114
submitted 11 months ago by stirner@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 101 points 11 months ago

Basically every sea monster cryptid. There's so much shit down there we don't know about. Guarantee many many many of them are over exaggerated yes but there has been more than one case of a sea monster cryptid turning out to actually just be a real creature. Fucks me up

[-] Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 11 months ago

Iirc oar fish and giant squids were cryptids

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 26 points 11 months ago

You are correct about oarfish and technically giant squid. Though the giant squid was heavily exaggerated in its cryptid form

[-] maquise@ttrpg.network 14 points 11 months ago

What about the colossal squid? Could they have been conflated?

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well the current collosal squids we see aren't exactly boat crushers. They are big but not THAT big yk? Still definitely the inspiration for the legend but not as true to form as the oarfish was

I just noticed I used giant squid instead of collosal squid that's on me

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 11 months ago

Angler fish reproduction has entered the chat.

Shit's like something out of fucking Alien.

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Speaking of Alien, there's the ol Moray Eels with their pharyngeal jaws ...

[-] zedgeist@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

๐ŸŽต When the jaws open wide
And there's more jaws inside
That's a moray ๐ŸŽต

[-] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 63 points 11 months ago

Not exactly a cryptid, but the Ojibwe story about why they moved west is... Kinda compelling. If I understand correctly, the story goes that they were warned by a being which appeared like a cowrey shell that they had to move west if they wanted to preserve their cultural identity because pale skinned people from the east would soon arrive from the sea and attempt to keep them from their traditional way of life.

I guess there's always the chance that it was pure coincidence or that someone made something up to explain their movement after the fact, but it's kinda compelling imo.

If anyone who's from the tribe wants to further explain or correct any misunderstandings, please do! I'd love to hear more about it.

[-] Jessvj93@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

"If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads, then the destruction which they brought with them in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering and death to all the Earth's people." 7th Fire Prophecy

Uh-oh

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 50 points 11 months ago

Bigfoot.

Like, there's probably not any alive today. Probably not any in the last thousands years even.

But at some point in human history, that shit existed. Might even just be stories about gorillas that ancient hominids took out of Africa and kept telling afterwards.

For a stone age human, a silverback might as well been a mythical animal. And they're deceptively quiet. Imagine just walking thru the forest and seeing a fucking Silverback standing 10 feet away staring at you.

That story would keep getting retold long after people forgot what a gorilla was.

[-] Dio9sys@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 11 months ago

My favorite example of this is on the island of Flores, where old local folklore says that, in the woods and caves, you can sometimes find hairy, tiny ape people.

Cue homo floresiensis, an early branch of humanity that lived on the island for a long time before homo sapians sapians showed up and had some overlapping time with them. They are very short based on what skeletons we have found....and their anatomy suggests that they looked closer to apes than humans.

[-] ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Is that the Flores island in Guatemala or in BC?

[-] Dio9sys@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 months ago
[-] ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Ah! Very cool! Thank you so much, just went on a neat Google maps explore.

[-] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago

I always wondered if there were small groups of isolated Neanderthals that persisted past the assimilation of the majority of the Neanderthals by homosapiens. They could have been responsible for all sorts of tales of Bigfoot, dwarves, elves, etc.

[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago

Eh, it's possible, but I find it more likely that they're wild hermits, wrapped in crude bear-fur clothes. A large primate population sparse enough to be elusive but dense enough to reproduce is a dicey proposition. People occasionally fucking off to the woods to live in solitude is pretty reasonable, I've considered it myself.

[-] ZzyzxRoad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago

There's also Gigantopithecus

It primarily lived in subtropical to tropical forest, and went extinct about 300,000 years ago likely because of the retreat of preferred habitat due to climate change, and potentially archaic human activity. Gigantopithecus has become popular in cryptozoology circles as the identity of the Tibetan yeti or the American bigfoot, apelike creatures in local folklore.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus

[-] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago
[-] BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago

That's like saying ghosts are real, because someone once saw a weird tree in a forrest and thought believed it's a ghost.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 31 points 11 months ago

My mom claims that I'm the result of a tryst with a sasquatch.

I believe

[-] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 12 points 11 months ago

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

[-] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Lol I knew she would fall for that mask

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

My mom may be a whore, but at least she isn't all that bright.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Man, if only _demetri_ was on Lemmy.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 21 points 11 months ago

The ocean ones. There's unknown big critters down there, it's basically a statistical certainty.

I don't think I've ever heard a believable one on land. People's UFO and ghost stories can actually be hard to explain sometimes. All the cryptid stories are either very made-up sounding or some variant of "I looked and found nothing/got a super blurry photograph".

[-] KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 11 months ago

I'm convinced every "bigfoot" sighting is actually "bear with mange walking on its hind legs"

[-] Elorageuse@jlai.lu 17 points 11 months ago
[-] quams69@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Bigfoot

It's such a boring cryptid, I would believe it exists.

[-] ULS@lemmy.ml 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's just a hairy homeless nudist. The story was propagated by homophobic campers with unfaithful wives. Big foot is actually just a big gay "bear".

[-] micnd90@hexbear.net 12 points 11 months ago

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116385390

HOBART; An official sighting of the Tasmanian tiger, feared extinct for 48 years, was reported yesterday by the State National Parks and Wildlife Service. The tiger was seen 18 months ago by a ranger in forest country in the northwest of the State, according to the service's chief wildlife officer, Mr Rod Pierce. Mr Pierce said the ranger had been "parked in his car at night doing some other work when he saw it in his spotlight. "It wasn't a fleeting glimpse - he had long enough to have a good look at the animal." Mr Pierce said it was one of a number of good sightings of the tiger over the past few years, but it was the only one by a ranger.

Mr Pierce said the service would not disclose the name of the ranger who made the sighting, nor would it specify the area where it was made. "The tiger must have as much protection as possible." he said. "We don't want all sorts of people going out and looking for it." Rangers have searched along creek banks and through muddy areas looking for footprints. If its general location becomes known, rangers will set up infra-red cameras in the hope of capturing it on film. But Mr Pierce said the search had so far been fruitless and no tracks had been found. "The project will run until the end of summer, and then it will be reviewed," he said.

[-] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 11 months ago

I certainly hope that's real. If there is even one breeding pair (preferably more to avoid inbreeding), there's hope.

[-] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I once saw a flying creature that appeared to be a ~~pterodactyl~~ pterosaur (except for the size), ever since since i've been on the lookout for any kind of "bird" with a diamond/kite shape at the end of it's tail, as that is what i remember most distinctly.

[-] CulturedLout@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Could it have been a heron or a crane? When they fly their legs trail out behind them and their feet make them look a bit like a clubbed tail.

[-] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 11 months ago

I really appreciate the hint! I looked at some google-images of flying herons & cranes. I don't think it was one of those, but it was also some time ago (and old memories can get rewritten as you recall them).

[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

When (month) and where (approximate city/state) ?

[-] frogmouse@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago

Any chance it was a frigate bird? Their tail isn't exactly diamond shape but they kind of have a pterosaur shape to them.

[-] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 11 months ago

I was not able to find a picture of a frigate bird that had a significant tail, so I don't think so. That was the most striking thing about it, I had never seen a bird with a long tail (like... about the same length as it's body).

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I saw a skunk the size of a dog once for only a moment. I am also looking for an absurdity. Best of luck!

[-] ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago

mothman bc he looks cool and one of the west virginia ones has to be real since they have so many

[-] RIP_Cheems@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

The rake, actually. It took me a while to realize it came from the internet and that it was made up.

this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
114 points (96.7% liked)

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