• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Monsters We Missed

oldrover

oldrover

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Oct 18, 2009
Messages
4,067
Came across reference to Steller's Sea Cow today, which is an animal whose extinction I've always been particularly disappointed about. Missed it by just a couple of hundred years and no other reason than over hunting to blame. Aside from the spectacular mega-fauna of the Pleistocene, there's a lot of lost Holocene animals as spectacular as any cryptid that we know were here as little as a thousand years ago, giant lemurs, elephant birds, Thylacines? etc.

I was wondering if anyone else had a favourite almost contemporary animal
 
I'd say thylacine but i'm so convinced of it's contiued existance that i'd stake my love spuds on it. Quinkana fortirostrum a 30 foot land dwelling crocodile that galloped would have to favourite.
 
I'd say thylacine but i'm so convinced of it's contiued existance that i'd stake my love spuds on it
Click to expand...

me too for what they're worth. As for Quinkana fortirostrum I'd never heard of that before, thanks
 
Mammoths, yes, definatley.

and any bird bigger than a ostrich.
 
Andrewsarchus, for me (besides, there's a tantalising theory that the Beast of Gévaudan may have been a relict one.)

And Short-faced Bears.
 
There are so many I wish I could have seen, but the one I regret missing most is the Dodo. Birds remind me of cuddly toys when I was little. I want to hug them and take them to bed with me. In a totally innocent way, of course :shock:

I agree that the Thylacine is still out there, but even if it isn't, I'd still wish harder for dodos ('dodoes' looks dumb, though I guess it SHOULD be the correct plural).
 
stuneville said:
Andrewsarchus, for me (besides, there's a tantalising theory that the Beast of Gévaudan may have been a relict one.)
Click to expand...
When I watched the 2000 Christophe Ganz's movie ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0237534/ ), I found that the beast looked very much like one. I didn't know that some really believed it !
 
As well as the Condularth there are a host of South American and Australian predators and herbivores marsupials and eutherians alike that would have been wonderful to see. Two near misses that stand out are Thylacaleo and Megatherium.

One which we might have missed but fortunately haven't is the Fosa Madagascar's answer to the Thylacine. Was lucky enough to meet a captive one, kept as part of breeding programme once, though I didn't like it was terribly lucky.
 
Short-faced bear sounds like an insult. Personally I´d like for the giant sloth to still have existed.

The cassowary on the other hand seems like the kind of animal which should be extinct but didn´t get the message.
 
How about an Argentavis and scare all your mates?

Plus the short faced bears...
 
I've always liked Scimitar Toothed Cats, never considered the name before, seems strange. Got to say, although it's not Holocene, I'd love to have seen an Argentavis, probably more than any other animal.

never really pictured before just how big Andrewsarchus was, although I prefer the name of one of it's size rivals Sarkastadon.
 
"Andrewsarchus, for me (besides, there's a tantalising theory that the Beast of Gévaudan may have been a relict one.) "
I WISH!

I've allways wanted a gander at the marsupial sabertooth thylacosmilus. There is a (very) outside chance that the 'mountain tiger' of Ecuador is this animal.
 
Y'all are overlooking the most absurd megafauna of all time, castoroides ohioensis, the giant beaver:
http://nature.ca/notebooks/english/giantbev.htm

and the glyptodont, essentially an armadillo the size of a VW bug equipped with a tail club:
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2 ... 26-01.html

Technically, of course "we," if you mean humans, didn't miss any of the Pleistocene megafauna, as they lived in association with humans all over the world - mammoths, giant beavers, giant camels, glyptodonts, short-faced bears, teratorns, giant sloths, dire wolves, all of them. If "we" is modern people using Western science, we didn't "just" miss anything that went extinct further back than the 18th century. If "we" is the people on this newsgroup, then we can be said to have "just missed" passenger pigeons, thylacines, ivory-billed woodpeckers (even though I believe they still exist, it can't be denied that we're missing the heck out of them), and other recent extinctions.

