Many perplexing mythical creatures, from the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland to Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest, have never been proven to exist. But mythical creatures aren’t necessarily what they seem to be. Many animals that were thought to be mythical have later been proven to be real creatures. But we can’t blame anyone for questioning their existence given how bizarre-looking they are in the first place. There are always plenty of real mythical creatures stories to be found.
Common legend claims that most mythical creatures have absurd attributes and traits that may make it difficult to believe in their existence. The fact that we often lack sufficient evidence to support mythical creatures’ existence does not mean that they don’t exist. You could assume that if real mythical creatures existed, people would be aware of them. Yet, according to some estimates, as many as twenty thousand new species could be discovered each year by experts. More than 80% of the species on Earth, according to a study published in the journal PLOS Biology, are yet undiscovered.
Can you blame naturalists if it took them a while to discover that some mythical creatures were real? There is a lot of life in the universe, some of it quite strange. As we will soon discover, several of these purportedly mythical creatures did, in fact, exist, and some of them are still around today. You might be wondering why there aren’t any photos if real mythical creatures actually exist. Actually, we do, put simply, we mistake them for a different species of animal.
Let’s jump to our list of the top 5 five real mythical creatures that actually exist:
The Mystical Unicorns
A mythical creature having a single horn on the top of its head, the unicorn is a legendary breed of horse. Are they real? Yes, they were, but not as you may have imagined. If the myth of a real mythical creature, the vanished Siberian unicorn is to be believed, then rhinoceroses, not horses, were the true ancestors of unicorns. The Siberian unicorn had a big horn in the midst of its head and walked on four legs, just like the unicorn it may have been the inspiration for.
The rhino, on the other hand, was bigger, stronger, and possibly meaner than the unicorn. It weighed four tonnes, for context. That is something you wouldn’t want to be near. The last known Siberian unicorn existed in Eurasia about thirty-nine thousand years ago. It was a herbivore that preferred to eat shrubs, which was fortunate for the humans present at the time. Yet, it might have been quite ferocious toward unlucky people who went too close, like modern rhinos.
The Great Sea Serpent
Another vicious real mythical creature thought to patrol the ocean is the sea snake. Its existence was described by sailors in the past, and as a result, it entered lore. The creature is an allegedly huge fish-snake hybrid, as you could have gathered from its name. Although its characteristics and legends are greatly exaggerated, the sea snake is real.
To begin with, the alleged sea serpent is actually an oarfish, which resembles a cross between a fish and a snake. Even though the oarfish is very long for a fish, it is significantly smaller. The longest bony fish in the world can grow to a length of thirty feet. Unfortunately, because the oarfish lurks deep underwater, we don’t know much about it. However, we are aware that it does not consume either people or fish, but rather small marine animals like krill and crustaceans.
The Legendary Kraken
Probably the terrifying marine monster, the real mythical creature is the Kraken. It is said to be a large, octopus-like creature with a penchant for sinking ships and devouring their crew. According to legend, the Kraken used its powerful arms to attack and sink ships. If it didn’t succeed, it began swimming in circles until it sank the ship by creating a swirl.
The question to be asked is whether Kraken, a real mythical creature actually ever existed and the answer to this question is, yes indeed. The so-called Kraken is actually a really massive squid. This creature was gigantic but much less aggressive and dangerous than sailors claimed. There are no reports of it ever attacking, sinking, or even being strong enough to sink a ship. When the remains of a massive squid were discovered on a Danish shore in 1853, the legend of the Kraken was turned into reality. Strangely, the enormous squid is just as elusive as the myth that it gave rise to. We know very little about it because it resides in such a deep underwater environment.
However, we are aware that it may grow up to 18 meters in length, has the biggest eyes of all living things, and is routinely targeted for food by sperm whales. When a whale approaches, the smaller, weaker giant squid typically runs away. But when cornered, it will occasionally fight back, and sperm whales frequently have scars from confrontations with enormous squids.
Pouakai The Flying Terror
According to Maori tradition, there is a huge flying bird that likes to pick up people from the ground and fly them off to be devoured. They gave the bird the name Pouakai. In reality, this bird actually existed, as Frederick Richardson Fuller, a taxidermist at Canterbury Museum, later discovered in 1871.
The largest eagle to ever wander the world was the Haast eagle, as it is now known. Its preferred prey was the larger, now extinct, moa bird, which weighed between 100 and 250 kg and had wings that alone could reach a height of three meters. Since we humans are far lighter than birds, the bird may have actually hunted us. Humans did not play a part in the evolution of the Haast eagle or the moa. Given that the earliest people to set foot in New Zealand most likely wore feathered clothing, the eagle might have mistaken them for the moa. It might not have given a damn, though, and simply put us on the menu.
The Mythical Griffins
Another hybrid real mythical creature is the griffin. They are said to have lion-like tails, lion-like backs, and eagle-like faces, wings, and front legs. They had wings, too, making them a species that early humans would have avoided if they ever came in contact.
Griffins indeed existed in reality, but it was well before the first humans even showed up. They belonged to a group of dinosaurs known as protoceratops. The protoceratops, like the mythical griffins, was a four-legged creature with a beak but no wings. But, it is not surprising that people assumed it had wings at the time. In those days people had little knowledge of dinosaurs and thought that only birds had beaks. The real creature also has lengthy shoulder blades that might pass for wings.
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