sea monster – Museum of the Weird

Posted on August 13, 2015 by MOTW Admin

When monsters attack

Several weeks ago we had a story about legendary monster, Godzilla, receiving official citizenship from Japan. That’s odd, since he spent a lot of time destroying Tokyo. That’s what monsters do, though. They attack, and not only in the movies. Here are a few real-world encounters with monsters from the news.

Giant Raccoon

See full size — Photo from World News Daily Report shows the horrific damage to the Bakers’ SUV caused by what they describe as a giant raccoon.

This article by the Weekly World News Report describes a bizarre incident in which a Montana couple is attacked by what they described as a giant raccoon about eight feet tall. Arthur and Helen Baker say they were driving on the highway when the creature appeared in front of them. It attacked their vehicle, smashing the windows and flipping the vehicle several times. It continued to attack until it injured itself on the broken windows.

Raccoons can get large, but none have been recorded to get that large, leading authorities to suggest that this encounter may have been with a bear. Even if that was the case, something that will attack and beat up a vehicle to that extent and go after the people inside is the stuff of which nightmares are made!

Russian Chupacabra

Carnage left from the mysterious creature in Russia that is killing chickens. Image © www.moe-online.ru

According to this article at rt.com, a mysterious creature has been killing hundreds of chickens in the Russian village of Davydovka in a methodical and, perhaps, intelligent fashion. Very little blood is found at the scene, putting it in line with Chupacabra legends. This is not the first time that attacks like this have been seen in Russia. A couple of years ago similar attacks happened in the Voronezh Region in April and two years prior.

Tracks discovered at the scene are similar to a canine, but the methodology is very unlike what would be expected from a dog, wolf, or other similar predator.

Is it possible that this creature has somehow hitched a ride from Latin America to find new prey in Russia?

Giant Squid Attacks Russian Vessel

What gods did the Russians anger? Not only are the chickens suffering, but here is footage of a fishing vessel attacked by a giant squid. This looks like something from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! Can you imagine that just a few years the idea of a giant squid was considered myth and now we have this! Attracted by their catch the monster squid forced the crew to fight hard to drive it away.

https://youtu.be/fIKgNqlLU6c

Hopefully, most of us will never encounter a real-life monster. They will remain the stuff of nightmares and scary stories. These tales are a reminder, though, that any of us, at any time, may cross the threshold where the nightmare becomes real. Pleasant dreams!

Posted on June 23, 2015 by MOTW Admin

Prehistoric Sea Monster Found Alive!

We’re a little early for Shark Week (Who knew this would become a thing?), and we’re past some of the buzz from Jurassic World, so maybe this is the perfect place to mash up the two. On land, most Jurassic creatures—the ones with massive size and sharp knife-like teeth—have become mostly fossils.

The ocean is a different case. Some creatures from the age of dinosaurs still exist down there. Prepare yourself for one of the most bizarre creatures you’ll ever see: the frilled shark.

These creatures are extremely uncommon, which is probably good, because this looks way scarier than a Great White. However, they have been recorded in a variety of locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

world map showing blue colored areas to mark sightings — Map of Frilled Shark sightings

For something that’s rare, these are pretty widely spread.

In truth, the frilled shark is not actually a Jurassic creature, but a more modern one that has only been dated back to the early Pleistocene epoch. Its traits are very similar to its older ancestors, giving us a good taste of what it would be like to encounter such a beast.

We love monsters! You can see our life-sized King Kong at the Museum of the Weird on 6th street and visit all of our others in the Sfanthor House of Wax on South Congress. Get a combo pass and see both museums for one great price.

Posted on October 30, 2013 by MOTW Admin

PLESIOSAUR PHOTOGRAPHED OFF AUSTRALIAN COAST?

David “Crusty” Herron snapped this photo of what he dubbed "Lost Nessie" from a distance of about 600 feet from shore. — David “Crusty” Herron snapped this photo of what he dubbed “Lost Nessie” from a distance of about 600 feet from shore.

