OCEANOGRAPY

CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Theory emerges after fish from dark legend washes up on beach

SEA SERPENT CRYPTID

Scientists are analysing the body of a three-metre-long 'doomsday' fish which was discovered dead on a beach.

Michael Dahlstrom
·Environment Editor
Wed 13 November 2024 

A rare 'Doomsday fish' was found on Grandview Beach in Encinitas and was spotted by Scripps Oceanography PhD candidate Alison Laferriere. Source: Alison Laferriere/Scripps Institution of Oceanography


A giant oarfish has been photographed washed up on a rocky beach. It’s the second time the remains of this rarely encountered species have been documented off the southern Californian coast this year, and scientists are working on a theory as to why.

For centuries, dark legends have linked the species to natural disasters like earthquakes, leading to it being colloquially referred to as the “doomsday fish”. There has been speculation the deep sea species could be brought to the surface during underwater tremors, although this has not been scientifically proven.

After the first oarfish was discovered in August near San Diego, California, a 4.4-metre magnitude earthquake was detected in Los Angeles, prompting some locals to discuss the superstition.


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Legend links oarfish to earthquakes, although there is no scientific evidence linking them to the disasters. Source: Alison Laferriere/Scripps Institution of Oceanography
'Devil wind' theory linked to 'Doomsday' fish death

The latest discovery occurred last week at Grandview Beach in San Diego County. The three-metre-long fish was discovered by a student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the institute that analysed the last specimen.

The body was collected and hauled to a research facility, where samples were collected to try and understand more about the fish. While the cause of death is yet to be determined, the Institute has formed two possible theories.

Its marine vertebrate collection manager Ben Frable said, “it may have to do with changes in ocean conditions and increased numbers of oarfish off our coast. Many researchers have suggested this as to why deep-water fish strand on beaches.”

“Sometimes it may be linked to broader shifts such as the El Niño and La Niña cycle but this is not always the case. There was a weak El Niño earlier this year.”

Frable also noted the beaching coincided with the recent red tide, a type of algal bloom that produces toxins that can kill people, marine life and birds.

The coast was also struck by strong, extremely dry Santa Ana winds, also known as "Devil winds" which can cause cold water to rise from below the surface layer of the ocean, and trigger large waves. In popular culture they're rumoured to affect people's moods, and during the hotter months they're known to fuel out-of-control wildfires.

"Many variables could lead to these strandings,” Frable added.

In September, two Aussie fisherman caught an oarfish off the Top End. The long, slender fish is rarely seen in Australian waters


Newly discovered creature the 'size of two basketball courts' photographed underwater

The 'mega' coral is believed to be the world's largest – and could hold a special key for scientists.


Michael Dahlstrom
·Environment Editor
Updated Thu 14 November 2024


The "mega coral" was discovered off the Three Sisters island group in the Solomon Islands. Source: Steve Spence/National Geographic Pristine Seas


An ancient marine organism has been detected underwater by a research vessel north of Australia. At 34 metres wide, 32 metres long and 5.5 metres high, and with a circumference of 183 metres, the discovery team described it as being as big as two basketball courts or five tennis courts.

Described as a “mega coral” by the discovery team from National Geographic, what’s remarkable about the find is that it is one standalone network of identical polyps, rather than a reef. It’s believed to be the world's largest coral after growing uninterrupted for 300 and 500 years in waters surrounding the Solomon Islands.

There are no records of the giant organism on the island, which has been inhabited by humans since between 28,000 and 30,000 BCE.

From National Geographic’s vessel Pristine Seas, the coral was initially thought to be a shipwreck, and it was only after underwater cinematographer Manu San Félix dipped under the waves that he found it was a brown, red, yellow and blue Pavona clavus – a widespread but rare stony coral.

An aerial photograph shared by the ship's crew shows the ocean giant compared to their vessel. Others taken underwater show hundreds of fish swimming around it, highlighting its important role as a marine habitat.

Although it appears stationary, coral is an animal. Each polyp has a mouth that opens directly into a stomach, which is surrounded by a circle of tentacles that are used for defence and attacking prey.

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World's largest coral discovered off Solomon Islands


National Geographic divers measure the massive coral. Source: Manu San Félix, National Geographic Pristine Seas
How important is this mega coral discovery?

Pristine Seas founder Enric Sala said the find was significant and compared it to discovering the world’s tallest tree. “Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly one billion little polyps, pulsing with life and colour,” he said.

While the coral discovery has caused elation, the Pristine Seas crew are concerned about its future. Because of its size and position deep in the ocean the coral appears to be healthy, but other parts of the reef which were closer to the surface were heavily degraded.

This week the IUCN announced 44 per cent of warm-water reef-building corals had now been added to its Red List of species threatened with extinction. Climate change remains the greatest threat to the world’s tropical reefs, and they are projected to decline by 70 to 90 per cent at 1.5 degrees of warming above preindustrial average temperatures. At 2 degrees of warming, 99 per cent will likely be lost.
What are the other largest organisms in the world?

Measuring more than 180 square km, the Posidonia australis seagrass meadow in Shark Bay is the largest plant.


At 115.55 metres, the world's tallest tree is the Hyperion, a coastal redwood in California.


The world's largest ever animal is the blue whale, which can grow to 30 metres long and weigh more than 180,000kg.

The giant organism is made up of genetically identical polyps. Source: Manu San Félix, National Geographic Pristine Seas

Coral key to island nation's survival

Following National Geographic’s announcement, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said reefs were important in providing livelihoods for the region. “Our survival depends on healthy coral reefs, so this exciting discovery underlines the importance of protecting and sustaining them for future generations,” he said.

The coral is the summation of millions of identical polyps. Because it has lived for generations, the researchers believe it could hold important genetic information that could be key to coral survival during periods of climate change.

