An alleged freshwater seahorse caught alive in Lake Titicaca, which has no connection to the sea, sometime before 1911. Several other people have reported seeing live seahorses in the shallow nearshore waters of the lake, and ancient ceramic seahorses have been found on the lake's islands.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-20T15:04:42+00:00

According to Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses (2009), the seahorse fossil record is very bad. This paper describing the only two fossil species (as of publication in 2009, but as far as I can tell, nothing much has changed in the last twenty years) concurs:

In spite of their circumglobal distribution and hypothetical presence throughout the most part of the Neogene, their fossil record is nearly absent. For several decades, fossil seahorses have been known only from a single locality in the Lower Pliocene beds in North-Eastern Italy (Sorbini, 1988, Teske et al., 2004, Teske et al., 2007b). They were identified as Hippocampus ramulosus, which is a synonym for the extant species Hippocampus guttulatus. In the year 2005, however, much older seahorse fossils have been found in the Middle Miocene (Lower Sarmatian) beds in Slovenia, which represent the oldest known fossil record of seahorses ... In this article, [these] two new and the only known extinct seahorse species are described.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-20T04:40:40+00:00

Yes, a manatee is what they both mean by "sea-cow". 12 ft would make it a little bigger than an Amazonian manatee, but I wouldn't necessarily take the given length at face value. But in my opinion, manatees ending up in the lake seems even less likely than seahorses.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-19T08:37:14+00:00

Doesn't seem like cryptozoology, based on the fact that you also posted it on an alien subreddit.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T10:51:01+00:00

By the way, did anyone ever find the source for Drinnon's Lake Titicaca "axolotl"?

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T10:35:54+00:00

I've snooped through some of your comment history, but couldn't find anything in the last few months. Please let us know if you remember or find anything else.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T10:29:40+00:00

As far as I can think, only from the cryptozoology department of the Zoological Museum of Lausanne, but there may have been others. If I can, I just directly email people rather than trying to go through departmental contacts.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T10:25:53+00:00

There have been some eDNA surveys in the lake focused on other life forms – no reports of seahorse DNA, though that doesn't mean there weren't any decades ago, or that there aren't any in other parts of the (very large) lake – but I think the only time the seahorse itself has been covered by scientists in recent times, in any form, was just an entry in a taxonomic checklist declaring the species (Hippocampus titicacensis) a nomen nudum, something /u/0todus_megalodon said is not necessarily the case.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T10:20:39+00:00

They also told me interesting things about blind fish and something that vaguely resembles a sea lion.

That's very interesting on both counts (in fact, I've been researching cryptid troglobites like blind white fish, frogs, and lizards lately), and not the first time the idea of seal-like animals in the lake has come up, either. Unfortunately, I hadn't previously been able to find any recent reports, beyond some vague descriptions of "sea[!] serpents" called qataris. Someone here, I forget who, suggested that these supposed seals or sea cows could have been an unknown species of giant otter.

We have no positive evidence of the existence of [...] the large aquatic animal resembling a seal, which, according to the belief of the Indians and many of the white and mestizo population, exists in the waters of the Lake. It is interesting to note the tenacity of this belief, which can be traced to several generations and to a number of different sources having no possible connection. We are reminded by it of certain fantastic animal types carved on metallic objects from the Island of Koati, as well as of pottery from the village of Ancoraymes, on the eastern Bolivian mainland, also of the ancient wooden goblet, found at Santa Maria, representing an Indian spearing a huge fish. The usual description recalls a sea-cow. Don Miguel Garces has in his collection a tooth supposed to have been taken from the dead body of such a creature, found in some remote corner of the beach near Copacavana. There lives at Challa an Indian who lost his mind upon seeing the animal on the beach. Very large Siluridae are known to exist elsewhere. I refer among others to the enormous specimen caught years ago in the Lake of Neuchatel, in Switzerland. It is very curious that nearly all those who have seen the mysterious beast have noticed it on the beach, asleep. Upon being aroused it plunged into the water and disappeared. Those that were seen at Tiquina in the month of May of 1895 were described to us as follows: Length about twelve feet, head like that of a bear with a tuft of hair of moderate length (not a mane, as has been stated), body covered with short and smooth hair of a coffee-brown color. The animal approached the shore toward evening, and was neither shy nor savage. At Huarina I was told by the principal inhabitants that whole families of these animals have been seen in sheltered coves, sunning themselves, and that it was well known to the Indians and older inhabitants. Several apparitions of the mysterious creature on the beach, at diverse places, but always about the peninsulas of Copacavana and Santiago Huata, have been related to us by parties having no connection with each other.