Last Friday, the scene from Magnetic Island off the northern coast of Australia must have looked like something straight out of The Lost World. Beachgoers were treated to the sight of what appeared to be a long-necked sea going creature straight out of our prehistoric past.

The strange looking object moving in the water was extraordinary enough to get the attention of numerous eyewitnesses, many wondering just what it could be.

Plesiosaur? Sea serpent? Or could it be something more mundane and explainable, like a piece of driftwood or a sunken boat? You decide.

From The Australian:

The strange sea sighting has created quite a buzz on the island, with locals desperate to know: just what is lurking in the water?

One of them is marriage celebrant David “Crusty” Herron, who photographed it from a beach about 200 metres away.

“It was bobbing up and down in the water and at first I thought, what’s that?” Mr Herron told AAP.

“Someone yelled out ‘it looks like a Loch Ness monster’.

“I’ve never seen anything like it – it could be anything. We are all wanting to know what it is.”

James Cook University biology professor Glen Chilton says while new and old creatures are constantly being discovered, even near the Great Barrier Reef, it’s unlikely to be a strange aquatic beast.

“It’s probably a piece of a tree or piece of a boat which has somehow broken away,” he told AAP.

Australian cryptozoologist and self-proclaimed “yowie man” Rex Gilroy is keeping an open mind. “It’s hard to say from the photo,” he said.

Mr Gilroy, who has authored books on mythical creatures, says he’s aware of about 800 sightings of reptilian creatures with long necks and football shaped heads.

Some of those were from the Magnetic Island and Townsville area, he said.

The most recent was in October last year when a fisherman saw a creature with a large grey coloured body protruding from waters off Magnetic Island, he said.

When asked if it could have been the remains of a dragon boat that supposedly sunk there in the recent past, the man who photographed the creature, David Herron, refuted it and compared the beast to a plesiosaur. Here’s “Crusty” being interviewed by News 7:

SOURCE: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19578903/has-loch-ness-monster-migrated-to-nth-qld/

Posted on January 25, 2013 by MOTW Admin

SATURDAY, 1/26/13: CRYPTOMUNDO NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM!

This event is going on this weekend at the Museum of the Weird in downtown Austin. We’re going to have several famous cryptozoologists and authors as well as maybe a surprise appearance by Bigfoot himself! It’s going to be an awesome event!

UPDATE: all advance tickets are sold out, but we’ll still be selling regular admission to the Museum. Even though our advance tickets to the lectures and the movie screening are already sold out, we will still have the museum open for general admission, and you’ll still be able to meet the guests and get some signed books and swag, as well as attend dinner and drinks with the group afterwards at the Chupacabra Cantina and The Jackalope Bar next door. Hope to see you here!

Saturday, January 26th, 2013

3:00pm to 10:00pm

Museum of the Weird, in conjunction with the world’s foremost website on all things cryptid, Cryptomundo.com, will be hosting a very special event on January 26th at the Museum of the Weird in Austin, TX:

Cryptomundo Night at the Museum!

Featuring an all-star line up of world famous cryptozoologists, experts and authors, it’s sure to be a night of entertainment, intrigue and mystery as we explore the unknown creatures that lurk in the darker corners of the world we live in! Please come out and join us for the festivities!

Speaker presentations and author book signings include:

Lyle Blackburn, frontman for rock band Ghoultown, writer for Rue Morgue magazine and author of “The Beast of Boggy Creek”

Nick Redfern, author of “Wildman! The Monstrous and Mysterious Saga of the British Bigfoot”, “Monster Diary: On the Road in Search of Strange and Sinister Creatures”, “The World’s Weirdest Places,” “Memoirs of a Monster Hunter,” and “Monsters of Texas.”

Ken Gerhard, author of “Big Bird! Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters” and “Monsters of Texas.”

