Lazarus Taxon
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Great Auk
The Great Auk is a cryptid in the form of a species, Alca impennis, believed to be extinct. It was originally classified by Swedish biologist Carl von Linné in 1758, most were killed by settler’s dogs, and the last reported pair was killed by an Icelandic fisherman in 1844. It was a large flightless penguin-like bird from Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, and Norway. Despite being officially declared extinct, there have been several sightings of them since then. In 1867 residents of Greenland supposedly captured and ate a Great Auk. There were several sightings from the 1920s and 1930s in Norway, but investigations declared these were penguins imported by whalers. Despite…
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Specs
Specs is a cryptid and possible Lazarus taxon. It was sighted in Florida in 1959. It was seen in a large underwater cave at about 35 feet deep. It was reported to have a cylindrical body measuring five and a half feet long, eight spiny legs, and stood three feet off the sea floor. It had a pointed head with stalks that have brown spotted eyes the size of silver dollars on the end. It was called Specs by the press due to a team going back to try to get ‘specs’ on the creature. It has been compared to the Spiny Lobster, or the Japanese Spider Crab, both being…
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Carolina Parakeet
The Carolina Parakeet is a cryptid classified as a Lazarus Taxon (an animal believed to be extinct but then found alive again). The Carolina Parakeet was first described in 1891 and goes by the scientific name Conuropsis carolinensis. It’s a small bird with green plumage that has sections of yellow and orange. It is the only bird in the parakeet family native to North America and could be found in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Due to their tendency to eat fruit, many were killed en mass by farmers. This along with them being sold as pets, or used as decorations for women’s hats, led to their extinction. The last…
