Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

“I’m completely stunned. Please, help me find out if this is true. Note: image taken on the Pinheiros highway, near the Joao Dias bridge”
[Sao Paulo, Brazil].

Skeptics would immediately think this is nothing more than a small guy in a costume, but careful viewing of the video reveals the head of the strange figure is actually on fire.

We blogged about it in Brazil, and soon Marcus Pontes came with an explanation:

“Some years ago a Brazilian artist wanted to make a movie about the curupira [a folkloric figure in Brazil], and he flooded the internet with videos and other false information to give the movie project some urban legend aura.”

Soon afterwards Marcus pointed a link to the original blog where the artist publicized his viral creations: http://neminventonemaumento.zip.net/

Alexandre Camargo also told us that

“It’s really a digital work: the ‘creature’ is the main character of a short horror film produced by Trattoria di Frame (in São Paulo), where I worked some years ago. The designer is the artist Eduardo Schaal.”

Check some more nice images and videos of the creature after the jump

Read more

Back in April a nine meters basking shark was caught in a fishing net four kilometres off Hitachi, Ibaraki. Weighing in at 4,6 tonnes, it’s the largest basking shark specimen ever found in Japan.

To the cryptozoology enthusiasts, like me, one image of the news item immediately reminded the famous carcass of a supposed plesiosaur caught in 1977 by the Zuiyo Maru:

The similarity is no coincidence, as it’s suggested the carcass was actually a pseudoplesiosaur, which is, it was indeed a basking shark carcass. Glen Kuban has a nice reference about it on Sea-monster or Shark? An Analysis of a Supposed Plesiosaur Carcass Netted in 1977. 

After looking at a picture of it, I had some trouble believing an animal like this was real. Only a video and some Googling convinced me.

Now, that was obviously the inspiration for the Nasobema, a fictitious creation.

[via PD, Neatorama]

“A Chinese woman claims her cat has grown wings. Granny Feng’s tom cat has sprouted two hairy 4ins long wings, reports the Huashang News. “At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings,” she said. Feng, of Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, says the wings, which contain bones, make her pet look like a ‘cat angel’. Her explanation is that the cat sprouted the wings after being sexually harassed. “A month ago, many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow,” she said.” [Ananova]

This is old news I blogged in Portuguese long ago, but anyway. Winged cats are indeed real, but the not at all terrible truth is that the appendages are not actual wings. As many may guess, some “wings” are just matted fur or congenital malformations, like and extra limb that may looke like a “wing”. Nothing very interesting.

What is interesting is that a third explanation for winged cats, which seems to fit Mrs. Feng’s one, is the feline cutaneous asthenia (FCA), linked to the phenomenon by the English Fortean, Karl Shuker.

The condition, which has a conterpart in humans, makes the skin extremely elastic, like rubber. It can end up stretching in long appendages, and in cats, those — always appearing in the backs of the creatures — may also have links with underneath muscles. When the cats run, a curious scene with a kitten with seemingly flapping wings my be seen.

If stretched too much, the cat’s “wings” may fall, without much bleeding or pain to the animal. Its aspect is described as resembling cardboard to the touch, which may have led Feng to think it had some bones. Below, a photo of an English case in the 1970s:

This article by Sarah Hartwell in Messybeast has a lot of information in images. The photo above comes from an article by Shuker on Fortean Times 168.

Winged cats, believe it nor not, are as real as horned people.

Sent by Martha (obrigado!), photos of a dog that was allegedly born with a “human-like” face in Umbaúba, Sergipe, Brazil. Much better-looking than the pig that had a “human-like” face, born on Rio Grande do Sul a few weeks ago. Both are congenital anomalies, and the poor animals were stillborn.

Continue reading for more photos.

Read more