174 replies to this topic

[Cormac]

That thing is Lovecraftian.

[Kane]

In cause you need another reason not to go into the ocean;

http://www.cnn.com/2...reut/index.html

[Cormac]

Yuck. But on a side note: this thread has stamina.

[deuce]

Thanks for the link.
Having an interest in cryptozoology I've heard of the "Death Worm". Did not know that there was going to be an expedition to actually look for one. Would be great if they found that it actually real.

BTW, there was an expedition to New Guneia this past year. They were looking for any evidence of a "Ropan(sp?)" Seems that for over a hundred years there have been stories told on the island about an hugh featherless bird. The group was going to see if it might be possible for some species of pterosaur, or unknown bat, to live there. I'll see if I can dig up the link.

Hey Kane! Have they found the Worm or the ropan? Crytozoology update needed.

[Carlos]

Cryptomundo.com is a good site for cryptozoology,too. With eastern panthers, ivory billed woodpeckers and our own cryptids like the Bigfoot and skunkape to confirm, why would anyone to go to Mongolia to find a worm? One of these days someone will bag a Sasquatch which will probably throw every anthropologist into a tizzy when it's confirmed that it's actually a form of primitive man much smarter than chimps or gorillas but less than Homo Erectus. When your 7'ft tall+ and 400-500 pounds, you really don't have anything much more than a stick to defend yourself against any other creature than modern man.

[PainBrush]

- let's hope it would be ' less than ' - because could you imagine walking through the woods & seeing a 7 foot tall , 400 lb. ' Erectus Homo ' swinging a stick ?
Aaaagh !
- I'd definitely rather run across the Sasquatch !!!

[Carlos]

I hope so too! Can you imagine how strong some of the larger males are if they grow past 8 feet in height? Chimp males average weight's a little bit more than human males but are 2-3 times as strong in upper body strength. It would be swinging a short pole not a club. Not even Mr. Grizzly Bear would want much to do with something that strong. I watched one report on one of the animal/science channels where one of the witnesses stated that Ol' Hairy was throwing 8-10 lbs. rocks like they were pebbles. Another well documented report from the early '60's stated that he was rolling a 300 lb road grader tire up and down the side of a mountain in northern Cali. They said it looked like it was if a giant kid was playing with the tire. I believe it's a real creature, probably a an unknown homonid and that is mostly nocturnal. If you listen to the tales of our ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic, we call it Sasquatch or Bigfoot on this side, they call it Grendel or an ogre/troll on their side. Our ancestors were alot more atuned to their enviroments especially those who were hunters. Every year you hear of a well armed hunter killed by a grizzly or stomped to death by a bull moose in rut, what chance do us wussies have against a untamed homonid that's a pastmaster of its enviroment?

Edited by Carlos, 25 October 2006 - 08:01 PM.

[snappergi]

Okay , this next one is the reason I wanted to share these pic.s with you sick-humored barbarians . Yeah , you can tell he's 'painbrush's' kid allright !!! That AIN'T a second tail there , hahahahaaha .



-Like I said that 'Crock' guy won't share world class photos like that with anybody . hahaha

Is HE for sale? Im writing a book on snappers and will pay $$$!

[John Maddox Roberts]

Back around the turn of the last century a chunk of an octopus washed ashore in Florida. The chunk consisted of a part of the body and the stumps of a couple of tentacles. The chunk weighed several tons and had to be buried as a public health menace. Photographs were taken and still exist, and tissue samples were also taken and placed in formaldehyde. In the 70s scientists located the tissue samples and examined them. They proved to be perfectly typical octopus muscle fiber, but the fibers were gigantic compared to ordinary octopus muscle fiber. There are some really big molluscs down there. It's thought that some species of octopi keep growing as long as they live so this may have been a specimen centuries old. Once it was too big for anything else to eat, it would just keep growing. I wonder what it was eating down there. Maybe it finally starved because it couldn't find sustenance to support its enormous body.

[PainBrush]

Is HE for sale? Im writing a book on snappers and will pay $$$!

Sorry S.G. , i've had several offers through the past few years in the thousands , but I hatched Elmo & his siblings from their eggs & watched him grow into the monster he is today ( & he's much bigger than that pic. from a while back ) I'm more attached to my dinosaur than I am to my cats or dog . I do intend to breed him this spring after hibernation , so there will be some albinos in the trade in the next few years . I sent you an email , I'll keep you posted . Tell me about the book you're writing , if it's just about snappers it's about time someone wrote something - that's a pretty rare topic & hard to find any good-reading lit. on the subject .

