Also known as the Olgoï-Khorkhoï, which translates to something like “large intestine worm,” this giant, red, poison-spitting creature lives in the sands of the Gobi Desert, according to legend. Based on a description taken down by Roy Chapman Andrews—the explorer who may have indirectly inspired Indiana Jones, and who was skeptical of this creature’s existence—it lives up to that name: In his 1926 book On the Trail of Ancient Man, Chapman wrote that the Mongolian Prime Minister had described the beast as “shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor legs and is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death.” The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman -- these are the names of the elusive beasts that have caught the eye and captured the imaginations of people around the world for centuries. Recently, tales of these "monsters" have been corroborated by an increase in sightings, and out of these legends a new science has been born: cryptozoology -- the study of hidden animals. The Daedalusencounter of 1848 remains one of the most pivotal and influential of sea monster reports. Was it actually a misidentified rorqual, as argued by Galbreath (2015)? This is more compelling when you look at Lieutenant Edgar A. Drummond's sketch. Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans used sightings to create nine categories of sea monster, from the ‘merhorse’ (top left) to the ‘father-of-all-turtles’ and snake-like yellow belly (right top and bottom). Illustration by Tyler Stone.

Patricia Thang is an educator located in Los Angeles. Though a native Angeleno through and through, her heart also belongs to Tokyo, where much of her family is from. Besides books, she is an enthusiastic devourer of many things, including podcasts, television, and J-pop. She realizes there’s not enough time in the world to consume all of that content, but she’s trying anyway. Other endeavors to which she has dedicated herself include cuddling her dogs until they’re annoyed and taste-testing every vegan ice cream she can find. Nessie isn’t the only aquatic cryptid out there. One is Tahoe Tessie, which supposedly lives in California and Nevada’s Lake Tahoe. Another is Ogopogo, which lives in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. This creature appears in Syilxand Secwepemc tales as the N’ha-a-itk, an evil entity that required natives to make a sacrifice to cross the lake. White people reportedly started seeing the creature in the 1870s. The Ahool is a giant bat-like creature spotted by a scientist in the jungles of Java in Indonesia in 1925. It’s named after its call and is said to be twice as large as the large flying fox bat, which, with a wingspan of 5 feet is among the largest bats in the world. Some have said the creature might be a pterosaur; others believe it could be an owl. 22. The Beast of Exmoor In recent years, some apparently good evidence for bigfoot has dissolved under scrutiny. Alleged dermal ridges have proved to be artifacts of the plaster-pouring process, as demonstrated by Matt Crowley (image of plaster ridges by Matt Crowley, used with permission). And claims that the lustrous pelt and realistic muscle tone of 'Patty' can't be replicated by a suit are highly questionable - look at the realistic tone and texture of the obviously fake suit on the right (photo by Darren Naish).

How to Vote

Essential reading for anyone with an interest in unexplained mysteries, folklore, mythology, and the supernatural. An inherently fascinating, impressively informative, truly exceptional, and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library Cryptid collections.” —Midwest Book Review

There’s also the Hibagon, which lives in the mountains around Hiroshima in Japan. And there are many others. Experts say these apemen legends occurred independently across cultures. As Benjamin Radford, deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, told Live Science, “The idea of a wild, man-like 'other' creature co-existing with us but just beyond our understanding is heavily rooted in mythology.” 9. The Honey Island Swamp Monster Batsquatch of Washington, a winged bigfoot that is said to have emerged from the eruption of Mount Saint Helens For what it’s worth, Dr. Charles Goldman, an expert on inland aquatic systems, believes that sightings of lake monsters like Nessie, Tessie, and Ogopogo are actually mirages caused by temperature changes in the deep, cold lakes. Another possible explanation is the very big fish, like sturgeons, that live in those bodies of water. 13. Mokele-mbembe This ‘cultural’ view of cryptozoology is not in keeping with the ‘flesh and blood’ or ‘pelts and paws’ view preferred by advocates of the field, and for that reason it’s seen as a highly sceptical position, if not a cynical one. Ultimately it might mean that we should abandon the term cryptozoology altogether, since there may be little to no ‘zoology’ at the bottom of it. An extremely random and little-known fact about me is that I am obsessed with Nessie (formally known as the Loch Ness monster, but that feels a bit too technical for my taste). My love began in high school, when my friends and I somehow found ourselves doing a group project in Spanish class on the topic of Nessie — I couldn’t tell you why Nessie was a viable theme for a Spanish project or how we came up with it to begin with, but here we are. We spent a weekend immersed in late-aughts internet search results: indiscernible footage of alleged sightings, various articles of questionable credibility, and random documentary clips that had made their way onto YouTube. Regardless of the quality of the research, though, I was hooked. And while I don’t necessarily spend a whole lot of my time deliberately seeking it out these days, I do still always experience a huge rush of excitement if Nessie, or cryptozoology in general, ever does come up.The idea that cryptids are somehow surviving individuals from a prehistoric species is a well-known feature of cryptozoology, but cryptozoological writings are often rife with an additional layer of speculation. When imagined in detail as ‘real’ animals, cryptids often end up as radically novel members of their respective groups.

These supposed animals are ‘cryptids’, and the field of study devoted to them is cryptozoology, the ‘science of hidden animals’. Cryptozoology is not regarded as mainstream science. But while Nessie and the Yeti are likely not real flesh-and-blood animals awaiting zoological discovery, an argument can be made that there might still be something worthy of study here. Can cryptozoology – or a modified version of it – be salvaged? In addition, discussions about cryptozoology in the popular sphere now overlap with those on UFOs, demons and paranormal phenomena. All are suspected by aficionados to be related branches of the same big picture. What we’re seeing here is a disregard for (or ignorance of) the zoological roots of cryptozoology, and a downhill slide to belief in a demon-haunted world. Archaeologist and anthropologist Jeb Card terms these overlapping beliefs the Paranormal Unified Field Theory, or PUFT. It’s on the rise and swallowing cryptozoology alive.Some believe that the Yeti and Sasquatch are actually a species of animal that went extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago— Gigantopithecus, a polar bear-sized ape native to southern Asia. But genetic analysis of hair hasn’t yet turned up evidence of either animal. Analysis of supposed Yeti fur, for example, revealed that the sample wasn’t from an ape but from a Himalyian bear. 4. and 5. Alamasty and Amomongo This view was hardly novel. Folklorists such as Michel Meurger and Claude Gagnon emphasised in their 1988 book, Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, that a major part of belief in cryptids comes from the cultural setting of those observing and sharing their encounters. Big, deep lakes, for example, are imagined in several European cultures to be inhabited by monsters that combine the traits of monstrous fish and predatory ‘water horses’. Thoughtful and well-researched…a worthy addition to any cryptid enthusiast’s library.”— AIPT Comics