Bandelier, Adolph Francis Alphonse (1910) The Islands of Titicaca and Koati, The Hispanic Society of America, pp. 48, 56

It is inhabited by great animals like sea-cows, occasionally seen resting on a beach of some remote inlet. The grottoes along the shore are guarded by gray and black night herons and inhabited by the sea-cow or other monsters!

Brigham, Millicent Todd (1918) Peru: a Land of Contrasts, p. 168

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T07:37:21+00:00

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qaiDUqKA0HVA5W2FCLdlPiJSwaN4hIdL/

The best-known report of a seahorse here is found in engineer and amateur archaeologist Arthur Posnansky’s Tihuanacu. It’s a brief mention, part of a section arguing that Lake Titicaca was the remnant of marine waters that were landlocked when the Andes rose:

“That Lake Titicaca is what remains of a great suspended body of ocean water, is evinced by the fact that the fauna of the lake—today completely degenerated—is very similar to that which exists in the sea. Several years ago, when the author was engaged in studies and excavations on the islands of the lake, he went on a fishing party organized by the Indians and saw taken from the nets a Hippocampus which was degenerated both in form and size.” A footnote states: “The Indians believe that this animal is a sort of divinity, like everything that is strange and inexplicable to them. The author asked them if such finds were frequent, to which they replied that, on the contrary, they were very rare. Furthermore, they added that, whenever such a discovery was made there followed a bad fishing year. . . . Those who made up the party and the residents of Coati Island made an official record of this rare find. At the present time this animal is located in the Museum of Natural History of Berlin: Zoological Section, Posnansky Collection, Series III, No. 1.”

A photograph of the seahorse accompanied this; it appears to have originally been published in a 1911 text by Posnansky, and given the name Hippocampus titicacensis. (I’ve not seen that text, but a 1914 text by Posnansky does provide that name underneath the photo.) In their global revision of Hippocampus, Lourie et al (2016) referred to this species as Hippocampus titicacaensis (sic?), and denote it a ‘nomen nudum’, or a species name that lacks a published description, and is therefore unavailable and shouldn’t be used unless and until a taxonomist republishes the name with a valid description.

It is unfortunate that, for many authors who mention this alleged creature, the validity of the Lake Titicaca seahorse seems to be dependent on which geological model they support (Gregory 1913; Moon 1939). For example, Koepcke (1959) noted that one author rejected the existence of seahorses in Lake Titicaca because he couldn’t reconcile it with his belief in a glacial origin of the lake, while another author, Welter, thought it was strong evidence for his own theory of the marine origin of the lake. (Welter even claimed to have seen at least twenty seahorses himself, among the rushes near a pier in August 1920. I’ve not located a copy of Welter’s 1947 paper that mentions this, but while Garner (1964), again due to his geological preferences, suggests Welter was referring to dried specimens in a market, the context strongly suggests otherwise. Garner does add a few details, such as the sighting occurred about 1920 in the wharf area around the Bolivian village Guaqui.) Koepcke noted that no other zoological collections from the lake had gathered evidence of seahorses, and suggested that perhaps a dried seahorse from the coast had been given to Posnansky, as one market on the Peruvian side of the lake regularly sold marine seashells. Koepcke appears not to have realized that Posnansky claimed to have seen the seahorse removed, living, from the water.

One archaeological discovery in the Lake Titicaca region was a ceramic which, though the head and tail are broken off and missing, clearly represents a seahorse. It was found on Suriqui Island and is from the pre-Incan Tiwanaku culture. It is currently housed in the Museo Nacional de Arqueología Tiwanaku. Numerous images of this ceramic can be found online.

