Rare Monsters

  The Mississippi monster is one of those old time cryptid stories that appeared in 19 th century news papers. And like many of these stories it pushes the limits of what can be believed. Although I find this monster in particular pushes those limits more than most. Stories like the Swan Valley monster had a bizarre creature that defies biology, but only a small number of witnesses and ultimately the creature didn’t do very much. The Ape Canyon attack has lots of action and damage, which should leave a paper trail of police reports and insurance claims that can be verified if someone where to look deep enough, but involves big foot, one of the more reasonable cryptids to exist. The Mississippi monster involves both a confounding monster that is like nothing else alive, and over the top damage, which should be able to be verified by its own paper trail. However the story takes place long enough ago that such things like insurance claims and repair reports of company owned ships wo...

  In the medieval era and earlier, so little was know about whales that they were regarded in the same manner as dragons and sea serpents. Today physeter, meaning blower or whirlpool, is the genus name of sperm whales. And while the name always referred this species of whale, what was believed about their appearance and behavior was worthy of being called a mythical beast. The earliest surviving accounts of physeter was from Pliny the Elder. He states that it was the largest beast in the Sea of Gaul, today known as the North Atlantic. According to Pliny the physeter would rise itself up in a column above the masts of ships and spray out water from its head in a fountain like torrent. The physeter was often found in medieval bestiaries, where it was described as a giant fish with a horse like head and neck. It's head had two spouts from which it could spray out water. A horse like mane ran down the back of its neck. Often the depiction would end here, with the body hidden beneat...

  I'm starting a new thing, I'm going to do the monster alphabet. I've already found and planned out monsters for every letter, even q and x. So this week we're starting with A. The ambize angulo, better known to the internet as the ambize (pronounced am-bee-zay, ending like say or day), is an aquatic monster from the Congo River and its tributaries. It straddles the line of folklore and cryptid, being part of the local folk tales and being encountered by 17 th century European travellers. The ambize is described as a cross between a pig and a fish, having the overall form of a fish with a pig's head and blubbery skin. It has a rounded tail that is swung up and down while swimming, like a sea mammal. The ambize's most bizarre feature is that it has giant fleshy human hands in place of fins. Although this appears to be a feature that has been exaggerated with time, as earlier reports give it more proportional human arms in place of the hand fins, which is still ...