I think the Loch Ness Monster is likely to have been real at some point, although I bet it was just a large eel or something.
That Henry Hudson mermaid business got me thinking. Specifically, about Aquatic Ape Hypothesis. The linked article tells us that scientists generally consider it pseudoscience, but for the sake of argument, letās suppose that it was true. In that scenario, we have a situation much like that of extant marine mammal evolution.
All vertebrates other than fishes evolved on land; all known marine reptiles, seabirds, and marine mammals are descended from terrestrial ancestors. Their aquatic lifestyle represents a return to the sea. Many are still partially bound to the land ā sea turtles, pinnipeds, and all known seabirds must return to land to reproduce.
What if the hypothetical lineage of (semi-)aquatic hominids continued down that evolutionary path? What if they continued down it as far as the hoofed mammals who became cetaceans? Looks like merfolk to me.
Well it might be cool, but I wouldnāt know because I would be hiding in a closet.
Chupacabras do exist. In my corner of the US, any unidentified animal from a coyote with mange to even a dead skate found at a landfill (where did that come from?) have been called chupacabras. It is any animal that canāt be readily identified, so thereās bound to be quite a few on iNat.
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Itās an interesting idea but i feel like externally prominent breasts would be one of the first things to evolve away in an aquatic setting, i donāt think any marine mammal has them. And yet they are in all the mermaid stories just because of what some Homo sapiens wanted to see in the stories. I think a real aquatic ape would look more like that Shape of Water sea monster except smooth like a porpoise or seal instead of scaly
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Like Gerald!
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Note that all of these have been proven to exist since photography has improved ā whereas despite most people now carrying cameras on them at all times, we have yet to see any convincing evidence of bigfoot, a large mammal found in some of the most populous regions of the world.
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I think this only rules out cryptids in areas where they would be seen and photographed, water breathing lake monsters that do not have to surface for air could remain mostly undetected by smartphone cameras, as could UFOs at altitudes where a smartphone camera has difficulty focusing clearly