Cryptozoology Words/Illustrations: Rogan Tinsley, PhD
As children we are taught to fear predatory animals. Yet we need no instruction to be afraid of the unknown. What lies beyond knowledge, beyond science, has always held a grim salience. Intrepid Victorian naturalists went to great lengths and endured gruesome diseases to acquire the pelts, eggs and plumage of rare and exotic beasts. Specimens were meticulously labeled, dispatched to and catalogued in great institutions of learning, such as the Natural History Museum in London. Even today, taxonomists, using mostly genetic analyses, continue the task of adding every known species to the web of life.
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But what of the creatures that have never been caught? Only glimpsed as they dart between the trees or waves, felt as an eerie presence in the night, or spoken of in hushed tones around tribal campfires? These rare and elusive creatures are the realm of cryptozoology. Cryptozoologists continue that noble Victorian spirit of the gentleman naturalist, mixed with a big dash of freak-show peddler and a pinch of charlatan for good measure. Myriad unknown species teem on both land and sea. In fact, in a recent article in Trends in Ecology and
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