At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Tuesday 13 May 2014

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD



On This Day in Weird, May 13...

1572: Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the "father of natural history studies," records a peasant's killing of a "fearsome dragon" outside Bologna. Aldrovandi examines the dragon's head and declares its appearance a good omen for his cousin Ugo Boncompagni, recently installed as Pope Gregory XIII. A lifelong student of dragons, who displayed one on his coat of arms, Aldrovandi also obtained a small specimen, slightly larger than a human hand, still on display at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna. Skeptics say Aldrovandi created that specimen, assembling part of a snake, a fish and a bird, then lied about its discovery.



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