Dave Coleman, author of “The Bigfoot Filmography”

The event starts at 3:00pm and goes until 6:00pm, then a break for dinner and to explore 6th Street and downtown Austin.

It resumes again at 8:00pm with a special screening in the Museum’s Weird Theater of the ’70s drive-in classic “Creature from Black Lake.”

Posted on January 8, 2013 by MOTW Admin

GIANT SQUID FILMED ALIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME

Discovery Channel will air the first-ever footage of a live giant squid.

For the first time ever, we finally have video footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat, deep in the ocean’s abyss. The footage, which will air on a future Discovery Channel special, was captured by a film crew approximately 3,000 feet down in the Northern Pacific Ocean.

According to Richard Ellis, author of The Search for the Giant Squid, “It’s an exciting, exciting discovery.”

“We can learn how this thing moves, how it swims, what it does with its arms when it swims… Because it’s the first time anybody has ever seen one alive, it is an enormous breakthrough for science — and for mythology, of all things — because for a long time people didn’t even think they existed.”

I think this is great news for the field of cryptozoology, since here is a perfect example of something that has been described in sightings and legends like that of the Kraken (a giant tentacled sea monster); for centuries people dismissed it as fantasy, but yet modern scientists, who took great steps to seek out the creature, actually succeeded in proving and documenting its existence.

Here’s the CNN interview with Richard Ellis, unfortunately they don’t show any of the actual footage of the giant squid, just a few stills (I guess we’ll have to wait for that Discovery Channel special):

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/world/2013/01/08/exp-early-ellis-giant-squid.cnn

Posted on January 3, 2013 by MOTW Admin

THE MAYAN APOCALYPSE DIDN’T HAPPEN, SO IS THIS THE NEW AGE? IT CAN BE.

Many people believed the end of the world would come on December 21, 2012, the date that marked the end of the Mayan calendar. That date has come and gone, and I can’t help but wonder what all the die-hard Mayan Apocalypse believers are thinking now.

There were two general ways of thinking about how this end would come: it would either be a horrific doomsday scenario that would be the end of all life as we know it, or it would mark the beginning of a new age of human enlightenment and responsibility.

One idea dwelt on the negative, the other positive.

So since the world didn’t end, where does that leave us now?

Since several days have passed and still no apocalypse in sight, I’d like to make a proposition to you, the person reading this, and to myself as well. I propose that you and I abandon all ideologies that promote fear, anger, hatred, and ridicule. Instead, let’s make a daily, conscious decision to live both our lives as positive and loving as we can be.

And how can we do this? There are two things that we must remember and embrace with the core of our being.

My high school track coach, Mr. Tintle, instilled in me one of the basic tenets of my being that I hold to this day. That is, one must have PMA, short for Positive Mental Attitude. With a positive mental attitude, you can achieve the impossible.

My other basic tenet is I live by the Golden Rule. I try not to do anything to anyone that I wouldn’t want done to myself. It’s that simple.

Keeping a Positive Mental Attitude and following the Golden Rule.

Adopt it. Embrace it. Teach it to your kids.

And with these two tenets in mind, I’d like to make a call to action to you and myself as well. Let’s do something in the world today, right now, that will make a positive difference. I’m writing an open letter to the world, now it’s your turn. What will you do?

Want to fight global warming and climate change? Plant a tree in your backyard. Can’t stand the partisanship that has taken over politics? Turn off the news and volunteer in your township. Upset about kids shooting other kids? Become a Big Brother or Big Sister to a troubled child… or simply a high school track coach.

The point I’m trying to make is, no matter how big the problems of our world seem to be… no matter what the difficulties we face… even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant action we take can make all the difference in the world.

*********************************************************************************

To the Mayans a Baktun was a measurement of time lasting approximately 400 years. December 21, 2012 marked the end of the 13th Baktun on the Mayan calendar, and the beginning of a new one. Descendants of the Mayans never believed the world was going to end on that date; instead, they look at the 14th Baktun as a period of hope and change.

