Myths are called myths for a reason, because
they're untrue, stories told by ancient people
who wanted to explain a phenomenon or scare
someone into good behavior.
Because we're so much more rational than our
ancestors were, we modern humans know better
than to believe in them.
"Shenanigans! Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!"
However, the terrifying truth is that some
myths are not completely made up.
While it's true that most of the mythical
beasts you know from fairy tales do not roam
our modern world, some actually did walk the
earth, and a few of them might still.
Here are some mythical creatures that might
actually have existed.
The kraken
"And let this day be cursed by we who ready
to wake: the Kraken!"
The kraken has supposedly terrorized sailors
for centuries, a horrible creature which was
said to have long tentacles able to "suction
your face clean off" and pull an entire ship
beneath the waves.
Scientists today are pretty sure that the
legends are based on the giant squid, which
is most definitely real.
Although it's unlikely that giant squid are
particularly fond of sinking ships or suctioning
off the faces of quirky pirates.
"Can I have some more cheese?"
Like pretty much all legendary beasts, especially
the sorts of legendary beasts that enjoy killing
people, the kraken was said to be disproportionately
huge, roughly the size of "a number of small
islands."
Real giant squid aren't quite that big, but
they can grow up to 50 feet in length, which
is big enough.
At least one paleontologist believes he's
found evidence of Triassic squid that were
up to 100 feet in length, though his theory
is not yet well-supported.
We'll have to wait for more evidence to see
if there were giant squid even bigger than
we know.
Dire Wolves
Dire wolves are more than just giant, CGI
canids whose sole purpose appears to be making
Stark enemies wet themselves in fear.
Dire wolves are based on real, extinct animals
that once lived in North America.
Dire wolves lived during the Late Pleistocene,
between 250,000 to roughly 10,000 years ago.
Unfortunately, real dire wolves were not really
the size of ponies, although no one denies
the potential awesomeness of pony-sized wolves.
They were larger than modern wolves, though,
and could weigh as much as 200 pounds, almost
twice what a very large modern wolf might
weigh.
Dire wolves are among the most common animals
found in the La Brea Tar Pits.
More than 200,000 dire wolf specimens have
been uncovered at La Brea, which is a pretty
sizable wolfpack.
Bunyip
The bunyip is an Aboriginal legend.
According to Australian History, the name
means "devil" or "spirit" and the creature
is said to look like a cross between a crocodile
and a horse.
Bunyips stalk and kill human beings and supposedly
make an eerie sound like a "hollow boom."
The bunyip is a little like Australia's Loch
Ness monster in that it lives in the water
and has never been photographed despite the
fact that hundreds of people claim to have
seen it.
However, in 1839, the remains of an animal
called a diprotodon were discovered in Australia,
which proved that a huge, rhino-sized marsupial
similar in appearance to a wombat once roamed
the outback.
Diprotodon was a plant-eater, but it's not
hard to imagine that an angry one would be
just as terrifying as an angry rhino or hippo.
It's unlikely that there are any surviving
populations of diprotodons in Australia, but
they only died out 20,000 to 40,000 years
ago, which was long after the arrival of the
aboriginal people.
That suggests the legends might have come
from real-life encounters between humans and
diprotodons.
Thunderbirds
The thunderbird is a Native American legend
about a bird so huge it can carry a small
whale in its talons.
Thunderbirds, which are said to be responsible
for thunder and lightning, appear in several
tribal traditions, from the plains to the
northwest coast.
It's a pretty cool myth, sort of like the
European notion of winged dragons, except
more plausible.
So plausible, in fact, that JuneauEmpire.com
says there are modern people who have reported
seeing a bird with a wingspan of up to 20
feet in the Alaskan skies.
That's roughly 2.5 times the wingspan of a
bald eagle.
Some biologists have suggested that the sightings
could be a Steller's sea eagle, which is larger
and heavier than a bald eagle, and that similar
sightings could have prompted the thunderbird
legends centuries ago.
What's weird about this claim is the Steller's
sea eagle mostly spends time in Russia and
Japan, though it's possible one could have
gotten lost while out flying.
Either that or Thunderbirds are absolutely
real and roaming across Alaska.
Dragons
One probable hypothesis for the origin of
the dragon legend is the discovery of bones
that resemble dragons.
In one of his writings, fourth-century B.C.
Chinese historian Chang Qu discussed the dragon
remains that were found in the region that
is now known as Sichuan province.
It's likely that similar artifacts were also
known in Europe, potentially giving rise to
legends of fire-breathing monsters.
"You have a beautiful voice."
"Thank you!
We dragons love to sing when we're happy."
But if fossils weren't enough to inspire the
imagination, it's also possible that medieval
people might have encountered actual dragons
in Indonesia, home of the fearsome Komodo
dragon.
According to the Smithsonian, wild komodo
dragons can weigh more than 150 pounds and
may exceed 10 feet in length, and contrary
to what most people believe, medieval dragons
weren't necessarily enormous.
Raphael's famous painting of St. George and
the Dragon depicted a beast no larger than
a lion, not too far off from a real-life komodo
dragon.
