15 See, for example, Willy Ley, Willy Ley’s Exotic Zoology (1959; New York: Bonanza Books, 1987), 66–74.
16 Surviving ichthyosaurs were advanced as an explanation for sightings of sea serpents in Robert Bakewell, Introduction to Geology (New Haven, Conn.: Howe, 1833), 213. This scenario was brought to life in Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth, trans. Willis T. Bradley (1864; New York: Ace Books, 1956), 187–188. For discussion of the influence of nineteenth-century fossil plesiosaur discoveries on cryptozoology, see chapters 4 and 5.
17 “Big Thunder Saurian Viewed and Approved,” New York Times, February 17, 1905, 9.
18 “Old and Young Call to See the Dinosaur,” New York Times, February 20, 1905, 12.
19 R. W. W., “Mr. Carnegie’s Imitation Dinosaur ‘Makes a Hit’ in England,” New York Times, June 4, 1905, X7.
20 “Diplodocus Dinner in Berlin,” New York Times, May 14, 1908, 4.
21 “Hunting the Dinosaurus,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 17, 1910, G7.
22 R. Jay Gangewere, “Dippy’s Anniversary,” Carnegie Magazine, http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmag/bk_issue/1999/julaug/feat1.html (accessed April 25, 2012).
23 “The Dinosaurs of East Africa,” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 45, no. 3 (1913): 193–196. The taxonomic history of Eberhard Frass’s sauropod fossils is quite complicated, but note that the name he selected, Gigantosaurus, is no longer recognized.
24 Carl Hagenbeck was the premier supplier of exotic game animals for zoological gardens, traveling menageries, and circuses. During his career, he imported more than 1,000 lions, over 1,000 bears, 300 elephants, 150 giraffes—and countless other animals besides. Hagenbeck developed lower-stress animal-training techniques and in 1876 patented a bar-less approach to constructing zoo enclosures. This became the design theme for the enormously popular private zoo that Hagenbeck opened on May 7, 1907—and the same principles influenced the construction of zoos throughout the world. See Herman Reichenbach, “Carl Hagenbeck’s Tierpark and Modern Zoological Gardens,” Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History 9, no. 4 (1980): 574, 577–582.
25 Carl Hagenbeck, Beasts and Men: Being Carl Hagenbeck’s Experiences for Half a Century Among Wild Animals, trans. Hugh S. R. Elliot and A. G. Thacker (New York: Longmans, Green, 1912), 95–97.
26 Hagenbeck was also the first to import the African black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonine), and the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), among others. See Reichenbach, “Carl Hagenbeck’s Tierpark and Modern Zoological Gardens,” 580–581.
27 “A Memorable Book on the Traits of Wild Beasts,” New York Tribune, January 29, 1910, 8; “‘Sea Serpent’ of the Forest,” Times of India (Mumbai [Bombay]), January 6, 1910, 8.
28 “Brontosaurus Still Lives,” Washington Post, January 23, 2010, M1.
29 “Prehistoric Cement Zoo,” Washington Post, December 26, 1910, 6.
30 Both terms actually appeared in the early Western press coverage of the alleged African Brontosaurus. For example, Hagenbeck himself asserted that the region where the dinosaur dwelled was “infested with bloodthirsty savages,” while one headline asked, “Are Scions of the Prehistoric Monsters That Once Roamed the Earth Still to Be Found Within Little-Known Parts of the Dark Continent?” (“Searching for Saurians in African Jungle,” Washington Post, February 19, 1928, SM9). Of course, it is unfair to judge people of the past by modern standards. Hagenbeck was speaking of literally violent encounters, and even today the suspicious-sounding phrase “dark continent” is sometimes used without any intention to refer to race. For a recent discussion of the controversial term, see Ombudsman, “Should NPR Have Apologized for ‘Dark Continent’?” February 27, 2008, NPR Omdudsman, http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2008/02/should_npr_have_apologized_for.html (accessed April 27, 2012).
31 “British East Africa,” Uganda Herald (Kampala), February 14, 1913, 12.
32 “Startling Rumour,” Bulawayo [Buluwayo, Zimbabwe] Chronicle, December 3, 1909, 3.
33 “A Fearsome Beast,” Rhodesia [Zimbabwe] Herald (Harare), December 17, 1909, 9.
34 “The ‘Brontosaurus’: More Hearsay,” Bulawayo Chronicle, January 14, 1910, 7.