“It is a natural monument that has seen the arrival of the first Europeans to these waters,” said San Félix, who was the first to spot the record-breaking mass. "Illustrious figures of humanity have coexisted with this colony: Newton, Darwin, Curie, Gandhi, Einstein... and it has survived them. It now stores information on how to survive throughout the centuries,” he said.

CRYPTID
A giant 'sunbathing' fish that washed ashore in Oregon turned out to be an unexpected oddity

Elysee Barakett
Updated Wed, June 12, 2024 

A giant species of fish that was first discovered seven years ago washed ashore in Oregon last week, according to marine biologists who study the animal.

Beachgoers in Gearhart, a small town just south of the Washington border, found the 7.3-foot-long hoodwinker sunfish, also called a mola tecta, on June 3.

The species was first discovered in 2017 and has been occasionally spotted near Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest. It’s recognizable by a thick flap of skin in place of a tail, which is split in two.


When Keith Chambers, the general manager at Seaside Aquarium in Oregon, first received reports of a circular, gray fish on the beach, he assumed it was a run-of-the-mill ocean sunfish.

“I’ve seen a lot of them,” he said. “It wasn’t that spectacular of a moment for me.”

But marine biologist Marianne Nyegaard noticed something unique in the aquarium’s Facebook photo showcasing their finding — the fish had smooth skin and a two-part tail. She identified the fish as a mola tecta, a species she discovered and has been researching since.

“As soon as we could, we just jumped in the car and drove down to see it,” Nyegaard, who lives in New Zealand but was fortuitously visiting Seattle that weekend, said.

“It was a fantastic coincidence. It doesn’t get any better than that,” she said.

“It’s like I can’t get away from them,” she added, laughing.

newly discovered and rare species of sunfish (Courtesy Seaside Aquarium)

The name “mola” comes from Latin and means “millstone,” which refers to the fish’s flat and circular body. The fish are known for floating along the ocean’s surface — what some scientists lightheartedly refer to as “sunbathing.”

But Nyegaard said the activity serves an important purpose: catching jellyfish and other gelatinous creatures for prey.

Sunfish dive deep down into colder water when they hunt. Since their bodies cannot efficiently regulate temperature, they warm themselves using the sun. While the fish lie on the ocean’s surface, birds clean them by eating parasites off their skin.

Certain features of hoodwinker sunfish distinguish them from ocean sunfish, Nyegaard said. As ocean sunfish grow, their skin wrinkles. Hoodwinker sunfish are always completely smooth.

Where a normal fish would have a tail, sunfish have a flap. An ocean sunfish’s flap is wavy and has bony formations. The hoodwinker sunfish’s flap is divided into two, and it can move each part independently of the other.

“Why those two species need different backends, we don’t know,” Nyegaard said. Some theories are that they need the two-part flap for steering or agility, she said.

Nyegaard said sunfish in general are still mysterious to scientists. There are five species in total, including the hoodwinker, but it’s unclear how or whether they can co-exist in the same location.

It’s also unclear whether the hoodwinker fish in Australia and New Zealand are linked to the ones in the Pacific Northwest and have somehow migrated across the equator, Nyegaard said.

Since the discovery, people have flocked to Gearhart Beach to visit the lone hoodwinker on the sand.

“It’s not the first time it’s washed up, but it is the largest one to wash up,” said Tierney Thys, a marine biologist at California Academy of Sciences.

“Strandings like this remind us how humans inhabit a mere 1% of the available living space on this vast ocean planet,” she said. “It’s both humbling and inspiring to encounter one of these incredible creatures and a powerful reminder we have so much more to learn.”

CORRECTION (June 12, 2:22 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated what Mola means in Latin. It is millstone, not milestone. It also misspelled the first name of the marine biologist at California Academy of Sciences. She is Tierney Thys, not Tierny.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Revealed: Pennsylvania has investigated more than a dozen UFO incidents in the past decade

Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
May 4, 2024 

The March 2023 conjunction of Jupiter and Venus photographed from the International Space Station. The appearance of the two planets close together in the sky prompted multiple UFO reports in Lebanon County, according to records from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. (NASA photo)

Mysterious lights following a motorist on a dark country road, a saucer-shaped craft hovering over a suburban subdivision, and a flaming orb falling into the woods are among phenomena Pennsylvania residents have reported to authorities, state records show.

After the head of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) casually mentioned during a legislative hearing earlier this year that the agency tracks UFO sightings, the Capital-Star obtained records showing PEMA has investigated more than a dozen such events in the last decade.

“We take all reports and we share it with the appropriate agencies to be able to investigate,” Padfield told members of the state House Appropriations Committee in February.

Often dull and tedious, state budget hearings nonetheless are a chance for the Legislature to grill administration officials about how they plan to spend the taxpayers’ money.

The cabinet secretaries flesh out the details of the governor’s budget proposal but deliver few bombshells. Every once in a while, however, an answer prompts lawmakers to look up from their stacks of white papers with surprise and demand more.

It was thus as Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield fielded a question from state Rep. Ben Waxman (D-Philadelphia) about potential threats to the state’s nuclear power plants from drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.


“We have had reports of unidentified flying objects in the past,” Padfield said before quickly moving on to the role of the Federal Aviation Administration in regulating drones.


“So, wait. Run that back again. What did you say about UFOs?” House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) asked when Padfield had finished his answer.

Padfield replied that PEMA occasionally gets reports of lights in the sky from county 911 centers and upon investigation authorities can attribute them to astronomical or earthly sources, such as helicopter traffic around the Pennsylvania National Guard base at Fort Indiantown Gap.

“Most of them are unfounded, or they’re attributable to some other mechanisms,” Padfield concluded, prompting another follow up from Harris.

“So, what about the un-most?” Harris asked. “You’re talking like ET phone home or something?”