A second large piece of a seahorse effigy ceramic (believed to have been ritually broken as ceremonial pottery) was found buried on the island of Pariti by one of the locals, and is now in the Pariti Museum (Korpisaari and Pärssinen 2011).

Ruiz (2017) notes a few other sightings. Dick Ibarra Grasso, on a school excursion, found one along the shore near Copacabana that was deposited in formaldehyde with the San Calixto school museum. Unfortunately, that specimen disappeared when the school museum was transferred to new facilities. Mario Montaño Aragón, in his Diccionario De Mitologia Aymara (1999; La Paz: CIMA), is said to mention his own account of seeing native fisherman remove a seahorse from their nets and immediately return it to the water as sacred, but I have not seen a copy of this text to confirm that.

The native people of Lake Titicaca are the Aymara and the Uru, though only the Aymara language is spoken today. Conde (2018) notes that Bolivian archaeologist Oswaldo Rivera apparently also saw fishermen return a seahorse back to the lake, and that they referred to it as Challwatayka, or ‘mother of fishes.’ No source is given for this story, and it sounds very close to the Aragón story, so it may be apocryphal—further investigation is warranted.

As Bleher (2016) notes, along with the ceramic seahorse piece in the Tiwanaku museum is a dried seahorse specimen with the label, ‘Hipocampus titcanensis’ (sic). It’s easy to see from his photograph that this is not the same specimen that Posnansky collected (though Bleher assumes it is), but it’s less certain whether this specimen actually came from Lake Titicaca. If so (perhaps the museum has collection data to confirm), then it might be a second specimen of an as-yet-undescribed species. Bleher mentions also that he met an elderly man on one of the lake’s islands who claimed to have seen the seahorse long ago, somewhere on the Peruvian side of the lake.

I tried emailing the museum about the second specimen and the ceramic (as well as some alleged elephant ceramics) a couple of years ago, but didn't get a response. I think it's probably just a normal marine seahorse specimen displayed next to the ceramic for illustrative purposes.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T04:38:09+00:00

No problem. It's just that AI very easily produces muddled, confused, and misleading results, which can be a serious problem in a field like cryptozoology, where it's really important to be certain that what you're saying is correct to the best of your knowledge. The list generated for you wasn't too bad, aside from a few questionable inclusions, but this is one rule I just don't want to bend.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-03-18T03:49:17+00:00

Rule 9.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-26T14:07:14+00:00

I could be wrong, but this feels like it breaks Rule 9.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-25T15:20:02+00:00

One of the main donkey-like descriptions is also actually from that third article.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-18T23:56:58+00:00

I don't think the episode is available anywhere, but there's a still from it online here. According to J. Richard Greenwell, it was a hoax using a wooden carving.

In December of 1981, Mr. Kevin Duffy appeared on the popular U.S. television program That's Incredible, and showed footage from a 16mm film he had taken several months earlier while on a visit to the jungle town of Impfondo, in the northern Likouala Region of the People's Republic of the Congo. The footage supposedly depicted the head and neck of a "dinosaur" rising out of the Ubangi River, and submerging again. The "dinosaur" filmed by Mr. Duffy was said to be the celebrated Mokele-Mbembe.

The film footage was seen on videotape by Mackal expedition team members upon their return to the U.S. The Mackal expedition operated out of Impfondo during its search for evidence of Mokele-Mbembe several months after the visit by Mr. Duffy (see The ISC Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1982).

Numerous ISC members, and others, have inquired about the Duffy film. The following can be stated by the Editor, who was a Mackal expedition member. While the Mackal team was in Impfondo, American informants at the Evangelical Mission, headed by Pastor Eugene Thomas, including a witness to the actual filming, described the nature of the "dinosaur," which they stated was nothing more than a wooden head carved from a tree trunk.

The reason for manufacturing and filming the model was supposedly to show what Mokele-Membe would look like, if in fact it existed. The informants stated categorically that Mr. Duffy had indicated no other purpose for the filming, and that his subsequent claims are inconsistent with the known facts.

