Academic Cryptozoology

What even is cryptozoology? This question has been a central debate since the establishment of the subject as a distinct line of inquiry in the 1950s or so - no consensus has emerged to date and most answers offered have been unsatisfactory. This state of disorder leads some to consider cryptozoology a pseudoscience, far removed from its original intentions. I, personally, have found it most conducive to treat cryptozoology not as a distinct discipline, nor a methodological extension of another discipline, but as data embedded in discourse, to be observed and analyzed by researchers from other disciplines. Cryptozoological subjects are boundary objects, able to move through the sciences with ease. By eschewing the notion of a cryptozoological discipline, issues with methodology, definition and differentiation are alleviated, while the subject’s merit and value are preserved without restriction. Several researchers have shared a similar sentiment in recent years, and my ...

This post compiles and presents several contemporary reviews of Bernard Heuvelmans’ first two English-language cryptozoological books, On the Track of Unknown Animals and In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents , mostly because I've never seen them utilized anywhere else before. Surveying contemporary reviews contextualizes not only Heuvelmans' claims, but the standing of cryptozoology in the later 20th century. I'll update this if I come across any more substantive reviews, and will do a separate post for French-language reviews down the line. On the Track of Unknown Animals Reviews used: Maurice Burton (1958) in The Illustrated London News - thanks to Tyler Greenfield for sharing this one Raymond Holden (1959) in The New York Times David Johnson (1959) in Science George Gaylord Simpson (1959) in Natural History - thanks to Rich for sharing this one Carlos Isaac Reed (1959) in American Scientist Robert Hayman (1960) in Nature I’ve located, with some aid, six reviews of On the ...

This post is one attempt of many to compile a beginner's reading list for cryptozoology. The cryptozoological literature to date suffers from many a problem - some of it's outdated, some of it's fanciful, a lot is outright pseudoscience. There's also, broadly, a lack of good introductory cryptozoological books, no great encyclopedias, and not a single "textbook" style review of the topic. It's easy to see how people remain so far out of the cryptozoological loop, so to speak. What I've done here is compile five books which helped expand my horizons and further my understanding of cryptozoology as a subject - I deem them "essential" because they contain many, many significant perspectives for new enthusiasts. These are all very engaging reads, also quite dense with immense bibliographies for further research. The academic nature of some of these books may be quite daunting initially, especially if you're unfamiliar with scholarly humanitie...

To date, there is no in-depth review of the history of cryptozoology. The basic facts, dates, and names have been repeated ad nauseam (even despite some of them being incorrect), but little attention has been paid to the context of cryptozoology's proposition and the intentions of its "father", Bernard Heuvelmans. Bernard lived an incredibly storied life, leading him to take inspiration from an underappreciated diversity of sources, people, and events, all of which shine through in his cryptozoological publications. For a full biography, see Jean-Jacques Barloy's   Un rebelle de la science .  The focus of this post is only the roots and cryptozoological manifestations of Bernard's conservational stances, as well as his anti-authoritarianism. Many forget that cryptozoology was intended "to describe new animal forms as completely as possible without having to kill one of their representatives" (Heuvelmans, 1989) and to "obtain the strict protection o...