io9 Offers $2000 Bounty For Authentic Photos Of Cryptids
io9 is looking for submissions of authentic pictures or videos of cryptids and I'm curious to see what they end up getting. They've already put up a few of the submissions for voting and you can find and vote on those here. In my opinion, most of the critters on that page are insects that could probably be identified by a competent expert. Another looks like a decomposing sea turtle to me. Overall, I think that the white cheetah is the most compelling and the reasons for that are outlined in the description accompanying the photo.
The folks at io9 also have a contest for the best fakes that are submitted but all you'll get are some books and DVDs. All of the authentic submissions will be judged by a panel of experts that will make the final decisions. Submissions also have to be original and submitted by the person that shot them. All of these factors should make for some really interesting submissions.
I'm really glad to see a website doing something like this in what seems to be a lighthearted manner. Sure, there may not be any groundbreaking scientific discoveries coming out of it but for those that are interested in cryptozoology this is definitely something to keep an eye on. Is there incentive to try to pass off a hoax as the real deal? Sure. Will it make this entire prospect any less interesting? I doubt it. If anything, I think it will be even more interesting to see if anyone is able to pull one over on the panel of experts.
I found the picture of the dead turtle to just be sad and misidentified by the person taking the picture. It was most likely a leatherback sea turtle in life (http://www.theleatherbackturtle.com/Images/Huge_Leatherback_sea_turtle.jpg). The species is known to have some nesting sites in South American countries such as Ecuador which is where this picture was taken.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a dead sea turtle when I saw it as well.
ReplyDelete