 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(September 2016) |
In Utah folklore, the North Shore Monster or Old Briney is a monster purported to live in Utah's Great Salt Lake.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(September 2016) |
In Utah folklore, the North Shore Monster or Old Briney is a monster purported to live in Utah's Great Salt Lake.
In the 1840s, a certain Brother Bainbridge reported seeing a monster with a dolphin-like body in the lake near Antelope Island. [1] At dusk or evening of the early summer of 1877, J.H. McNeil of Kelton, Box Elder County, and several other employees of the Barnes and Co. Salt Works company on the lake's north shore reported seeing a huge creature with a crocodile-like body and the head of a horse in the waters of the Great Salt Lake. The creature made a "fearsome bellowing noise" and charged the workers, who promptly ran up a nearby hillside and hid in the brush until morning. [1] Some believe the "monster" was a buffalo. Others blame these sightings on related cryptids, such as the "Salt Lake Whales" or even the "Great Brine Shrimp".
Local legend maintains that in 1875, entrepreneur James Wickham had two whales released into the Great Salt Lake, with the intent of using them as a tourist attraction. [2] [3] The whales are said to have disappeared into the lake and been subsequently sighted multiple times over a number of months, but there have never been any confirmed sightings of the whales since the time of their supposed release. [4] Scientists believe they could not have survived due to the high salinity of the lake. [5] Some believe that the strange monster seen by McNeil and his friends in 1877 was one of the two whales or one of their offspring. [1]
The Great Brine Shrimp, or "Old Briney" is a cryptid that is purported to live in the Great Salt Lake. Briney is often described as resembling a larger version of the lake's native brine shrimp, ranging from the size of a large dog to that of a horse. [6] During the Cambrian period, the Great Salt Lake Basin and much of Northwest Utah was covered by the vast Lake Bonneville, and fossils of species like anomalocaris have been found throughout the region. [7] [8] Much like the popular Loch Ness Monster, an explanation for the Great Brine Shrimp is that it evolved from ancient marine life that was trapped in the Salt Lake by receding shore lines. [9] The Great Brine Shrimp is depicted in a 1976 independent horror short film or "creature feature" by Salt Lake local, Mike Cassidy. The Giant Brine Shrimp tells a fictional story in which a brine shrimp of exaggerated size terrorizes the downtown Salt Lake area. [10] [11]
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or the Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor of folklore studies. It was originally founded in the 1950s by zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson.
The Loch Ness Monster, affectionately known as Nessie, is a creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or more humps protruding from the water. Popular interest and belief in the creature has varied since it was brought to worldwide attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal with a number of disputed photographs and sonar readings.
The mokele-mbembe, Lingala for "one who stops the flow of rivers", is a mythical water-dwelling entity that supposedly lives in the Congo River Basin, sometimes described as a living creature, sometimes as a spirit. Descriptions vary widely among those who claim to have seen the creature, but it is often described as a large quadrupedal herbivore with smooth skin, a long neck and a single tooth or horn.
The thunderbird is a legendary creature in particular North American indigenous peoples' history and culture. It is considered a supernatural being of power and strength.
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.
Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo-Orem metropolitan area. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Salt Lake. Evaporation accounts for 42% of the lake's outflow, which leaves the lake slightly saline. The elevation of the lake is at 4,489 feet (1,368 m) above sea level. If the lake's water level rises above that, the pumps and gates on the Jordan River are left open. Recently the lake has been at a lower level because of a drought.
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.
A lake monster is a lake-dwelling entity in folklore. The most famous example is the Loch Ness Monster. Depictions of lake monsters are often similar to those of sea monsters.
In Canadian folklore, the Ogopogo is a lake monster said to inhabit Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Some scholars have charted the entity's development from First Nations folklore and widespread water monster folklore motifs. The Ogopogo now plays a role in the commercial symbolism and media representation of the region.
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah, United States. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.
Storsjön is the fifth largest lake in Sweden, with an area of 464 km2 (179 sq mi) and a greatest depth of 74 m (243 ft). It is the largest lake in central Sweden, located in the province of Jämtland in modern Jämtland County. From Storsjön runs the river Indalsälven and the lake contains the major island Frösön. The city of Östersund is located on the east shore of the lake, opposite Frösön.
Anomalocaris is an extinct genus of radiodont, an order of early-diverging stem-group arthropods.
The Bear Lake Monster is a being appearing in folklore near Bear Lake, on the Utah–Idaho border.
Roy P. Mackal was a University of Chicago biologist best known to the general public for his interest in cryptozoology.
A water horse is a mythical creature, such as the Ceffyl Dŵr, Capaill Uisce, the bäckahäst and kelpie.
Paleontology in Utah refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Utah. Utah has a rich fossil record spanning almost all of the geologic column. During the Precambrian, the area of northeastern Utah now occupied by the Uinta Mountains was a shallow sea which was home to simple microorganisms. During the early Paleozoic Utah was still largely covered in seawater. The state's Paleozoic seas would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, fishes, and trilobites. During the Permian the state came to resemble the Sahara desert and was home to amphibians, early relatives of mammals, and reptiles. During the Triassic about half of the state was covered by a sea home to creatures like the cephalopod Meekoceras, while dinosaurs whose footprints would later fossilize roamed the forests on land. Sand dunes returned during the Early Jurassic. During the Cretaceous the state was covered by the sea for the last time. The sea gave way to a complex of lakes during the Cenozoic era. Later, these lakes dissipated and the state was home to short-faced bears, bison, musk oxen, saber teeth, and giant ground sloths. Local Native Americans devised myths to explain fossils. Formally trained scientists have been aware of local fossils since at least the late 19th century. Major local finds include the bonebeds of Dinosaur National Monument. The Jurassic dinosaur Allosaurus fragilis is the Utah state fossil.
Carrington Island is a 1,200-acre island located in the Great Salt Lake in northern Utah. It is the fourth-largest island in the lake.
Kylinxia is a genus of extinct arthropod described in 2020. It was described from six specimens discovered in Yu'anshan Formation in southern China. The specimens are assigned to one species Kylinxia zhangi. Dated to 518 million years, the fossils falls under the Cambrian period. Announcing the discovery on 4 November 2020 at a press conference, Zeng Han of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, said that the animal "bridges the evolutionary gap from Anomalocaris to true arthropods and forms a key ‘missing link’ in the origin of arthropods," which was "predicted by Darwin’s evolutionary theory." The same day the formal description was published in Nature.