Cryptomundo List of 2008 Lists
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 5th, 2009
Won’t you agree it is time to finally put 2008 to bed?
The following is a summary of all the top Cryptomundo, cryptozoology and related lists for 2008. Additionally, here are some of the links to other lists that also picked that unfortunate Georgia Bigfoot Hoax story and/or the Montauk Monster as one of their highest ranking (all puns intended) news items of the year.
Enjoy.
The 2008 lists from Cryptomundo are:
Cryptozoologist of 2008: Dr. Andrea Marshall
The Top 10 Cryptozoology Stories of 2008
Top 15 Georgia Bigfoot Quotations of 2008
Ten Notable 2008 Cryptozoology Deaths
Top Ten Cryptozoology Books of 2008
Cryptozoologically speaking, one of the year’s best lists is from Wired by Brandon Keim and is entitled “Top 10 New Organisms of 2008.” Some of these were mentioned on Cryptomundo throughout the year, and Wired’s list serves as a good review.
The top ten on the Wired list are #1, olive-backed forest robin – pictured above – (Stiphrornis pyrrholaeumus) of Gabon; #2, world’s smallest snake (Leptotyphlops carlae) of Barbados; #3, ancient form of ant (Martialis heureka) from the Amazon; #4, elephant shrew (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis) of Tanzania; #5, tetradonematid nematode (Myrmeconema neotropicum) from South America; #6, greater dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys melanurus) of the Philippines; #7, ribbed giant clam (Tridacna costata) of Red Sea; #8, catfish (Rhinodoras gallagheri) of Venezuela; #9, penguin (Megadyptes waitaha) formerly in New Zealand; and #10, bacteria Chryseobacterium greenlandensis from Greenland.
“Top 10 Oddball News Stories” by Time has as #9 “Bigfoot Lives! No, Really!” regarding the Georgia hoax events. Time reminds us of yet another infamous quote, an unfulfilled promise from Matt Whitton, who was speaking of the reality of his Bigfoot claim at the August 15th news conference: “Everyone who has talked down to us is going to eat their words.”
Yeah, right.
How big was the Bigfoot hoax story? Even mainstream media acknowledged it was big.
The “Top Ten Science Stories of 2008” by Discovery’s Science Channel includes at #10, the “Bigfoot Hoax.”
Due to the Bigfoot hoax, the search engines all over the Internet reflected the popularity of this news.
Yahoo’s “Top Paranormal Searches of 2008” lists these as the probes of interest, #2 Bigfoot, #3 Dragons, #4 Chupacabras, #6 Mermaids, and # 9 Loch Ness Monster.
The Yahoo blog by Jay Schwartz mentions:
The elaborate Bigfoot hoax kept the Internet buzzing for days. The annual “discovery” of an alleged Chupacabra[s] in Texas also provided the online world with a doozy of a diversion….These two hoaxes were cherries on the proverbial sundae of paranormal enthusiasm. People gravitating to old classics like…the Loch Ness Monster…kept cryptozoologists busy updating their websites….One last popular search term may prove that ultimately, the real monsters of the world are as impressive as those we can imagine. Megalodon was a prehistoric shark approximately 40 to 60 feet long….As the remote corners of the earth vanish, and the few remaining natural secrets of the world are unveiled, the imagination will probably continue to run wild with new mystery beasts (we didn’t forget about you, Montauk Monster!) Heck, even our president-elect has a fondness for terrifying fictional creatures*.
(*This refers to President-elect Barack Obama, the son of an anthropologist, saying in interviews that his favorite all-time American novel is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.)
Not to be outdone, Google reveals that the No. 1 term for “what Metro Atlantans google” in 2008 was “Bigfoot.” AOL says their #7 searched word was “Bigfoot.”
Coming in #2 on Gawker’s “Top Ten Posts of 2008” is “Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk.”
At #7 on Time Magazine’s “Top Ten Animal Stories” is the “World’s longest insect” about the discovery of Phobaeticus chani, a new species of stick-insect found in Borneo — nicknamed “Chan’s megastick,” after the Malaysian amateur naturalist who discovered it.
The Omaha Science Examiner listed their “Top 10 Science Stories of 2008” with #5, “A New Band of Lowland Gorillas,” telling of the western lowland gorillas discovered in the rainforests of the Republic of Congo.
National Geographic News has their “Top Ten Animal Finds: Most Read of 2008,” about colossal squid (three of their ten), pygmy tarsiers, Sumatran muntjac, Magnapinna squid, and vampire moths, among a few others.
Every good cryptid needs a likely ancestor, and new discoveries keep coming in: “Top Ten Dinosaur and Fossil Find News Stories of 2008” by Everything Dinosaur.
One of Charles Berlin’s personal contributions here during the last year. The creator of Professor Wexler World Explorer is one of several outstanding cartoonists who graced the pages of Cryptomundo in 2008.
In the realm of popular culture, the next list picks The Dark Knight as the clear winner with the best movie posters of 2008. In a similar vein, the Max Payne poster is acknowledged, and with its shadowy winged creature in the background (above) – almost Mothman like – it is worthy of noting here. Cloverfield – said to be even more cryptid-friendly by some – is one of the list’s picks too. See “The Best Movie Posters of 2008” by Get The Big Picture.
I won’t bore you with all the top film lists that had The Dark Knight as one of 2008’s ten best motion pictures (I agree with that finding). It may be sychronmystic and Fortean, but it’s hardly cryptozoological. Still, I think it tells us something about where movies will be heading in the coming years. There, however, do not appear to have been any movies that had good cryptids in them, which made any of the top film lists for 2008.
To complete this compilation, only because I authored it (not because it is filled with cryptids) is my Copycat Effect blog’s much-praised and popular “Top Ten Evil Clown Stories of 2008.”
Special credit is to be given to Rex Sorgatz at Fimoculous, whose “The List of Lists: 2008” made my life in compiling the above collection a little easier.
I see also, late in my blogging on this list of lists, that Australian Greg Taylor at The Daily Grail has done a Fortean summary of lists, via his “2008 News Roundups.” The rare notation on the Bigfoot hoax, the Montauk Monster and/or another cryptid are on a couple of those more Fortean or weird lists.
I look forward to seeing what happens during the next 12 months and what will make 2009’s end of the year lists.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Wow.
Talk about a hill to climb.
Here’s Discovery calling the Bigfoot hoax a “science story.” Then there’s Yahoo! calling the sasquatch “paranormal.” (Then calling the hoax “elaborate.” There are Bigfoot videos more elaborate on Youtube.)
[sigh]
Hope ’09 is happier, cryptozoologically.