Myths are called myths for a reason, because they're untrue, stories told by ancient people
who wanted to explain a phenomenon or scare someone into good behavior.
Because we're so much more rational than our ancestors were, we modern humans know better
than to believe in them.
"Shenanigans! Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!"
However, the terrifying truth is that some myths are not completely made up.
While it's true that most of the mythical beasts you know from fairy tales do not roam
our modern world, some actually did walk the earth, and a few of them might still.
Here are some mythical creatures that might actually have existed.
The kraken
"And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake: the Kraken!"
The kraken has supposedly terrorized sailors for centuries, a horrible creature which was
said to have long tentacles able to "suction your face clean off" and pull an entire ship
beneath the waves.
Scientists today are pretty sure that the legends are based on the giant squid, which
is most definitely real.
Although it's unlikely that giant squid are particularly fond of sinking ships or suctioning
off the faces of quirky pirates.
"Can I have some more cheese?"
Like pretty much all legendary beasts, especially the sorts of legendary beasts that enjoy killing
people, the kraken was said to be disproportionately huge, roughly the size of "a number of small
islands."
Real giant squid aren't quite that big, but they can grow up to 50 feet in length, which
is big enough.
At least one paleontologist believes he's found evidence of Triassic squid that were
up to 100 feet in length, though his theory is not yet well-supported.
We'll have to wait for more evidence to see if there were giant squid even bigger than
we know.
Dire Wolves
Dire wolves are more than just giant, CGI canids whose sole purpose appears to be making
Stark enemies wet themselves in fear.
Dire wolves are based on real, extinct animals that once lived in North America.
Dire wolves lived during the Late Pleistocene, between 250,000 to roughly 10,000 years ago.
Unfortunately, real dire wolves were not really the size of ponies, although no one denies
the potential awesomeness of pony-sized wolves.
They were larger than modern wolves, though, and could weigh as much as 200 pounds, almost
twice what a very large modern wolf might weigh.
Dire wolves are among the most common animals found in the La Brea Tar Pits.
More than 200,000 dire wolf specimens have been uncovered at La Brea, which is a pretty
sizable wolfpack.
Bunyip
The bunyip is an Aboriginal legend.
According to Australian History, the name means "devil" or "spirit" and the creature
is said to look like a cross between a crocodile and a horse.
Bunyips stalk and kill human beings and supposedly make an eerie sound like a "hollow boom."
The bunyip is a little like Australia's Loch Ness monster in that it lives in the water
and has never been photographed despite the fact that hundreds of people claim to have
seen it.
However, in 1839, the remains of an animal called a diprotodon were discovered in Australia,
which proved that a huge, rhino-sized marsupial similar in appearance to a wombat once roamed
the outback.
Diprotodon was a plant-eater, but it's not hard to imagine that an angry one would be
just as terrifying as an angry rhino or hippo.
It's unlikely that there are any surviving populations of diprotodons in Australia, but
they only died out 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, which was long after the arrival of the
aboriginal people.
That suggests the legends might have come from real-life encounters between humans and
diprotodons.
Thunderbirds
The thunderbird is a Native American legend about a bird so huge it can carry a small
whale in its talons.
Thunderbirds, which are said to be responsible for thunder and lightning, appear in several
tribal traditions, from the plains to the northwest coast.
It's a pretty cool myth, sort of like the European notion of winged dragons, except
more plausible.
So plausible, in fact, that JuneauEmpire.com says there are modern people who have reported
seeing a bird with a wingspan of up to 20 feet in the Alaskan skies.
That's roughly 2.5 times the wingspan of a bald eagle.
Some biologists have suggested that the sightings could be a Steller's sea eagle, which is larger
and heavier than a bald eagle, and that similar sightings could have prompted the thunderbird
legends centuries ago.
What's weird about this claim is the Steller's sea eagle mostly spends time in Russia and
Japan, though it's possible one could have gotten lost while out flying.
Either that or Thunderbirds are absolutely real and roaming across Alaska.
Dragons
One probable hypothesis for the origin of the dragon legend is the discovery of bones
that resemble dragons.
In one of his writings, fourth-century B.C. Chinese historian Chang Qu discussed the dragon
remains that were found in the region that is now known as Sichuan province.
It's likely that similar artifacts were also known in Europe, potentially giving rise to
legends of fire-breathing monsters.
"You have a beautiful voice."
"Thank you!
We dragons love to sing when we're happy."
But if fossils weren't enough to inspire the imagination, it's also possible that medieval
people might have encountered actual dragons in Indonesia, home of the fearsome Komodo
dragon.
According to the Smithsonian, wild komodo dragons can weigh more than 150 pounds and
may exceed 10 feet in length, and contrary to what most people believe, medieval dragons
weren't necessarily enormous.
Raphael's famous painting of St. George and the Dragon depicted a beast no larger than
a lion, not too far off from a real-life komodo dragon.
