Fossilized giant

This photo of a ‘fossilized Irish giant’ was taken at a London rail depot, and appeared in the December 1895 issue of Strand Magazine. The giant was allegedly dug up by a Mr Dyer while prospecting for iron ore in County Antrim (Ireland).

It was 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) tall, weighed 2 tonnes, and had 6 toes on its right foot. After being exhibited in Dublin, it was brought to England and exhibited in Liverpool and Manchester at sixpence a head, ‘attracting scientific men as well as gaping sightseers’. After a legal dispute over ownership, nothing more appears to have been heard or seen of the exhibit.

This story only gets weirder... read more here 

The ground lion with unique eyes

Chameleons are a unique type of lizard. We all know they can change colour but did you know it is not a type of camouflage but a form of communication? Many things about the 160 different types of chameleon are both bizarre and beautiful, I mean how many animals do you know that sleep upside down?
Chameleons have parrot-like feet with sharp claws on each toe, eyes like stereoscopes and long, fast moving tongues. They are found in warm places such as Africa, Spain and Asia where they can live in either the desrt orthe rainforest. They are good at climbing and hunting and have no ears.

Many types of chameleon have a prehensile tail and display a variety of horns on their distinctively shaped heads.  Each eye, has a scaly lid shaped like a cone, can rotate independently of the other, enabling them to see two different things at the same time in almost a 360 degree radius. They eat mainly insects by catching them with their tongues which are sticky at the end and they get water by licking dew from leaves.



Chameleon from G. A. Boulenger, Fauna of British India. 1890



Young Cape Dwarf Chameleon photographed in a garden in Tokai, Cape Province by Charles J Sharp.



How do they change into those amazing colours? They have four layers of skin with different colour pigments in each and their nerves and hormones cause the colours in the layers to change into the different colours and patterns.

Chameleons like to keep to themselves and can get very aggressive even towards other chameleons. This may be why the English word chameleon comes from the ancient greek words which mean ground lion.

Monster Awareness Month is starting in just a few days.

Orrin Grey is a skeleton who likes monsters.
When asked, he claims to mostly write oubliettes.
You can find out more about him and other monsters at "Who Killed Orrin Grey?"  There is also a list of monster movies.



Also just a reminder about Monster Awareness Month
Who are your favourite monsters? Mine include:

• Godzilla, 
• Mike Wazowski and Sulley 
• the raptors in Jurassic Park
• any demon monsters in the TV show Monkey (great sage and equal of Heaven)
  
  Gojira (Godzilla) 1954 movie posters made by Toho Company Ltd. (東宝株式会社, Tōhō Kabushiki-kaisha).