My mother claims that their is an antelope with gills in the jungles of Peru, any substance to this claim?
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Hi, this question has been addressed before. I'll leave you the link to the original answer. \nBut, to sum up, No, there is no such animal.\n\nYou're referring to the Saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis). This bovid (related to antelopes, cows and goats) inhabits forest areas in Vietnam, not in South America.\nIt has extremely well developed maxillary-preorbital glands (in front of the eye), and the external part of the gland is covered by a muscular flap which can be raised like an awning to expose the gland. \nThis flap of skin has been misinterpreted in the common media, so that the saola is sometimes referred to as an antelope with "gills".
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http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/Live_site/curriculum/lm19/activity2.dwt\n\nhttp://45.1911encyclopedia.org/G/GE/GERMAN_EAST_AFRICA.htm\n\nthe subalpine world of tropical east africa\nText and photographs by Gary C. Williams, South African Museum\nSagittarius Volume 3, number 2  1988\n\nIn the equatorial highlands of East Africa's towering volcanoes and rugged rift ranges is a zone of subalpine vegetation known to ecologists and plant geographers as the elfinwood. A naturalist entering the elfinwood for the first time is intrigued by this fairyland-like setting; the dwarfed and contorted growth of trees, dangling moisture-laden mosses and lichens, grotesquely gigantic herbs, lush green ground-cover mixed with brilliant blossoms, and general lack of sounds (except for those of the pervasive winds). These combine to produce an almost surrealistic impression. Elfinwoods are unique not only in their general appearance, but also in their remoteness. They are tucked away on the isolated slopes and ridges of certain high mountains in the world's tropical zone, are thus very restricted in range and are encountered nowhere else on earth. Indeed, elfin forests are rare areas of the world's rapidly shrinking natural environment.\n\nThe elfinwood forest is so named because of its low stature and often dwarfed or contorted appearance of its trees when compared to the lofty and majestic high-canopy rain forests of lower elevations. Similar vegetation belts occur in the northern Andean highlands of South America and on isolated Austronesian peaks of Borneo, Java and New Guinea. The elfinwood forms a characteristic but highly localized plant community in the subalpine zone of these widely distributed equatorial mountains.\n\nSince the unique elfinwood ecosystem is not found in North America or Europe, most temperate-zone travellers who first encounter this equatorial subalpine world, marvel at its exotic and strange aspects which are so foreign in appearance to the unaccustomed observer.\n\ndwarfs and giants in the elfinwood\nThe elfinwood is also known to biologists by a host of other names: equatorial elfin forest, ericoid scrub forest, alpinoid forest, moss forest, upland forest, subalpine pygmy forest, and afromontane cloud forest are among the elaborate names applied to this vegetation zone.\n\nActually, 'elfinwood' is a somewhat misleading term. Although many plants of the upper limits of this zone do indeed owe their dwarfed and tortuous aspects to the inhibiting effects of high altitude terrain such as rugged and steep topography, poor rocky soils, and high winds, several species in some areas of the elfinwood are not dwarfed trees at all, but rather have evolved as gigantic tree-like forms from small, herbaceous (non-woody, perennial plants) or shrubby ancestors. When compared to the straight and tall upper canopy trees of the lowland rain forest, however, these giant 'woody herbs' and shrubs sometimes appear as dwarfed trees. The availability of the arboreal niche (or tree form of growth) in protected, isolated, high-altitude locations and the consistently cool, wet, uniform climate have presumably allowed for this evolutionary trend in a number of elfinwood plants.\n\nThis form of gigantism is known as 'insular woodiness' and usually applies to evolution on oceanic islands but can equally apply to high mountains in equatorial regions. These highland areas can be thought of as temperate islands in a tropical sea. That is, the tropical lowlands act as effective barriers to isolate the temperate plants and animals of equatorial mountains just as the seas isolate the inhabitants of oceanic islands.\n\nThe elfinwood vegetational zones of such widely separated biogeographical regions as Africa, South America, and the East Indies are superficially quite similar in appearance and are known as 'convergent communities'. The growth habits of the various plants inhabiting these subalpine woodland
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The Tasaday made worldwide headlines in 1971 when the tiny group emerged from a rain forest in mountains of the Philippines, wearing leaves, carrying stone tools, professing no knowledge of agriculture, weapons, or words for war. The people told researchers they had thought the forest was the whole world and that they and their friends inside were the only people on earth.\n\n   A social scientist who was there said the Tasaday could provide insights into "an ancient way of life that has virtually disappeared from the planet"(1). Another anthropologist who visited later said that discovering the cave-dwelling Tasaday was "one of the most significant anthropological events of the 20th Century"(2).\n\n    Over the next three years, scholarly studies, journalistic reports, and documentary films supported another scientist's contention that the Tasaday's way of life formerly had been "as close to nature as any people known in modern times"(3). To protect the small group (only 26 people) a 45,000-acre preserve was declared by the government and uninvited outsiders were forbidden entry.\n\n   In 1986, however, the government changed and two journalists entered into the forest and came out declaring that the Tasaday story was a fraud. They claimed that the people were really farmers from tribes living outside the forest who had been persuaded to take off their clothes, pick up stone tools, and move into caves in the forest as an elaborate hoax (4). Two teams of TV reporters also went to the area and made similar claims (5). Some anthropologists supported those accusations and a major circulation magazine (6) later described the Tasaday as "one of the greatest hoaxes of all time."\n\n   Controversy boiled up and has simmered for years.\n\n   Now, three decades after the first contact, following new field research and debate, this web site offers scholarly data, journalistic reports, and photographs to answer clearly and convincingly that the Tasaday are authentic and the claim of a hoax was the real hoax.