But that's me being pedantic. I have a strong desire for all the American fauna that went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, right down to the horses, capromeryx, and Dagget's eagle.
 
Give me a Paleoparadoxia!

(also entered in a competition for funniest name.)

(Its an elephant who has got a job as a walrus in case you were wondering)
 
I suppose I meant 'we' as in those who have an interest in Cryptozoology more than anything else.

Much more likely that the Mountain tiger of Ecuador would be a Machairodont, ( for which word spell-checker offers the alternative- Chairperson), but I think that the Clouded Leopard is our only chance for living sabre tooth.


Give me a Paleoparadoxia!

(also entered in a competition for funniest name.)
Click to expand...

I'd say the worst so far has to be the translation of the Fosa's scientific name, Cryptoprocta Ferox - the fierce hidden anus
 
In this obviously genuine, un-retouched footage,
Click to expand...

No sorry amarok, if you watch carefully at 1 minute 54 seconds into the film the shadows of the lion and fosa are simultaneously cast in opposite directions, to me at least this raises some grave questions regarding it's authenticity.
 
A surviving Machairodont is a possable explanation for the higly arrgressive Sumatra big cat the cigau. Palenetologist Darren aish says the description i was give fits the animal quite well (sloping back, forlegs longer than back legs, large canines). Our main guide's father was present when one attacked a camp and killed a man in the 1960s-early 70s.
 
The cigau sounds like a good candidate for a near miss to me.
 
Analis it's this regarding the beast of Gevaudan. Never taken any notice of this case personally. The only time I ever read anything about it was in a book on dogs years ago in which it was raised in a section dealing with extinct breeds, implying it was some sort of Bourbon pit bull.

What I wanted to ask you is this;

I didn't know that some really believed it !
Click to expand...

Does this mean that in a similar vein to the Malaysian thread, this story is only regarded as myth in France.
 
oldrover said:
What I wanted to ask you is this;

I didn't know that some really believed it !
Click to expand...

Does this mean that in a similar vein to the Malaysian thread, this story is only regarded as myth in France.
Click to expand...

No, there is a great variety of opinions relating to its nature. I just meant that I was really surprised that some really believed that it was an Andrewsarchus.
 
With this thread, initiated about a year ago, having been brought back to life (I missed it at the time when it started) – will make so bold as to submit my own “maybe lasting into historical times” most-wished-for creature.

My “survival most desired” such, would be the Elasmotherium : large rhinoceros-like beast, with accordingly resplendent horn -- longer-legged than modern rhinos, and capable of a very impressive turn of speed. Palaeontologists judge it to have been widely distributed in Eurasia during the Pleistocene era.

Legends from various parts of north Asia suggest possible memories of Elasmotherium from many millennia back; plus, there’s one tantalising suggestion to the effect that it might still have been physically around, at least in one location, about a thousand years ago. The account by Ibn Fadlan of Baghdad, traveller and diplomat in the 10th century AD, tells of his mission as an envoy to the tribes then living along the middle reaches of the River Volga. His hosts there, told him of an animal supposedly found in the wild parts of that region, which would seem to correspond to the above descriptions: according to I.F.’s informants, a dangerous beast – encounters with which, liable to be fatal to one party or the other, according to circumstances. He was shown large bowls supposedly made from the base of the animal’s horn.

I.F. does not report encountering the creature himself – hearsay only, so, “to be made of, what one will.” I’d like to think that his informants were telling him what was truly still the case, then. And it would be wonderful if, per successive miracles of good luck re “who was in charge when, and what they wished for”, this species had survived in that part of Russia, right up to today. One can dream...
 
Never heard of this one as a possible survivor, sounds like a good one. Any chance of some more details from Ibn Fadlan.
 
