It’s human nature to try to make sense of what they see, even if what they see doesn’t make sense yet. Combining this with centuries of unchecked information exchange, it’s easy to see how simple creatures inspire some of the most awesome and terrifying tales in human history.
While there’s always a chance that these creatures existed in their own right, there’s plenty of evidence for cases of mistaken identity.
1. Mermaids and Merpeople
Mermaids and merpeople are some of the earliest recorded and widely recognized myths. Starting with the half-fish half-human Babylonian god Oannes in the fourth century BCE, we have seen variations across the globe throughout the centuries.
Now, we usually attribute these myths to animals in the order Sirenia, including east Asian dugongs and manatees. These friendly creatures have five-fingered slippers and tend to breach upright. Combined with the harsh conditions of sea life, there’s plenty of room for confusion and the creation of mermaid myths.
2. El Chupacabra
El Chupacabra is a modern myth originating in Puerto Rico. In the early stories, a creature would attack domestic animals, draining them of blood. This myth expanded up to the southwestern U.S., with each region having its own twist on the tale.
As many of these tales describe the vampiric cryptid as a hairless, dog-like beast, it’s likely that the animal they are seeing is actually a dog or coyote infected with Demodex mites. These mites cause mange, leading to hair loss, sores, and even scaling that give off quite the monstrous image.
3. Basilisks
The word basilisk derives from the Greek basiliskos, which refers to a kind of snake. The English used the word, or sometimes Cockatrice, to describe a monstrous serpentine reptile that could kill its prey with a single glance and killing breath.
While some variations hybridize the basilisk with other animals, like roosters, toads, or lizards, the root of the myth likely stems from European contact with venomous Asiatic cobras like the King Cobra. In the stories, the basilisk only dies when a weasel is thrown into its lair, likely because the mongoose is one of the few known predators of these cobras.
4. Krakens
Fishermen of northern countries like Norway and Greenland have long spread tales of a giant sea monster with several arms, large enough to sink ships and vicious enough to pull men from them.
While there is no evidence of a creature pulling crewmen from the deck, setting eyes on a giant squid is enough to ignite terror. These deep-sea creatures are rarely seen, even at depth, and their 18-meter length certainly matches the magnitude of the Kraken’s might.
5. Unicorns
The first mentions of the unicorn go back to the Indus Valley Civilization, nestled in what we now consider India. Stamps from the period, dating back between 3300 BCE and 1300 BCE, show what we now know is the profile of an Auroch (an extinct ox) but once thought was a completely different creature.
Other sightings that may have fed into this myth include Marco Polo’s rhinoceros and side profiles of oryxes. It doesn’t help that sailors would sell narwhal tusks as unicorn horns, with even Queen Elizabeth I paying £10,000 for a single horn and keeping it with the crown jewels.
6. Moby Dick
Herman Melville’s novel tells the story of a giant sperm whale that sank the Essex, as recounted to him by the ship’s captain George Pollard Jr. In the tale, the ornery whale is described as the largest whale to ever live, beating out the novel’s description of sperm whales that reach 90 feet long.
While they’re one of the largest whales in modern times, sperm whales only reach a maximum of 60 feet in length for males, and they’re known as very docile creatures. Moby Dick was definitely an outsider with his “infernal aforethought of ferocity”.
7. Dire Wolves
Dire wolves are real creatures that are often written off as a myth. While they may not have been around to see great battles over a certain iron throne, they were much larger than modern canines.
From fossils found in places like the La Brea Tar Pits, we assume they ran about 5 feet from the top of their head to the tip of their tail and weighed anywhere from 150 to 200 pounds. With a body like this and a ferociously strong bite, they could take down animals as large as horses or bison, and reigned supreme in the Americas and Eastern Asia.
