Devil's Footprints Fit Shape Of Male Giant Dragonfly Clasper

[MikeG]

The Centre For Fortean Zoology (CFZ) has studied the phenomena and hasn't come to the conclusion that it's from a commonly known animal. They say it's a real mystery.......

Oh OK then. We were all completely wrong then. These guys are obviously the bee knees when it comes to scientific enquiry. That seals the deal. We're clearly from Jupiter......oh sorry, wrong thread.........bigfoot lives........what, wrong thread again? Sorry....... Oh OK then, these rabbit footprints were clearly made by a tail-hopping giant dragonfly.

 

[Correa Neto]

So a giant dragonfly time traveled to England and pogoed around?

Please watch "Primeval". It'll explain all your doubts, answer all your questions.

Its true! The entertainment industry is preparing the public for the huge shock of the incoming revelations about the weird nature of our world.

 

[MikeG]

Cannibalism would solve the fossil enigma. If a night flying meganeura which emitting colored lights for communication, indicated it was unhealthy and about to die, then others could intercept and devour the individual. Cannibalism is common place in the dragonfly community.

You've just done makey-uppey again. I've told you about that already. Rule number one: if you haven't got any evidence, don't make yourself look foolish. Stop digging when you're in a hole.

 

[Alan Lowey]

Oh OK then. We were all completely wrong then. These guys are obviously the bee knees when it comes to scientific enquiry. That seals the deal. We're clearly from Jupiter......oh sorry, wrong thread.........bigfoot lives........what, wrong thread again? Sorry....... Oh OK then, these rabbit footprints were clearly made by a tail-hopping giant dragonfly.

You know where you heard it first. Time will tell whether I'm right or not. I'm not in any rush nor do I need to convince skeptics on this site.

Thank you for your posts.

 

[MikeG]

.........I propose that meganeura has evolved a straight-through trachea system which doubles as a silent air-propulsion system. Blood from fish and amphibians prey species could be stored in the thick wing veins to increase oxygen uptake capability.

Makey uppey tosh.

Oh, and did you miss this bit in the piece you quoted:

scientists have proposed is that the Permian atmosphere must have been richer in oxygen than ours for this giant to fly; it could not have negotiated today’s thin air.

Edited:Thought better of it

 

[MikeG]

.....Time will tell whether I'm right or not. I'm not in any rush

You'll be waiting a damn long time. No evidence in support of your case in the last 100,000,000 years. Why would you expect any to turn up in the next 100,000,000?

Thank you for your posts.

The pleasure has been all yours.

 

[Alan Lowey]

You've just done makey-uppey again. I've told you about that already. Rule number one: if you haven't got any evidence, don't make yourself look foolish. Stop digging when you're in a hole.

More Dragonfly Cannibalism: Dragonhunter devours Darner

 

[Pup]

The Centre For Fortean Zoology (CFZ) has studied the phenomena and hasn't come to the conclusion that it's from a commonly known animal. They say it's a real mystery.


THE CFZ INVESTIGATES: Mysterious footprints in Woolsery

......

How does that show "It's a fact that no known animal fits the evidence of the mystery tracks in the snow." It merely shows that one group of people--who are biased toward wanting to find mysteries--have decided it's a mystery.

In this case the authorities *do* blame the attacks on unknown insects!

I don't believe I've ever actually seen an appeal to authority introduced with the actual word "authorities" before.

Why did you ignore the other "authorities" quoted in the article, the doctors rather than the police?

Doctors dismiss the stories as mass hysteria.

"More often than not the victims have unconsciously inflicted the symptoms themselves," said Narrotam Lal, a doctor at King George's Medical College in Lucknow, the state capital.

 

[Agatha]

Okay, this going to get really weird now. There's a video of a strange dragonfly-like entity which is unique in that:

(i) A luminous dynamic two-pronged web-like decoy structure is emitted from the back of it's body
(ii) It has a bright circular structure at the top of each compound eye
(iii) Just before take off, a second pair of eyes emerges up from between the normal two in a helmet-like fashion.


See here: Strange Dragonfly

It looks like a blurry video of a female Brown Hawker, with a bit of spiderweb/a mayfly/a dandelion seed blowing in the breeze close to it towards the end of the video. Brown Hawkers have a pair of spots on their thorax behind their eyes, which accounts for your point iii. The sun could easily account for your point ii and I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently familiar with dragonfly anatomy to address your point i, particularly given the blurriness of the video. Why is it that blurry videos are always of odd creatures, and well focussed ones are of common creatures which are easy to identify?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sm_x2DGvV...wn+Hawker+Mere+Sands+16.9.10+147b+(Large).jpg

This photo of a female brown hawker demonstrates the shiny patches very well. Brown Hawkers are over 7cm long, which fits with the size of the one in the video assuming the bench is a standard size.

 

[Pixel42]

The Centre For Fortean Zoology (CFZ) has studied the phenomena and hasn't come to the conclusion that it's from a commonly known animal. They say it's a real mystery.