Griffins
The dragon might have a similar origin story to the griffin, a chimeric animal said to
have the front half of an eagle and the back half of a lion.
According to surviving legends, griffins appeared in ancient Greece, Persia, Egypt, and medieval
Europe.
In one 2,000-year-old story, griffins built nests near gold mines in the Gobi desert and
would fiercely defend them from ambitious miners.
Probably not coincidentally, the bones of a certain dinosaur were once quite common
in the same desert.
Specifically, paleontologists found plenty of fossil records for the protoceratops, a
quadrupedal dinosaur with a hooked beak that could easily be mistaken for a griffin.
From there it seems likely that people concocted fantastic stories of gold-guarding, fearsome
beasts that were half eagle and half lion.
Chupacabras
Dire wolves are cool, dragons are awesome, but some mythical creatures are downright
terrifying.
"I'm thirsty!"
The chupacabra is a New World myth that originated in Puerto Rico, but it's not as old as you
probably thought it was.
The chupacabra is a vampiric creature first sighted near the turn of this century.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
“How long have you been seventeen?"
Well, not quite.
The Chupacabra is less Edward Cullen and more of a cross between a mosquito and a coyote.
"Chupacabra" means "goat sucker," but it's been known to drain the blood of dogs, cats,
chickens, rabbits, cows, and other domesticated animals.
It has red eyes, spines, and can cover vast distances in a single leap.
The most recent sightings describe them as having an almost canine appearance, with thick,
hairless skin like an elephant.
People have actually found the corpses of animals believed to be chupacabras, which
means the beast is an easily solved mystery.
"Savage teeth, hairless gray skin, and a humanlike fist adds up to a freakish find.”
Chupacabra corpses almost exclusively turn out to be coyotes suffering from a severe
form of mange, which causes them to lose their hair.
If you've ever been terrified by the sight of a hairless chihuahua, you can probably
pretty easily imagine how a person might mistake a hairless coyote for a blood-sucking monster.
Basilisks
Like the griffin, the basilisk is a cross between two terrifying creatures, although
in this case it's really just one terrifying creature and a chicken.
According to legend, basilisks are born when very confused roosters decide to sit on serpent's
eggs.
The mythical creature that emerges after a successful incubation has a rooster's head,
a snake-like body, wings, and the legs of a chicken.
Although most variations just take the form of a very large snake.
The basilisk spits fire and paralyzes with its gaze.
It can move with the front part of its body upright, it lives in dry or sandy places,
and weasels can kill it.
That's all pretty clear evidence that the basilisk is based on the Egyptian cobra, which
can also hold the front part of its body upright, spit venom, and stare lovingly into its victims'
eyes just before striking.
What's more, the cobra's only real enemy is the mongoose, which looks a lot like a weasel.
Although, no one's quite sure where the chicken part of this myth originated.
"I was just telling him!"
*AWESOME CHICKEN NOISES*
"I haven't found the right girl, when I do, I'll ask her out."
"Has anyone in this family even SEEN a chicken?"
Werewolves
These hairy shapeshifters have occupied our imaginations for centuries, but there's a
really logical explanation for the legend.
In the ancient world there was no such thing as vaccination, and rabies was common not
only in wild animals but also in the family dog.
A bite from a rabid animal could transform a person from an upright, rational person
to an irrational, crawling, foaming-at-the-mouth animal that might attack and bite his or her
friends and loved ones.
"Learn the facts.
Rabies kills nearly four thousand Americans every one thousand years.
Rabies.
Blech.”
Once a person was bitten, there was no way to stop the virus from taking over.
And if that person happened to be particularly hairy, well, you can see how the werewolf
legend might have been born.
“Help me!
Please!
Help me!
Help me!”
Sadly, that means our modern understanding of werewolves is not in fact based on the
actual existence of impossibly handsome bare-chested shape-shifters, but normal human beings stricken
with a horrific, almost-100 percent fatal illness.
Giants
Almost every human culture has a version of a giant mythical humanoid.
In the British Isles, there's even a legendary giant that has a name.
Fionn mac Cumhaill was an Irish giant, said to have built and subsequently destroyed the
famous "Giant's Causeway" in Northern Ireland.
But giants aren't just legends.
The modern world has plenty of examples of real giants, many of whom exceeded 8 feet
in height.
According to modern DNA testing, some of these modern giants live in Ireland, where a genetic
pituitary tumor causing unchecked growth can be traced all the way back to a 7 foot 7 inch
circus performer whose bones are still on display at the Hunterian Museum.
This genetic link suggests the mutation has been around for a long time, and may even
go all the way back to Fionn mac Cumhaill himself, thus proving that giants are not
just the stuff of some bored medieval storyteller's imagination.
Sadly, golden geese and magic beans probably aren't based on reality, though one never
knows what archaeologists might someday discover in a forgotten ruin.