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Yes subject to Nat. Sel. as u can still see on Sudan swamps, tallest community of humans an the world, or Peruvians living high on the Andes where they have extra coding capacity for Hemoglobin.\n\nThe conditions you describe were studied theoretically by Hardy and Weinberg, so these conditions are called "Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium" and you can search it on almost any college level ecology text.\n\nWhat happens to the gene pool on such conditions? with no nat. sel., all "expensive" genes, ones that take a lot of energy to work, disappear or reduce strongly their presence, and a proff is that Capsicum annum or chili as you call it, when taken to spain from Mexico, lost its cappacity to produce capscin, the spicy oil that gives chili its strenght and in nature is a defense versus herbivorous insects not present on spain. And so on.
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apparently they actually existed during history.  a hand and a tooth ahve been found in some hindu monastary i believe. they were hugh and dna tested.  no matches were found with any currently living and document creature.
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(m)\n\nToo often, scientists focus on what animals can't do. But one of my heroes, primatologist Jane Goodall, has always focused on what they can do, so I turned to her for a definitive list. \n\nShe, of course, first opened the door to the world of chimpanzees back in 1960 in Gombe, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. Before Goodall, researchers learned about animals by benignly observing subjects as if they were washing machines. She took a personal approach, even giving her chimpanzee subjects names like Freud, Fifi and Frodo. At the time, she was roundly rebuffed by her scientific colleagues, although the public connected with the chimps as individuals through her TV specials, articles and books. Today, her methods of observing animals in the wild are the norm. \n\nTo Goodall, these chimpanzees are friends. Chimps are, after all, our closest living relatives, sharing at least 98% of our genes. It was Goodall who learned chimps can get the same diseases we do, from the common cold to polio. She also discovered chimps use tools (sticks to "fish" for ants and termites to snack on) and even fashion crude weapons by hurling objects. \n\nGoodall focused on chimps but has studied lots of other animals, too, including African wild dogs and hyenas. With ex-husband Hugo van Lawick, she found that Egyptian vultures use tools (they drop just the right-sized stones on ostrich eggs to crack them open). \n\nBefore Goodall's discovery, tool use was considered the gold standard to define intelligence, something -- it was thought -- only humans could do. Goodall concedes that people have brainpower far exceeding other animals'. After all, chimps don't build rockets to go to Mars, and dogs don't organize into unions to deal with unfair treatment by people. Still, Goodall says: "We're arrogant if we believe we're the only animals with thoughtful intelligence and an ability to solve problems. Intelligence also includes feelings, doesn't it? I mean empathy for others and sadness, and also a sense of humor." \n\nSo, exclusively for USA WEEKEND Magazine, here's Jane Goodall's list of the five smartest animals on the planet. \n\n\n\n1. Great apes \nLanguage once was thought to be limited to people. "All the great apes [in captivity] -- which include chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees), gorillas and orangutans -- have learned American Sign Language," Goodall says. What's more, each kind of ape has taught ASL to others of their own kind. \n\n"Great apes can use computers," she says. "There's a chimpanzee in Japan who's hooked on her computer like kids are hooked on video games. She's learned to solve complex problems. For example, she can replicate a set of numbers on the computer after the screen goes dead. To watch her is amazing. Her mind is clearly working the same way as ours, but actually much, much faster. \n\n"Maybe chimps are a little too much like us; look at them, and we look into a mirror. The reflection isn't always flattering. They live in a society where power is rewarding for its own sake. They also have wars over territory." \n\n2. Whales and Dolphins \n\n \nIt was once assumed that only humans could communicate with others they can't see, but it turns out dolphins and whales (and elephants, too) have their own versions of telephone and e-mail. Whales and dolphins use high frequencies to communicate over long distances. In fact, they seem to have a need to "talk." Goodall says: "We're only starting to understand what it is they're saying to one another. I believe when we ultimately learn what they're talking about, it will be quite revealing." \n\n3. Elephants \n\n \nThey use very low frequencies to communicate over great distances. "Elephants establish long-term friendships and recognize these individuals years later," Goodall says. "We all know elephan
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How many of these "alien" creatures do we find in reputable scientific research - NONE!  Nothing in any museum, no evidence, no bones, blood, fur or feathers, no stuffed animals, genuine photographs, or anything anywhere that science can touch. The Bigfoot is simply a continuation of the Native American legend, they also provided no evidence. Loch Ness monster - no evidence, Yeti -  no evidence, Chupacabra , sorry superstitious Puerto Ricans, but no proof ! We have out there a ZOO full of alien animals - that no person can prove !
