Is there a cryptid out there that you believe could be real? Maybe Bigfoot? Florida has the Swamp Ape, Oregon has the sasquatch, and the Virginia Peninsula has the Spanish Moss ape. Every place in the USA except Hawaii seems to have a local variety. Through the internet, i seek to see what people from all nations of the world think of these and other cryptids, not just people in USA and Qarsherskiy.
4 Likes
There are some weird UK cryptids. Will-o-the-wisp, Barghest, Redcaps,Boggarts Gryndylows The Lambton Worm, nessie, kelpies and on and on and on. Granted I and manyothers doubt the existence of most of these beings living in our dinky Island with more houses than shrubs but the one about the Lambton Worm may have some truth in it ( at least the first part) where itās described as with nine holes on each side of its Salamander-like head which screams lamprey although I canāt vouch for a giant draconic creature that eats sheep and attacks people.
The Beast Of Bodmin Moore on the other hand ( or paw) is one which many people debate to this day and I personally think that big cats in the UK is a slight possibility although many will strongly disagree with me. If someone ever does spot a big cat in the UK and upload it to Inat then that would be something.
6 Likes
Absent a physical specimen that can be evaluated by scientists, all so-called cryptids can be considered imaginary creatures derived from folklore.
13 Likes
It depends on your definition of cryptid. Definitions range from ācreatures that may or may not existā to ācreatures that exist only in folkloreā. We can discount the latter. So that leaves the former. The best chance here is something that used to, and still may, exist. Iām thinking along the lines of thylacine but other possibilities exist. The chances are very low but we have had examples of creatures long thought extinct alive.
10 Likes
Ooh, cryptids are fun! I donāt really believe in any of them, but the most likely one for me would be Nessie (Loch Ness Monster).
I think Nessie being a plesiosaur-type creature someone found the skeleton of is a cool to think about. Nessie looks so similar to plesiosaur that this would make sense, although I donāt know if plesiosaurs occured near Loch Ness.
2 Likes
I have seen the Ivory-billed Woodpecker counted as a cryptid before.
9 Likes
Anything marine which has the greatest likelihood of avoiding detection.
I think itās helpful to remember that the okapi and giant squid were considered by some to be cryptids for a period of time.
12 Likes
The discourse on topics such as cryptids (and the alien/UFO/UAF topics) is challenging, given that the different opinions, beliefs and world views can usually not be understood bidirectionally.
1 Like
I agree that the definition of cryptid can be somewhat squishy. To me, a Thylacine or Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not a cryptid ā¦ both are real animals, known to science, that may not be extinct (although itās unlikely). To me the classic cryptid is some animal that is totally unknown to modern science (no good physical evidence of its occurrence exists, currently or in the past). A huge hairy hominid in the Pacific Northwest is in a very different category than a woodpecker for which we have physical specimens.
Thatās not to say there are no animals remaining which have not yet been described by modern science but which may be known to local people in remote parts of the world (the Saola in SE Asia comes to mind). I suspect all of these cryptids will fit nicely within our current taxonomies once theyāre ādiscoveredā by Western biologists. Meaning, no Mothman, Jersey Devil, or Chupacabra is awaiting discovery.
6 Likes
The problem with cryptids is that the folklore around them collects so much detail that it becomes biologically implausible. Like mapinguari. Some say that it is a giant ground sloth that survived the Pleistocene mass extinction. Which could be countenanced in itself, but then one would expect it to behave in plausibly Xenarthran ways. āA mythical beast that, in Amazonian legend, had the nasty habit of twisting off the heads of humans and devouring themā ā well, thereās a reason that both extant and extinct sloths are classified as Folivora. āFeet point backwardsā ā seriously??? āOften said to have a gaping mouth on its abdomenā ā just no. So, thanks to the embellishment of folklore, we have gone from a possible surviving giant ground sloth to utter nonsense.
There is a reason why a technique for determining whether someone is a liar involves asking them to tell the story several times on different days. If they are telling the truth, the story will stay substantively the same from one telling to the next; whereas liars tend to embellish and elaborate from one telling to the next.
5 Likes
Not sure about likely to exist but I think it would be cool if chupacabras actually existed.