Padfield conceded that some sightings are “undefined” and are difficult to understand unless the person reporting the phenomenon gets pictures but everything is passed along to the appropriate agencies.

Not satisfied with Padfield’s answer, the Capital-Star filed a right-to-know request with PEMA seeking records of unidentified flying objects and aerial phenomena and, for good measure, “encounters with unknown beings including those of suspected extra-terrestrial or cryptozoological nature.”

PEMA responded, perhaps appropriately, on April 1, with 40 pages of records on UFO reports passed to the Commonwealth Watch and Warning Center, which receives reports of certain events from county emergency dispatch centers and distributes them to appropriate state and federal agencies.



The records PEMA provided in response to the right-to-know request go back to 2013, when the agency received a half-dozen UFO reports.

Padfeild said during the budget hearing that some sightings are easily explained. That was the case last year when multiple people called 911 in Lebanon County to report suspicious lights and a hovering object that made no sound.


One caller in Bethel Township reported that the lights had followed his wife from Hamburg in Berks County to their home and that the object was stationary in the sky above their house. Another in the city of Lebanon reported seeing an oval shape that changed colors from gray to black to transparent and all she could see were the object’s lights.

Those calls happened on March 1, 2023, which was the height of a convergence of Jupiter and Venus in the night sky, when the planets appeared to almost merge into a single point of light. The spectacular astronomical event had been widely reported in the news, PEMA’s records noted.

Stan Gordon, a Westmoreland County resident who operates a 24-hour UFO, bigfoot and cryptid reporting hotline, said he regularly receives reports from across the state. Gordon said he became fascinated with UFOs as a kid in the 1950s. He describes himself as the principal investigator of Pennsylvania’s most famous UFO case.

In 1965, residents across six states saw a fireball cross the sky. Residents of Kecksburg said they saw an object shaped like an oversized acorn make a controlled crash into the woods not far from where Gordon lived. Four years later, Gordon set up his hotline.

“It’s never stopped ringing,” Gordon said, adding that the number of cases, including reports of unexplained objects in broad daylight and at close range, has increased in recent years.

Many are resolved with a little bit of research, he said. “We’ve always taken these cases very open mindedly. We approach them scientifically.”

Starlink satellites, which are launched dozens at a time from a single rocket, appear as a train of lights in the early evening sky and have prompted many recent reports. High altitude balloons and plumes of rocket exhaust and other space research activities also look unusual but are attributable to human activity, Gordon said, adding that he has never seen a UFO himself.

Other reports are less easily explained.

On Sept. 21, 2023, a Shermans Dale man reported a UFO with eight vertical lights he described as white, yellow, and a hint of green hovering about 200 feet above the road near a Perry County gas station. The man attempted to take a video with his cellphone before the lights disappeared but he later discovered the video had not been saved, the PEMA records say.

A Lower Saucon Township man called the Northampton County 911 center Dec. 19, 2021, to report a flying saucer with seven or eight lights on its underside over his development. Police responded but it’s unclear from the records whether they took any action. PEMA provided the caller with contact information for Gordon’s hotline, the records say.

Montgomery County authorities investigated after an Upper Pottsgrove Township man reported a glowing orb about the size of a small aircraft fell from the sky on Sept. 15, 2014. The object, which he described as orange and yellow fire-colored, floated behind the treeline and did not reappear. An officer who responded reported seeing flashes in the area but no other suspicious activity.

“There are a lot of cases that are very, very detailed that are not easy to explain away,” Gordon said.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.

TEXAS

Austin witches create community at witch markets, tiny home agrihood

One natural witch lives at Green Gate Farms’ tiny home agrihood, where she feels safe to openly practice her craft.

By Emily HernandezFeb 25, 2024


FWW said the animals that live at Green Gate Farms, like this goose named Goldie, have been an important part of her daily connection with nature as a witch. 

Emily Hernandez


Though you may not be aware, a vibrant witch community is thriving in the heart of Texas. It's a community full of magic practitioners who may just entrance you with their welcoming lifestyles and curated spellwork.

Despite a general lack of knowledge about such alternative spiritualities in the U.S., many witches in the Capital City told MySA that Austin feels situated to become a safe space.

“(Witch) is a word that some people don't feel comfortable being described. It's very loaded,” Jessica Beaver, a self-described natural and folk magic witch, told MySA. “In a lot of other countries, witchcraft (is) literally the word for bad, evil, greedy magic. But it is something more in the Western world, more in America, where witchcraft itself has been reclaimed as something that does not equal (evil magic).”

Beaver is the owner of Yarrow & Sage, a metaphysical shop that sells magical offerings like runes, tarot cards, crystals, herbs, and other ritual tools. She also runs the Austin Witches Markets, which have evolved since their founding in 2015 to become a space for all kinds of magic practitioners to source ingredients, connect with like-minded people and grow their small businesses.

Shea Curtis, a vendor at the February 3 Austin Witch Market, sells handmade artwork filled with pressed flowers and paper insects from her shop Dark Whimsy. 

Emily Hernandez

Amanda Aguilar, one of the vendor’s at the Austin Witches Market, offers customers oracle readings and connects people with their spirit guides by working with deities, ancestors, and guardian angels through her business Runic Rose Oracle.

“It’s just been very accepting and loving, and I’ve noticed that that translates to the customers because they feel accepted…which is really important, especially if you’re navigating the spiritual journey,” Aguilar told MySA.

Austin Witch Market vendor Tiffanie McKinnie and her son sell crocheted oddities from her shop Knoddities at the February 3 market. Emily Hernandez

Market vendor Tiffanie McKinnie sells handmade crocheted anatomical hearts, Baphomets, and cryptid lovies from her shop Knoddities. As both a Christian and a magic practitioner, she believes everyone is a witch in their own way.

“If people think that prayer isn’t a form of magic, I mean, come on!” McKinnie told MySA.

