Name given to the consideration of the most paranormal cryptozoology reports and to the paranormal world posited to contain them. Modern cryptozoology is largely confined to accounts of sightings of unknown species that exist in exotic environments, especially remote jungles and mountains or the middle of oceans and deep lakes. The major subjects of cryptozoological research are animals that modern zoology suggests are unlikely to exist but which are by no means impossible. The production of an actual specimen of a loch ness monster or an “abominable snowman” would cause some revision but no major revolutions in the field.
However, along with improbable sightings of bigfoot in the rural northwestern United States and sauropods in remote areas of Africa, at the margin of cryptozoology are many extraordinary reports of hairy hominids roaming around in more populated areas, not to mention even more exotic creatures such as flying hominids or even classical mythological creatures dragons, satyrs, and centaurs. The study of these reports is known as paracryptozoology.