Cryptoinformant, care to inform us further?

I laugh at your disillusionment, but still hope you GET WELL SOON.

I was watching a show on Loch Ness, when a small, living thing darted across the screen of an underwater rope-cam, and it was definitely a crustacean with a tail… and claws. It appeared to be a eurypterid.

Look and you will find.

Anyone remember the German tourist who took the best ever photo of a (post-extinction) thylacine about a year and a half ago?

Showed it to the experts in Tasmania who verified it as a thylacine, but noted that they couldn’t verify the authenticity of the digital image.

He disappeared and speculation was rife that he was probably negotiating a deal with the media.

Since then, zip. Nix. Nadda.

And jjames2 (19) - you’re quite right; the story did change from one about a group of people caring for these critters for 11 years to an ex-militia who has since skipped the country in anticipation of harassment.

The trick with a good con is to keep your mouth shut. Suggest, but don’t claim. Let your audience’s imagination take them where it will. But as time goes on and more of the story comes out, there is more scope for discrepancies like the one you highlight, and with that, doubts.

To all those saying too much emotional investment (or capital) has gone into this, well as I wrote in previous comments - chill out! It’s only yourselves who are letting yourselves get hyped!

Lastly, and probably to the detriment of cryptozoology, back to my issue of letting the audience lead itself; if you’re going to hoax a photo, make sure it’s just one, not more. Remember the recent sasquatch video which was online? As soon as the second piece of footage came out you were able to compare one with another and see the fraud.

Back to the alleged thylacine photo by the German tourist - a single photo - much better for business if it’s a hoax - nothing to show that your “critter” can’t in fact move in the way that two photos would imply. Oh, and of if the thing’s for real, get as many da**** photos as you can!!!

Quite frankly, I’m also still somewhat confused as to who actually has the photos. Originally, it was a “group” of people who had allegedly been protecting the Mawas for years. Then, the story became that a former guerilla had the photos in his possession, but had left the country.

Given that there is a lot of hype, in addition to government involvement with the discovery of the Mawas, isn’t it just possible that Vincent Chow’s photographs are just undergoing the proper hoops and loops before being published? Most papers and footage/photos for a new discovery, like that of our cryptozoological ocean friend the Giant Squid, take well over a year to be prepared - the footage the Japanese crew was taken in 2004, and yet they didn’t produce their evidence of a living Giant Squid until well into 2005.

The only difference between this and the discovery of the Mawas, I see, is that the press got ahold of the story and have gone wild with the hype, while (I personally feel, anyway) the photos are still undergroing proper preperation for such an announcement.

In the meantime, we do have the drawings - and if those are based on real photos and accounts as they claim, we’ll be in for the thrill of a scientific lifetime when the real deal is shown to us.