Back around the turn of the last century a chunk of an octopus washed ashore in Florida. The chunk consisted of a part of the body and the stumps of a couple of tentacles. The chunk weighed several tons and had to be buried as a public health menace. Photographs were taken and still exist, and tissue samples were also taken and placed in formaldehyde. In the 70s scientists located the tissue samples and examined them. They proved to be perfectly typical octopus muscle fiber, but the fibers were gigantic compared to ordinary octopus muscle fiber. There are some really big molluscs down there. It's thought that some species of octopi keep growing as long as they live so this may have been a specimen centuries old. Once it was too big for anything else to eat, it would just keep growing. I wonder what it was eating down there. Maybe it finally starved because it couldn't find sustenance to support its enormous body.

Pretty cool stuff ! Is that in a book or something - do you have a title if so ? I love reading about that kind of thing . The more primitive & the more rare an animal the even more I'm fascinated with learning about it . The similarity with primitive reptiles ( I mean just the part about growing for as long as they live ) has me thinking about what you said about if the monster ran out of enough food . Reptiles are the only animals I can claim to have a 'little' bit of knowledge about so that's why the comparison . I was wondering about how long a giant squid or octopus could go between feedings from one dead whale or shark sinking to the bottom to the next . Or ones it's able to catch live . I know it's kind of dumb to draw the comparisons between reptiles & mollusks or whatever exactly squid & octs's are - but like I said I have first-hand experience with reptiles . My female python one year started the breeding season 'fast' , they start to show less interest in food . & after they breed since they actually carry eggs rather than live-young like less primitive snakes it's their instinct to not struggle with food animals , & to avoid contact/conflict with any other animal whatsoever so they find a nice secluded nest & hide out until they drop the eggs . Since pythons incubate the eggs ( & they actually control the temperature of the nest by muscle-twitching & spasming - completely unique with cold-blooded reptiles !) -they go without food for the next few months until they drop the eggs , then another 2 to 3 months while they incubate them .

I read that in more than a few diff. books before I experienced it first-hand so I had an idea of what to expect . What I 'didn't' expect though was rather than a 4 to 6 month 'fast' my python went over a FULL YEAR before she ate again !! She got kind of thin - but nothing too drastic or worrysome - drank water regularly but would't eat 'anything' at all & I offerred her over a dozen different types of food animals . She just sat curled up & inactive & burned no calories . That to me is amazing , if I didn't see it first-hand , I would be hesitant to believe it if I heard it second-hand . There is WAY MORE in heaven & Earth than was dreampt of in my philosophy Horatio !! That's why I was thinking & speculating on just how long a giant octopus curled up & kind of inactive on the bottom could go between meals . Some interesting stuff to look up , I don't even know despite all the wildlife documentaries i've seen over the years if squids & octopus are actually endo- or ecto-thermic like cold-blooded reptiles .

Heres an interesting web-page I just found with stuff about giant octo's & it even mentions briefly that giant octopus in your post from the 1890's.....
XENO GIANT OCTO

Edited by PAINBRUSH, 01 December 2006 - 11:12 PM.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Painbrush:
Go to Google and type in Giant Octopus Florida and you'll pull up a whole bunch of articles. Apparently, controversy rages to this day. Was it an octupus? A squid? A hunk of whale skin and blubber? You'd think with modern instruments, techniques and knowledge of DNA it would be clear. The Smithsonian still has the samples, great big hunks of the thing. But monsters are always mysterious, I guess.

[Kortoso]

There's a National Geographic program making the rounds on TV lately, called The Ultimate Cat. They go into detail about leopards, lions and tigers, but the show stops when they describe a hybrid lion-tiger called the liger. Apparently in lions and tigers, there is a gene that keeps the beasts from growing too big. In the liger, that gene is switched off or doesn't exist, which is why ligers often grow to nearly half a ton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger

Here, kitty, kitty....

[PainBrush]

Whoah ! That's a big cat !! - There's also a thing in genetics called 'hybrid vigor' when 2 different but still compatible animals interbreed , like those cats , like in plants ( I won't mention the ones I know of ) also in mules ( horse/donkey hybrids) reptiles , in wolves/dogs & a bunch of others . That might have something to do with what you mentioned about switching off the genes that limit normal growth . Since the different species don't normally intermix - they might be likely to be attacked by both parent species as well as any other normal problems like what diseases they're likely to face ( obviously doubled from 2 parent species ) parasites , predators etc. etc. the bigger size & better health might be natures way of giving an animal at a disadvantage even ground , something to consider anyhow .

