Initially believed to be the stuff of legend, people were shocked upon discovering that
these next 6 creatures actually exist in real life!
Number 6: Okapi The European exploration of Africa was already
in full swing near the end of the 19th century.
In the densely forested interior of the continent, explorers began hearing tales of a creature
that the locals called the O’api or the Atti.
Its appearance was described as a mixture of features from the giraffe, donkey and zebra.
The creature was said to be extremely shy and sightings were very rare.
The first accounts of the Atti were given by explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley in 1871.
He had been sent in the Congo in search of the missing Dr. David Livingstone.
Stanley was successful in his quest famously uttering the line ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?’
During his exploration of the Congo, Stanley had heard tales of the Atti, described as
a large horse with a long and flexible neck, a long tongue, stripped flanks and a horned
head.
Stanley did not find any physical evidence of the animal to write about in his 1890 book,
‘In Darkest Africa’.
An expedition that took place in 1901 would offer the needed insight into the elusive
beast.
Sir Henry Johnston, the High Commissioner of Uganda embarked on the expedition into,
what was then, the Belgian Congo with the purpose of returning some native pygmies who
had been kidnapped from their homeland.
Upon his return, the pygmies told him stories about the Atti.
The expedition stopped at a military garrison named Fort Mbeni, where Johnston acquired
two bandoliers that the soldiers told him were made from O’api hide.
Before he left the outpost, the soldiers promised to send him more proof of the animal’s existence
if they were to come across it.
He tried to track down a live specimen but had to turn back as most of the members of
his exploration party had become ill.
In 1901 he received two full O’api skins and a skull from the outpost.
He sent them to London along with watercolor illustrations of the animal, which he correctly
suspected was more related to a giraffine species than to a horse or antelope.
His findings were displayed during a meeting of the London Zoological Society.
After a live specimen was finally captured, the creature was named ‘Okapia johnstoni’
in honor of the explorer who discovered it.
Number 5: The Spot-Bellied Owl The Ulama or Devil Bird is a creature described
in Sri Lankan folklore as a frightening horned bird.
The Devil Bird was rarely seen but it would often make its presence felt through its infamous,
blood-curling screams.
Its cries are described as bearing a resemblance to those of a wailing woman.
In most legends the Devil Bird was a person in anguish who fled into a field clutching
their head with one hand.
Locals perceived its cries as an omen of death.
For centuries the creature’s nocturnal shrieks were the only evidence of its existence and
the Western scientific community dismissed the reports as superstition.
However, in 2001, a new species of owl named bubo nipalensis, also known as the spot-bellied
owl, was discovered and many believed it to be the mythical Devil Bird as it had many
of the same features including the tufted ‘horns’ and the legendary shriek.
Other contenders to the true identity of the Ulama include the Oriental honey buzzard and
the changeable hawk-eagle but so far most people consider the spot-bellied owl to be
the closest match.
Number 4: Cuvier’s Beaked Whale In Medieval folklore the ‘Water Owl’ or
Ziphius was a legendary nautical monster that was said to lurk in the depths of the northern
seas and attack ships.
It was described as a creature with the head of an owl, complete with a wedge-shaped beak
and massive eyes and the body of a fish.
In Latin ‘Ziphius’ means ‘Sword-like’ and could have possibly referred to the creature’s
fin which was believed to pierce and cut through the hulls of ships just like a sword.
A theory among naturalists is that Cuvier’s beaked whale, also known as the goose-beaked
whale, is the creature that inspired the myth of the Ziphius.
French anatomist Georges Cuvier first described this whale species in 1823 based on an imperfect
skull recovered from France’s Mediterranean coast.
He named it Ziphius cavirostris as he believed it to be related to the mythological monster.
Cavirostris is derived from the Latin word ‘cavus’ which may be translated as ‘concave’
or ‘hollow’ and it was used to describe the prenarial basin in the skull, a deep hollow
that is the common trait of beaked whale species.
These toothed whales can range in length from 16 to 23 feet and typically weigh approximately
5,500 pounds.
They have a cosmopolitan distribution, inhabiting the deep, offshore waters of cool and temperate
as well as tropical seas.
In 2011, a Cuvier’s beaked whale was monitored as it dove to a depth of 9,816 feet, which
is deepest dive ever recorded by a mammal.
Number 3: The Komodo dragon Varanus komodensis also known as the Komodo
dragon is a large lizard species that inhabits the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Flores,
Rinca, Padar and Gili Motang.
It has sharp claws, a massive frame and formidable fangs.
This creature can exceed lengths of 9 feet and it can weigh up to 150 pounds.
For a long time the Komodo dragon was believed to be nothing more than a product of local
myth and folklore.
Even though the islanders were familiar with these massive lizards and called them ‘land
crocodiles’, the scientific community met any reports of their existence with great
skepticism.