35 “Across Africa by Motor Boat,” Nyasaland Times (Blantyre, Malawi), May 11, 1911, 5.
36 Untitled article, East African Standard (Nairobi, Kenya), July 15, 1911, 13.
37 Quoted in Bernard Heuvelmans. On the Track of Unknown Animals, trans. Richard Garnett (New York: Hill and Wang, 1959), 450.
38 Ibid., 441.
39 “Hunting the Dinosaurus,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 17, 1910, G7. (The spelling of his surname varies by source, spelled either “Brookes” or “Brooks.”)
40 Quoted in “Sure the Diplodocus Is Not Yet Extinct,” New York Times, October 2, 1910.
41 May Bosman, “Does Prehistoric Monster Still Live?” Atlanta Constitution, May 22, 1921, G8. This seems to have been a projection of the then-current African Brontosaurus idea on preexisting South African regional lore about the Groot Slang, a giant snake that was itself an expression of an effectively global folkloric “big snake” monster template projected since classical antiquity on regions from Libya to India.
42 Quoted and discussed in Ley, Willy Ley’s Exotic Zoology, 71–72.
43 Heuvelmans, On the Track of Unknown Animals, 461.
44 Quoted in “The Congo Monster. Story Ridiculed,” Beira [Mozambique] News, December 16, 1919.
45 “Startling Rumour.”
46 “A Tale from Africa: Semper Aliquid Novi,” Times (London), November 17, 1919, 11.
47 “Much Interest Aroused,” Rhodesia Herald, November 25, 1919, 5.
48 “Dragon of the Prime,” Times, December 12, 1919, 13.
49 “No Brontosaurus There: ‘Wholly Fabulous Report,’” Beira News, December 23, 1919, 3.
50 Quoted in “Missionary’s Leg Pulled,” Rhodesia Herald, December 23, 1919, 5.
51 “The Brontosaurus Myth,” Dar-es-Salaam [Tanzania] Times, March 19, 1921, 6.
52 Wentworth D. Gray, “The Brontosaurus” [letter to the editor], Times, February 23, 1920, 10.
53 “Game Hunter’s Encounter,” Rhodesia Herald, December 23, 1919, 23.
54 I mention Lester Stevens and his dog partly because Heuvelmans chose to feature his hunt for the “giant reptile” as the chapter opener on the topic in his book, and partly because the expedition was both widely reported and silly. Heuvelmans gave his name as “Captain Leicester Stevens,” not “Lester Stevens” (On the Track of Unknown Animals, 434). See also “Experts Who Believe in It,” Bulawayo Chronicle, December 26, 1919, 5.
55 Ley, Willy Ley’s Exotic Zoology, 62–74; Ivan T. Sanderson, “There Could Be Dinosaurs,” Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1948, 17, 53, 56; Heuvelmans, On the Track of Unknown Animals, 434–484.
56 Powell, “On the Trail of the Mokele-Mbembe.”
57 Mackal, Living Dinosaur.
58 Hans Schomburgk, quoted in Ley, Willy Ley’s Exotic Zoology, 69. Schomburgk was in a position to make an informed complaint about the difficulty of ethnozoological investigation, having been the first Westerner to confirm the existence and describe for science the pygmy hippopotamus.
59 Powell does pose a question: “Was Michel sincere, or had his African creativity been fired by the publicity he had received in Heuvelmans’ book? I shall probably never know” (“On the Trail of the Mokele-Mbembe, 87–88). However, he seems to have been very impressed with his informant’s sincerity, and gives no account of close questioning about the complete reversal of the man’s story.
60 “The Last Dinosaur” [season 3, episode 52], MonsterQuest, History Channel, June 24, 2009, “MonsterQuest: The Last Dinosaur, Pt. 2,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfYqA4n0qow (accessed May 4, 2012).
61 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 73, 83.
62 Tokuhara Takabayashi, “The First Japanese-Congolese Mokele-Mb
embe Expeditions,” Cryptozoology: Interdisciplinary Journal of the International Society of Cryptozoology 7 (1988): 67.
63 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 94.
64 For example, Congolese biologist Marcellin Agnagna led several tours to Boha village in the Congo, and Pierre Sima led several tours to Langoue village in Cameroon. Whatever the significance, both Agnagna and Sima claimed personal Mokele Mbembe sightings. See Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 57–58, 170–171.