Hey , I just did a quick search & there's even something about that Hybrid vigor stuff on WIKI ;
HYBRID VIGOR

Edited by PAINBRUSH, 04 December 2006 - 10:45 PM.

[PaulMc]

There's a National Geographic program making the rounds on TV lately, called The Ultimate Cat. They go into detail about leopards, lions and tigers, but the show stops when they describe a hybrid lion-tiger called the liger. Apparently in lions and tigers, there is a gene that keeps the beasts from growing too big. In the liger, that gene is switched off or doesn't exist, which is why ligers often grow to nearly half a ton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger

Here, kitty, kitty....

Yup. I think I've seen that very cat. They come by the local Ren Faire every year (probably appear many other spots, too.)

It's a cat - but it's the size of a grizzly bear!

Ripe for an appearance in a Conan story, I'd say!

[vikingwarrior]

thats a pretty interesting article. There was a liger at Hogle Zoo in Salt lake City, but it died before I was born. They preserved and displayed the body for years. The zoo recently remodeled the whole cat section and did away with the liger, I dont know what they did with it. It always fascinated me when I was a kid - I would spend more time looking at that then at the live lions and tigers!

[Michael Miko]

The Liger is awesome... Its nice to see there are still wonders in the world of monsterous aspects. Its a great feeling to know there is still some things in this world that makes the hair on the nape of the neck still stand up.

Painbrush... Have any recent photos of Elmo the snapper?

Mikos

[PainBrush]

Painbrush... Have any recent photos of Elmo the snapper?

Nope , I put my hands in his tank only on the rarest of occasions , he has delusions of grandeur & thinks he's a tyrannosaurus .( and because of his white eyes - he doesn't see too good - bad combo for the fingers ! ) Besides it's hibernating season for another 4 or so months & he stays under his rock-cave most of the day - bothering them in hibernation stresses them out & if I set up a succesful date for him when he wakes up in the spring - I'll get no eggs !

Edited by PAINBRUSH, 05 December 2006 - 06:55 AM.

[Kylel Ironclaw]

Ok, those previous posts on Megalodon are gonna give me nightmares. Never liked Jaws, always hated the beach and deep water. (50-foot fish---shudder)

[The Gneech]

This is completely OT so I apologise.
However this is so cool, to me at least, that I had to share it. It seems that we finally have photos of a real live sea monster in it's natural enviroment.

http://news.google.c...tnG=Search News

Unfortunately, the story seems to be gone now.

-The Gneech

[PainBrush]

Giant Cthulhu-monster back in the news :...............

Colossal Squid May Be Headed for Oven
AP
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (March 23) - A colossal half-ton squid, believed to be the largest ever caught, may be destined for the microwave oven . By the time the half-ton beast, frozen since capture, defrosted at room temperature, the outside would rot while the inside remained frozen. Scientists weigh the possibility of microwaving the animal, instead.

But researchers say they don't want to cook the massive creature - just defrost it so they can study it better . Scientists at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, have taken possession of the beast that took fishermen two hours to land after it was netted by chance in Antarctic waters last month and was frozen soon afterward to preserve it.

Expert Steve O'Shea said the squid had weighed in at 1,089 pounds and measured 33 feet long - heavier but shorter than initial estimates of 990 lbs and 39 feet. It appears to be by far the largest specimen of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid, ever caught. Experts say the creatures, which have long been one of the most mysterious denizens of the deep ocean, may grow even bigger - up to 46 feet long.

O'Shea said scientists at the museum are considering using a giant microwave oven as a possible way to defrost the animal so they can study it . The mammoth squid could not be left to defrost at room temperature because the process would take days, leaving the outside to rot while the core remained frozen, he said . " There are certain microwave equivalents that are used by industry, for treating timber and the like, that we could probably fit this thing into , " O'Shea said. "But that is just one option . " At the time it was caught, O'Shea said it would make calamari rings the size of tractor tyres if cut up - but they would taste like ammonia.

Colossal squid can descend to 6,500 feet and are known to be extremely active, aggressive hunters . O'Shea said the squid is priceless to scientists, and would be worth many millions of dollars if insured .

COLLOSSAL CTHULHU !!! <--- click

( here , I added a link to the "strange headlines" link from that page , too bizarre this week !!!!!! )

Strange but True Headlines ! <--- click

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