I was just going to say this! megolodon was a near surface species that would not still be megolodon if it had evolved to live in the depths
An undiscovered deep sea giant would likely be more like a sleeper or sixgill shark
Megamouths are extremely elusive filter feeders that spend the day in the mesopelagic zone, what if there is another deep sea filter feeder we don’t know about? That seems plausible
I’ve always wondered if chronic wasting disease (or some other illness with similar symptoms) was responsible for legends like this. I’ve heard it makes deer behave in a “zombie like” manner, which would certainly fit the bill for deer that “seem off”
Definitely not of this world.
Expectations really matter! A few years ago I walked in a local state forest. A sign at the trailhead warning that a cougar had been seen there. “Ha!” I thought. “I’ll never see it even if it’s still here.” Later, I looked ahead on the trail and saw a cougar! A large, brown, long-tailed cougar! – er, golden retriever (dog). Disappointing.
I think there’s a bit of an online urban mythology surrounding deer that goes beyond CWD symptoms - although CWD is genuinely horrifying and one of those things that, like all prion diseases, keeps me up at night. Having read about work like the Deer-Forest Study (there’s an NYT article about it here), I think a lot of it is that we just don’t understand deer very well, and the common jokes about them being stupid woodland rats and what-not don’t align with the clever and strange behavior they show in reality.
For what it’s worth, my strangest moment with a deer was hearing “a woman in heels” approach me at the park at night, only to turn and see she was a mule deer doe. A mule deer doe who was using the crosswalk, gazed at a sculpture, and then walked off down the footpath into the darkness.