Buzz
Folklore is brimming with tales of legendary creatures. Many are depicted with bizarre traits and peculiarities that often seem too fantastical to be true. The absence of concrete evidence to confirm their reality only adds to the mystery surrounding them.
Yet, as we’ll discover, numerous creatures once thought to be mythical actually roamed the Earth, and a few may still exist today. You might wonder why we don’t have clear photographs of them. The truth is, we do—they’re just often misidentified as other animals.
10. Mermaids
Stories of mermaids, mythical beings with the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, have long been a staple of seafaring lore.
Surprisingly, many of these tales hold a kernel of truth, even if they’ve been embellished over time. Mermaids are real. Christopher Columbus himself claimed to have seen three during his maiden voyage to America. He noted that they were “not as beautiful as depicted, with faces bearing somewhat masculine features.”
Wait, masculine? Aren’t mermaids typically portrayed as female?
In reality, the beings we refer to as mermaids are actually manatees and their close relatives, dugongs. These creatures, often called sea cows due to their massive size, are the largest herbivorous marine animals globally. Sailors confused them with mermaids because of their human-like and fish-like traits.
A mature sea cow can reach up to six feet in length, comparable to the height of an average person. Their flippers contain five finger-like bones, and they can rotate their necks and stand upright in shallow waters, much like humans. Combine these traits with their fish-like tails, which occasionally emerge from the water, and you have the perfect mermaid illusion.
9. Kraken
The kraken is arguably the most terrifying sea monster ever conceived. Ancient sailors described it as a colossal, octopus-like beast with a penchant for destroying ships and devouring their crews. Legends claim the kraken used its powerful tentacles to attack vessels, and if that failed, it would swim in circles to generate a whirlpool, dragging the ship down.
Does the kraken exist? Absolutely, it does.
The creature known as the kraken is, in fact, the giant squid. While it is indeed massive—as its name suggests—it is far smaller and less aggressive than the tales suggest. There is no evidence that it has ever attacked or sunk a ship, nor does it possess the strength to do so.
The kraken transitioned from myth to reality when the remains of a giant squid washed ashore in Denmark in 1853. Interestingly, the giant squid remains as mysterious as the legends it inspired, dwelling in the ocean's depths where human observation is limited.
We do know, however, that it boasts the largest eyes of any living creature, can grow up to 18 meters in length, and is a common prey for sperm whales. While the giant squid typically flees from whales, it occasionally fights back when trapped, often leaving sperm whales with scars from these encounters.
8. Dragons
Dragons are arguably the most widespread mythical creatures in folklore. Their appearances differ, but most accounts describe them as having reptilian bodies, bat-like wings, and sharp claws. And, of course, they were said to breathe fire.
Why do dragons have such diverse descriptions, and why do so many unrelated cultures believe in their existence?
The reason lies in the fact that the real-life inspirations for dragons varied in appearance and were found across the globe. Long after their extinction, their fossilized remains were discovered by locals, who used them to imagine what these creatures might have looked like. Some were enormous, while others were smaller. Some had sharp claws, others had wings resembling bats, and some may have had reptilian features. However, none of them actually breathed fire.
In reality, we don’t call them dragons—we call them dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are the true source of dragon legends. Many cultures, especially ancient China, where dragon stories are prevalent, created the concept of dragons after uncovering dinosaur fossils.
7. Pouakai
According to Maori legends, a massive flying bird once roamed the skies, known for capturing humans and carrying them off to be eaten. This bird was called the pouakai, which translates to “old glutton.” As Frederick Richardson Fuller, a taxidermist at Canterbury Museum, discovered in 1871, this bird was indeed real.
Known today as the haast eagle, it was the largest eagle to have ever existed. With a wingspan of three meters, it primarily hunted the moa, a large, now-extinct bird weighing between 100 and 250 kilograms. Given that humans weigh significantly less, it’s plausible that the eagle might have preyed on them as well.
The haast eagle and moa evolved without human presence, which suggests the eagle might have mistaken early humans in New Zealand for moa, especially since humans likely wore feathered clothing. Alternatively, it may have simply viewed humans as another food source.
6. Roc
If the haast eagle seemed fearsome, the roc was even more terrifying. Imagine a haast eagle amplified to an extreme level. While the haast eagle could carry off a human, the roc was said to be capable of lifting an entire community. Though no records confirm this, it’s worth noting that some legends claim the roc could even hoist a full-grown elephant into the air.
Ancient sailors believed the roc resided on an island near the African coast. In truth, the creature they described was the aepyornis, also known as the elephant bird. Weighing half a ton and standing up to 10 feet tall, it was the largest bird to ever exist. Like the roc, it inhabited Madagascar, an island off Africa’s coast.
