i can't believe i'm sitting here
surrounded by a group of hunting credits
hey everyone i'm rebecca and welcome to
watch mojo
today we're counting down our picks for
the top 10 mythical animals that turned
out to be real
the mysterious narwhal has inspired
myths around the world
and it goes from cute to killer
in an instant let's go get some kale
for this list we'll be looking at
animals whose existence was once thought
impossible also we'll be including real
animals who were mistaken for legendary
creatures
which mythical animal do you most wish
were real be sure to let us know in the
comments
all right let's get into it number 10
oar fish might be the real sea serpents
tales of sea monsters have pervaded
human society the world
over ever since we began to sail the
seas even today we're still discovering
new animals in the depths of the ocean
one of the most frequently sighted
mythical sea creatures is the sea
serpent
a giant snake-like creature that lives
in the deep ore fish are one of these
strange
exotic fish that really catch people's
attention so when they do appear
they lead to speculation like a sea
serpent myth as
it turns out there is a creature whose
shape matches that description
possibly explaining some sightings for
years we only knew they existed
from the occasional one washed ashore
they have hardly ever been seen alive
however it's not a snake but a fish the
oarfish has an incredibly long
undulating body with the longest
confirmed specimen reaching 26 feet
although unconfirmed reports have some
possibly reaching almost
double that length i think more people
have seen the earth from space
and i've seen one of these this time
number nine komodo dragons
a huge lizard living on a remote island
sounds like something from legends
or someone's tall tale the komodo dragon
is a modern day dinosaur at the peak of
its powers
westerners were initially skeptical
about the existence of this komodo
dragon
and it wasn't until 1910 that europeans
first documented the beasts
so these are komodo dragons
the largest lizards on earth and
just extraordinarily broad
powerful a 1926 expedition to komodo
island to bring a live specimen to new
york
served as the inspiration for the movie
king kong we can imagine an alternate
universe where the title ended up being
king komodo instead
some zoologists believe it could be a
subspecies of another large lizard
which in the past lived on the continent
of asia in regions ruled over by the
chinese
they're now popular zoo attractions
worldwide looking very much like
something from a lost ancient world
number 8. unicorn horns really belonged
to narwhals
supposed unicorn horns were objects of
fascination and great value throughout
the middle ages
however as it turns out people who
dreamt of one day spotting the creatures
to whom the horns belonged should have
set their sights on the sea
rather than land the mysterious narwhal
has inspired myths around the world
in the middle ages the narwhal tusk was
sold
as a unicorn horn physicians believed
it could cure the plague increase
virility detect poison
and even raise the dead many of the
unicorn horns traded during this period
were actually
narwhal tusks retrieved by vikings
during their exploration of the arctic
these whales status as the unicorns of
the sea was confirmed when more
explorers began to sail into the far
north
their three metre tusk is in fact no
more than an
overgrown canine tooth but its exact
function like so much about narwhals
is still in part a mystery fun fact
only the males have tusks they act as a
distinguishing feature
much like antlers on male deer but
whether it's a joust or a jaw session is
anybody's guess
and the narwhals aren't telling number
7. okapi
what if you crossed a zebra with a
giraffe the result would probably look
something like the okapi and people
would be just as likely to believe it
was made up
such was the case with europeans in
africa who suspected the creature said
to inhabit forests of the congo was a
local myth and not a real
animal its elusiveness and the horn-like
protrusions on the heads of males
have even given it the nickname the
african unicorn
europeans didn't discover the okapi
until the late 19th and early 20th
century
when its myth became reality number six
manatees might be the real mermaids
not every mythical sea creature is
malevolent sailors have frequently cited
seeing beautiful women with fishtails in
the ocean
mermaids and early explorers that came
over to the new world like columbus
wrote in their log books about seeing
mermaids it's hard to believe that they
ever mistaken that face for
that of a of a mermaid but evidently
those boys had been on the boat a little
too long
however the reality is probably not as
glamorous as the myth
one of the possible origins for the
mermaid myth is the manatee
these gentle sea cows are often spotted
from and sadly injured and killed by
boats particularly in the caribbean as
you can see
many of these manatees if not all of
them have some evidence of their
interaction
with boats and we could see how from a
distance
they might resemble something more
human-like than other ocean residents
let's go get some tail
while we certainly wouldn't want to
romance them manatees are pretty
adorable
number five platypus ah mary the
platypus what an
unexpected surprise a lot of europeans
were skeptical of the animals reported
by explorers in australia
we mean a deer that hops like a frog and
some of them have two heads
that's just ridiculous but easily the
most unbelievable animal from the land
down under
at least europeans was the platypus with
its webbed feet
beaver-like body and bill reminiscent of
a ducks
and it goes from cute to killer
in an instant skeptics were initially
sure they were made up
and that preserved specimens brought to
england were hoaxes created by clever
taxidermy
platypuses can only be found in the
rivers streams and lakes along the east
coast of australia
it wasn't until knowledge spread and
more specimens were examined
the people began to believe in
platypuses in the platypus
number four gorillas this is just
one of the most fantastic moments of my
life
i can't believe i'm sitting here
surrounded by a group of incredibles
outside of africa
these great apes were the subject of
rumor for centuries
think bigfoot before bigfoot was even a
thing in around 500 bc
carthaginian explorer hanno the
navigator encountered hairy people
who were capable climbers and through
rocks his interpreters called them
gorilla these may have been gorillas or
other great apes
although we can only speculate each
gorilla has a personality and style of
its own
it wasn't until the 19th century that
europeans began to take tales of hairy
man-like creatures seriously
with explorers happening upon them in
the jungle after all
seeing is believing to see these
incredible creatures in the wild
what a humbling gift it hits me
on a gut level a sense of responsibility
and a clear need to protect them number
three the juan kim turtle
according to vietnamese legend 15th
century emperor lailue was granted a
sword by the turtle god kim kui
after carving out vietnam's independence
leiloy returned the sword to kim kui
while sailing on a lake
leading to the lake being named juan
keem or the lake of the returned sword
the lake's giant soft-shell turtles were
thought to be just legends
until the 20th century when they were
spotted sadly the last
known individual known as
great-grandfather turtle died around
2016
meaning the species is possibly extinct
number two black swans as early as the
second century in europe
the expression black swan was used as a
metaphor for something that was
impossible
after all all swans are white except
when old world explorers reached
australia
they discovered that real black swans
existed like their white counterparts
black swans are often used as ornamental
birds in ponds in europe and other
continents
these days black swans have become
synonymous with a logical fallacy
in reference to the previous expression
or else for events that seem
unpredictable
yet are believed to be obvious in
hindsight before we continue
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number one the giant squid then
on the 87th photo making its
film debut
[Music]
the elusive giant arguably one of the
most famous sea monsters ever
the giant squid has been a fixture of
sea legends worldwide
inspiring figures like the kraken
however despite its vaunted size
its existence was not confirmed until
the late 19th century when specimens
were found washed up on shore specimens
have been reported weighing close to 1
000
pounds the giant squid is not as heavy
weighing in at around 600 pounds but
they do have
far longer arms and even longer feeding
tentacles
and even then giant squids weren't
observed in their natural habitat until
2004
due to how deep underwater they live for
this reason
there are still things that remain
unknown or unconfirmed about giant
squids
keeping its myth alive for a little
while yet people
are very interested in this kind of
thing and
we need to make people more aware of
just how many
incredible things there are in our ocean
are you surprised any of these are real
or
are you more surprised that we ever
thought they weren't
be sure to let us know in the comments
or come talk to me on twitter or
instagram rebeccabrayton or on my
youtube channel see ya
[Music]
you