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BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Scientists are marveling at a fossil find in California's San Joaquin Valley that has produced the remains of a never-before-seen badger-like creature and a monstrous predator that looks like a cross between a bear and a pit bull. Among the discoveries was the skull of an animal that appears to be an entirely new genus within the same family as otters, skunks and weasels. "It just blew me out of my mind," Xiaoming Wang, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, said after seeing the fossil of the badger-like...

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are certain about one thing, even though they do not acknowledge that Bigfoot is real: It is just as unethical to kill a Sasquatch as it would be any other animal. In a report posted by the CBS Houston on Jan. 30, the animal rights activists reacted to the idea much as expected, because to members of their organization, shooting and killing a living creature, whether it be for food or sport, is an atrocity. PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt told The Houston Chronicle: “As an organization we do oppose hunting of...

(Reuters) - A tiny fish characterized by a disproportionately large head and previously unknown to scientists has been found in mountain rivers of Idaho and Montana in what biologists said on Thursday marked a rare discovery. The new aquatic species is a type of freshwater sculpin, a class of fish that dwell at the bottom of cold, swiftly flowing streams throughout North America and are known for their oversized head and shoulder structure. "The discovery of a new fish is something I never thought would happen in my career because it's very rare in the United States," said Michael Young,...

NESSIE, the Loch Ness monster, is in fact an elephant, according to a Scottish palaeontologist who claims to have solved the riddle surrounding the unexplained sightings of a monster in a lake near Glasgow in Scotland. Neil Clark, curator of palaeontology at Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum, who has spent two years investigating the myth, said that the idea for Nessie was dreamt up as a "magnificent piece of marketing" by a circus impresario after he saw one of his elephants bathing in the loch. In 1933, the same year as the first modern "sighting" of Nessie, Bertram Mills offered £20,000...

Self-proclaimed professional Bigfoot hunter, Rick Dyer, has finally released the photos of the hairy monster he allegedly shot and killed last year. "Bigfoot is 100 percent real – there's no question about that," Dyer told KSAT.com. Dyer says he shot and killed the mythical monster in a wooded area of California near Loop 1604 and Highway 151 in September 2012.

Nigel Hussey, a researcher who works with the Ocean Tracking Network, says the fish some speculated was a goblin shark is actually the mysterious "long-nosed chimaera" — mysterious because they're rarely caught.

One of the rarest and most threatened mammals on earth has been caught on camera in Vietnam for the first time in 15 years, renewing hope for the recovery of the species, an international conservation group said Wednesday. The Saola, a long-horned ox, was photographed by a camera in a forest in central Vietnam in September, the WWF said in a statement Wednesday. "This is a breathtaking discovery and renews hope for the recovery of the species," Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF - Vietnam's country director, was quoted as saying.

When new species are found near populated areas, they are often small and inconspicuous, not, for example, a hammerhead shark. But that's exactly what a team of researchers discovered along the coast of South Carolina. The new species looks virtually identical to the scalloped hammerhead, but is genetically distinct, and contains about 10 fewer vertebrae, or segments of backbone, new research shows.

A wild cat thought to be virtually extinct has been captured on film in the wild, a Malaysian scientist said Thursday. "We have discovered a species thought extinct in Borneo," Mohd Azlan told Reuters by telephone from East Malaysia, where he led a research project for University Malaysia Sarawak and the state forest department. A Borneo bay cat (Catopuma badia), about the size of a large domestic cat though with an extra long tail, triggered a remote camera in daylight on June 27, yielding a lone image from what was a two-month monitoring period. Azlan, who previously tracked tigers in...

The mysterious bay cat, also known as the Bornean cat, is a wild cat endemic to the Indonesian island of Borneo. Adults grow as long as 50-60 cm with a 30 – 40 cm long tail, and can weigh over 3.5 kg. Until now, this species had been recorded on camera traps just a handful of times in Borneo and was only photographed in the wild for the first time in 2003. But more images of this animal have been captured than ever before, together with evidence of four other wild cat species – the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi),...

