Nephilim and Neanderthals

While browsing through my favorite blogs the other day, I came across a post over at The Gralien Report about none other then the Nephilim (who I also posted about just recently). Micah (the mind behind The Gralien Report) draws on some inspiration from a post by his friend Nick Redfern and the novel The Descent by Jeff Long and ponders over the possibility of the Nephilim being a species of proto-human. Basically an unknown or primitive species of human.

While reading his post a memory was sparked something I read in the book The Eaters of the Dead (also known as The 13th Warrior) by Michael Crichton. In A Factual Not on Eaters of the Dead (an essay written in 1992 that follows the story) Michael talks about how the story itself came to be, and about the various fictional and nonfictional aspects put into the story.

Now the most interesting part mentioned in his essay, is a segment where he mentions the Wendol (the villains of the story) are a relict group of Neanderthals that survived until the Vikings in the story wiped them out a thousand years ago. He also mentions, that in the decades since he originally wrote Eaters of the Dead (first published in the mid 1970s) some studies done had suggested that perhaps such relict groups Neanderthals may indeed have existed in remote locations. Could such groups of Neanderthals have been the Nephilim?

Not only could they count as being “proto-humans” (albeit not as tall) as Micah puts it, but this very possibility was also gone over in an episode of The Naked Archaeologist called “The Giants of Genesis”. Simcha Jacobovici, the shows host, concludes that the Nephilim are not giants as so many people believe, but perhaps a form of man believed to have been “soulless” (proposed to be Neanderthals in the episode) by the writer of Genesis, and goes to a cave system that shows that perhaps modern humans and Neanderthals lived together. Later in the episode some even more shocking evidence is presented, hinting at the possibility that humans and Neanderthals even mated and gave rise to what may have become the Nephilim in Genesis.

A Thought on Reptoids

Using my mighty cognitive abilities I was able to deduce something today while watching some random bit of reptoid/dinosauroid (in case you forgot who they are here's a link to a previous post) info on youtube.

One of the many origin ideas toted around about the rumored race of reptilian overlords, is that they evolved from dinosaurs. A theory that was given more credence by the fact that a paleontologist actually thought that perhaps a certain species of dinosaur known as Troodon, would have evolved into a humanoid form if it had survived extinction.

Troodon you see was a member of the Maniraptora clade of dinosaurs, which were birdlike and even possesed feathers. Actually I believe birds are classfied as Maniraptora as well, however that may be wrong since I found that bit on wikipedia.

Anyways as I said, my cognitive powers gave me a bit of insight into the whole reptoid dinosaur origin idea; reptoids did not evolve from dinosaurs. Have you ever heard of a reptoid with feathers? I haven't. I've heard of them having wings, but dragon like ones as opposed to feathery bird like ones. Anyways lack of reptoid feathers means they're probably not dinosaurs.

Doing a Google search for reptoids with feathers I only come up with references to Quetzalcoatl who was some sort of Aztec God (As far as mythical Gods go, Odin is so much better. Sorry...a bit of Scandinavian/Germanic ancestry expressing itself...) serpent thing with feathers that apparently created man.

Now being the kind loving guy that I am, I figure I'll give the Earthly origins of reptoids another possibility. Maybe they are a type of evolved Maniraptora that somewhere along their evolutionary life lost their feathers, like humans got rid of their fur except that which is on our heads. Or perhaps they came from some even more primitive reptilian being from before the dinosaurs. After all many creatures before the dinosaurs were mammal like reptiles who were just as amazing as the dinosaurs and even modern day lifeforms.

Eh...who knows...although here's a video to make you all paranoid of the hidden reptilian presence...

The Tyrant Lizard King of the Dinosaurs Lives?

Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) , the Tyrant Lizard King has long been thought of as the most terrifying dinosaur to ever roam the planet. Bipedal, 13ft tall (at the hips), 42ft in length, possessing a mouth full of teeth as long as 12 inches, and built like a classic theropod, it's no wonder his discoverers thought him a king.