It was difficult for people at that time to believe that such creatures were real as the
idea of terrestrial lizards of such proportions reminded them too much of the dinosaurs and
prehistoric creatures that were long extinct.
In 1912, an expedition led by Peter Ouwens from the Buitenzorg Zoological Museum in Java,
produced reports, photographs and a skin of the legendary ‘dragon’ but skepticism
and the coming of World War I eclipsed the findings.
After the war, W. Douglas Burden, a naturalist and geologist from the American Museum of
Natural History began to take an interest in the tales about the monstrous lizards.
He organized an expedition to search for them in 1926.
It was a resounding success as 2 live specimens and 12 preserved ones were discovered.
The Komodo dragons were first introduced to the general public in 1927, when live specimens
were displayed in the Reptile House at the London Zoo.
Number 2: The Platypus Ornithorhyncus anatinus, also known as the
duck-billed platypus or just simply the platypus is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre creatures
found in the animal world.
Located in eastern Australia, the platypus is one of the only five species of monotremes.
These are mammals that lay eggs instead of bearing live young.
The platypus’ odd features offer a glimpse into why 18th century European explorers believed
its existence to be an Aboriginal myth.
Its flattened tail resembles that of a beaver, it has a duck-like bill, otter-like feet,
and the males have venomous spurs, making the platypus one of a very limited number
of venomous mammals.
Even though this animal was completely unknown to the outside world, the Aborigines were
familiar with it and they often hunted it.
They believed that the platypus was created through the mating of a water rat and a duck.
The stories that European explorers had heard about this creature were regarded with great
skepticism and many doubted its existence.
After the British Empire established a colony in Australia in 1788, early colonists called
these mammals ‘watermoles’, ‘duckbills’ or ‘duckmoles’, yet the majority of naturalists
still dismissed the stories.
The Second Governor of New South Wales, Captain John Hunter sent a sketch of the animal along
with a pelt that he had purchased back to Great Britain.
The scientific community believed the animal to be part of an elaborate hoax.
The historical context in which people tried to prove its existence was not favorable either
as mythical creatures and false discoveries were often produced at the time.
Zoologist George Shaw considered the platypus to be a product of the trend and decided to
cut a specimen open with scissors, suspecting that the animal had been sewn together.
This would begin a process that lasted almost a century during which zoologists would slowly
come to grips with the fact that the strange creature was real.
Some viewed as a ‘missing link’ between reptiles and animals.
The fact that it laid eggs as well as suckled its young is the concept that most defied
the paradigm of the time.
A significant number of naturalists went into the field with the purpose of debunking the
myth that the platypus laid eggs.
They hoped to find a specimen that would have a fully formed embrio in its utero thus disproving
the notion that an egg was produced.
Naturally, such a discovery never took place and the scientific community eventually overcame
the entrenched paradigms and prejudices of the time.
Number 1: Giant Squids Stories of encounters with maritime monsters
have been circulating around mariners since time unremembered.
These include creatures like mermaids and sea serpents, but no other story could send
chills down the spines of sailors as much of that of the legendary Kraken.
The enormous tentacle monster was said to be very aggressive and prone to attacking
ships.
It was described as being much larger than a ship and even as large as an island.
Even though throughout the years, partial carcasses would be washed ashore, they decomposed
before marine wildlife experts could analyze it and remove the giant squid from the realm
of myth.
In the 1840s, Danish zoologist Johan Japetus Streensup managed to get a close up look at
a beached specimen after years of collecting sighting reports about giant squids.
He named the specimen Architeuthis.
Streensup’s peers, however, were still skeptical and largely dismissed his report on the carcass.
As time passed more giant squid specimen were found washed ashore and the skepticism slowly
faded away.
Nowadays we know that the existence of the giant squid is scientific fact and that it
is an elusive creature, found in the depths of the ocean that can grow to lengths of over
43 feet.
The colossal squid is an even larger species that can grow to over 46 feet in length and
weigh up to and over 1,650 pounds, making it the largest known invertebrate.
Unlike the giant squid and more like the mythical Kraken, the colossal squid also has sharp
hooks on its limbs, some of them swiveling and others three-pointed.
It also has a larger and stouter body than the giant squid’s and its eyes are essentially
the size of dinner plates, measuring up to 16 inches in diameter.
They are the largest eyes that have ever been documented in the animal world.
The colossal squid and giant squid have the potential of growing to enormous proportions
due to abbysal gigantism, a condition determined by the pressure and temperature of their deep-sea
environment.
When considering how vastly unexplored our oceans truly are, the existence of monsters
and creatures that are seen as mythical can never be completely ruled out and the giant
squid and colossal squid are among the best examples of myths essentially coming
to life.