So it's not "a fact that no known animal fits the evidence of the mystery tracks in the snow", it's just the opinion of a bunch of people with a known predisposition to see mysteries where none exist?

 

[tuxcat]

Alan, one problem with your claim is that your dragonfly was dead long long before the 1800s and 2000s! After cutting through the rhetoric devices, all I can see is that an unexplained event occurred (or is alleged to have occurred - you haven't demonstrated that it did occur).

The other big problem: Occams Razor - the most simplest explanation that introduces the least unknowns, suppositions and variables tends to be the correct one.

In another thread I have stated the following piece of logic: before attempting to explain a phenomenon first of all verify and provide evidence that it does exist. Without that, you may find yourself chasing hoaxes and mass hysteria.

Incidentally, going off topic slightly, have you taken into account culture? Indian culture is heavily geared towards superstition and nonsense. British culture in the 1800s was infested with religion and imaginary friends. In the 1500s it was witches. In the 21st century, unexplained footprints in the snow (or mud) is a fictitious monkey (or a man in a monkey suit) in the USA. Culture plays a large role in a lot of things - including people's interpretations of unusual events.

 

[tuxcat]

The Centre For Fortean Zoology (CFZ) has studied the phenomena and hasn't come to the conclusion that it's from a commonly known animal. They say it's a real mystery.

So it's not "a fact that no known animal fits the evidence of the mystery tracks in the snow", it's just the opinion of a bunch of people with a known predisposition to see mysteries where none exist?

Again demonstrating the need for GOOD evidence - peer-reviewed credible sources. Not hocus pocus from a group of psueodscientific woos. This is where most people who make claims fall down - by presenting poor "evidence." Yes, finding good sources that stand up to scrutiny is a difficult thing but it's what you have to do.

 

[shemp]

So it's a giant blood-sucking dragonfly that hops around on its tail... It's Bigflypogocabra!

 

[Checkmite]

Okay, this going to get really weird now. There's a video of a strange dragonfly-like entity which is unique in that:

I believe all of these things can be explained thusly:

(i) A luminous dynamic two-pronged web-like decoy structure is emitted from the back of it's body

As initially shown, it does seem puzzling. However, it soon becomes clear that the feathery object is not actually attached to the dragonfly, but the fencepost behind it. Beginning at about the 3:30 mark, when the dragonfly has briefly flown and landed on another portion of the fence rail, you can see the same feathery object still attached to the fencepost behind the dragonfly's leftmost (from our perspective) wings. When the dragonfly takes off again, it remains behind! It is obviously a bit of spiderweb or animal hair clinging to the fencepost and wafting in the breeze.

(ii) It has a bright circular structure at the top of each compound eye

This seems to be nothing more than the reflection of sunlight off the shiny surface of the eyes.

(iii) Just before take off, a second pair of eyes emerges up from between the normal two in a helmet-like fashion.

Not quite. Look at the entire head, not just the eyes. What's happening is the dragonfly is tilting its head upwards; the structures which end up between the eyes from our perspective are merely the front most parts of the dragonfly's "face". In similar fashion a nose sprouts between humans' eyes when they look up at the ceiling!

 

[Agatha]

Having rewatched the video, exactly what Checkmite said with regard to your point i.

It's a female Brown Hawker dragonfly, behaving in normal dragonfly fashion, next to a fence post to which is attached a bit of spiderweb or hair or similar, which reflects the sunlight as it moves in the breeze.

Next blurry video, please.

 

[tuxcat]

I think it's fair to say that this dragonfly supposition has been refuted - despite the fact that it's been dead long BEFORE the "Devil Went to Devon" in the 1800s and the Indian mass hysteria in the 21st Century.

 

[Mudcat]

It's probably a matter of one's own upbringing and belief system. If you're religious then perhaps a supernatural cause is more probable. If you're an atheist, then a new species of giant dragonfly is more likely, despite the bizarreness.

Here are our choices:

1. It was Satan that made the tracks.
2. It was a new species, undocumented before or since, that made the tracks.
3. It was a known animal that made the tracks.
4. It was a prank that made the tracks.

I think we can safely rule out number one, since Satan doesn't exist. We can rule out number two because the proposed creature is a giant insect that supposedly travels using a mode of travel seen in no other creature anywhere else in the world. And unless someone comes forward admitting to making the tracks we can rule out number four. Which leaves us with number three.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

I think it's safe to say that you'd never get a phrase like "endowed with the power of ubiquity" in a modern newspaper.

 

[TjW]

I think it's safe to say that you'd never get a phrase like "endowed with the power of ubiquity" in a modern newspaper.

Although it wouldn't surprise me to see it in certain sorts of spam email targeted toward men.

 

[Andy_Ross]

That giant beetle seen by the guy on an airliner. Did he see it outside the aircraft while it was in flight?

That's a hell of a fast beetle!