The Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2013
The general public and media were captivated in 2013 by a wide variety of cryptozoological stories. Compared to previous recent years, the news items were generally more positive, if not sometimes only to be found in the strange and offbeat sections of your social media feeds.
This year’s annual picks are cryptozoological events that became newsworthy or were announced during 2013 (even though, as actual discoveries, they may have been in the works from an earlier year or years).
The following are the top cryptid-related tidbits of most interest to the public, cryptozoologists, hominologists, fans, friends, foes, and the media during the last year. The stories may not be the most groundbreaking, but they include some that garnered the largest media reaction and greatest public discussions concerning our favorite field of study in the last 12 months.
(1). New Tapir Discovered
The remarkable confirmation of the largest land mammal since the discovery of the saola in 1992, and the first new tapir to be found since 1865, was certainly big news. Within a day or two of our early comparative overview, mainstream media were reporting the breaking announcement of this find.
The Kobomani Tapir (Tapirus kabomani) discovery was definitely cryptozoological, as this species first came to Western Science attention based on ethnoknown information. The added tidbit that this new species of tapir was actually hunted by Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, with a specimen being placed in the American Museum of Natural History collection in New York City, adds an intriguing historical twist. Roosevelt wrote that the local hunters called the tapir a “distinct kind.”
“I can’t imagine we managed to get samples from the only two ‘snow bears’ in the Himalayas,” he said.
Hobbits are real. And it changed the landscape of our thinking about our coexistence on Earth with other hominids.
Since the discovery of Homo floresiensis, the “Hobbits” of Flores, Indonesia, in 2003, thoughts of the actuality of little people have shifted in human consciousness to a real possibility.
Paul LeBlond, Ph. D. (oceanography), Canada, Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep (1995)
Michel Raynal, Ph. D. (computer sciences), France, Synthesis Series in Computer and Information Science (2011)
Karl Shuker, Ph. D. (zoology), United Kingdom, The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals (2012)
Charles Paxton, Ph. D. (aquatic ecology), United Kingdom
Christine M. Janis, Ph. D. (vertebrate paleontology), United States of America, Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America (2005, 2008)
D. Jeffrey Meldrum, Ph. D. (physical anthropology), United States of America, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science (2006)
Henry Bauer, Ph. D. (chemistry), United States of America, Enigma of Loch Ness (1986), and
Adrienne Mayor, honorary Ph. D., United States of America, Fossil Legends of the First Americans (2005).
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