Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Abominable Snowman
English name for the YETI of Central Asia.
Etymology: Coined by Calcutta Statesman
columnist Henry Newman in 1921 as a translation
of the Sherpa (Sino-Tibetan) METOH-
KANGMI, which a telegraphist miscoded as
“Metch kangmi.” Newman claimed it meant
“abominable snowman.” The phrase became a
popular term with journalists from the 1920s
through the 1960s. The name does not come
from the creature’s supposed horrible odor, as
some have alleged. The term also serves as a
generic name for unknown Asian hominids.
Variant names: ABSM, Snowman.
Physical description: See YETI.
Distribution: Himalaya Mountains of Nepal
and Tibet.
Sources: Charles K. Howard-Bury, Mount
Everest: The Reconnaissance, 1921 (London:
Edward Arnold, 1922), p. 241; Henry
Newman, Indian Peepshow (London: G. Bell
and Sons, 1937), pp. 156–160; Ralph Izzard,
The Abominable Snowman (Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday, 1955), pp. 28–29.
Abonesi
SMALL HOMINID of West Africa.
Distribution: Northern Togo.
Source: Bernard Heuvelmans, Les bêtes
humaines d’Afrique (Paris: Plon, 1980), p. 496.
ABSM
See ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN.
Etymology: Ivan T. Sanderson’s initialism for
ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, which he used as a
generic name for any unknown PRIMATE or HO-
MINID.
Source: Ivan T. Sanderson, Abominable
Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (Philadelphia:
Chilton, 1961).
Abyssal Rainbow Gar
One of BEEBE’S ABYSSAL FISHES of the North
Atlantic Ocean.
Physical description: Length, 4 inches. Scarlet
head. Long beak. Blue body. Yellow tail.
4 ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN
Behavior: Abyssal. Swims with a stiff, upright
posture.
Distribution: North Atlantic Ocean.
Significant sighting: Observed only once at
2,500 feet by William Beebe in a bathysphere
off Bermuda in the early 1930s.
Source: William Beebe, Half Mile Down
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1934).
Acorn Worm (Giant)
Undiscovered marine INVERTEBRATE.
Physical description: Adult Acorn worms
(Class Enteropneusta) of the type Planctosphaera
pelagica have never been observed. The larvae
(tornariae) are larger than those of other hemichordates,
and if the size ratio is the same as in
other species, the adults could grow to 9 feet
long. The larvae are large, transparent spheres
with arborescently branched, ciliated feeding
bands and a U-shaped alimentary tract.
Habitat: Oceanic mud at depths of 250–
1,660 feet.
Distribution: Eastern North Atlantic and
North Pacific Oceans.
Possible explanation: The larvae may be the
abnormally enlarged tornariae of another family
of Acorn worms (Ptychoderidae) that fail to
metamorphose into adults.
Sources: C. J. van der Horst, “Planctosphaera
and Tornaria,” Quarterly Journal of Microscopial
Science 78 (1936): 605–613; M. G. Hadfield
and R. E. Young, “Planctosphaera (Hemichordata:
Enteropneusta) in the Pacific Ocean,”
Marine Biology 73 (1983): 151–153; M. W.
Hart, R. L. Miller, and L. P. Madin, “Form and
Feeding Mechanism of a Living Planctosphaera
pelagica (Phylum Hemichordata),” Marine
Biology 120 (1994): 521–533.
Adam-Ayu
WILDMAN of Central Asia.
Etymology: Kazakh (Turkic), “bear man.”
Distribution: Tian Shan Mountains, northern
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.
Source: Odette Tchernine, The Yeti (London:
Neville Spearman, 1970), p. 178.