“You’re talking to a God and it magically somehow sends it up to him,” her son added.

Another witch who has sourced spell ingredients from the witch markets is FWW, who goes by her spiritual pseudonym. As someone who comes from a long line of witches, she feels the magic running through her veins daily.

“I try to live my life as acutely aware of the magic that is around us naturally,” she told MySA. “Even just this morning…I saw two hawks, which happen to be my spirit animals. Whenever I see a hawk, or especially a peregrine falcon, I know that it's going to be a good day.”

Natural witch FWW sits on a couch in the community farmhouse at Green Gate Farms, where she lives in a tiny home agrihood.

Emily Hernandez


FWW describes herself as a natural witch who lives in a tiny home at Green Gate Farms agrihood— which is a residential neighborhood centered around community farming. Since moving to Austin in 2016, she feels like she finally has a place to put down roots and openly practice her craft in her witchy cottage. She also found that she has two familiars on the farm: the barn cat Millie and a gray kitten.

Growing up in Massachusetts, FWW said she couldn’t really come out of the “broom closet” because of close-minded attitudes about alternative spiritualities. However, she started her journey when she was 13 under the guidance of a magic practitioner she affectionately calls The Seeker. She recalls a time when he taught her how to summon air.

“I put my hands out, and I really felt it and summoned it. I watched this pile of leaves literally start to spin upward like this up to where my eyes were and then it went the opposite way down back,” FWW said. “I was sold immediately. I'm enjoying reliving it actually.”

Her daily rituals include meditation in her loft and grounding, which FWW describes as touching the earth and imagining that she is taking in energy she needs and pushing her roots deeper into the ground to solidify her connection with the earth.

“Depending on my mood, I will go full out and do the full circle and all the candles and all the chants and all the things,” FWW said. “And then other times when I'm doing spellwork, if I find a seed that lands in my hand, I'll put my intention into that and let it go to the wind and plant itself.”


For her, following a specific deity isn’t necessary to feel fulfilled as a witch.

“For certain days of the year (like) solstices and Sabbots, I will reach out to Goddess as a whole, and God as a whole, and then the Universal Spirit that comes around that,” FWW said. “I use the pantheons as a guide more so than worship. Because nature is the worship.”

Feb 25, 2024
By Emily Hernandez is a Dallas native who graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She covers trending news about the Capital City’s culture and beloved Austin staples. She has interned with The Daily Beast, The Texas Tribune, KUT News and the Austin American-Statesman, writing on topics ranging from the church of Scientology trying to silence rape victims to white nationalism within the 2022 Texas gubernatorial race.

CRYPTID/CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Second ‘sighting’ of Loch Ness monster in same week


Simon Johnson
Fri, 1 September 2023 

The photograph taken by Charlotte Robinson in August 2018 - PETER JOLLY/NORTHPIX

A girl has claimed to have spotted the Loch Ness monster in the same week other newly released photographs were taken allegedly showing the legendary beast.

Charlotte Robinson, 12, from Leeds in Yorkshire, was recorded in the official sightings register as having seen the mythical creature emerge from the loch around 50ft away.

She said that it had a “a neck and head was in the shape of a hook” and that it disappeared, before reemerging elsewhere for about a minute.


She took a picture on her mobile phone that appears to show something protruding from the loch’s surface, although it is unlikely to settle the decades-long debate over whether a serpent-type creature is living in its waters.

Charlotte Robinson on the shores of Loch Ness, where she believes she took a photograph of the creature in 2018 - PETER JOLLY/NORTHPIX

Charlotte’s picture was taken on Aug 17, 2018, four days after other images that were hailed as the “most exciting ever” when they emerged this week.

Chie Kelly, a translator, who took those photographs, said she had witnessed the creature moving at “steady speed” on the banks of the loch while she was holidaying there.

Her images were only published this week as she feared public ridicule at the time.

Ms Kelly was eventually persuaded to release them by Steve Feltham, who has spent more than 30 years searching for Nessie.

The photos taken by Chie Kelly - Chie Kelly/Peter Jolly/Northpix

‘I couldn’t believe it’

Charlotte’s sighting came on the first day of her holiday at Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston with her parents.

“There was something in the water about 50ft from the shore. I took a photo. It had a neck and head was in the shape of a hook,” she said.

“I just took what I saw. It was black – I just don’t know how far it was out of the water. I’m not good at judging distances. But after about a minute it disappeared and then came back up again in a different place.

“It was up for less than a minute the second time. I kind of believed in Nessie, but I wanted to see the proof. I always imagined her as having a long neck and flippers. I have seen something but I’m not sure what.”

Her mother Kat, a business intelligence data analyst, told reporters at the time: “Charlotte said she had taken a photo of a creature in the loch and I said ‘right, sure you have!’ For weeks she’s been going on about seeing the Loch Ness monster.

“But when I saw the picture, I couldn’t believe it. Something’s there. With all the sightings over the years there must be something in the loch.”

Charlotte’s sighting was accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register, while Ms Kelly’s four days earlier has just been added.
‘Extraordinary week’

Gary Campbell, the keeper of the register, said: “It was some extraordinary week because as well as Charlotte’s sighting there were three others of an unexplained creature.

“It appears that the creature was moving between Dores and Fort Augustus. These pictures by Ms Kelly and Charlotte are the best of Nessie ever taken and are totally baffling. It all adds to the evidence that is definitely something unexplained in Loch Ness.”

Mr Feltham said the photographs taken by Ms Kelly were “the most exciting surface pictures I have seen” and “vindication for all the people who believe there is something unexplained in Loch Ness”.

The first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness monster was made in 564 but the legend captured the public imagination in the 1930s.

It followed Mrs Aldie Mackay, a hotel manager, reporting seeing a “whale-like fish” in the waters of Loch Ness on April 14 1933, which was featured in the Inverness Courier. The story was quickly followed up by the national press.