However, the aepyornis couldn’t fly, let alone lift an elephant. Additionally, Madagascar has no elephants, and despite its impressive size, the bird was far smaller than an elephant. The elephant bird coexisted with the earliest roc legends around 900 years ago but went extinct by the 1500s, likely due to human hunting.
5. Unicorns
The unicorn, often depicted as a horse with a single horn on its forehead, is a creature of myth. But were they real? Yes, though not in the way you might imagine.
Unicorns were not horses but rhinoceroses—specifically, the extinct Siberian unicorn, which may have inspired the myth. Like the legendary unicorn, this creature walked on four legs and had a massive horn protruding from its head.
However, unlike the mythical unicorn, the Siberian unicorn was larger, stronger, and likely more aggressive. To put it in perspective, it weighed four tons—definitely not an animal you’d want to encounter.
The Siberian unicorn roamed Eurasia until its extinction approximately 39,000 years ago. Fortunately for humans of that era, it was a herbivore that primarily fed on shrubs. However, much like modern rhinos, it may have been highly aggressive toward humans who ventured too close.
4. Griffins
The griffin is another legendary hybrid creature. Myths describe it as having the face, wings, and front legs of an eagle, combined with the body, tail, and hind legs of a lion. Capable of flight, it’s the kind of creature early humans would have avoided at all costs—if it had actually existed.
Regarding their existence, griffins did exist, but this was long before humans walked the Earth. They were actually a type of dinosaur known as the protoceratops. Similar to the griffin, the protoceratops had four legs and a beak, though it lacked wings.
At a time when dinosaurs were unknown and only birds were thought to have beaks, it’s understandable why people assumed the protoceratops had wings. After all, if something had a beak, shouldn’t it also have wings? Additionally, its long shoulder blades were often mistaken for wings.
3. Gorillai
Between the 5th and 6th centuries B.C., Hanno the Navigator, an explorer from ancient Carthage, encountered a tribe of hairy and “rude people” while sailing along the West African coast. In his accounts, Hanno described the tribe as having more males than females, whom he called “hairy women” and referred to as gorillai.
Hanno’s group pursued the tribe, but the males, being much faster, quickly scaled cliffs and hurled stones at them. The females, slower in comparison, were captured by Hanno’s team. However, they resisted fiercely, forcing Hanno and his men to kill and skin them. The skins were later taken back to Carthage.
These creatures faded into folklore as no Westerner encountered them again until 1847, when an American missionary named T.S. Savage rediscovered them. They were not humans but apes—specifically, the animals we now know as gorillas. Savage named the species “Troglodytes gorilla,” honoring Hanno’s earlier term, gorillai.
It’s worth noting that there’s some debate over whether Hanno actually saw gorillas or another ape species. Regardless, Savage’s “Troglodytes gorilla” was eventually renamed “Gorilla gorilla,” and the animal itself became widely known as the gorilla.
2. Yeti
The Himalayan communities of Nepal and China have long spoken of a large, hairy, six-foot-tall creature known as the Yeti. This elusive being gained global attention in 1921 when British explorers claimed to have discovered its footprints during an Everest expedition.
The explorers reported that their local guides referred to the creature as “metoh-kangmi” (“man-bear snow-man”). However, Henry Newman, the journalist who interviewed them, mistranslated “metoh” as “filthy” instead of “man-bear.” He later replaced “filthy” with “abominable” for a more dramatic effect, leading to the creature’s popular name: the Abominable Snowman.
The name 'Abominable Snowman' might lead you to believe the Yeti is an undiscovered, uncivilized human race. However, if we consider its accurate Himalayan name, 'man-bear snow-man,' it becomes clear we’re referring to a bear-like creature of human size inhabiting snowy regions.
The Yeti is, in fact, the Himalayan brown and black bears—two real bear subspecies native to the Himalayas. Like the Yeti, these bears are large, hairy, and brown (or black, in the case of the black bear). DNA analysis has confirmed that most hair, skin, teeth, fur, and feces attributed to the Yeti actually belong to these bears.
1. Sea Serpent
The sea serpent is another fearsome creature said to roam the oceans. Ancient sailors spun elaborate tales about its existence, cementing its place in folklore. As the name suggests, it’s described as a monstrous hybrid of a fish and a snake. Like the kraken, the sea serpent is real, though its features and stories are greatly exaggerated.
In reality, the so-called sea serpent is the oarfish, which does resemble a fish-snake hybrid. However, that’s where the similarities end. The oarfish is much smaller in size, though it is notably long for a fish, reaching up to 30 feet in length, making it the longest bony fish in existence.
Unfortunately, much about the oarfish remains a mystery due to its deep-sea habitat. What we do know is that it doesn’t prey on humans or fish but instead feeds on tiny marine organisms such as crustaceans and krill. The oarfish was officially identified in 1772, long after the legends it inspired began circulating.