T. rex Skull

T. rex's reputation has wavered little even with the discovery of fellow theropods larger then the King, such as Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus, although the latter's size is still up for debate. Even with larger rivals old Rexy is still regarded as the King of the dinosaurs amongst many, and it's a reputation well played out in movies such as Jurassic Park.

Oddly despite being seemingly designed for to be a dinosaur hunting machine, some paleontologists believe T. rex may have been nothing more then a scavenger, much like todays vultures, only on the ground with big...really big...um...teeth...Ok let's admit it, there is no way he was just strictly a scavenger. Odds are that like most predatory animals T. rex was an opportunistic hunter. That means that pretty much he would hunt for food, but if he found a fresh corpse or a weaker predators kill (even fellow Rexes probably) he wouldn't pass up the opportunity for an easy meal.

Now Tyrannosaurus had other family members running around the world before and during his reign. These family members have been given the convenient name of Tyrannosauridae and they ranged over both North America and Asia. However in the last century an interesting report came out of Africa. It seems that in 1932 a man named John Johnson had a strange encounter in the Kasai Valley of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo while hunting.

Mr. Johnson claimed that as he was about to shoot a rhinoceros when a 42ft long reptile burst out of the trees and killed John Johnson's would be trophy. His servant ran for his life while Mr. Johnson promptly fainted (If you believe that T. rex's vision is based on movement like in Jurassic Park, it might work. However that bit of the movie was fictional...sorry to disappoint) only to come to later and see the creature chowing down on the rhino. John described the beast as looking like a Tyrannosaurus, as you probably already knew by now, which has since been labeled Kasai rex.

The problem however is this; Tyrannosaurs (or Tyrannosauridae) did not roam Africa, or at least there is no fossil evidence that they did. Adding to this is the fact that there is absolutely no evidence of the creatures existence other then this account and a newspaper article describing a virtually similar incident without a name for the witness. There are also apparently two photos of said beast floating around out there, however one shows nothing more then a picture of a monitor lizard pasted onto a jungle scene and the other that supposedly shows a T. rex eating a rhino doesn't seem to exist other then in a fake and copyrighted form.

The one in the second photo looks much like this one from an old movie.
It's posture is incorrect though. In fact T. rex stood much like the one in Jurassic Park.

If you don't want to dismiss Kasai rex as nothing more then some hunters telling tall tales, you can assume that perhaps it was indeed an African dwelling theropod not related to Tyrannosaurus, such as Cacharodontosaurus who was native at least to North Africa, and as large, if not larger then the King. Like all rumored surviving dinosaurs (excluding birds of course) it is doubtful that it exists at all, but as many like to say Africa would be one of the best places for one to survive if one did.

Sources and Further Reading:
Kasai Rex - Wikipedia
Kasai Rex - Some geocities site about why it's a hoax
Kasai Rex - True Authority (seems them creationists try and tote it around as evidence that they are right.)
Tyrannosaurus - Wikipedia

U-28 meets SuperCroc?

You know the routine where the lazy fisherman throws a large fire cracker or other explosive in the water causing all the fish within the explosion range to float to the surface? Well apparently it works in the ocean too. As a matter of fact it happened to German U-boat 28 (U-28) during WWI, and boy did something strange come to the surface.

The incident occurred to U-28 just after it had sunk a British steamer. Shortly after the steamer sunk beneath the surface it exploded sending nearby sea life flying into the air, including a large aquatic reptilian like creature. It as described as resembling a 60ft crocodile with 4 webbed feet.

Unfortunately for us, the U-boat's crew was unable to obtain photos of the monster crocodile, but at least they thought well enough to record it in the ship's log. Amazingly, they reported the incident as if it was just an everyday event as opposed to being astonished and raving on and on about. That not only makes the Germans seem good at training their Captains in log taking, but also lends a bit of support to their encounter.

As for the strange crocodile like beast? Well the only thing in the world that even resembles such a creature is the Mosasaurs or Pliosaurs of the Mesozoic era. These large aquatic reptiles closely resembled modern crocodiles, but were not related other the whole reptile bit.

