Dartmoor Beast Identified As New Species Of European Giant Hyrax?

Status
Not open for further replies.
common_sense_seeker said:
You have to imagine changes to the body shape due to the process of evolution.
Click to expand...
Understood.
So giant hyraces have evolved into something that looks like a fox, but are actually still hyraces.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck it's an evolved elephant.
Makes perfect sense...
 
You know.. I think I saw a Giant Hyrax once!
Of course, you will have to imagine changes to the body shape due to the process of evolution..

african-elephant2.jpg


:roflmao:
 
Dywyddyr said:
Understood.
So giant hyraces have evolved into something that looks like a fox, but are actually still hyraces....
Click to expand...
There is a genuine elephant connection, yes. Yeah, you got it. The long tail of the Dartmoor Beast is the tricky bit I suppose, but it would make evolutionary sense for the adaptation to occur. Humans would be less likely to take fright if they only saw a wolf or a large dog, than compared to something similar but tailless. Therefore the elusive dog-looking hyrax would be less threatening to behold and result in the legend of ambivalence and folklore.
 
common_sense_seeker said:
There is a genuine elephant connection, yes.
Click to expand...
Because ducks pack their trunks to go on holiday?

The long tail of the Dartmoor Beast is the tricky bit I suppose
Click to expand...
And the rest of the discrepancies?

but it would make evolutionary sense for the adaptation to occur. Humans would be less likely to take fright if they only saw a wolf or a large dog
Click to expand...
Brilliant!
No one ever realised that a factor in evolution is do your best to look less scary to humans.
 
Because your brain can't say "oh, that must have been a Newfoundland dog" because it wouldn't fit with your mental image of a large dog, would it, if it didn't have a long bushy tail?!
 
The rock hyrax is squat and heavily built, adults reaching a length of 50cm and weighing around 4kg, with a slight sexual dimorphism; males being approximately 10% heavier than females. Their fur is thick and grey-brown color, although this varies strongly between different environments; from dark brown in wetter habitats, to light gray in desert living individuals.[5] Hyrax size (as measured by skull length and humerus diameter) is correlated to precipitation, probably because of the effect on preferred hyrax forage
Click to expand...
See rock hyrax sunbathing PHOTO on Wikipedia.
 
Last edited:
It isn't just me. Look here at this intriguing story just posted and notice the similarities in the sounds of chattering experineced in both:

My dad once told me about an experience he had while logging in Bly Oregon. If anyone here has not heard of Bly it is a weird place to start with it is known where I am from as the Oregon Bly-angle. It is the sight of the only casualty in the lower 48 during WW2 as a result of a balloon Bomb courtesy of the Japanese. A terrorist training camp was busted there after the start of the Afghan war. It is also the site of many Sasquatch sightings.

According to my dad him and his crew were working in the woods between Bly and Beatty during the winter. He and the other two on the crew were falling timber for several weeks up there. All three of them hated the job terribly because in their own words the are was very spooky and they always felt as though they were being watched. After a couple of weeks on job they said that on one or two occasions when they would stop for lunch they would sit on fresh cut stumps (rather then the snow) and eat lunch as it was too far to walk to the trucks. Anyway they said that they thought they were hearing voices in the woods but were not sure. THey were very faint and was not any recognizable language. THey dismissed it as being the result of hearing the chainsaws all day, being very cold and being tired. However over the next week the voices got louder and more frequent. To the point where they could hear them over the chainsaws. All of them could now hear it. They figured there could be know one else up there as they were far in the mountains. It was snowing every night and there were never any tracks on the road up to the job (which they had to build because there was not one to start with. Also the job was far to far up in the woods to walk cross country from the nearest road not to mention that the snow was generally over knee deep. In the end all three of them got so nerve racked that they ended up quitting the job and have not worked in the area since. THey all agree that the voices were not menacing, it just sounded like conversation but it was still to spooked for them to handle, all of them being very grounded and open minded.Years latter I am 17 and I am working for the Forest Circus and my boss is an older Native American lady who is still very traditional in the ways of her people and happens to be from the area. I remembered the story and one day I ask her about it. She knew instantly what I was talking about and proceeded to tell me a legend of her people (The Klamath Tribe) about a race of very small people that inhabit the woods in the area. They are like guardians of the woods and are not menacing. Know one ever sees them but they can be heard speaking in tongues. They were around long before people were there. She told me what they were called but after so many years I can not remember.

