From giant sea monsters to rabbits with horns, here are the top 9 creatures people used to believe existed!
9. Sea Serpent
The best place for the imagination to run wild is the ocean! And sea serpents are enormous creatures believed to attack ships and terrify sailors and anglers around the world. In a way, sea serpents are closely related to dragons. They could be interpreted as sea dragons because people depicted them in almost the same way, except on maps drawn in the ocean.
The famous Loch Ness monster is a notable example of a mysterious sea serpent (albeit in a lake). These imaginary creatures probably came to be because, in the past, our knowledge of the ocean was very slim; even now, we could argue we still don't know that much about it. People attributed every suspicious sighting to some fantastical creature, most likely mysterious and dangerous. And they're no better creature to scare you to death than a giant sea snake! Scientists now believe that all those sightings reported by sailors were big sharks, giant squids, or some species of whales, but sea serpents were the stuff of legend back in the day. Some fanatics even went so far as to collect different bones and join them together in sea-serpent "skeletons," exhibiting them as factual evidence of the animal's existence. Who knows what Frankenstein monsters those were – they probably contained bones of dozens of different animals!
8. Jackalope
The jackrabbit with antelope's antlers, the Jackalope is one of the most amazing imaginary animals ever. And the funny thing is – people used to believe it existed. Throughout the centuries, especially in the the17th and 18th, there were several sightings of this creature in the fields and prairies of North America. However, with the help of taxidermists and fans of tall tales, the legend of the Jackalope grew more and more. At the time, America didn't have a mythology of its own, and the new settlers and explorers saw many things that they had never even heard of before.
The new pioneers were probably so terrified of the New World that they attributed any suspicious sighting to a strange-looking, fantastical creature. Horned hares appeared in early 17th century works of natural history, and it turns out, it wasn't all myth. It turns out that the horns on these hares that people were seeing weren't horns but tumors caused by a virus. In the 1800s, cowboys would sing to their cattle before a storm to keep them calm, and they would hear their songs repeated back to them by a jackalope in the brush. Not by the cows, that would be silly! Now you can see jackalopes mounted to walls all over the United States.
7. Bonnacon
The Bonnacon was thought to have the mane of a horse but the head and the body of a bull. Other sources depict it as a horse with a bull's head, horns that curved backward, and a neck that was a bit longer than other bulls. According to ancient writer Pliny the Elder(here we go…), the Bonnacon inhabited the area of Paeonia in Ancient Macedonia, present-day Northern Greece. Whatever it looked like, and whenever it lived, its defense strategy was the most fantastic thing about this animal.
Allegedly, the Bonnacon would run away when attacked, but it would drop fire dung that could travel more than 500 meters in length! This acidic fire dung would burn skin on contact and destroy everything in its path. It would scare off all potential predators. There is no objective evidence of this, although over a dozen manuscripts that reference it, and the Bonnacon was probably just another made-up story. And a pretty ridiculous one too. As far as the fire dung bit, though, it must have been a creative way to interpret the awful stench of animal dung from bulls, bison, and other similar beasts. It's hard to say. This creature is most likely based on the European bison that was hunted to extinction in 1919.
And now for number 6, But first, I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has been watching and supporting this Blog!! If you are a returning subscriber, welcome back!! If you are new here, remember to share before you leave. Further information, facts, and mysteries will be posted daily!
6. Phoenix
The story of the Phoenix began in ancient Egypt and Arabia and later became part of mythology around the world. The Greek historian Herodotus is then credited with introducing the legend of the Phoenix to the west after his travels to Egypt. The bird was said to live 500 years or more, and then when it got tired, it would travel to the City of the Sun (Heliopolis) and build a nest that would catch fire, and the old Phoenix would die in flames.
A new, young phoenix would rise from the ashes symbolizing rebirth and new life. This message of eternal life also fit into Christian themes, and the Popes and royalty took on the Phoenix as their emblem. Both Eastern and Western phoenix legends begin in dark prehistoric times, so it is hard to say where the real animal and the code started. It may come from the extinct Asian ostrich or from a prehistoric flamingo in Egypt where the heat waves would rise from the salt flats where it laid its eggs, and it may have looked like a nest on fire. The fact that there are similar bird-like creatures in Persian, Hindu, Jewish, and Slavic traditions only shows that the Phoenix is a recurring symbol worldwide and that almost every culture believed, or wanted to believe, that this animal existed.
5. Dragon
Dragons may be the most epic imaginary creature ever, and these animals were respected and feared by humans the world over. Dragon's blood was prized as a powerful medicine in Europe and the Middle East, and dragons were also mentioned in Pliny the Elder'sfamous book. The dragon can be found in many mythologies worldwide, from Chinese ancient scriptures to European lore. According to most stories and legends, massive dragons were everywhere, hidden in remote areas breathing fire.