The closest in length to the U-28 creature out of those two groups are the Mosasaurs. The largest of which was Hainosaurus which estimated to be 49ft long. Seeing as paleontology has and ever growing array of creatures being found though, I think it's worth mentioning the largest crocodillian ever found, Sarcosuchus.

Dubbed “SuperCroc” this guy would have been the same length as a bus. Thats means right around 37-40ft long. Seeing as the U-28 beast was described as crocodile like with webbed feet as opposed to flippers, maybe SuperCroc or a relative lives on today, or perhaps the U-28 witnessed the last fragment of a bygone era leave our world.

Sources and Further Reading:
U-28 Abomination - American Monsters
U-28 Creature - Unknown Explorers
Mosasaur - Wikipedia
Pliosaur - Wikipedia
Sarcosuchus - Wikipedia
Hainosaurus - Wikipedia

The Megalodon!

Here is one for my prehistory loving fans.

Carcharodon Megalodon, was the largest shark ever to exist. In fact the Megalodon probably could have swallowed a great white shark, plus some, whole, that's how large it was. While the overall size of this bad boy is still highly debated, it's estimated that it was at least 43ft long, or possibly even 60ft. One person, who mistakenly placed the wrong teeth into some spots on a jaw reconstruction, estimated 80ft, however, as I said he made a mistake. Turns out the shark was 150ft, and he wasn't to happy about the 80ft estimate, so he promptly traveled forward in time to eat the guy who made the mistake...ok...now I'm just totally making stuff up. Like I said, the real estimate lies between about 43ft to 60ft, depending on who you go with.

Now like all big groovy critters that once existed on this planet, the Megalodon went extinct, or at least it supposedly did some 1.5 million years ago. Now that's a long time, but considering that the Coelocanth supposedly died out some 65 million years ago, only to be discovered lounging along the coast of South Africa in 1938 while he was on vacation. Needless to say, a species that was supposed to be dead around 65 million years ago surviving into today is quite remarkable. Now look at the 1.5 million year estimate for the Megalodon and compare that to 65 million. That's about 63.5 million years difference, so I say the odds of Megalodon still existing today are actually quite good, or at least compared to say a dinosaur living today.

Let's see now, where would we find a Megalodon...oh perhaps Australia. Great waves, groovy accents, and the most venomous creatures in the world; yeah I'd be chilling there if I was a prehistoric shark. While there I'd also make sure to be spotted by the odd fisherman or two just to strike some fear into them. Oh heck, how about a bunch of fisherman like that incident in 1918 at Broughton Island. There a bunch of fishermen refused to go to sea for several days all because they saw a gigantic white colored shark. Now some of them were rather prone to exaggeration, so initial estimates of the length were 300ft, however some people not as prone to exaggeration gave the more reasonable length of 115ft or so. Maybe the 80ft estimate guy was correct...or it's a completely different monster shark. Either way, fishermen are used to seeing large sea creatures, so odds are whatever they saw was something big they've not seen before.

Now the story of a bunch of scared stiff fishermen probably isn't the best evidence out there, but well...um...it's some of the best evidence supporting the Megalodon's possible survival. If you wanted to look at it in more scientific terms you could go with the fact that the larger a predator is, the less of them there are. Also we know that large creatures like the Giant Squid, Colossal Squid, and Cthulhu, ok maybe not Cthulhu, exist in the ocean's depths and are so rarely seen that we thought they were just legend for a long time. So I guess what I'm saying is...there's a chance...a slim one, but a good one and that is what counts in the end.


Sources and Further Reading:
Megalodon - Wikipedia
Does Megalodon Still Live? - Elasmo-research
Does Carcharodon Megalodon Still Exist?
Could Megalodon Still Exist?

Note: The shark in the picture is a Great White and not a Megalodon...as far as I know, no real Megalodon photos exist, unless someone is hiding one out there...