Griffins
The dragon might have a similar origin story
to the griffin, a chimeric animal said to
have the front half of an eagle and the back
half of a lion.
According to surviving legends, griffins appeared
in ancient Greece, Persia, Egypt, and medieval
Europe.
In one 2,000-year-old story, griffins built
nests near gold mines in the Gobi desert and
would fiercely defend them from ambitious
miners.
Probably not coincidentally, the bones of
a certain dinosaur were once quite common
in the same desert.
Specifically, paleontologists found plenty
of fossil records for the protoceratops, a
quadrupedal dinosaur with a hooked beak that
could easily be mistaken for a griffin.
From there it seems likely that people concocted
fantastic stories of gold-guarding, fearsome
beasts that were half eagle and half lion.
Chupacabras
Dire wolves are cool, dragons are awesome,
but some mythical creatures are downright
terrifying.
"I'm thirsty!"
The chupacabra is a New World myth that originated
in Puerto Rico, but it's not as old as you
probably thought it was.
The chupacabra is a vampiric creature first
sighted near the turn of this century.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
“How long have you been seventeen?"
Well, not quite.
The Chupacabra is less Edward Cullen and more
of a cross between a mosquito and a coyote.
"Chupacabra" means "goat sucker," but it's
been known to drain the blood of dogs, cats,
chickens, rabbits, cows, and other domesticated
animals.
It has red eyes, spines, and can cover vast
distances in a single leap.
The most recent sightings describe them as
having an almost canine appearance, with thick,
hairless skin like an elephant.
People have actually found the corpses of
animals believed to be chupacabras, which
means the beast is an easily solved mystery.
"Savage teeth, hairless gray skin, and a humanlike
fist adds up to a freakish find.”
Chupacabra corpses almost exclusively turn
out to be coyotes suffering from a severe
form of mange, which causes them to lose their
hair.
If you've ever been terrified by the sight
of a hairless chihuahua, you can probably
pretty easily imagine how a person might mistake
a hairless coyote for a blood-sucking monster.
Basilisks
Like the griffin, the basilisk is a cross
between two terrifying creatures, although
in this case it's really just one terrifying
creature and a chicken.
According to legend, basilisks are born when
very confused roosters decide to sit on serpent's
eggs.
The mythical creature that emerges after a
successful incubation has a rooster's head,
a snake-like body, wings, and the legs of
a chicken.
Although most variations just take the form
of a very large snake.
The basilisk spits fire and paralyzes with
its gaze.
It can move with the front part of its body
upright, it lives in dry or sandy places,
and weasels can kill it.
That's all pretty clear evidence that the
basilisk is based on the Egyptian cobra, which
can also hold the front part of its body upright,
spit venom, and stare lovingly into its victims'
eyes just before striking.
What's more, the cobra's only real enemy is
the mongoose, which looks a lot like a weasel.
Although, no one's quite sure where the chicken
part of this myth originated.
"I was just telling him!"
*AWESOME CHICKEN NOISES*
"I haven't found the right girl, when I do, I'll ask her out."
"Has anyone in this family even SEEN a chicken?"
Werewolves
These hairy shapeshifters have occupied our
imaginations for centuries, but there's a
really logical explanation for the legend.
In the ancient world there was no such thing
as vaccination, and rabies was common not
only in wild animals but also in the family
dog.
A bite from a rabid animal could transform
a person from an upright, rational person
to an irrational, crawling, foaming-at-the-mouth
animal that might attack and bite his or her
friends and loved ones.
"Learn the facts.
Rabies kills nearly four thousand Americans
every one thousand years.
Rabies.
Blech.”
Once a person was bitten, there was no way
to stop the virus from taking over.
And if that person happened to be particularly
hairy, well, you can see how the werewolf
legend might have been born.
“Help me!
Please!
Help me!
Help me!”
Sadly, that means our modern understanding
of werewolves is not in fact based on the
actual existence of impossibly handsome bare-chested
shape-shifters, but normal human beings stricken
with a horrific, almost-100 percent fatal
illness.
Giants
Almost every human culture has a version of
a giant mythical humanoid.
In the British Isles, there's even a legendary
giant that has a name.
Fionn mac Cumhaill was an Irish giant, said
to have built and subsequently destroyed the
famous "Giant's Causeway" in Northern Ireland.
But giants aren't just legends.
The modern world has plenty of examples of
real giants, many of whom exceeded 8 feet
in height.
According to modern DNA testing, some of these
modern giants live in Ireland, where a genetic
pituitary tumor causing unchecked growth can
be traced all the way back to a 7 foot 7 inch
circus performer whose bones are still on
display at the Hunterian Museum.
This genetic link suggests the mutation has
been around for a long time, and may even
go all the way back to Fionn mac Cumhaill
himself, thus proving that giants are not
just the stuff of some bored medieval storyteller's
imagination.
Sadly, golden geese and magic beans probably
aren't based on reality, though one never
knows what archaeologists might someday discover
in a forgotten ruin.
