Very Strange Hybrids
A compendium of incredible (or credible?) crosses
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This webpage used to quote a large number of reports, most of which have now been moved into my book Telenothians, available here >>
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Anuran-human Hybrids
Reports about this type of hybrid, which were being collected on this page, became so numerous that it seemed better to move them to a separate page of the website.
Elephant-human Hybrids
Parvati and Ganesh visit Shiva as he meditates in the forest. Ganesh is a Hindu god with the head of an elephant and body of a man.
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For it was reported that an elephant in Egypt fell in love with a certain girl who was selling flowers.
—Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, VIII, V
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An elephant-human hybrid (Zakariya al-Qazwini, Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing, 13th century).
At least two reports have alleged the births of elephant-human hybrids in the state of Georgia. The first case allegedly took place in Montezuma, a town in the central part of the state. The article below is quoted from the June 28, 1882 (p. 1, bottom of col. 4) issue of The Evening Critic, a newspaper published in Washington, D.C.
We have been to the home of a colored mother on one of our back streets and found a remarkable monstrosity in a week old babe. It is partly enveloped in an elephant’s skin and could not be told from the hide of this animal unless seen on the child. It has a thick, rough scaly exterior, covered with just enough long hair to easily discern it. The child has a long, pendant ear on the side of the head covered by this skin. We view it as a facsimile of the ear of a baby elephant. The skin protrudes a quarter of an inch above the natural skin of the child. Its cries are low and plaintive, like an animal, not a human being. The mother states that she attended a circus last fall, was frightened by the elephants and regards this as the cause of the child’s strange deformity. The child, or an animal, as it may turn out to be, is large and healthy and seems likely to live. What a curiosity it would be if it should live. One of our citizens has offered the mother $1,000 for it. It is daily visited by hundreds.
Fish-human Hybrids
Reports about this type of hybrid, which were being collected on this page, became so numerous that it seemed better to move them to a separate page of the website.
A Fish-reptile Hybrid
A fish-reptile hybrid (Chinese school, Quianlong Period, mid-18th century; ||y6k5bwey). It is unknown whether this image was based on a specimen.
A notice about an ostensible fish-lizard hybrid appeared in the Harlem, Montana, Enterprise (Nov. 7, 1912, p. 6, col. 5):
Half-Fish-Half-Lizard Caught
Fish-frog Hybrids
Reports about this type of hybrid, which were being collected on this page, became so numerous that it seemed better to move them to a separate page of the website.
Snake-human Hybrids
Reports about this type of hybrid, which were being collected on this page, became so numerous that it seemed better to move them to a separate page of the website.
Arachné (Gustave Doré, La Divine Comedie)
By the same author: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World, Oxford University Press (2006).