Does anyone here know anything about them and what they are called.
Click to expand...

Here's Tommy's account from Australia:

This is my first topic and i did not know where to post it, so i thought I'd just post it in the Urban Legends section.

Just maybe half an hour ago, me and my friend (username 'biorez') were walking along the outskirts of Parramatta Park in Sydney (the park is a minute's walk from my house). It was sprinkling, though now it is pouring rain and storming pretty bad. Anyways, we were walking alongside a deserted creek, when we started hearing noises. Some sounded like a train, although there was no train track near that area, and some sounded like children's voices, even though I am positive that it was just me and my friend in that creek.We pulled out of the area, and frantically started trying to assess the situation. We were trying to think rationally, but we couldn't help but believe that it was something way out of the ordinary. We came back to the creek, and started hearing more noises. They were much the same, and we weren't really panicking that much, when I look straight ahead and could have SWORN that I saw a dark figure, standing on it's hind legs, walk past the treeline about 5 metres ahead of us. I almost hyperventilated, an we started sprinting back to a nearby gazebo. We discussed whether we should go back to my friend's place (about 300 metres from the park, and facing it as well), or if we should run back to the creek, and investigate once more.

And so we did, and we started seeing more shadows and hearing more unnatural, un-suburbian noises. At this point, it started raining heavily, and we saw a gargantuan storm cloud approaching. we decided to bolt back to my friend's place. We started running in the opposite direction of the creek. I turned my head for a split second, and that was all I needed...

...and then I saw him. A Green man. He looked to be wearing something green, covering his hair (if he had any), but it almost looked like it was attached to his skull. He did not have a shirt on, and he had dark green skin. A darker texture than whatever was on his head. He looked like he had some sort of dead furred animal over his shoulder, and in the opposite hand, he was carrying what looked like some sort of long, melee weapon. Possibly a staff or a stick. He was looking out from under the creek, therefore I did not see his lower half. He had big bulgy black eyes STICKING, LITERALLY STICKING out of his head. Like a GRASSHOPPER! he had a mouth where his chin was supposed to be. And he had a normal looking nose, although I did not see any nostrils, but that's most likely due to the fact that I was at a distance. He then raised what must've been his eyebrows, and gave me a sort of 'where are you going' look. He then appeared to have shrugged, then turned and walked away. He did not have ears. Where his ears were supposed to be, it was just blank.

I stood there in shock, hyperventilating. I lost all bodily functions for about half a minute, while biorez was yelling 'we have to go! come on we have to go!' I then started running like there was no tomorrow. Now I sit here at my friend's computer, still sort of in shock, but sane enough to post this report.

Can someone PLEASE tell me WHAT THE HELL DID I SEE?
Click to expand...
 
This has just been posted:
At the risk of sounding completely insane or retarded I'm seeing things and experiencing feelings I haven't experienced since i was a kid. Seeing strange silhouttes that dissappear so strangely out of the corner of my eye, and full on looking at them, and having a feeling that something is watching and I'm in a constant state of defense mode. Shrugged it off im incredibly busy right now with a set schedule of 40 hours at work, own personal buisness things I'm working on (have about 4 majorly different projects I'm working on...very ambitious and non-complacent), and I'm training in martial arts again cause I miss competeing and felt that I did not take it seriously enough as a kid and could've accomplished so much (I'm 20). So basically its get up 5 in the morning eat, stretch, train, then cardio (either a few miles of running or total of 5 miles biking with about 180-190 flights of stairs in 30 mins). Work on my varying buisnesses, then weightlift, then work get off at 10 and go to sleep as soon as I get home. So I just shrugged off what I was experiencing as stress. I wouldnt say exhaustion cause not really ever drained. Felt the same as a kid, but I was hugely depressed as a kid (wasnt a loser or didnt have any friends just family **** piled up so much and really has never let up but as a kid its harder to handle and I was always different as a kid) so I just figured different causes same symptoms. Then I got home the other night from a rare occasion of hanging out with a family that kind of took me in and was what I consider my "substitute" family. Got out of my car getting everything in my pockets turn around to lock my car, and...I see this figure. Looked like a man wearing an oversized fedora (think thats what they're called) in a trenchcoat...a silhoutte once again, and this silhoutte is making a b-line power walk towards me. It seemed like it was about 20 feet away when I first saw it then when it was about 10 feet away...it dissappeared in such a wierd way. I wasn't scared but felt nervous and like I was going to have to defend myself. Can someone tell me anything...do I need to go to a doctor, a therapist, do I need to slow down. I just want something...noway can I tell any of my friends and family friends would just laugh at me, and family would just think im nuts.
Click to expand...
 