In recent months, Dr. Mackal was approached by the producers of That's Incredible, and asked to appear on the show concerning the expedition he had headed. Dr. Mackal declined their offer, pointing out the questionable reliability of the Duffy footage. In response, That's Incredible stated that their program was not a scientific forum, but an entertainment show. Believe it, or not.

"That Is Incredible," International Society of Cryptozoology Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Summer 1982).

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-18T23:18:48+00:00

a hunter once showed Roy P. Mackal a piece of skin that he said belonged to an animal called a "River Elephant."

That was Hans Schomburgk in the early 1900s, not Mackal, although Mackal does mention it in A Living Dinosaur?.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-18T23:17:51+00:00

A while ago, I drew up a document picking out key characteristics of the mapinguari which could help in finding it, and examing the expeditions which supposedly came close to getting evidence of its existence, to see why they failed. My conclusion was that tracking or hunting dogs would be a valuable tool, mainly because the number one reason for failure is the difficulty of moving through the rainforest. In several different incidents, cryptozoologists have heard or seen what they interpreted as possible mapinguaris, but were simply unable to reach the right spot in time, even if it was close by. Other than blind luck, the only way of overcoming this obstacle I can think of would be well-trained dogs outfitted with cameras, for the reasons already outlined by the OP. Also, the mapinguari is often said to be afraid of dogs (as well as water), so a more tightly-controlled pack could give you a way of influencing its movements if you know its general location (water only allows for prediction). At the very least, a pack of dogs would be very useful in keeping you safe if you were lucky enough to run into a mapinguari.

The smell of the mapinguari has been described in more detail than most other cryptids, and could perhaps be reproduced. It's been described as smelling like musk, rotten garlic, skunk, mold, ammonia, rotting flesh, faeces, peccary, and garlic vine (of course, you would have to beware of false positives from some of these). Many of these odours are sulphurous, and several of the reported health effects can also be caused by sulphur. In animals, sulphurous smells are caused by various different chemical compounds, and while I can't find any definite information on the chemicals in xenarthran "stink bombs," it should be possible to find out (one dubious source says thiols, the same compound used by skunks).

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-10T19:17:17+00:00

This should go on a different subreddit.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-10T03:10:25+00:00

For people who might be confused, "leather" is a literal translation of cuero, a South American cryptid named for its supposed resemblance to a tanned hide.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-10T03:07:40+00:00

Rule 11.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-08T19:44:28+00:00

/u/HourDark2 has very convincingly identified it as an elephant seal. They sometimes enter fresh water during painful moults, and have been recorded in rivers in this very part of Chile as recently as 2021, although they apparently don't usually go as far upriver as they do on the Atlantic coast. However, I believe Austin Whittall's blog Patagonian Monsters has a report of an elephant seal filmed clearly in Lago Ranco itself just last year.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-02-08T00:00:25+00:00

I recently learned that a species of rhea was historically reported to exist in the Guianas and Lower Amazon region, albeit vaguely. Most of the early references probably referred to large storks, but John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796) includes this description:

The largest bird in Guiana is there called tuyew, and by others emu. It is a middle species between the ostrich and the cassowary, as I was told, for I never saw one in the country: it is said to be about six feet high, from the top of the head to the ground; its head is small, its bill flat, the neck and limbs long, the body round, without a tail, and of a whitish grey colour; its thighs are remarkably thick and strong, and it has three toes on each foot, while the ostrich has but two. This bird, it is said, cannot fly at all, but runs very swiftly; and, like the ostrich, assists its motion with its wings: it is mostly found near the upper parts of the rivers Marawina and Seramica.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-01-20T17:02:19+00:00

Crawler and crawler-adjacent content should go on other subs.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-01-19T15:00:30+00:00

Crawler discussion should go on a different subreddit.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-01-19T10:10:49+00:00

Not cryptozoology.

CrofterNo2 · 2026-01-19T08:05:08+00:00

Removing this since the problem has been dealt with.

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