ROGERS COUNTY, Oklahoma - Rogers County Sheriff's Department arrested three people in what appears to be an accidental shooting. One of the men told deputies he'd shot his friend while the two were on a Sasquatch hunting expedition. The two men were hunting - apparently for Bigfoot - around 177th East Avenue and Tiger Switch Road Saturday night. Omar Pineda reportedly heard a "barking noise," jerked and shot his friend in the back, authorities say. "When you start off with an explanation like that, do you believe anything after that?" Sheriff Walton said Sunday morning. The men met emergency responders...

There is a five-story, blood-red waterfall pouring slowly from the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley. Its back story, at Atlas Obscura, is simply remarkable: Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity...

Tracey Payntar says she spotted a huge snake in the lake next to her Suffolk house as it was attacking a river otter. The mother of four says she had just gotten out of her car and the disturbance in the water got her attention. "I ran to the shoreline freaking out and tried to take some video with my phone. I was so scared I could not concentrate very well," said Payntar. Payntar and her husband contacted Suffolk Animal Control who referred a snake expert from a company called Zoo Pro. Based on her description, the professional wildlife workers...

Sasquatch cited in mine hearings Most people consider the sasquatch a legendary creature, but the mythical bush man of northern B.C. received its fair share of attention at environmental review hearings into the proposed New Prosperity gold and copper mine. While most of the attention focused on more tangible creatures like trout, salmon and grizzly bears, members of First Nations community have repeatedly brought up the sasquatch during community hearings over the past three weeks. In most cases, the aboriginal speakers talked about the ape-like man in the context of legend, but others treated sasquatches as something the Canadian Environmental...

Federal agents confiscated and destroyed a plant-pathogenic fungus found on brooms made from palms and being imported from the Philippines. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists on Aug. 9 intercepted a plant-pathogenic fungus on a handicraft made of native palm parts while examining a cargo container from the Philippines. The fungus was discovered in a shipment of “native brooms” made from Cocos nucifera sp., a palm species. The discovery of an unidentified fungus and two other plant disease symptoms in the shipment prompted federal authorities to reload and seal the container until positive identification could be made. This was...

A new species of velvet worm has been discovered in the jungles of Vietnam. Unlike related velvet worms, however, this one has uniquely shaped hairs that cover its body, and it reaches a length of 2.5 inches long, said Ivo de Sena Oliveira, a researcher at the University of Leipzig, Germany, who described the species in Zoologischer Anzeiger. The paper suggests that thousands of unknown species of velvet worms are just waiting to be found throughout the world's tropical rain forests. Oliveira's research suggests that in the Amazon rain forest alone, there may be a new species of velvet worm...

Big cat roaming Detroit streets shot dead, thrown in garbage, group says   (link only)

Stray dogs are a common sight in Detroit. What about a big cat? According to reports, many residents on the city’s northeast side have seen what appears to be an exotic cat, perhaps as tall as four feet, roaming the streets. Officials with the Michigan Humane Society said they have received several calls about the animal and workers are out in the city, trying to find the feline. Antwaun Asberry, a 6-foot-5 Detroiter, told the Detroit Free Press the cat’s tail is longer than his arm. “I was like, what the (expletive) … I don’t know what it is. I...

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – There has been a strange sighting of a strange creature in a suburban New Jersey town – and pictures of it have residents asking “What the heck is that?” CBS 2’s John Slattery was working the day watch out of Manhattan, when his boss gave him this juicy assignment. He took a vehicle out of Midtown. The sighting happened on Friday. He and his cameraman headed for the leafy community of Ridgewood, which was apparently being terrorized by an odd creature that lurks in and out of storm drains. Slattery obtained video of the creature from...

Something was caught on tape in Mission, British Columbia, not far from Vancouver. The video appears to show a hominid in the distance, although not many details can be seen. [video embed]