A Supplement to Dr Bernard Heuvelmans' Checklist of Cryptozoological Animals

Shuker checklist — The first page of the checklist's introduction, as printed in *The Beasts That Hide From Man* (2003).

A Supplement to Dr Bernard Heuvelmans' Checklist of Cryptozoological Animals is an article published by Karl Shuker in Fortean Studies 5 (1998), acting as a supplement to Bernard Heuvelmans' "Annotated Checklist of Apparently Unknown Animals With Which Cryptozoology Is Concerned" (1986). Composed in the same style as Heuvelmans' checklist, it includes the supplement itself, a list of unique cryptids not included in the original checklist; and the amendments, alternative identities for cryptids which were in the original checklist. The entire article is included in The Beasts That Hide From Man (2003).

Supplement[]

Marine forms[]

White-furred, trunked marine animals, including South Africa's Trunko. Although sometimes suggested to be a globster, a decomposed whale, Shuker criticises this theory, noting that eyewitnesses claimed to have seen Trunko alive, fighting with a pair of whales; and questioning whether decomposition could create a trunk on a whale.
The rhinoceros whale, an unidentified large baleen whale with two erect dorsal fins.
The Palmyra fish, a greyish-black whale with a distinctive erect dorsal fin, seen off the coast of Sri Lanka.
Scott's dolphin, an unidentified dolphin with brown upperparts and a white belly, seen by Sir Peter Scott.
The southern narwhal, an apparent Antarctic species of narwhal.
The dimorphic beaked whale, black-and-white or uniformly grey whale often reported from the East Pacific.
The St. Helena manatee, which is also suggested to be an elephant seal, not a manatee.
Coaelacanths in the Mexican Gulf and the seas around Easter Island.
Giant rat-tails seen off Bermuda and in the Mexican Gulf.
The formally named but unphotographed deep-sea fish seen by William Beebe off Bermuda in the 1930's: the abyssal rainbow gar, the giant dragonfish, the five-lined constellation fish, the pallid sailfin, and the three-starred anglerfish.
A giant predatory shark, the ground shark, which lacks a dorsal fin and waits on the sea bed to ambush prey. Shuker theorises it may be a giant carpet shark.
Lords of the Deep, the colossal sharks sometimes seen in the South Pacific and theorised to be living megalodon.
Beebe's manta, a black manta ray with white wing-tips and white bands on its back.
The larval form of the giant acorn worm is formally recognised, but its doubtless-enormous adult form has never been seen.
Lophenteropneusts, a possible taxon or class of marine invertebrates combining the features of acorn worms and pterobranchs.
The deep-sea spider, a marine invertebrate photographed in the Peru Basin and formally identified as a tailless whip scorpion, which is entirely terrestrial.
The big-fin squid.
An extremely large form of polychaete worm often seen off St. Lucia, the St. Lucia thing, which may be a new species, or several oversized individuals of a known species.
Giant jellyfish reported principally from the Pacific.

Freshwater forms[]

Europe[]

The dobhar-chú of Ireland, which resembles a giant otter. Shuker notes that, if extremely oversized specimens of European otters are not involved, the dobhar-chú's identity is a mystery.

Cold Temperate Asia[]

Giant salmon, supposedly up to 30' long, often seen in China's Lake Hanas.

North Africa and the Middle East[]

A small, extremely venomous black fish reported from Iran's Shatt al Arab River. Shuker speculates these fish could be an undescribed relative of the blackline fang-blenny (Meiacanthus nigrolineatus), which has a non-fatal venomous bite; confused reports of the black catfish, which has venomous spines and was introduced into the Shatt Al Arab for food; or young long-tailed moray eels, the bites of which may cause sepsis.

North America[]

The Trinity Alps giant salamander, a very large salamander, 5' to 9' long, reported from California. Although some reports were based on an escaped Chinese giant salamander called Benny, other sightings may suggest the existence of an unrecorded population of American giant salamander, or an undescribed American species of giant salamander.

Tropical Asia[]

The Hoan Kiem turtle, which Professor Ha Dinh Duc believed was a new species.
A giant lungfish in Vietnam.
A glowing mudskipper-like fish reported from the Indonesian island of Ceram by Tyson Hughes.

Africa[]

A merbeing-like cryptid of Burundi, the mamba mutu, which, it has been suggested, may be a species of freshwater African manatee, or a species of giant flat-skulled otter.

Central and South America[]

Water tigers, aquatic cat-like animals with large canine teeth, including the maipolina of French Guiana and the yaquaru of Patagonia. Shuker speculates that these may be living sabre-toothed cats adapted to an amphibious lifestyle, paralleling Africa's water lions.
The holadeira, a pink river dolphin with a serrated back photographed by Jeremy Wade. Wade noted that the notches were too precisely formed to be due to injury, so Shuker speculates the animal could have been a genetic freak.

Amendments[]

Long-necked seal Coudray — A plesiosaur may be a better identity for the long-necked sea serpent than a putative long-necked seal, which is how Philippe Coudray here depicts it.

Many-finned sea serpent Coudray — Heuvelmans' theory that the many-finned sea serpent could be an archaeocete was based on what is now known to have been a palaeontological mistake.

Moeritherium-mammals-walter-myers — An early proboscidean such as *Moeritherium*, reconsutructed by Walter Myers, would make a better water elephant identity than a deinothere.

Mapinguaries, William Rebsamen — A ground sloth was suggested to be a more likely mapinguari identity than an ape, as drawn by William Rebsamen.

Shuker suggests that a living plesiosaur is more consistent with the features of the long-necked sea serpent than a putative long-necked seal, Heuvelmans' original hypothesis.
A living archaeocete is said to be an unlikely identity for the many-finned sea serpent. Heuvelmans believed that some archaeocetes were armoured, but it was discovered that the scales found in association with some archaeocete fossils in fact came from different animals.
A new discovery made by Lars Thomas revealed that Hans and Poul Egede's supposed super-otter sighting in fact referred to a dramatically different animal, leading Lars and Shuker to suggest it was an entirely different cryptid.
A swamp-dwelling lungfish is suggested as a better identity for the buru than a giant monitor lizard.
Shuker suggests that an extremely large species of caecilian would make a better minhocão than Heuvelmans explanation, a burrowing amphibious glyptodont.
The migo, which Heuvelmans suggested could be a giant crocodile or a living mosasaur, was identified as three mating saltwater crocodiles by Roy P. Mackal.
The Kellas cat was discovered to be an introgressive hybrid of the Scottish wildcat and the domestic cat.
Shuker suggests a short-faced hyena and a chalicothere as possible Nandi bear identities, alongside Heuvelmans' suggestions of a giant baboon and various misidentifications.
Heuvelmans suggested the water elephant could be a living deinothere, but Shuker notes that the cryptid bears little resemblance to this prehistoric elephant, more closely resembling a primitive proboscidean such as Phiomia or Moeritherium.
Christine Janis suggested that the Ethiopian deer is more likely to be an Ethiopian subspecies of fallow deer than a living Climacoceras, a sivathere which Heuvelmans mistakenly referred to as a deer.
In light of genetic tests, it was suggested that the onza is simply a puma.
David Oren theorised that a giant ground sloth could make a good identity for the mapinguari, which is listed as a hominid by Heuvelmans.
Heuvelmans suggested that the giant rabbits reported from Central Australia could have been Palorchestes. Janis and Shuker note that the animals sound more like giant short-faced kangaroos, such as Procoptodon or Sthenurus.