Carbuncle

I haven't seen any topics anywhere about this creature. ATS is practically void of discusions.

The Carbuncle is a south american animal that has a gem growing from it's forehead. It has feline appearance, but many describe it a rodent, a bird or even a reptile.

Can anyone here tell me more about the creature? Maybe more info or something interesting?

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

Wow that's a new one. Local folklore I'd say.

originally posted by: ZeroFurrbone
I haven't seen any topics anywhere about this creature. ATS is practically void of discusions.

The Carbuncle is a south american animal that has a gem growing from it's forehead. It has feline appearance, but many describe it a rodent, a bird or even a reptile.

Can anyone here tell me more about the creature? Maybe more info or something interesting?

This ought to help you figure out why you haven't heard of one.

Google Search
www.google.com... j0i22i30k1.5233.22975.0.28019.9.9.0.0.0.0.176.763.8j1.9.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.9.763...0i67k1j0i20i264k1j0i20i263k1.0.lgW4L3H7noU

a reply to: recrisp

Yes.. I did search before i posted here on google. Only thing that shows actual promise is this:

Carbuncle

But it is extremely vague and a mix of different places. True and untrue facts into one.

I thought Carbuncle was a made up summons in the Final Fantasy Universe.
Never knew it had any origin beyond that.

a reply to: ZeroFurrboneYou may have two seprate entities ixedup here.

I've experienced the "carb uncle'' just this last holiday.
obese, and loud with a catty bimbo on his arm named
"Diamond" (obviously) her stage name.
Carb Uncle, while consuming massive amounts of food,
would loudly boast "Ain't she a GEM"
She looked South American.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
I thought Carbuncle was a made up summons in the Final Fantasy Universe.
Never knew it had any origin beyond that.

All of Final Fantasy's summons are based on folklore or mythology. At least in the older games. I don't know about the new ones.

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone
When I was a child, the doctor had to cut a carbuncle off my knee. I had spent a whole day at school being lamed by it.

a carbuncle is a cluster of boils on the skin.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

also prince charles' pet term for ugly examples of architecture.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
I thought Carbuncle was a made up summons in the Final Fantasy Universe.
Never knew it had any origin beyond that.

I thought the same thing.

Or that guy Bambara from Æon Flux saying "You're just a dirty little carbuncle, festering in the corner!"

Horned gophers once existed, which this may or may not be based on.

The horned gopher had two horns; these were large (in comparison to body size), paired, and originated from the nose. Horned gophers are the smallest known mammals to ever have horns, and the only known species of horned rodents, and apart from one fossil species of armadillo, Peltephilus, the only known fossorial horned mammals.[1] They were native to what is now the Great Plains of North America, most concentrated in Nebraska.

Source

Thanks for swaying the topic. This is about the Mythical Chilean creature : Carbuncle.

a reply to: Macenroe82

Yeah, it is based on the real Carbuncle myth

a reply to: RoScoLaz5

thats a monsterous carbuncle

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

Here's one without a gem

I have a pond near me called carbuncle pond. It has a reddish toned dirt. Not sure if thats why they call it carbuncle pond. Its in rhode island

This usually helps me find stuff....

Book of imaginary beings

but this is what you are looking for i believe

Book of Creatures

Carbunclo (Spanish) and carbuncle (English) are both derived from the Latin carbunculus, “little coal”. This has been used historically to refer to the garnet and the ruby, medically to a type of abscess, and teratologically to a glowing South American creature associated with riches. Sightings of the carbunclo come from the southernmost countries – Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay.

Multiple accounts of its appearance are given, and it may vary from area to area. A carbunclo has a shining mirror on its head, like a glowing coal, from which it gets its name. The creature itself produces a bright bluish-white glow from its body, easily distinguishable from wood fires and visible from over a league away. A carbunclo is larger than a mouse, perhaps cat-sized, and has a segmented body shaped like a small corn cob. The light is produced from within and shines out through junctures in the body segments.

A bivalved shell resembling a rock is present. If an enemy is detected, the shell clamps shut, extinguishing the light and camouflaging the creature as an ordinary stone. Father Narciso y Barcel wrote in 1791 that the “lid” is covered in exquisite plumage, and there are beautiful spots on its breast. Carbunclos are also capable of leaping and running swiftly. Eulogio Rojas, observing a carbunclo from one meter away in 1879, noted more than four legs.

In Chiloé carbunclos guard treasure and are cat-sized quadrupeds with glowing beards on their chins. Carbunclos move about at night like enormous glow-worms in search of food and water. They have keen senses and are quick to escape or close their shells at the slightest sound. During the drought of 1925, flashing lights were seen descending the hill of Tulahuén to the valley of the Rio Grande; this was interpreted as a family of carbunclos desperate for water.

And finally, seriously guys? This is the cryptids forum right?

Try just a little bit harder to at least be respectful of ancient beliefs and traditions, it not the Science forum after all.

Hello!! I'm a little late, but I didn't think I was late enough to warrant leaving this thread hanging. I'm actually the person who wrote the Carbuncle article in the fourth post. I did that a few years back, but I've been updating it the past few days with more information and actual sources (which is, incidentally, how I found this thread). Here's another link now that the article is actually finished: Carbuncle

But to give you the gist: carbuncles are a weird, vague creature with a wild variance of different depictions, but I'm going to cover the most common features. They're small, nocturnal, herbivorous animals with a shell and a bright red gem in their foreheads that live in the mountains of Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay. They have something - variously described as a lid, curtain, or hatch - that they use to cover their gem when they need to, the reason being that the gem gives off a perpetual glow which can sometimes give them away to predators (or greedy people) at night. If threatened, they will either close their shell so that they look like a regular rock, or they'll produce a blinding flash from their gems and then cover them, leaving their adversaries in darkness. It's said that their gems bring great joy and fortune, but they can only be removed from a live carbuncle. If the carbuncle dies before the gem is retrieved, the gem loses all its splendor.

A side note, in modern times "carbuncle" basically just means any kind of animal with a red gem in its forehead. That's how you get DnD's depictions, everything from an armadillo to a cave lizard, and Final Fantasy's, which are usually green and more like cats or squirrels.

Here is another excellent article on the creature, albeit in Spanish.
Also, the Book of Creatures in the above post does a pretty good job of explaining. They're one of my first research spots when I'm looking into any odd creature from folklore, their research is pretty thorough.

Personally I think the carbuncle was originally local folklore (or even, perhaps, local descriptions of very real creatures - armadillos and fireflies) that got mixed up with Spanish folklore. In fact, there are a rare few descriptions of carbuncles in the Philippines and Spain around the same time period, which implies that the Spaniards wrote down what they wanted to exist and not what the locals actually told them. Nonetheless, carbuncles get mentioned a lot in South American writings and poetry post-colonization, so they play a pretty significant role in the area. It's just that most of the descriptions are in Spanish, and also that carbuncle is a medical term, making it hard to actually dig up information on them if English is your only language. Still, I translated what I could.

Another fun fact, carbuncles weren't named after the nasty boils, but actually after an archaic name for garnet! The creature has other names in Guarani and Pira if not more native languages, but the Spaniards went with carbuncle.

originally posted by: ZeroFurrbone
Can anyone here tell me more about the creature? Maybe more info or something interesting?

You'll have very good luck if you catch one.
And they probably taste really good barbecued.