Many creatures could have been responsible for the dragon myth. Ancient people stumbling upon the bones of giant animals on land such as whales would have no idea of knowing that this was a sea creature or what it even looked like. Only that it was huge and must come from a large and terrifying animal. Ancient people all over the planet probably also found dinosaur fossils and misinterpreted them as the remains of dragons. After all, if you come across bones, the animal must have died, and its living counterparts must be around somewhere. They wouldn't have known the animal had been extinct for millions of years, and if you look at some stegosaurus fossils, for example, you can see why people would have been worried. Some scientists believe that the dragon symbolizes our innate fear of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, hence the fire-spewingbit.
4. Unicorn
The Unicorn is one of the most famous imaginary animals from ancient times. The legendary creature was described as a beast with a single spiraled horn coming out of its forehead. Over the centuries, it has been depicted as a horse, a pony, deer, and sometimes even a goat. Over 2,000 years ago, Greek travelers told tales of unicorns living in far-off lands. Stories of the Unicorn claimed that the horn had magical properties that could detect poison, cure fevers, and stop aging. The Unicorn was first mentioned in Asia around2700 BC and described as a peaceful creature with great power and wisdom. According to legend, the rare appearance of the Unicorn is an omen and the Chinese philosopher Confucius was the last person ever to see an Asian unicorn.
The great Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, wrote an epic encyclopedia titled Natural History, which included any type of animal he had ever heard about from travelers, whether real or imaginary. This book was taken as fact for almost 2,000years! The Unicorn is also referenced in the bible and as a symbol for Christ in medieval European times. In European folklore, the Unicorn symbolized sound, purity, and uncorrupted joy and could only be tamed and captured by a virgin. Paranoid royalty would pay tens of thousands of dollars for unicorn horns to gain immunity from toxins. Most likely, they were eating ground-up oryx, narwhal, or rhinoceros horns instead. Unicorns, as we think of them today as magical, gentle creatures, never existed, and it is more than likely that the stories arose from traveler's tales of narwhals and rhinos, or even antelope seen from afar. The most recent sighting of unicorns was apparently in North Korea in 2012. I'll leave it at that….
3. Cyclops
The ancient Greek legend of Odysseus wouldn't be complete without the famous battle with the Cyclops, a one-eyed giant who's scary as heck. The Cyclops has been a household name in Greek mythology and one of the archetypal mythological creatures. Technically, the Cyclops is not an animal, it is a more giant man than a beast, but people thought the Cyclops was actual. The famous journey of Odysseus took place in the Mediterranean, where he visited numerous islands and fantastical lands, going through all kinds of adventures. Now, scientists have proven that the island of Sicily and many other islands visited by Odysseus did have skulls representing the famous Cyclops and would have proved to ancient people that this creature existed. These skulls came from old elephants that had quite giant skulls – and they resembled the head of a Cyclops. The big hole in the elephant's forehead was a nasal cavity for the trunk. Still, some ancient people assumed (or wanted to believe) that this was a species of terrible, massive giants. The rest is history (or myth, but you get the point).
2. Allocamelus
The Allocamelus was introduced in the Middle Ages, around the 16th century, and it was first recorded on a Dutch art piece. The Allocamelus is something between a mule and a camel. It has long ears and a big, strong body with a hump, and it's much faster than both of them. It's a great-looking animal; the only problem is – it doesn't exist, and it never has! If you look at the period when it first appeared, you'll see that the Allocamelus came to prominence around the time of NewWorld explorations. The information coming from America was slow and fragmented, and people in the Old World had to do a lot of guessing to fill in the missing pieces. This animal was one of the first descriptions of the llama, an animal living in South America – and a relative of the camel.
1. Griffin
With the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, the Griffin is one of the most well-known animals of ancient Greek mythology. And it wasn't found only in Greek mythology, as there is evidence of Griffon-like creatures in ancient Egypt and Persia, including some other countries. But the Griffin wasn't only limited to stories– people thought it was real. According to ancient lore, the old Greeksreported that the Scythians (another ancient people) came across some griffins in the famous obi desert. The Scythians were searching for gold but found griffins instead. Since then, this animal has been associated with gold mines to protect gold and other precious metals. Needless to say, this was all pure fantasy. Why? Because while there is no further proof of the existence of griffins, there is a lot of evidence of dinosaur fossils in the Gobi desert, exactly where the Scythians were digging for gold. The fossils are those of the Protoceratops– a creature on four legs, with a bird-like beak and wide shoulder blades easily mistaken for wings. It would seem like these creatures were real in the ancient world, and live ones could appear at any moment. Thanks for Reading!! Be sure to share and see you soon!! Byeeeee!!!
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