The Surgeon’s Photo from 1934

The following year, the most famous image of the monster, known as “The Surgeon’s Photo”, was captured and published in the Daily Mail. For decades it was seen as evidence of the monster’s existence.

However, it was described as a fake by The Telegraph in 1975, and is now believed to have been created as part of an elaborate hoax.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LOCH NESS 

CRYPTID/CRYPTOZOOLGY

A 140-year-old Tassie tiger brain sample survived two world wars and made it to our lab. Here’s what we found

The Conversation
August 3, 2023

Model of a thylacine at the Australian Museum. Shutterstock

Researchers often think how and when their results will be published. However, many research projects don’t see the light until decades (or even centuries) later, if at all.

This is the case of a high-resolution atlas of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine brain. Carefully processed over 140 years ago, it is finally published today in the journal PNAS.
Similar, but not wolves

Thylacines were dingo-sized carnivorous marsupials that roamed through Australia and New Guinea prior to human occupation. They became confined to Tasmania around 3,000 years ago.

The arrival of European colonists and the introduction of farming, diseases and hunting bounties quickly led to their extinction. The last known individual died on September 7 1936 at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo. As a commemoration, September 7 became the National Threatened Species Day to raise conservation awareness in Australia.


Thylacine family at Beaumaris Zoo in 1910.

Wikimedia

Thylacines looked remarkably similar to wolves and dogs (that is, canids). This is a textbook example of a process known as evolutionary convergence: when the body shapes of animals are really similar, despite them coming from different lineages.

However, whether thylacine brains are also similar to wolves has been very hard to find out, due to a lack of material available for microscopic studies. In the newly published study, my colleagues and I uploaded high-resolution images to a public repository, and studied brain sections prepared for microscopy from a thylacine that died in the Berlin Zoo in 1880.




A screen capture showing a selection of the thylacine brain scans the team uploaded to a public image repository. BrainMaps.org

Kept safe by researchers

Unfortunately, very little information about this specimen was available (for example, its sex and body weight was missing). Details were likely lost during both world wars. But the samples were kept safe by researchers who understood their biological relevance.


Initial custodians likely included German scientists Oskar and Cecile Vogt, whose large privately owned brain sample collection was incorporated into the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in 1914. Vogt – who also studied Lenin’s brain – was the founding director of the institute, prior to the couple escaping the Nazis in 1937.

The institute later became the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and moved to Frankfurt in 1962. There, late neurobiologist Heinz Stephan handed the thylacine material to John Nelson from Monash University (co-author of this study) in 1973, to be returned to Australia.

The original samples are currently held by CSIRO’s Australian National Wildlife Collection in Canberra.


The last known thylacine was captured in Tasmania, and kept at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart. Wikimedia
Brain features reveal a family


So, what did we discover after analysing the samples? Overall, the thylacine brain resembles that of its carnivorous marsupial relatives (dasyurids, like dunnarts, quolls and Tasmanian devils) more than that of wolves or other canids.


Thylacines are related to other Australian carnivorous marsupials, pictured here: Tasmanian tiger, Tasmanian devil, tiger quoll, numbat, yellow-footed antiechinus, fat-tailed dunnart. Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

The brain region known as the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for planning actions and sensing the environment, is larger than in other dasyurids. Brain regions involved in processing smells also suggest that scavenging and hunting behaviors were important in this species.

These findings show that despite body resemblance, brain features better show the evolutionary relatedness between species.

Making this material openly available allows for anyone to study the thylacine brain and gain a clearer picture of this long-gone species. Our ongoing research using dunnarts is also providing new insights about the development and evolution of the mammalian brain.

Rodrigo Suarez, Senior Lecturer- School of Biomedical Sciences and Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Tracking down the elusive Bigfoot

Fri, February 17, 2023 

Depending on who you ask, Bigfoot, an ape-like creature that legend says stalks the forests of North America, is either a good subject for a story told around a campfire but not to be taken seriously, a real phenomenon that science has yet to explain, or something between the two.

Also known as sasquatch, Bigfoot has become a larger-than-life icon that is echoed in other parts of the world. In the southeastern United States, legends of the Skunk ape about, while in Asia, Bigfoot is know as the Almas, Yeren and Yeti. In Australia, a similar creature of folklore is called the Yowie.

Southwestern Manitoba is no stranger to accounts of the notoriously elusive Bigfoot, who is usually described as a large, muscular, bipedal creature covered in black, dark brown or dark red fur, standing as tall as 4.6 metres.

A website called the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) has archives of many Bigfoot sightings across North America. In western Manitoba, the mystical creature is said to have been seen near Brandon, Kenton, Rivers and Rossburn.

One such account, which took place on July 29, 2010 along a dirt road near Brandon, tells the story of an unnamed man who went to check his rural mailbox and decided to take a back road home. Noticing strange tracks on the road, he got out of his truck and was flabbergasted at what he saw — footprints that measured larger than any human foot, showing a seven-foot stride, that appeared to emerge from a field, walk along the edge of the road for nearly a mile and then return to the same field.

In 2000, a possible sasquatch was seen by an unnamed farmer near Highway 21 just outside Kenton, 72 kilometres northwest of Brandon. The farmer claimed his cattle had been spooked on several occasions, and he finally saw what was scaring them one night when he was approaching his uncle’s farm with his tractor. At first, he thought the figure he saw was his uncle walking on the road away from him. As he got closer, the creature turned toward him and walked across the road. Moments later, the farmer’s uncle appeared. The farmer describes the creature he saw as being almost as tall as a tree — at least eight feet — and a gait that didn’t seem human.

