Frame 352 from the Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot film – public domain image Wikipedia article “Bigfoot”

(15) CRYPTIDS & CRYPTOZOOLOGY

As “the biological equivalent of UFO sightings”, cryptids and cryptozoology are the other modern mythology par excellence, albeit without the same depth or grand unification theories of UFOs and ufology.

You could say cryptids have been part of mythology from its prehistoric origins, since mythology has always featured fabulous beasts or monsters.

However, the modern mythology of cryptids and cryptozoology is somewhat different. Typically, it does look at creatures of legend, folklore or rumor – not in any magical or supernatural sense, but as biological possibilities “in the wild”, in isolation or in hiding, yet unrecognized or regarded as implausible by more mainstream biology.

“Some may be relict survivors of species believed to be extinct, or known organisms displaced into inappropriate habitats; others are unlike any known species.”

And yes – there’s enough cryptids for their own top ten. Indeed, many top tens – you could even categorise them, as Wikipedia’s list of cryptids does, by aquatic or semi-aquatic, terrestrial or winged.

There are the big stars of cryptozoology. The Yeti and Bigfoot or Sasquatch (with similar creatures elsewhere, such as the Yowie in Australia). The Loch Ness Monster – standing in for all the various monsters of lakes or lochs around the world, which again could be their own top ten, again with Wikipedia having a list of lake monsters as well as an Australian representative in the bunyip.

As for other star cryptids – the Jersey Devil and Mothman, sea serpents (and mermaids, particularly thanks to that Animal Planet ‘mockumentary’), various living dinosaurs (such as Mokele-Mbembe), living megalodon, various misplaced big cats, and my personal favorite, the chupacabra, because I love that goat-sucking beastie.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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