65 Mackal, Living Dinosaur? 59.
66 Mackal gives the name as “Antoine Meombe” in Living Dinosaur? 61; Powell gives it as “Miobe Antoine” in “On the Trail of the Mokele-Mbembe,” 84–91.
67 Mackal, Living Dinosaur? 73.
68 Ibid., 74.
69 Powell, “On the Trail of the Mokele-Mbembe.”
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Mackal, Living Dinosaur? 160.
73 Ibid., 103.
74 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 74.
75 Redmond O’Hanlon, No Mercy: A Journey into the Heart of the Congo (New York: Vintage Books, 1998), 375.
76 John H. Acorn, “Good-Humored Adventure in the Congo,” Skeptical Inquirer 19, no. 3 (1995): 46–48.
77 William Gibbons, “Was a Mokele-Mbembe Killed at Lake Tele?” The Anomalist Archive: High Strangeness Reports, http://www.anomalist.com/reports/mokele.html (accessed May 2, 2012).
78 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 109.
79 Mackal, Living Dinosaur? 93–95.
80 Quoted in Dembart Lee, “Proof of Dinosaur Sighting May Hinge on What Develops,” Los Angeles Times, December 23, 1981, A16.
81 “Developed Film Fails to Show Any Dinosaur,” Los Angeles Times, December 23, 1981, A3.
82 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 81.
83 Gibbons writes that Agnagna threatened “to have us arrested as spies,” and implies that Agnagna may have stolen the expedition’s undeveloped film (ibid., 81, 83).
84 Takabayashi, “First Japanese-Congolese Mokele-Mbembe Expeditions,” 66–69. (This article also describes a previous visit by Takabayashi and two colleagues to speak with missionary Eugene Thomas in 1986, and another Japanese expedition in 1987 that included Agnagna.)
85 O’Hanlon, No Mercy.
86 Nigel Burton, “Real Life Dinosaur Hunt,” Northern Echo (Darlington, England), June 5, 1999, 7.
87 John Kirk, In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1998), 258.
88 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 86.
89 Ibid., 85–100.
90 Ibid., 96.
91 “Megatransect Across Africa,” National Geographic, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/08/01/sights_n_sounds/media.5.2.html (accessed May 5, 2012).
92 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 112–125.
93 The search benefited from $15,000 from the British Broadcasting Corporation, and $50,000 from Canadian wealth manager and Young Earth creationist Paul Rockel. See ibid., 127–128. For a statement by Rockel on evolution, see “Where Are the Facts?” [letter to the editor], Waterloo Region Record (Ontario, Canada), January 10, 2011, http://www.therecord.com/opinion/letters/article/318832--where-are-the-facts (accessed May 2, 2012).
94 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 139.
95 Ibid., 146.
96 On an episode of the podcast from Divine Intervention Radio, Milt Marcy is introduced as a creationist with an active involvement in the notorious Paluxy River “man tracks” (a mixed set of misidentified dinosaur footprints, inorganic indentations, and outright fakes that are found alongside dinosaur trackways, interpreted by a subset of “creation scientists” as proof that human beings lived at the same time as non-avian dinosaurs). See “Living Dinosaurs? Cryptozoologists and Dinosaur Hunters, Dr. William Gibbons and Milt Marcy,” Divine Intervention, podcast, March 28, 2008, http://divineintervention.typepad.com/divine_intervention/2008/03/episode-6-livin.html. (accessed May 5, 2012). The story of Marcy’s offer to fund Gibbons is in Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 151–152.
97 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 158–159.
98 Ibid., 165.
99 Ibid., 168–171.
100 Peter Beach is described as “a Biblical creationist” who promotes the idea that not only sauropods but also pterosaurs have survived to this day. See Nathaniel Coleman, “A Brave Biologist: Living Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs,” http://www.livepterosaur.com/brave-biologist/ (accessed May 4, 2012). As a creationist speaker, Brian Sass bills himself as “B.SC. Paleobiology. Creation Generation & Genesis Park Research Teams.” See “Dinosaur Hunter to Speak in Pangman [Saskatchewan] This Sunday,” http://www.pangman.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Brian-Sass-News-Re-lease.pdf (accessed May 4, 2012).
101 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 180–183.
102 “Inside Story: Mullin on Mokele-Mbembe”; Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 187–189.
