cryptozoology

Seeing Mermaids (2015)

Daniel Loxton (Old) Insight blog, Posts , , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published at the defunct Insight blog at Skeptic.com on June 9, 2015. An archived version is available here.

“The Vision of Columbus” after de Bry, as it appeared in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine No. 389, October 1882. (Daniel Loxton’s collection.)

Mermaids—the topic of my Junior Skeptic 48 story (bound inside Skeptic Vol. 18, No. 3)—are usually considered fantastical, purely imaginary creatures. (Or, at least, they were until Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel aired their infamous 2012 and 2013 documentary-style hoaxes Mermaids: The Body Found and Mermaids: The New Evidence. These hoaxes are discussed in detail in the same issue of Junior Skeptic.) Read more

The Problematic Process of Cryptozoologification (2015)

Daniel Loxton (Old) Insight blog, Posts , , , , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published at the defunct Insight blog at Skeptic.com on Aug 31, 2015. An archived version is available here.

Color photo of a totem in front of Royal British Columbia Museum

How did the traditional character of the cannibal ogress Dzunuk’wa come to be claimed by cryptozoologists as a depiction of their hypothesized “Bigfoot” cryptid species? (Kwakwaka’wakw heraldic pole. Carved in 1953 by Mungo Martin, David Martin, and Mildred Hunt. Thunderbird Park at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada. Photograph by Daniel Loxton)

Much of my skeptical research traces the historical pathways through which pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs emerge and evolve over time. In particular, I’ve explored the cultural origins of allegedly genuine monsters such as Bigfoot (“cryptids”) for Junior Skeptic (the children’s section of Skeptic magazine) and Abominable Science!, my 2013 book with Donald Prothero.

My research has often led me to consider how folkloric phenomena are brought under the umbrella of cryptozoology (the largely pseudoscientific “study” of legendary, allegedly “hidden” animals). In this active process, fuzzy abstractions—fluid supernatural conceptions, diverse “saw something weird” events, stories, metaphors, and shifting myths—are distilled down into more-or-less concrete hypothetical “species” of cryptids. For want of a better term, I’ve started to think of this cultural crystallization process as “cryptozoologification.”1 And it’s a bit of a problem. When the mists of folklore are reified as the discrete objects of cryptozoological pursuit, something is not only lost, but actively discarded.

I’m by no means the first to raise that conceptual concern (and it’s the concept I really wish to promote here, not the imperfect neologism). Sharon Hill has recently taken up the topic (here and here), calling this “the illusion of facticity.” Hill riffs on Lake Monster Traditions: a Cross-Cultural Analysis, by Michel Meurger with Claude Gagnon (London: Fortean Times, 1988), which gives a great deal of critical attention to this “scientification of folklore.” (This is surely one of the most important cryptozoology books ever written—a road map for a type of folklorically-aware skeptical approach I’ve sometimes called “post-cryptid cryptozoology.”) Read more

The Profound Awfulness of Discovery’s Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives (2014)

Daniel Loxton (Old) Skepticblog, Posts , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published at the defunct Skepticblog.org on June 1, 2014. An archived version is available here.

Tonight sees the premiere of a two-hour Discovery Channel Monster Week “documentary,” Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives. With its horror movie trappings, it makes a sensationalist hash out of a genuine historical mystery—the tragic deaths of nine hikers in the Ural mountains in February of 1959. Known as the “Dyatlov Pass incident,” this unsolved cold case has unusual aspects that give it something of an air of the inexplicable, leading to the rise of conspiracy theories and paranormal speculations. Notably, though the bodies of the hikers were eventually recovered by a search party, they were found scattered over a large area in states of partial undress, as though they had fled their tents in the night in a panic. Perhaps, some speculate, they were running from someone—or something? Cue X-Files theme. Read more

Skull Island, Canada (2008)

Daniel Loxton (Old) eSkeptic / Skeptic.com, Posts , , , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published in Skeptic magazine (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2008) then online at Skeptic.com. An archived version is available here.

A still from the film King Kong, with inset image of a sketch made from alleged Cadborosaurus witness Kemp’s description many months after his sighting. King Kong © 1933 RKO Pictures Inc., © 2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

The 1933 and 2005 versions of King Kong share many rich details, and a moral. There are those who suggest that moral must be something about the power of love, but I suggest the moral is this:

“Never, ever go to Skull Island.” Read more

Bigfoot, Big Con: A Review of The Making of Bigfoot (2004)

Daniel Loxton (Old) eSkeptic / Skeptic.com, Posts , , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published in the defunct eSkeptic newsletter at Skeptic.com on April 12, 2004. An archived version is available here.

When Greg Long’s 2004 book The Making of Bigfoot arrived on my desk, I knew it was from Prometheus Books (which is a pretty good start), and about Bigfoot, but nothing else. Having heard none of the buzz about it, I was merely hoping it would prove to be a decent resource for one of my own articles on the sub ject. Then, when I realized that the entire 476-page book was exclusively about the late Roger Patterson’s infamous 1967 “Bigfoot” film, my heart sank. 476 pages on that tired old chestnut? Read more

There Be Monsters: A Review of Lake Monster Mysteries (2007)

Daniel Loxton (Old) eSkeptic / Skeptic.com, Posts , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published in the defunct eSkeptic newsletter at Skeptic.com on June 13, 2007. An archived version is available here.

Opening Ben Radford and Joe Nickell’s newest book, Lake Monster Mysteries, I was already pretty sure I’d like it. I admire other work by these authors, and I adore the notion of antediluvian leviathans sliding undetected through the world’s lakes, ponds, and swimming holes. (My role at Skeptic is similar to Radford’s role at the Skeptical Inquirer: go-to cryptozoology guy.)

A tremendous number of lakes are reputedly haunted by a wild proliferation of monsters. “According to surveys and research I and other cryptozoologists have conducted,” notes Loren Coleman in his Foreword to this book, “more than a thousand lakes around the world harbor large, unknown animals unrecognized by conventional zoology.”

Lake Monster Mysteries is a solid survey of this topic, and every bit as good as I expected. All your superstar favorites are here, from Nessie to Ogopogo, plus a satisfying sample of lesser-known creatures such as Memphré, Cressie, and the Silver Lake monster. Each receives its own snappy little one-chapter treatment, written in an engagingly warm and straightforward style. Read more

New Video from Loch Ness: Commentary (2007)

Daniel Loxton (Old) eSkeptic / Skeptic.com, Posts , , , 0 Comment

This article was originally published in the defunct eSkeptic newsletter at Skeptic.com on June 13, 2007. An archived version is available here.

The Loch Ness Monster has hit the mainstream news media once again in a video shot by Gordon T. Holmes. Daniel Loxton takes a skeptical look at the video and provides his commentary. Daniel is the editor and illustrator of Junior Skeptic magazine and Skeptic magazine’s resident expert on cryptozoology.

Illustration by Daniel Loxton [later published inside Abominable Science!]


It’s strange what turns out to be newsworthy. As a rule, mainstream news media are all too happy to ignore such traditional skeptics topics as lake monsters; indeed, it is increasingly the case that the dedicated skeptics press has little interest in monsters and things that go bump in the night.

Yet, every once in a while, a cryptozoology story hits the mainstream press with a surprisingly big splash. This is certainly the case with new footage shot by one Gordon Holmes at Loch Ness, which is purported to show Nessie in action. This video of something-or-other on the water has garnered coverage from virtually all the major news providers of the English-speaking world (including CNN, CBS, FOX, BBC, ABC, NBC, MSNBC — even Forbes). Read more