Lake Monster Photographed?

A supposed unknown lake monster was photographed earlier this week in Lake Windermere, England.  The "creature" was photographed by Tom Pickles, who was kayaking on Lake Windermere as part of a team building exercise with his company. He said he saw the animal swim past him and watched the creature for about 20 seconds.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph," the Telegraph quoted him as saying. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal - it's not like any animal I've ever seen before," he stated.

Although scientists are skeptical, this is reported to be the eighth sighting of a large creature at the lake in the last five years.  The creature has been dubbed "bownessie" by locals and the media.  Read a comprehensive summary here.

Here is the picture:

"Bownessie" - Photograph by Tom Pickles

New Species of Giant Crayfish Found in Tennessee

Reuters

Biologists Chris Taylor from the University of Illinois and Guenter Schuster of Eastern Kentucky have recently discovered a new species of crayfish (commonly called crawdads or crawfish) in Tennessee.  The uniqueness of the species comes from the size of the creatures - about twice as big as other crayfish in the area. According to the Reuters article,

"This isn't a crayfish that someone would have picked up and just said, 'Oh, it's another crayfish,' and put it back," said University of Illinois aquatic biologist Chris Taylor, one of the researchers.

"You would have recognized it as something really, really different and you would have saved it," Taylor added in a statement.

The new species, Barbicambarus simmonsi, is about 12 cm (5 inches) long and most specimens are recovered under large rocks in deep areas on creeks. Read more here.