Cataloguing the World’s Hidden Creatures & Monsters Since 2011

The colourised Fleay film features Benjamin, the last captive thylacine. We see Benjamin lying down, walking around the perimeter of the small enclosure, opening his mouth wide, sniffing the air and scratching.

Fleay's footage is the longest single film of the 10 separate thylacine films known to exist.

The NFSA scanned the original film negative using a Scanity HDR (High Dynamic Range) film scanner and sent Ultra High Definition ProRes files to Samuel in Paris. Samuel's team then commenced extensive research before embarking on the colourisation process

Rest in Peace Scott Mardis, Champ Researcher

I was shocked and deeply saddened today by the tragic news of my friend Scott's death. According to his brother, Scott passed away late Wednesday night in a hospital in Bradenton, FL. after amputation of a severe infection in his leg.

He had made it through surgery okay but while still at the hospital on 7/28, Scott had become unresponsive and died of complications from the infection.

Scott Mardis had been my friend and colleague for years after we crossed paths in cryptozoological research related to water creatures, specifically with respect to lake monsters.

At Scott's encouragement over the years and through his generous mentorship, I was able to navigate through a balanced approach to anomalous lake creature investigations for my blog posts and personal research.

Scott was one of the most authentic and passionate cryptozoologists I have ever known who was absolutely devoted to his lake monster investigations more than any other researcher I know of and specifically to his endeared Champ, America’s Loch Ness Monster, who he believed lives in Lake Champlain. Even with his healthy dose of skepticism and perhaps even a measure of cynicism, he was still one of the most devoted advocates for the famous 1977 Sandra Mansi Photograph of “Champ”. Scott himself believed he saw "something" in Lake Champlain so many years ago that kicked off his lifelong research to prove to others that Champ and other lake monsters exist.

I feel like I can't come close to writing a good enough tribute to Scott but I wanted to share what I can muster up at this time so that he can be celebrated for all his contributions to a field of study that means so much to me.   Every year he would quest to the lake with equipment and enthusiasm in search of Champ using updated scientific methods, tools and techniques and his vast and ever-expanding encyclopedic knowledge of the historical lake geography and Champ phenomenon in hopes of helping others become true believers like himself. His enthusiasm was absolutely transferable.

I will always be extremely grateful for the many late night conversations with Scott about water monster lore and latest science news that continued to open paths to solving the mysteries we chased. While he and I didn't always agree on everything, we had deep, friendly and enjoyable discussions about the great marine and lake creature mysteries of the world and his determination to find answers was beyond measure and he without a doubt illuminated my faith that one day we will have the remarkable evidence that proves what he dedicated his life to finding out; that there are surviving monsters of ancient times in our waters.

Scott was very respectful and thoughtful and always made time for me and answered every single question I ever had (and trust me there were so many) with respect to this field of study and would help me get my head around the science and theories I was often struggling with on my own. He was an excellent mentor and had really good theories, making excellent points about the series of anomalous, fragmentary plesiosaur (and other) fossils from past supposed extinction times of plesiosaurs at the K/Pgboundary, roughly 65 million years ago. While these anomalous fossils have generally been dismissed by the paleontology community, Scott had a solid understanding of the importance of fossil anamolies beyond plesiosaurs or basilosaurine whales and how studying them further could provide more answers and truths regaurding his beloved Champ and other water monster cryptids. Scott had done so much pioneering research that we simply cannot afford to lose. I had been in the middle of reformatting his book Night of the Living Dead Plesiosaurs and am so saddened that I did not get to finish the editing and formatting of it more quickly so he could see it reworked but I do pledge to honour his memory by finishing it and getting it to the right people so that many others can enjoy his collected research which offers so much insight and venerate him for the incredible teachings and knowledge he passed on to others. To see things from Scott's perspective was absolutely illuminating.

Though he was always ready to discuss my laughable obsession with a giant plesio-turtle, we always had something to talk about with our many common interests outside of lake monsters. Scott always had obscure book recs for me which I really appreciated and I have a whole bunch that I vow to get through sooner rather than later. 

He was a good cat dad who adored his cats and was fascinated by their antics and we would talk about cat stuff and thangs whenever possible. I was always so honoured when Scott would come to me to pick my brain about cats, in the way I would go to him to pick his brain about water monsters. He was very supportive of my work with rescuing and caring for special needs cats. I hope that his own rescued cats will be well-cared for by his family because they did mean so much to him as well. We would chat about The Walking Dead and so many other similiar interests like classic rock and terrible horror movies. Scott was awesome and I am so sad that I didn't get to spend more time with him and meet him on the water like we had planned.

THE HAUNTED SEA on MonsterXRadio hosted by Scott Mardis with special guest Ken Gerhard! Check out this in-depth discussion with Cryptozoologist/ Author Ken Gerhard about his latest book, THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE LOCH NESS MONSTER AND OTHER AQUATIC CRYPTIDS! Designed to be a primer into aquatic cryptids, this book offers a wide-ranging overview of the reports of similar unidentified creatures all over the world and the theory that these creatures may represent descendants of archaic types of whales.  Check out the podcast and share your thoughts!

At 10 foot square, this map or planisphere is the largest known early map of the world. It was hand drawn by Monte in Milan, Italy, and only one other manuscript copy exists.

A giant bird carries away an elephant in one portion of the map. Although as the scale of the illustrations are not consistent, it could be a normal-sized bird carrying away a tiny elephant. David Rumsey. 

Oregon has the highest rate of reported sasquatch sightings per capita for a state without a sales tax, according to data collected by the Bigfoot Field Research Organization that for decades has hoped to prove it’s real.

The organization’s official Oregon sightings reports is 254, the group states. With 4.2 million residents, that means six reports per 100,000 residents — not exactly worth betting a stimulus check but at least a fighting chance to have a good cocktail party story.

It seems the entire crew of the lightship, plus the crew of the Rose, saw a huge, snaky thing swimming around the ship – a genuine, bona-fide, honest-to-Godfrey sea serpent.

“It was about 40 feet long,” recounted L.A. Larson, first mate aboard the Rose. “It had a neck some eight feet long, a big round body, a mean-looking tail, and an evil, snaky look to its head.”

Not everyone agreed on every particular in describing the monster afterwards; J. Jensen, captain of the Rose, told the Morning Oregonian that the creature’s head looked more like that of a camel than a snake. But the witnesses agreed on most other details.

Members of the crew, after watching the strange creature with field glasses for a few minutes, wanted to launch a small boat and approach it for a better view. The officers, though, ordered them not to. The sea-serpent was big enough that it could potentially tip the boat over.

1) What book(s) are you currently reading? (Do not have to be cryptid or animal related!)