 8000 years.

SIBERIAN MAMMOTHS: Woolly Mammoths of the Forests of the Taiga.   Siberian hunters have told stories for centuries of encountering gigantic wooley elephants in the dense fir and birch forests of the Taiga regeon of Siberia.  It is a proven fact that the last herds of Woolly Mammoths had indeed survived on a small grassy Island in the Arctic Ocean--Wrangel Island, in the Chukchi Sea of Eastern Siberia.  They had grown smaller, until they were no larger than the Siberian and North American Bison.   Only five to seven feet at the shoulder.  A "Pygmy" population and subspecies of Woolly Mammoth which survived until only 3700 years ago.    These Woolly Mammoths still reigned  when the pyramids of Giza were already 1500 years old or perhaps far older.  Since the Mammoths were known by paleontologists to be primarily grass eaters, and since the dense Taiga forests would provide no grass, just bark and leaves, most cryptozoologists believe that the Taiga legend resulted from near perfectly preserved, frozen, mammoth carcasses extruding from frozen mud, permafrost or riverbanks within the forest that some Native Siberian hunters may have observed at a distance, over the last three to four hundred years.   OF NOTE:  A program to clone a herd of Woolly Mammoths using Asian Elephant ova and the preserved DNA from any one of several recovered frozen mammoth carcasses , and gestating them in several mature female Asian Elephants for 26 months is underway in Siberia with assistance from both the Japanese and the United States.

NEPALESE MAMMOTHS:   "RAJA GOJ, BUDDHA GOJ," & "KATJA" -- Asian Elephant "Throwbacks" to Elephas hysadricas, known as the "Bartia Giants."  It is theorized by DNA zoologists that these oversized bulls represent a "Reemergence" of a two million year old giant subspecies due to isolation in a remote river valley in Nepal resulting in some inbreeding among the local wild Asian elephant herds.  These animals are no longer technically cryptids as they have been extensively photographed and DNA samples have been catalogued.

GIANT GROUND SLOTHS:  Supposedly one or more species of Megatherium that survive in the dense jungles of the Amazon Basin.   Unlike their far smaller, surviving two and three toed cousins, Megatheriums and related genuses averaged up to six feet in length with some rearing up to over eleven feet in height.  A carnivorous (Or omnivorous meat eater when convenient) species may have also been identified.

GIANT ARMADILLOS:  Supposedly one or more species of giant armored Glyptodonts that survive in the dense jungles of the Amazon Basin.

GIANT PYTHONS AND ANACONDAS:  Supposed uncatalogued cousin species or subspecies of Reticulated Pythons from the Indonesian Islands surrounding Celebe and Komodo as well as throughout Southeast Asia and Anaconda Boa Constrictors from the dense jungles of the Amazon Basin.  The reticulated python is known to swim the open ocean between Indonesian islands as do estuarian (Salt water) crocodiles and Komodo monitor lizards.  The anaconda is a river and pond snake when it is not in the trees.  The largest recorded reticulated python was 37 feet.   The largest anaconda was said to have measured in at 33 feet.  Stories abound in both Southeast Asia and South America of snakes in excess of 62 feet and indeed one very bad aerial photograph exists of one such monster anaconda.

GIANT CROCODILES: Prehistoric crocodilians are known from their fossils to have exceeded fifty feet in length and to have seized adult hadrosaurs and sauropod young.  The estuarian (Salt water) croc averages approximately 16 feet.   Specimens have been documented at over 30 feet.  Stories abound throughout the Northern Australian Territories, Indonesian islands, and Southeast Asia of crocodiles larger than 30 feet in length.  Even the better known African Nile River crocodile species averaging 14 foot has been accused of growing larger than 20 feet upon occasion.

THE ERA OF THE ICE AGES: Quaternary Period (The last 1.6 million years ending with the late Pleistocene epoch)--Extraordinary climactic oscillations between cold and warm conditions on deca-millennial scales.  The latest evidence from the Greenland ice cores and oxygen isotope analysis indicates at least 24 huge swings in temperature and a multitude of smaller ones with varying patterns (Which occurred during the last one-and one-half million years).  In other words, twenty four separate ice ages with significant warming periods in between.  The last one began approximately twenty-seven thousand years ago with the ice sheets advancing as far down as the Ohio Valley 20,000 years ago.  It retreated significantly by 13,000 years ago allowing for at least one, narrow ice free corridor down from the Bering land bridge, through West Central Canada to the open grasslands and forests at the southern edge of the two massive glacial sheets--Cordilleran over the western portion of North America and the Rocky Mountains and the Laurentide over Greenland, Central & Eastern North America--Both halves were known as the Wisconsinan glaciation in North America.

MEGAFAUNA EXTINCTIONS:  Extremely pronounced 13,000 years ago as the last ice sheets began a slow retreat following a mild warming trend which led to our modern weather patterns over the last eight thousand years of recorded history.  Northern Europe, Northern Asia,  both American continents in the extreme, and Australia.   Three separate theories for the Pleistocene extinctions are being argued in the field of paleoarcheology and paleozoology:

1.  Paul S. Martin's current theory compiled from over 200 years of research and argumentation:   A "Blitzkrieg"  of Human hunters exploding across the continents, who overhunted and descimated large species in a manner similar to what the Caucasian North American settlers did millennia later to the vast bison and pronghorn antelope herds.

2.  Ernest L. Lundelius Jr. & Russell Graham's theories that drastic shifting in climates dissolved ancient animal ecological alliances, thus destroying individual species over a protracted period of time--13000-8000 years ago.

3.  Ross D. E. MacPhee and Preston A. Marx's radical new theory that hyper disease attacked the new world, jumping from species to species in a pandemic analogueous to the plagues of Medieval Europe or the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918 which killed between ten and forty percent of the population in various communities.  In their model, the disease killed not all, but just 35 to 65 percent of it's victims.  The surviving populations were weakened, ravaged, and had suffered a number of side effects causing them to be malnourished and for their reproductive rates to fall dramatically.  It is postulated that when the mortality rate from all combined factors rises above 75 percent, populations tend to be so completely stressed that random environmental occurrences, including human hunting and weather changes, might finish off the last survivors by preventing them from further reproduction.

Bill McDonald feels that all three theories have merit.  All three have limitations.  In McDonald's opinion, NONE of the three, alone, could account for a mass extinction at this level. McDonald believes that all three together in varying proportions could very well account for the mega fauna species decimation which occurred over just a few thousand years.  Climactic swings following the retreating ice sheets brought on droughts, and several "Wet/cold" snaps; exasperated by extreme over hunting by the human Clovis hunters (Homo sapiens), and perhaps the onset of viral hyper diseases which followed the nomad encampments, their half-feral wolf dogs, their lice, fleas and their refuse; in combination, wiped out many of the above listed mega fauna species--

--Or so it is assumed.

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