So as we begin another year and another Baktun, I’d like to propose not just a new year’s resolution, but a “New Baktun Resolution” we all can adopt (after all, the next one won’t be for another 400 years). Let’s take this opportunity to leave all the hatred, negativity and baggage the human race has been carrying around with us for all the millennia we’ve walked this great earth and leave it in the past. Let’s take control of our destiny and stop living in fear. Let us start the new Bakun as a loving, more mature, and enlightened human race.

Not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new one.

Posted on December 11, 2012 by MOTW Admin

GIANT SQUID CAPTURED ON VIDEO IN IT’S NATURAL HABITAT

Photo of the Curiosity submurisble before being launched to incredible depths. Image credit Discovery Channel

This is great! For the first time ever, Discovery has sent a tiny submarine known as Curiosity to the deepest parts of the ocean and has captured the ever elusive GIANT SQUID in natural habitat! They’re holding on to the footage until January of next year and you can bet that’ll be one thing on tv I’ll be sure not to miss.

Laughing Squid writes:

For the first time ever, the elusive giant squid has been captured on video in its natural habitat. Discovery Channel will show the footage on January 27, 2013 in the season finale of Curiosity in the episode, Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real. NHK will air their special on the first-ever footage of the giant squid in early January 2013. According to Discovery Channel, Japanese channel NHK will air the footage in early January 2013.

“When Discovery does natural history it sets the bar high, and this ground breaking project features the very first-ever footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. Our crew came face-to-face with the giant squid, and it’s the ideal season finale for our Curiosity series that stirs the imagination of our audience, bravely asking questions and fearlessly seeking answers. This latest production, four years in the making, is a world-first achievement for television, and I’m excited to share it,” said Eileen O’Neill, Group President of Discovery and TLC Networks.”

Posted on November 9, 2012 by MOTW Admin

NEW BOOK DELVES INTO THE SCIENCE OF MONSTERS

We all know, love, and have our favorite of the classic monsters from our childhood but, what was the original inspiration for these creepy creatures of the shadows? A new book being published called “Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters” delves into what fears and real dangers the people of the time were living with that would have created them. From disease to war, times have most certainly been tough in the past and everyone had plenty to worry about.

Reuters reports:

Nov 8 (Reuters) – The suave and sensitive Edward Cullen of “Twilight” may be the norm for vampires these days, but fictional monsters such as Dracula originally sprang from the fear of inexplicable diseases and the mysteries of death in the natural world.

So argues science journalist Matt Kaplan in “Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite: The Science of Monsters,” an examination of monsters around the world and throughout history – the science behind their origins, and why they matter to us even now.

“When our kids ask for monster stories around the campfire, they are behaving in a way that is not dissimilar to lion cubs,” Kaplan said in an email.

“Lion cubs play fight so they can test out their skills in a safe place where nobody is going to get maimed or killed. Monster stories serve a similar purpose, they allow us to face our worst fears without the risks that are normally associated with them.”

Some are simple. The Kraken tales of mammoth monster squid, along with the Leviathan of the Bible, are most likely based upon the existence of real creatures such as whales.

The terrifying Medusa of Greek myths, with her hair made of snakes and a gaze that could turn things to stone, may have been distantly connected to the idea of fossils for ancient people, with the snakes in her hair an example of pure fear.

Though mentions of vampire-like creatures exist as early as ancient Greece, it took hundreds of years for tales of the creatures to gradually evolve into the haunting undead of more recent history.

Accounts of people found in their graves with blood on their lips and their stomachs seemingly full, as if they had just eaten, may be explained by simple decay, with gas buildup throughout the body sometimes pushing blood up from the lungs. Elongated canine teeth and fingernails was due to skin shrinking after death and pulling away, making both more prominent.

Later, greater awareness of contagious diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis – which could cause people who came in contact with the ill person to also sicken and die – further contributed to the myth. This was especially true due to incubation periods that weren’t understood at the time, making it unclear how the diseases were being spread.

