Saturday, April 28, 2012

Karl Shuker interview on cryptozoology

What it really is and why it matters

Dr. Karl Shuker is one of the few prominent cryptozoologists with formal scientific credentials, and he shows no fear in being the public face of a controversial science.  In this wide-ranging interview, he explains a point I've often made, than cryptozoology and "regular" zoology use the same methods in pursuing the same type of discoveries.  He picks the orang-pendek and thylacine as the most likely large animals to be discovered or rediscovered. Shuker includes one tidbit I didn't know: I was aware the recently discovered Laotian rock rat was from a line of rodents thought extinct, but I didn't realize its family had disappeared from the fossil record 11 million years ago.  Shuker's new book is The Encyclopedia of New and Rediscovered Animals;  I'll post a separate review of that soon.

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