One sasquatch-like creature was seen walking across a grain field near Rivers, 41 km northwest of Brandon, in August 1996. The anonymous witness said he was returning home one evening just after dusk had fallen when he saw a shape in the ditch on the west side of the highway. He stopped to check if it was a horse from a nearby farm, but quickly observed a fast-moving creature that was covered in dark brown hair and walking upright.

North of Rossburn, 146 km northwest of Brandon, a suspected sasquatch was seen in summer in the mid-1960s by a group of people picking saskatoon berries behind their garden. The witness claimed the creature made a second appearance shortly after.

On social media, several people claimed to have seen a Bigfoot-like creature near McCreary, 137 km northeast of Brandon, and Killarney, 99 km southeast of Brandon. Whether these sightings, and the ones described on the BFRO website, are legitimate or not is up for interpretation.

But for Ryan Willis, president of the Trent University Sasquatch Society (TUSS) in Peterborough, Ont., Bigfoot is more than just a folk tale — it’s a creature that is just as real as it is elusive.

Willis is the host of a new television show coming to the Wild TV Network this fall called “Sasquatch University.” The show seeks to dive into the phenomenon of Bigfoot in Canada, and is looking for witnesses and people with evidence in Westman and all over Canada to come forward and share their stories.

Having had a keen interest in sasquatch since he was 11 or 12 years old, Willis said similar television programs to the one he is hosting are what sparked his passion for the bipedal creature.

“I was watching Animal Planet one night and I stumbled across the show ‘Finding Bigfoot,’ which aired for a while,” he said. “And then as I got older, I would just research the subject all the time and go into the woods when I could.”

Trent University Sasquatch Society is the first, and currently the biggest, Bigfoot research group in Canada, Willis said. Members speak with Bigfoot researchers from all over the world, and their main goal is to educate students about sasquatch.

The group, consisting of around 200 members, has faced ridicule in the past over its interest in the famed cryptid, but it hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm, Willis said.

“We take it very seriously. We speak with a lot of academics and a lot of scientists,” he said. “I think a lot of people don’t know how many scientists and PhDs are doing work on this and are very involved in the subject.”

Bigfoot research has evolved far beyond grainy videos of people in monkey suits in the ’60s, thanks to groups like his, Willis said. The next step toward finding concrete evidence for Bigfoot’s existence is the new television show, which he said his entire society is excited about, since it’ll afford them opportunities to travel even more extensively throughout Canada in pursuit of the legendary creature.

“We’re doing a hunt for witnesses right now. We already have a bunch that have got in touch with us in the past, but … we’re always looking for more. We’re trying to find the most interesting witnesses we can and followup with them.”

Once they know where they want to travel to shoot episodes of the show, the group will get down to work in actually trying to find Bigfoot, using traditional methods such as tree knocking and howling as well as more cutting-edge, scientific ways of drawing out sasquatch.

“We want to try using drones and certain game cameras, and different things like that.”

Although Willis, the cast and crew are all passionate about finding real evidence of Bigfoot, that doesn’t mean they don’t get a little spooked from time to time when they’re out in the woods doing their field work. From dealing with bears and porcupines to the possibility of seeing the focus of their research itself, things can get a little nerve-wracking, Willis said.

“We just try to focus on the task at hand and not get too freaked out, but there are sometimes where it does get pretty freaky out there. It’s cold and dark, and that does kind of get to you a bit … but it’s all worth it, to us, for sure.”

Anyone who would like to come forward with their own tales of Bigfoot encounters are encouraged to visit sasquatchuniversity.com, which has links to all of the society’s social media channels.

Willis said he has heard some interesting Bigfoot lore coming out of Manitoba and hopes that enough witnesses will come forward to warrant a trip to Westman in the near future, all in hopes of pursuing North America’s most elusive — and captivating — cryptid.

Miranda Leybourne, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brandon Sun

Sask. NDP accuses Dustin Duncan of disparaging public education

“The Minister of Education refuses to admit the Loch Ness is not real” 

Jeremy Simes - 

Education Minister Dustin Duncan speaks to reporters about enhanced regulations for qualified independent schools in August.© Provided by Leader Post

Education Minister Dustin Duncan says he isn’t ragging on public and Catholic schools after the NDP accused him of doing so for his remarks on student grades.

House Leader Nicole Sarauer grilled Duncan on Thursday during question period in the Saskatchewan legislature, accusing him of dragging the publicly funded systems “through the mud,” after he suggested qualified independent school students have better marks than kids who attend Catholic or public schools.

Duncan had told the chamber on Tuesday that 57 per cent of students in qualified independent schools scored higher than 80 per cent on their departmental exams over the last year, whereas 54 per cent of students in Catholic or public schools scored higher than 80 per cent.

Duncan pointed to the marks as evidence students in qualified independent schools are receiving a “good education.” He re-affirmed that the government supports parents being able to send their kids to independent schools.

On Thursday, Duncan told the assembly he wasn’t criticizing public education when he made his comments.

He said he was trying to demonstrate that, regardless of where students attend school, they are “performing at or near the same mark.”

He said 68 per cent of students in associate schools, which are religious schools that have an operating agreement with public schools, had a mark above 80 per cent for their departmental exams.

“Students, even in independent schools … are learning the curriculum and can score near where public school students are when it comes to departmentals,” he said.

Sarauer told the chamber qualified independent schools aren’t held to the same standards “and that their marks are inflated.”

She said public and Catholic schools don’t get to pick and choose their students.

“I hope this minister really realizes he’s not the minister for qualified independent schools. He’s actually the minister for all of education,” she said.

Duncan has been under fire over the past two weeks over allegations of abuse at some qualified independent schools, including Legacy Christian Academy, as well as for some of the material that has been taught at these schools.

Former students of Legacy said they had learned from a biology textbook that stated people and dinosaurs co-existed. It citied the Loch Ness Monster, which is a mythical creature, as proof dinosaurs exist today .