“One death would follow another in a dominolike progression,” writes Kaplan. “In a morbid sense, these patients were literally killing their friends and relatives, but from their deathbeds rather than the hereafter.”

But vampires have now undergone a radical transformation, a process that began with the publication of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” but has speeded up in recent years.

“If tuberculosis, influenza, rabies and bloated bodies are the human experiences from which Dracula came, how have we now ended up with the kind, honorable and handsome Edward Cullen?” Kaplan said.

LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING HAS LOST AN EYE. A REALLY, REALLY BIG EYE..

Something, somewhere is having a little trouble seeing clearly right now and, whatever it is, it’s big. What could this huge eyeball possibly belong to? What unknown sea monsters of the deep have eyes this big? Could it be an ancient dinosaur that survived the ice age in the dark recesses of the worlds’ oceans? Read more and leave a comment with your own theories!

The Huffington Post writes:

South Florida beaches are usually places where people find sea shells, tiny crawling creatures and a shark tooth here and there, but a man walking on Pompano Beach Wednesday came across something out of the ordinary.

A giant eyeball.

Large enough to fit into his cupped hands, the beach stroller made a few calls and eventually got in touch with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who had an interest in his discovery, Carli Segelson, spokeswoman for the FWC told HuffPost Miami.

“This is definitely an unusual situation, where an eye would be found independent of any other body part,” she said.

Later in the day, an FWC employee came to pick up the blue-and-purple-colored eyeball and put it on ice. It will be shipped to the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Center in St. Petersburg, where staffers hope to make an identification.

“It will probably take a little while to identify the eye,” Segelson said.

Read more and check out other photos at huffingtonpost.com

Posted on October 3, 2012 by MOTW Admin

MAN GOES FISHING, FINDS FINGER IN A FISH!

A man in Idaho caught something a little out of the usual the other day.

I’ve been fishing many times, and have my fair share of “it was THIS big” stories as well but, Calvin Nolan of Idaho has a story that’ll rival many anglers best tall tales. He found a human finger, well preserved, in a fish he caught!

CNN writes:

It’s a fish tale almost impossible to believe.

A fisherman found a human finger in the belly of a trout caught in a remote northern Idaho lake. And detectives located the owner, who delivered a surprising message.

Despite the hard work of investigators, Haans Galassi said he did not want to be reunited with his severed digit.

“At first the sheriff asked me if I wanted it back, and I was thinking ‘um, no!” Galassi, 31, said.

The reunion may bring back too much pain for Galassi, who is getting over the accident two months ago on an Idaho lake.

Galassi was wakeboarding on Priest Lake in July while holding on to a rope attached to a speed boat. Then things went terribly wrong.

He noticed too much slack in the rope, tried to correct it and the rope wrapped around his left hand, he said.

“It pulled me over in the water and dragged me for a few feet before it broke me free,” Galassi said. “I didn’t feel pain at first, just numbness, and I pulled my hand out of water and it was bad news. I look and see I’m missing all four fingers at that point.”

Galassi was rushed to the hospital and has been trying to get by without his fingers. He learned that he can still grip and grab items such as a steering wheel with his affected hand.

And then he got the strange phone call Tuesday from Det. Gary Johnston of the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department.

The fisherman who found the finger on September 11 quickly put it in a freezer and called the sheriff’s department, Johnston said.

“The lake is cold and deep so it was in remarkably good shape,” Johnston said. “We’d fingerprinted it and sent it to the state lab to match what’s on file and lo and behold, they came back and said that’s Haans’ little finger.”

Fisherman Calvin Nolan told CNN how he made the grisly discovery as he gutted a trout caught by his friend Mark Blackstone as they fished together.

He had noticed something in the gut of the fish that he thought looked like a crawdad, or crayfish, which they had been using as bait — but Blackstone said, “No, that’s a finger.”