The Wikipedia entry on “Elasmotherium” gives plentiful info on what’s known or reckoned about the beast; chiefly palaeontologically, but also with what looks to be pretty well the entirety of what Ibn Fadlan recounts about it. This, cited from a book on IF by Richard N. Frye (2005). Said IF quote given by Wiki, as follows.

“Near this river (the Volga) is a vast wilderness wherein they say is an animal that is less than a camel and more like a bull in size. Its head is like the head of a camel, and its tail is like the tail of a bull, while its body is like the body of a mule, and its hooves are like the cloven hooves of a bull. In the centre of its head, it has a thick round horn, which as it rises from the head of the animal gets to be thinner until it becomes like the point of a lance. The length of some of these horns is from three to five cubits, and there are those that may attain to a greater or lesser length.

The animal grazes on the leaves of trees, which are quite green. When it sees a horseman, it makes straight for him, and if he happens to have under him a fast horse, he is rendered safe from it with some effort. If it overtakes him, it removes him from the back of his horse with its horn, hurls him into the air, and then catches him with its horn. It continues in this manner until it kills him. It does not bother the horse in any form or manner.” [Nice thought, sort-of; but strikes me as basically “romancing”. A politically-correct cryptid, meticulously observing solidarity between animals, and harming only the nasty humans...?]

“They seek out this animal in the forests in order to kill it. They do that by climbing the tall trees among which it is found, and with this object in mind, they assemble a number of archers with poisoned arrows. When it stands in their midst, they shoot at it until it is severely wounded and killed by them.

I saw in the king’s house three large bowls which looked like [they were made of] the onyx of Yemen. The king informed me that they were made from the base of the horn of the animal. Some of the people of the country told me it was a rhinoceros.”
 
Well that really is interesting. Incidentally I looked up Ibn Fadlan last night and it turns out in Michel Crichton's novel 'The eaters of the dead' (film version 'The thirteenth warrior') about a Muslim diplomat and twelve vikings fighting against a relic group of Neandertals, the diplomat is based on him.

I can't help feeling again that instances such as Elasmotherium, recent , excuse my negativity, extinctions are the richest area of cryptozoology. That's not to discount the possibility of actual living cryptids at all. Generally pessimistic as I am these days even about the Thylacine, as you said though it would be lovely to be proved wrong.
 
As ever, IMO: “Eaters of Dead”, and “13th Warrior” – the novel (which I’ve read) though well-written, as anything by Crichton: I thought it basically – to put it most charitably, not for me. Author hijacking Ibn Fadlan from IMO interesting genuine-historical scenario, to be taken up to the Northlands by the Vikings whom he fleetingly, in real life, encountered on the Volga – to go and re-enact with them, the Beowulf scenario, with Grendel and his mother being relict Neanderthals; fine for those who like such stuff, but for me, “I don’t want to know”. And for me, if the novel is “not wished” – the film, which I’ve seen, was totally dire. (I approached both novel and film, hoping to enjoy – but it didn’t happen.)

Relatively-recent Elasmotheriums -- agree, very much in the “if-only” realm. I first heard of this engaging if not-nice-to-know-up-close-and-personal creature, via another Internet board, whereon all manner of things are discussed. Learned thereof (with Wikipedia references) from a very nice and to my mind highly knowledgeable lady – self-styled “amateur palaeontologist” – who often posts on that board. Her “what-if” scenario given thereby, postulated the “Elasmo” being conserved by successive rulers, likely as being a very exciting quarry for hunting (thus worth keeping in existence for future generations of hunters), for a long, long time. Her personal end-point for the scenario, was the chaos of the c. 1918 – 1922 Russian Civil War. More optimistic scenario-merchants, could have the beast surviving that “bottleneck” – the USSR was, at least in theory, strongly pro-nature conservation... obviously it all never happened, and even if Ibn Fadlan’s informants circa 920 AD were telling him about a creature which was still live-and-kicking right then; it didn’t remain so for very long thereafter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top