Now compare it to this which has just been posted also:
Hey, everyone, first time poster here. I joined a couple of years ago and am a constant reader, I'm just a bit quiet. For months now I've been trying to decide if I should post this or not but since summer will be here soon and I expect to be spending more and more time outside I'm going for it.

Let me first explain a little about my location. My house is literally surrounded by woods on all sides with a gravel road that cuts through in the front and leads to my driveway. Behind my house the woods go on for miles and miles and at some point goes into national forest land. Several yards down the road my cousin raises cattle and they graze in a small field. I'm way out in the country.

Back in November (2009) my fiance and I were laying out in the middle of our yard around 1 A.M. waiting for the Leonid meteor shower to start. It was a cold, clear, and very quiet night. We had been out for probably forty-five minutes or so and I was getting annoyed because I had only seen maybe one meteor and I was cold despite all the blankets I had. Suddenly--I know it's a cliche, but it really did happen all of a sudden--the quiet night was anything but.

Something starts crashing through the woods behind us. Anyone who's been in the woods at night knows what that sounds like especially in the fall when there are dry leaves on the ground. Whatever it was comes to the edge of the woods to the edge of the yard and and stops and starts making this God-awful "snorting" sound. Living where I do, I'm used to animal noises and I pretty much know what makes what but this sound chilled my blood. I've never heard anything like it. Then a minute later it stops the snorting sound and it starts walking back through the woods. I turn to my fiance and say "What the %*$# was that??" It's not so much what my fiance said but how he said it. His voice almost had a tremor in it. He sounded scared and just said "I don't know know." Aside from the fact that he's a pretty tough guy and I've never known him to be scared of anything in his life, he's the kind of guy who knows a lot, or at least thinks he does. So for him to be so baffled was unsettling.

We can hear the crashing again but this time it's coming from our left. It continues until it's in front of us, then a few seconds later it's to the right. I can't help but say "It's circling us." And it was fast too. I'm terrified at this point and insist we go inside. Fiance says no, I carried all these blankets and pillows out to watch this meteor shower and we're going to watch it. He also tells me to shush so he can listen. It's still crashing around and is behind us again. And I am struck with a thought that makes little tears well up in my eyes. Then my fiance opens his mouth and confirms my thought: "It sounds like it's walking on two legs."
I insist on going inside again but the crashing sound fades away and my fiance says it must be gone. It goes quiet again. The rest of the time we were outside was uneventful. The sky eventually became overcast and we couldn't see anything anymore so we gathered up all our stuff and went inside.

The next day we immediately went over all the things it could have been. A deer? No, that was in no way at all the sound a deer makes when it "snorts." An escaped bull from the field down the road? I guess it's not out of the realm of possibilites, it's just that those cows are extremely used to people and one time when one did get past the fence it had no problem walking right up to me (I helped, or tried anyway, getting it back). And I'm certain no cows got out that night because we almost always get a phone call asking if any has come up to the house (none ever has). It just didn't sound like a bull snort either. A wild boar? We don't have those in Virginia. I asked my brother who works for the US Forest Service and knows more about wildlife than anyone I know and he not only confirmed that we don't have wild boars but was also puzzled as to what it could have been. A bear? We had an extremely cold winter which started earlier than usual and again my bro said it was highly unlikely to be a bear.

So . . . I don't know. What I do know is that I don't scare easily. I love taking walks in the woods at night and I am very familiar with the usual animal (foxes, raccoons, owls, squirrels, even bobcats) sounds and not only was this sound new, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There was just something about the very presence that scared the heck out of me.

Sorry this was so long and any thoughts are welcome!
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top