Scary. But cool.
2 Likes
Absent a physical specimen that can be evaluated by scientists, all lifeforms could be considered imaginary creatures derived from anecdotal evidence.
More well-known and less plausible examples of cryptids such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are only one part of a broad spectrum hereā¦ many once-thought cryptids are now proven to exist - such as the Kraken.
https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/2020/12/12/seven-cryptids-species/
6 Likes
I donāt know. Iāve talked to people that I trust who have seen some things. Do I think they saw cryptids? Maybe not? Maybe low lighting and other conditions confuse us. BUT, Iām willing to believe that they saw what they couldnāt explain and just maybe they saw something I couldnāt explain either. I love folkloreāas folklore, itās often not true in the sense that it presents cold reality, but it does present us with story truth, which does reflect back on reality (for example, ghost stories tell us about what a culture values or fears). And sometimes, buried in the vivid descriptions is something realāIād be an idiot to suggest that people donāt know or understand their own landscape and that I do. Iād love for a cryptid to be identified as realāit would be exciting. And, I find myself flustered these days by discussions of UFOs as potentially real. I think aliens very unlikely still. I remember when UFOs were the stuff of Leonard Nimoyās In Search Of . . . along with Nessie, and Bigfoot, and spontaneous human combustion (which gave me nightmares). :) So, Iām willing to entertain possibilities and respect peopleās stories, even if I think these creatures highly unlikely.
5 Likes
Depends on what you call cryptids. If a cryptid is an organism that people believe is absent/extinct in an area but actually exists in that region, Iām sure there are hundreds, if not thousandsā¦ they probably wonāt be giant apes or dragons or whatnot, but you can rest assured the bucketfuls of cryptid beetles, hymenopterans, and other inverts will have your back.
From the smaller list of more well-known cryptids, I wouldnāt be surprised if at least a few of the accounts of big cats in Great Britain are based on real accounts of escaped exotic pets. Whether or not actual surviving populations of the animals exist, I donāt know enough nor do I feel confident enough to give anything close to an educated opinion on the matter.
My favorite cryptid, while itās far from realistically plausible, is the Van Meter Visitor. I think it would be really cool if the last of the pterosaurs were hiding away in some caves, no matter how impossible it would be.
1 Like
This also reminded me of a really cool interpretation I saw a while ago of the Mothman as a late-surviving anurognathid pterosaur. Credit to Iguanodonāt on Tumblr!
3 Likes
Now that is one Pennsylvania story I have never heard. Thanks for sharing. Iām going to keep a lookout for an animal that roams PA woods on moonlit nights very slowly and dissolves into tears. Unfortunately I donāt supposed my picture of a puddle in moonlight would ever be accepted as an iNat observation of it. ;)
3 Likes
Much as I why like to see it happen, I doubt if any of the well known cryptids such as Nessie, the sasquatch or the yeti will be verified any time in the future. A lot of effort has been put in to finding these organisms without any concrete evidence. This not to say there are no more undiscovered animal species waiting to be described by science. The okapi was unknown to western science until the 20th century. The kouprey, a large species of south-east Asian wild ox was not described until 1937. From the same region, the popa langur monkey was not discovered until 2020.
Of course if we include small invertebrates such as insects, there well may be as many ācryptidā species as ones that have already been identified.
2 Likes
Well If Iām being honest I donāt believe in any of the ones Iāve heard of. They are such an interesting thing, since they all have a deeper meaning or origin. It is interesting that so many cultures have a variation of the story of a āwild manā like Bigfoot, but I think thatās just because we find the idea of a human returned to animal instincts innately fascinating/scary. But Iāll give you something maybe tangentially related, I think that there is a very high chance that the St. Kitts Bullfinch is still out there despite the consensus in scientific communities that itās extinct. There are sightings of it by naturalists and birdwatchers who have lived on the island for many years, as well as some convincing audio recordings.
3 Likes
Enjoyed your link to the seven cryptid species. Minor nitpick however, I seriously doubt that Amerigo Vespucci visited Australia in 1499, some 107 years before the first recorded European visit to the continent by Dutch navigator Willem Janzoon in 1606.
2 Likes