Cryptozoology Thread

[Jonathan]

Should I interpret your theory like this?
The Bloop sound might have been caused by the bursting of a giant squid's sac or an enormous fish's swim bladder.

Poor animal in that case

[Nautipus]

That's what I thought at first, but we would probably have heard the sussurance of the bubble breaking up as it assended and broke apart, whereas if it is a cranchiid squid that uses no internal support other than the pen, but instead uses a sac filled with ammonia to regulate buoyancy, then that could help explain the sound.

[inked]

Naut, could bloop be the release of gas from the ocean floor? Either methane or sequestered volcanic emissions released by undersea events like mudslides or tremors? You know those anaerobes love to produce methane. And methanogens are archebacteria or in your lingo cryptiids (when I was getting degrees in microbiology back in the 1970s).

[Nautipus]

Well, the same question applies: What happened to the bubble? You cant hear it diminishing, and the sound carried very well, which would lead me to assume some kind of thin membrane between whatever air or fluid produced the sound and the external environment, rather that rock or stone, so it is most likely biological in source. So the source of the sound is likely enclosed in something thin and flexible, like a membrane, rather than rigid. It's a workable hypothesis, in the sense that it could be looked at through a variety of angles, but it is likely that it wont be settled within the next 20 years. But I beleive it is most definately animal in origin, rather than being produced by thermophile bacteria (really the only large body of gas-producing bacteria on the deep ocean floor).

[Earniel]

Still, if it's an animal, you'd expect the sound to frequently, right?

[Nautipus]

Yep. You would, that's true. Unless the sound was some kind of stress response or something of that nature I suppose, or maybe just a unique situation where we were prepared to receive and detect the sound.

[Earniel]

I believe the surveillance for submarines that picked up the sound is still maintained. But you point out a good possibility that the sound itself was unique to the occasion.

[Nautipus]

for the most part. Part has been shut down, but that facet wouldnt have any affect on our ability to pick up the noises. One of these days, it would be nice to find out, though. I wonder what it is, I really do. Maybe I'll find out.

[Earniel]

Make sure that the moment you find out isn't followed by the moment you disappear into the maw of a very hungry and huge animal.

[Nautipus]

You'll here me over the radio: "Holy Cow! It's like nothing we ever thought! It's a-" static.

[Earniel]

There has been a new weird animal in the news lately, apparently called the Montauk monster. To be fair, seeing the first photo made me go: "WTF is that!?" But here is a clear and interesting explanation of what it really is. Very interesting. I suppose I should give warning that the photo's aren't pretty, it is after all a bloated, rotting cadavre, but it looks so totally alien that it's kinda cool.

[Finarfin-1]

Hey,
If you're looking for strange cryptids here's one.

During the First Punic War (261-241 B.C) outside of modern day Tunis, North Africa at the River Bagrada a Roman legion under the command of Marcus Atilius Regulus was attacked by a giant serpent as they attempted to ford the river. First Regulus tried to cross a mile downstream to avoid the beast, but the first four men sent in were seized and crushed/drowned by it, one after another. Next a frontal assault was ordered, resulting in 61 casualties, 27 being fatalities. Finally Regulus decided to handle the serpent as he would a fortress he was besieging, calling up the Ballistae.

After several unsucessful volleys, and the destruction of two of his Ballistae by the creature a bolt struck it directly beneath the head, penetrating the body completely. The serpent collapsed instantly. Regulus then ordered the beast skinned, and had the hide and skull preserved for presentation to the senate, who decorated him officially for the victory. The remains were placed in the temple of Mars on Capitol Hill, where they were displayed to the public until the Numantine War against the Iberian Celts in 133 B.C, at which time they disappeared.

The accounts of the battle appear in every surviving Roman Archive of the time that relates to military decorations of legion commanders, and the description of the beast's remains appear in many of the more reputable Roman naturalists of the time. The skinned beast's length was measured to be 127 feet long, and the head was "disproportionately large, given the dimensions of the body, arrow-shaped as it was"

The head is what rules out the notion that it was a freakishly large African Rock python (whose range the fossil record indicates has at NO time extended that far north) Other than the Rock Python there are no African serpents with the a head even remotely of the right shape that a) Has at any time been known to exceed 5 feet in length, or b) Been found in the fossil record within 2,000 miles of the reported site of the battle.

We have to remember that this guy was marching on Carthage itself in a critically important battle of one of the most important conflicts the Romans would be involved in for the next 700 years. The Romans took the war with the Carthaginians seriously to the point of panicked obsession, so the idea that this guy would lie about any of this at a time that Roman field commanders were being executed for things as minor as reporting there were 54 fatalities in a skirmish when in actuality there were 74. Plus, whatever "trophy" and testimony (the testimony of his Primus and Secundus are part of the official record) the senate witnessed was sufficient for them to dispense with deliberations and move directly to the announcement of the accolades to be awarded. (For those familiar with this period of Roman history that's a red flag right there. The Senate during the First Punic War was a hyper-cautious bunch that obsessed about every little detail. These guys were known to deliberate for days about issues so time-critical that Rome lost several battles that easily could have been won if the Senate hadn't tied the hands of the commanders in the field. For them to do anything without ANY deliberation probably places this event as one of perhaps 20 examples in 100 years that this happened, and 1 in perhaps 7-8 instances related to military matters during wartime.)

A 120+ foot snake, sufficiently armored to render it completely immune to Roman infantry weapons, which nevertheless utilized ambush predator behavior similar to Anacondas. The Americas wouldn't be discovered by any Europeans for almost another 1,500 years, so it couldn't have been an escaped Anaconda imported by Carthage or any of their client-kingdoms.

Interestingly Alexander the Great reported seeing a serpent of similar dimensions in the menagerie of the defeated persian Emperor Darius II, in Babylon. Mosaics of the creature the persians called the Surrush have survived to the present day. They depict a creature remarkably similar to the one the Romans reported. Investigation at Alexander's behest revealed the living "Surrush" originated in Africa...

Interesting stuff, eh?

[Earniel]

Cool story! Thanks for sharing, Finarfin-1. I have to admit the thought of the commander getting caught in a fight with the locals and making up the story of the serpent to cover up was the first thing that crossed my mind. And I'm still not entirely convinced he did not. 127-foot armoured snakes are way out of anything possible. Still, cool story.

I disagree with the Surrush-angle, though. The sirrush, which I assume is the adapted name of the mushussu, is not a snake at all. It's got legs and horns. Often referred to as a Marduk's or Tiamat's dragon. Unless the article uses serpent as dragon instead of snake. But then they wouldn't have mentioned a python as possibility.

The mushussu is depicted on the famous Ishtar Gate of Babylon. (Look it up if you've got the chance, it's absolutely gorgeous, and the mushussu is an interestingly conceived animal.)