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Cryptozoology is pure bullplop. Period. It's no different from "studying" pixies or ghosts. Itls a psuedoscience endorsed only by crackpots.\n\nWe'd better define our terms first. From the Skeptic's Dictionary:\n\n    Cryptozoology is, literally, the study of hidden animals. It is the study of such creatures as the Australian bunyips, Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster. It is not a recognized branch of the science of zoology.\n\nYou can get a glimpse into this if you visit the website of Loren Coleman, a self-proclaimed cryptozoologist, giving advice on entering the field:\n\n    But I'm sorry to say that there are very few classes ever given in cryptozoology (I taught one in 1990) and no formal cryptozoology degree programs available anywhere. So my advice would be to pick whatever subject you are most passionate about (primates? felids? giant squids? fossil men?) and then match it up with the field of study that matches that subject (anthropology, zoology, linguistics, etc.). Pursue that subject, pick the college that is good in that arena, and you can develop your niche in cryptozoology and not go wrong. (I studied anthropology/zoology, and then moved on to more psychological graduate studies to understand the human factor.)\n\nThat pretty much sums it up. These folks do not get grants specifically to look for mythical beasts. The scientific grant review process is arduous and extremely critical, and any legitimate scientist would immediately reject searches for yetis, etc., as total nonsense. However, if you write a research proposal saying something like, "The Mgwango tribe of equatorial Africa believes that a large, brontosaurus-like beast called mokele-mbembe lives in their forest, and I wish to go to Africa to investigate this tribe," you might actually get a grant for it--not because the grantors believe you're going to discover a brontosaurus, but because you're promising to find out why the Mgwango tribe believes there's such a beast in their forest, which is an interesting bit of anthropology. If that qualifies as "goofy," then the entire anthropological profession would qualify, I suppose.\n\nIn other words, the anthropological side of this research is legitimate. But once someone starts calling themselves a cryptozoologist instead of an anthropologist, they've departed the realm of science. Don't get me wrong. Only a fraction of the world's species have been described in the scientific literature, and new critters are being discovered all the time, mostly tiny ones--bugs and worms and such. Finding more is a serious scientific project. But to go after legendary megafauna chiefly because they're legendary, without any real evidence that they exist--I'm sorry, this is the work of crackpots.
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Ayahuasca (aya-soul/dead, wasca-vine/rope) or Yage (ya-hey) are native Amazonian names for the jungle vine Banisteriopsis Caapi, and the medicinal tea prepared from it. \n\nThe Banisteriopsis vine is a Malpighiaceous jungle liana found in the tropical regions of Peru, Bolivia, Panama, Brazil, the Orinoco of Venezuela and the Pacific Coast of Colombia/Ecuador. The vine constitutes the common base ingredient of the Ayahuasca tea which is used widely used throughout indigenous Amazonia to enable access to the visionary or mythological world that provides revelation, healing, and ontological security (Dobkin De rios 1972, Grof 1994, Andritsky 1984).
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I saw that picture. She had the babies inside her. I can't remember if it was an ichthyosaur or a mesosaur
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An anthropod is the creature you are talking about.
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Closest you will get to a proper name is Cryptozoology.\n\nBut this also covers modern myths like Nessie, Bigfoot, Chupacabra etc
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It's rumored that it may have been an elephant!  Circus's traveled that area a lot in those days and stoped at the Loch to let the animals rest and swim!   If you really look at it, it does VERY closely resemble an elephants trunk, head, ears and back...
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Well, there are reports of animals leaving the area before some kind of disaster strikes, and of dogs who can detect when there owners are sick.\n\nThrough the centuries, shamans have sought the guidance of animal spirits, to become more in tuned with the world, to heal the sick, and to make wise decisions for the tribe or clan.\n\nDo I believe any of it? Well, lets just say, that if I ever see a bunch of animals vacating an area, I'm going to vamoose myself.
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Ever seen a dolphin with gills ?
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Its a Red-Headed Agama native of Africahttp://exoticpets.about.com/library/photogallery/blph_rept25.htm
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The Amazon! In South America. Plenty of animals and plants. Oh, and natives! :-)