Books like Cryptozoology by Chad Arment

72 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), col. maps ; 25 x 29 cm.IG1160L Lexile

Former Italian police marshal Guarnaccia is thrust into a grisly hunt for a serial killer, working under relentless detective Simonetti in the historic streets of Florence.

Medieval authors placed fantastic creatures in the borders of manuscripts, since they mark the boundaries of our understanding. Tales throughout the world generally place fabulous beasts in marginal locations. According to apocalyptic visions of the Bible, they will also proliferate as we approach the end of time. Because they challenge our conceptual powers, fantastic creatures also seem to exist at the limits of language. Legends tell us that imaginary animals belong to a primordial time, before we had encompassed the world in names, categories and elaborate conceptual frameworks. This richly illustrated book shows how, despite their liminal role, dog-men, mermaids, and many other imaginary creatures are socially constructed through the same complex play of sensuality and imagination as "real" ones. It traces the history of imaginary animals from Palaeolithic art to the Harry Potter stories. These figures help us psychologically by giving form to our amorphous fears as "monsters", as well as embodying our hopes as "wonders."

An examination of the legends and history of strange creatures.

On the Track of Unknown Animals presents evidence for the existence of numerous other large animals which have been reported by local people, but which have not yet been identified and described by science. The still 'hidden' animals presented here include the man-faced creatures of Southeast Asia, the living fossils of Oceania, the reported giant sloth and still unknown apes of South America, stories of mammoths still ranging over the Siberian taiga, as well as descriptions of many as yet unexplained strange creatures of the African jungles. A current topic of leading interest in cryptozoology is the accumulating body of evidence that Neanderthal Man - a relative of modern man but a separate species from Homo sapiens - almost surely lived simultaneously with modern man into historic times, and is probably still living in remote jungles and mountain fastnesses of the Asian Continent.

An encyclopedic reference that surveys animal symbolism across cultures and epochs, blending zoological facts with cultural context and artistic representation.