5 (un)Real Cryptids

You might know a thing or two about cryptids. You know the ones: Bigfoot, Mothman, and the Jersey Devil to name a few. No one knows for sure if they are really real or if people just see things. But that’s where the following former cryptids got their start.

1. Komodo Dragon. For decades, there was talk of a giant lizard that wandered the Indonesian island of Komodo. No one believed it to be real. That is until 1910 when Lieutenant Steyn van Hansbroek was able to catch and kill one. An explorer by the name of W. Douglas Burden wanted more, though. So he decided to travel there himself and was able to come back to New York with not just a few dead specimens, but two live Komodo dragons! They were put on display at the Bronx Zoo and later inspired the original 1933 King Kong.
2. Platypus. Even now, this animal still gives the feeling of a cryptid despite being very real. It is native to Australia and upon its discovery, broke a lot of rules of what we knew about mammals. First, it is one of five mammals that is able to give birth to eggs rather than live offspring. Secondly, it has the tale of a beaver, the feet of an otter, and a duck-like bill on its head. Just by the description alone, it is no surprise that people thought the platypus didn’t exist without proof.
3. Okapi. It looks like a cross between a zebra, donkey, deer, and antelope. However, its closest genetic link is the giraffe - which seems appropriate as its nickname is the forest giraffe. The okapi’s existence was known about for years and years prior to the Europeans, of course. But even then, it seems as though they are hard to spot and are rarely seen.
4. Giant squid. The story of the kraken and Cthulhu had to come from somewhere. Sightings of giant squids date all the way back to the times of Aristotle. Pliny the Elder even described them in his book Natural History. Pliny’s description of the animal wasn’t too far off either; the only thing he got wrong was the size of the squid. He estimated it to be 30 feet (or 9 meters) long, but in reality giant squids can grow to as big as 40 feet (or 12 meters) long! Early zoologists usually only had the carcasses to work with. Add that to the fact that a carcass can decay super quickly, it isn’t hard to imagine why they remained cryptids for so long.
5. The Unicorn. I know this is a strange one to end on, but hear me out. It’s not that the unicorn is real by any means; it’s more like an explanation came about on why people thought it did exist at one point in time. Pliny the Elder described a unicorn in his book as follows: “[It has] the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of a horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length. This animal, it is said, cannot be taken alive.” Many believe that Pliny was describing not a unicorn, but a rhino. Another possibility for these alleged sightings were that of narwhals.

So while there has yet to be a confirmed Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster or any other current cryptid body to be found, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It just simply means that they might have not been found yet. And they might not want to be found either.