Stefanie Hutchinson, Caitlin Erickson and Coy Nolin, former students of Legacy Christian Academy, speak to the media after raising concerns about allegations of abuse at the school and what they call unacceptable learning material.© Provided by Leader Post

Related
Loch Ness Monster teachings unacceptable in Sask. independent schools: NDP

Advocate considering investigation into Legacy Christian Academy allegations

While Duncan says it’s possible the independent schools weren’t fully following the curriculum prior to 2012, he said the textbook is no longer heavily used as a resource for qualified independent schools.

He told reporters on Tuesday there are a couple of chapters in the book that are not considered problematic, including ones that deal with genetics, photosynthesis and evolution.

He said the ministry worked with qualified independent schools in 2013 to ensure they were following the curriculum.

Caitlin Erickson, who has filed a lawsuit in regards to alleged abuse at Legacy , has said controversial teachings continue to persist, noting many of the resources are listed on the Saskatchewan Association of Independent Church Schools (SAICS) website.

Duncan said he would have to look at the website again, but added the ministry has reviewed the workbooks being taught by schools that follow SAICS.

“For the most part, aside from the faith-based elements, I think the ministry is comfortable that the information that is in the workbooks and the information that is part of the curriculum could likely be used in any school in the province,” he said.

He said the Accelerated Christian Education workbooks that were used prior to 2012 were deemed unacceptable. The ministry worked with schools to rewrite their workbooks to align them with the curriculum, he said.

He noted the government doesn’t have much control over what’s being taught in registered independent schools, which don’t receive government funding. He said they don’t receive the same level of oversight.

However, Sarauer accused Duncan of not being harsh on the teachings.

“The Minister of Education refuses to admit the Loch Ness is not real,” she quipped.

Q&A: Did dinosaurs and humans coexist, as controversial Sask. textbook claims? We asked an expert

CBC/Radio-Canada - 

Dinosaur history has been a hot topic in the Saskatchewan Legislature, leading the provincial education minister and Opposition critic to jaw at one another over the questionable facts of an independent curriculum.

The debate surfaced after former students of Saskatoon's Legacy Christian Academy demanded its curriculum — called Accelerated Christian Education, or ACE — be banned.

The government opposition read from a biology textbook used at an independent Saskatchewan school that read, in part, "scientific evidence tends to support the idea that men and dinosaurs existed at the same time."

The Loch Ness monster was also referenced in the textbook read by the Opposition as "proof that dinosaurs still exist today."

When CBC requested to speak with a paleontologist from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to clear that up, that request was routed through to the Education minister's office who said the minister wasn't available, despite him not being requested.

Instead, Stefani Langenegger, host of CBC's The Morning Edition, spoke with paleontologist Graham Young, a curator of geology and paleontology at the Manitoba Museum.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

A: Dinosaurs inhabited the planet for a very long time, from about 230 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. So, well over 100 million years: far longer than the time since they became extinct.

We're able to do very good age dating on rocks using a variety of methods. Of course, dinosaurs are in sedimentary rocks, but sedimentary rocks, especially in geologically active regions, often have volcanic layers in them and you can date the age of a volcanic rock or an ash using chemicals in it.

They're getting to know quite a lot about human evolution because there's been such a focus on it but it depends how you define "human." We're homo sapiens.

So our first relatives who belong to that group of species are from right about two million years ago. So to contrast, the last dinosaurs were 33 times as long ago as the first human relatives.

I'm not going to talk about biblical evidence, that's far outside my area of expertise, and I'm not going to involve myself in Saskatchewan politics, but there is absolutely no scientific evidence for that.

Yeah, that's been something that's been going on for many decades.

Basically, there's a dinosaur trackway site in Texas and it seems that people have periodically added human footprints to that by carving them in and there's been some quite detailed analysis that shows that any of the so-called human footprints there do not have the characteristics of fossil footprints.

Fossil footprints deform sediment, so the human footprints are something someone wishfully added.

We know quite a lot. The Loch Ness monster is something that developed from old myths and, in the 20th century, apparently from hoaxes.

North Americans may not realize Loch Ness is not a huge lake by our standards. It's not like Lake Winnipeg, it's not an expanse of water, it's a long narrow lake and if there was anything that was at all like a plesiosaur in there, it would be observed on a daily basis.


A view of the Loch Ness Monster, near Inverness, Scotland, April 19, 1934. The photograph, one of two pictures known as the 'surgeon's photographs,' was allegedly taken by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson, though it was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged by himself, Marmaduke and Ian Wetherell, and Wilson. References to a monster in Loch Ness date back to St. Columba's biography in 565 AD. More than 1,000 people claim to have seen 'Nessie' and the area is, consequently, a popular tourist attraction. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)© Keystone/Getty Images

I think it's really important that all of us get a really solid grounding in general Earth science so that people understand the deep history of the planet, that they understand things like where fossil fuels have come from and the causes of earthquakes so that they know not to build in places that are most likely to be affected by earthquakes or by tsunamis.

There are so many aspects of Earth science that are critical to being a good citizen and I think that's the important thing is that people need that sort of solid grounding in this sort of science.

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for NESSIE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CRYPTID 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CRYPTOZOOLOGY 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LAKE MONSTERS 

Franco-Australian conservationist abducted in Chad, government says

A Franco-Australian person has been kidnapped in eastern Chad, near the Sudanese border, "by as yet unidentified individuals", the government in N'Djamena said in a statement on Saturday.

Franco-Australian conservationist abducted in Chad, government says© Zohra Bensemra, Reuters

"The government has mobilised all security and human means to catch the kidnappers," the authorities said.

"This abduction occurred yesterday, in the afternoon of October 28, 2022," a statement added, without giving details of the abduction.

"We are aware of the kidnapping of one of our citizens in Chad and are in contact with their family, and also with the authorities in Chad, in order to secure their rapid release," the French foreign ministry told AFP.

