For many a years man has been searching for the missing link, hunting high and low across the planet. They have searched for the mythical ‘Big Foot’, the Loch Ness monster. We call these people Cryptozoologists, or those who study Cryptozoology.
But what is Cryptozoology? Where did the word come from?
The word is given to the science of hidden animals.
The word was first printed in 1959 in a book written by Lucien Biancou, a biologist. He wrote a book that was to praise the ‘master of cryptozoology’. However even Heuvelman wrote later that Ivan T. Sanderson a student was using the word Cryptozoology in writings back in 1947 and 1948.
Benard Heuvelman was given much credit however for also writing the book in 1955 titled ‘On the Track of Unknown Animals’. The book written in French which is Benard native language. It was later written in english and other languages and soon became an international bestseller and has sold over one million copies and is in print through 1995.
Cryptozoology is the study of animals that are believed to exist but has yet to be proven. There have been many new species that are still yet discovered in recent years. In Feburary of 2009 scientists announced the discovery of 10 amphibians in Colombia’s mountains near Panama.
Many scientists refuse to accept the belief that the ‘hidden animals like Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster exist because the lack of evidence supporting them. However many Cryptozoologist’s still hang on to the belief that evidence will someday become available to give credibility to the science of Crpozoology.
The focus and goal of Crptozoology is to study unknown animal species that are also called ‘cryptids’.
Cryptozoology has no interest in unreal creatures. Instead it is the study of living creatures that might exist now or have existed once but are not yet known formally.
There is division among noted Cryptozoologists, some only want to study ‘cryptids’ that are likely to be unknown species while others try to have a broader definition. However, for the most part, Crypozoologists are mostly interested in creatures that look different from other known species.
Cryptozoology however by some standards was the way orignal animals were discovered.
Expeditions would be led to often unknown and new areas where they would document or capture and bring back to have them classified by a zoo or academia. But often their work would be dismissed or not recognized by anthropologists or zoologists and they would classify their work as pseudo-science due to the lack of documentation on their claims. For many, ‘the search for unknown animals’ was pure folly.
The study of “Hidden Animals’ carrys on. Much of our globe has many areas that have yet to be explored, but until the Crptozoologists make a more definite factual discover, the legend of the Big Foot and Loch Ness Monster will remain under scrutiny by most scientists. Will the big discovery every come true. Hard to say but the imagination and the dreamer of many hope so.