103 Neil Mandt and Michael Mandt, “Wild Man & Swamp Dinosaur” [season 2, episode 3], Destination Truth, Syfy, March 19, 2008 (Ping Pong Productions).
104 “Last Dinosaur, Pt. 2.”
105 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 197.
106 “Inside Story: Mullin on Mokele-Mbembe.”
107 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 187–188.
108 Peter Dodson, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Robert T. Bakker, and John S. McIntosh, “Taphonomy and Paleoecology of the Dinosaur Beds of the Jurassic Morrison Formation,” Paleobiology 6 (1980): 208–232.
109 Bruce H. Tiffney, “Land Plants as Food and Habitat in the Age of Dinosaurs,” in The Complete Dinosaur, 2nd ed., ed. M. K. Brett-Surman, Thomas R. Holtz Jr., and James O. Farlow (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), 569–588.
110 Paul C. Sereno, Allison L. Beck, Didier B. Dutheil, Hans C. E. Larsson, Gabrielle H. Lyon, Bourahima Moussa, Rudyard W. Sadlier, Christian A. Sidor, David J. Varricchio, Gregory P. Wilson, and Jeffrey A. Wilson, “Cretaceous Sauropods from the Sahara and the Uneven Rate of Skeletal Evolution Among Dinosaurs,” Science 286 (1999): 1342–1347.
111 Donald R. Prothero, After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006); Lars Werdelin and William Joseph Sanders, eds., Cenozoic Mammals of Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).
112 Mackal, Living Dinosaur? 152.
113 “Living Dinosaurs? Cryptozoologists and Dinosaur Hunters.”
114 Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe, 63–66.
115 Gibbons, “Welcome to Creation Generation.Com”; “Mokele-mbembe: The Living Dinosaur!” Cryptozoological Realms, http://www.mokelembembe.com; Cryptozoology Research Team: Tracking Down the World’s Last Natural Mysteries, http://www.livingdinos.com; William J. Gibbons, “In Search of the Congo Dinosaur,” Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/306/ (all accessed November 3, 2011).
116 William Gibbons and Kent Hovind, Claws, Jaws and Dinosaurs (Pensacola, Fla.: CSE, 1999), 3.
117 Ibid., 34.
118 Donald R. Prothero, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
119 Gibbons, “Welcome to Creation Generation.Com.”
120 N. F. Goldsmith and I. Yanai-Inbar, “Coelacanthid in Israel’s Early Miocene? Latimeria Tests Schaeffer’s Theory,” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, supplement 3 (1997): 49A; T. Ørvig, “A Vertebrate Bone from the Swedish Paleocene,” Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar 108 (1986): 139–141.
121 Prothero, Evolution, 50–85.
122 Gibbons, “Welcome to Creation Generation.Com.”
123 Prothero, Evolution, xvii.
124 Ibid., 24–49.
7. WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE IN MONSTERS?
1 Elizabeth Landau, “Why Do We Need to Look for Bigfoot?” CNN Health, June, 21, 2010, http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-21/health/bigfoot.psychology.monsters_1_bigfoot-goat-sucker-monsters?_s=PM:HEALTH (accessed November 25, 2011).
2 Baylor Religion Survey, 2005, Q76F by Q74K [custom table, showing comparison], http://www.thearda.com/includes/crosstabs.asp?file=BRS2005&v=390&v2=377&p=2&s=on (accessed February 16, 2012).
3 Christopher D. Bader, F. Carso
n Mencken, and Joseph O. Baker, Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 106–111.
4 Joshua Blu Buhs, Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 174–175.
5 Karen Stollznow, e-mail to Daniel Loxton, February 16, 2012; Blake Smith, e-mail to Daniel Loxton, February 16, 2012.
6 Buhs, Bigfoot, 172.
7 Quoted in ibid.
8 Quoted in ibid., 177.
9 Ibid., 177–178.
10 Brian Regal, Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
11 Gerald Durrell, introduction to Bernard Heuvelmans, On the Track of Unknown Animals, trans. Richard Garnett (New York: Hill and Wang, 1959), 20.
12 Regal, Searching for Sasquatch.
13 Samuel Kneeland, in Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1874, 338; Willy Ley, Willy Ley’s Exotic Zoology (1959; New York: Bonanza Books, 1987).
14 Regal, Searching for Sasquatch, 71–74.
15 See, for example, John Napier, Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality (New York: Dutton, 1973), 105–107.
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