The abucted man had been working in a park run by the Sahara Conservation Fund, a wildlife NGO. The fund was set up in 2004 to help save the endangered scimitar-horned oryx.  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-oryx-was-once-cryptid-in-pictures.html

Chad has been run by a military junta led by Mahamat Idriss Deby since his father was killed in an operation against rebels in April 2021.

A semi-desert state located in the heart of central western Africa, Chad has been chronically unstable since it gained independence from France in 1960.

The country's eastern region, close to Darfur in western Sudan, has been plagued by organised crime and trafficking of all types.

There is often deadly violence in the region, particularly between local communities, on both sides of the border.

(AFP)

OKAPI AN EARLY XX CENTURY CRYPTID


Congolese NGOs decry mining in main refuge of ‘Africa’s unicorn’

Reuters | October 18, 2022 | 

Okapi Wildlife Reserve. Credit: Wikipedia

Illegal gold mining is destroying tracts of pristine rainforest in Congo’s Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site meant to be a haven for the endangered mammal nicknamed Africa’s unicorn, environmental organizations warned on Tuesday.


Industrial activities are supposed to be banned in the 13,000 square kilometers of the reserve in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo. Aerial photo evidence shows mining has persisted, the civil society groups said at a joint news conference to mark the international day of the okapi.


The Council for Environmental Defense through Legality and Traceability (CODELT) said the ongoing destruction was at odds with the authorities’ bid to promote Congo as a major player in the global fight to curb climate change thanks to its majority share of the Congo basin rainforest – the second-largest in the world.

CODELT and regional environmental group ACEDH shared photos they said were proof that miners were gouging out swathes of jungle along the Ituri river, which loops through the southern part of the reserve that is also home to endangered forest elephants and chimpanzees.

“It’s incomprehensible to see this in a country where the (the government) … presents the country internationally as a ‘solution country’,” said CODELT’s Principal Technical Advisor Augustin Mpoyi.

The environment ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The NGOs blamed a Chinese company called Kimia Mining, which has previously been accused of flouting a ban on river-dredging in Ituri province and other mining regulations, according to a 2016 report by a UN Group of Experts.

There was no available contact information to reach Kimia Mining for comment.

The authorities have vowed to clean up their management and protection of Congo’s forests, where illegal activities have long flourished due to corruption and the logistical challenge of enforcing weak regulations in remote and often conflict-hit areas.

Human disturbances link to conflicts, mining and hunting are among the main threats to okapi, of which fewer than 50,000 are estimated to remain in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Also known as zebra giraffes due to their zebra striped hindquarters and longish necks, okapis were placed on the IUCN’s Red List of species at risk of extinction in 2015.

Congo is currently at loggerheads with conservationists and scientists over its plan to open other parts of its rainforest and peatlands to oil and gas drilling.

(Reporting by Erikas Mwisi Kambale, Stanis Bujakera and Djaffar Al-Katanty; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

CRYPTID

Black Canada Lynx Caught on Camera For The First Time, And There's Video

NATURE20 October 2022

ByDAVID NIELD

A still from the captured footage. (Jung, Mammalia, 2022)

The smartphones in our pockets have changed our lives in a multitude of ways – not least because we always have a camera to hand to capture special occasions, strange events, and perhaps the occasional rare wildlife sighting.

On 29 August 2020, near the town of Whitehorse in Yukon, Canada, Thomas Jung – a wildlife biologist with the Government of Yukon's Department of Environment – saw a sight he knew few had ever witness before.

Luckily for us, he managed to quickly get his phone out and film it, giving the world a good look at a black-coated Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis).

The fur on these big cats is typically silvery gray in the winter, and a darker reddish brown during the summer months. The appearance of a black (or melanistic) Canadian lynx is therefore of great interest to experts.

"There are only a small number of records of coat color polymorphisms in the genus Lynx," writes Jung in his published paper.

"The adaptive significance of melanism in lynx is unknown, but the loss of camouflage when hunting during winter is likely maladaptive."

A black Canada lynx is going to have a much harder time blending in as easily when hunting prey like the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) – which, Jung speculates, might explain, likely explains why there aren't a lot of the cats with this color fur around.

Jung viewed the animal from a distance of around 50 meters (roughly 160 feet), which didn't seem too perturbed by the presence of people nearby. In the 30-second clip you can also hear a dog barking, which might be what eventually caused the big cat to slowly sneak away.

The brevity of the sighting means it hasn't been possible to run any detailed examinations of the lynx's coat color, beyond a few quick observations. Although the footage is rather shaky and pixelated, several experts have confirmed that the creature is indeed a Canada lynx.

"It had a black coat containing whitish gray guard hairs throughout, as well as whitish gray hairs in the facial ruff and the rostrum and dorsal regions," reports Jung.

Bear this in mind the next time that you're out and about with your smartphone: as well as snapping photos of the kids and the pets, you might also get the chance to record footage of an animal that's never been seen before.

While coat color doesn't usually vary much in the case of the Canada lynx, color variations in other species, including bears and wolves, can be incredibly diverse. As with the Canada lynx, it's thought that color ties into how animals hunt for food, or even provide advantages in cooling down or warming up.

Throughout the animal kingdom, camouflage and colors that blend in with the background can help in sneaking up on prey (or avoiding predators). Bright colors that stand out can help in attracting mates (or putting off predators). Sadly, color changes can also come about because of human activity too.

Keeping track of the range of colors possible in a population of mammals could have significance in predicting the way a species might react to changes in their environment.

"Indeed, with increased competition by coyotes (Canis latrans) a concern for Canada lynx encountering increasingly shallow snow as a result of climate change, the added disadvantage of lost camouflage to melanistic lynx hunting hares during winter would likely result in melanism being maladaptive," writes Jung.

The research has been published in Mammalia.