Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

Uranibio

Amazing series of works by Brazilian artist Alexandre Jorge. And made with… papier maché!Click for more.

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Reader José Paulo Grandal, from Pará, Brazil, found and kindly sent us (thank you!) the scan of the photograph of a seemingly enormous Brazilian snake. The scan is from a copy, and the embedded description on it reads something like:

“This is a ‘jiboia’ snake of which only part appears. It has approximately 48 meters [sic] and was found on the ‘Jari’ Lake, Pará state, where some people say there are no Big Snakes. On 11/10/1949“.

The original photograph has the description (with the same information) written on the back, as Grandal tells. And even he doubts the size ascribed to the snake, which looks immense because of perspective.

But it does look like an extremely big one, there are no clear signs of tampering that I could see, and Grandal even asks for tips on how to better preserve the original photograph, as the writings on the back are already fading.

I hope someone is interested on better analyzing it, perhaps a more accurate size estimate is still possible.

UPDATE: Herpetologist Chad Arment, from Strangeark.com, kindly informed us that the “snake photo was originally published (per Newton’s Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology) April 28, 1949, in the newspaper A Provincia do Pará, credited to Joaquim Alencar. The snake was alleged 45 meters, and was found on the Rio Abuna (Acre State). There’s been a fair bit of confusion over the details over the years, and different lengths have been reprinted along with the same photo at different times. The locality details printed on the photo sent to you appear to be another variant.”

As to the size of the animal, “there is, unfortunately, no way to determine the length of the snake from the photo itself”, Arment explains. “And I don’t see any visual clues supporting an extraordinary length in the anaconda”. As Craig York also noticed, the snake could be very close to the camera and its apparent size would be just a perspective trick.

Its actual size could be big, but not extraordinary.

In 1741, missionary Hans Egede published his report of a “most dreadful monster” seen near the coast of Greenland. Along with an illustration by Egede himself, it would become a particularly famous account in the vast collection of “sea serpents” tales.

Since then, many explanations to the sighting were advanced, such as the one that says the folks may have seen a giant squid (Architeuthis), with one of the tentacles mistaken for a tail.

But Charles Paxton, from University of St Andrews, Scotland, suggested a couple of years ago a much more interesting hypothesis. Paxton has already been awarded the IgNobel in Biology in 2002 for his study on the “Courtship behaviour of ostriches towards humans under farming conditions in Britain“, so his hypothesis may not be such a surprise.

Paxton proposes the folks saw a whale penis.

Yes, a male whale of a species unknown to the travelers, for some reason excited and having its erect organ — which can reach up to two meters in length — mistaken for the tail of some sea serpent.

An image, however, may be worth more than the last dozen words:

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People love freak shows, and our entry about the poor deformed puppy who looked “human” is one of the most  popular. Well, this one may be as popular.

This time, it’s a cow. Continue reading for the actual series of pictures of the creature.

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Behold the “Ningen“. Meaning literally “Human“, it’s allegedly a very large unknown animal sighted by Japanese fishers, which bares an uncanny resemblance to us. Not only a face, but other reports include even arms and hands.

Continue reading for more pictures and even videos. All artistic illustrations, but being Japanese, they are extremely nice, and as imagined sea monsters, they sure are terrifying.

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