I'm just curious which mythical creatures people think are most likely based on some sort of actual evidence or creature? For instance medieval man finding dinosaur fossils and thinking they are dragons, or African tribes talking about gorillas long ago and english men dismissing them as myths/legends till they actually found them?

before i start, i think this is a very good idea for a topic. any way, i think basilisks definantly came from the cobra, dragons, like you said, from dinosaur fossils, unicorns form gazells and such creatures with strange horn patterns. im sure ill think of more later when im trying to concentrate on somthing important .

The golden fleece legend was based on a sheep that had a wierd diet/mutation/stuff on its fur.

Anyone know of what the Aztec snakes were based on (if anything)

as i predicted, i was in the middle of mass, and my mind repeatedly drifted tothis topic. anyway, how about the amazons? i think there creatainly could have been a warrior tribe of all women. hey, i think this calls for a new topic.

Rhinos could also have started off Unicorn legends.

That said many mythical beasts were made up of different parts of actual creatures and so it's quiet possible that they were not inspired by a single creature, but made up by the story teller who created them out of normal creatures as a point of reference for the imagination of the listener: "Whats a Griffin look like?" "Well its half Lion half eagle" - instantly builds a mental picture.

With out a visual medium, like TV or Film it is harder to decribe anything too alien because there is no point of reference. As an example try describing the Alien out the film "Alien", using only words someone from mediaeval europe would understand.

One theory I have heard is that many mythical creatures actually do exist in the astral plane, and that the people that write storys about them thought them up in a dream. (Because when you dream you go to the astral plane)

Thats just one theory though.

I think there were a lot of mythical creatures that are based on actual animals. The manatee(sp?) and the platypus have both been answers to mermaids. I don't know exactly how they came up with that though.

maybe they exist in another world or dimension and the people who've seen them glimced them through a break in the barriers of realities......not likely no?

I have heard that long-ago sailors thought manatees were mermaids. (Perhaps they’d been at sea too long.)





Does this look like a beautiful Mermaid to you?

That looks like one of my mates ex-girlfriends!

Also .. The Kraken: Fact, Fiction or Both?

Seafaring men have told tales for generations of a horrifying sea monster called the kraken. In lore, the kraken was a many-tentacled beast of enormous proportion, capable of capsizing a sailing ship by wrapping its tentacles around the ship's hull. New evidence suggests the beast of legend may exist in reality in the form of a giant octopus or, more likely, a giant squid of heretofore unseen size, as squid are known to be far more aggressive. In this paper, we take a critical look at the new evidence for the existence of behemoth squid and the likelihood that the kraken of legend has finally been discovered.

Which paper/article did you get that from Nxt2Hvn?

Also another one I just remembered is the Jersey Devil which could be a sandhill crane or whooping crane.

thanx!

leviathan (a biblical giant river monster) could be a hippo or a rhino.
beamoth (a biblical sea monster) is probably a whale, but could be a giant squid. cetus, from greek legend, is definantly a whale, they even gave whales the scientific name 'cetus' from the greek monsters name.
any body want to talk about those, by the way? theyre some of my favorites.

I believe that unicorns were real animals, especially since the discovery of the now extinct Tsaidamotherium, a goat-like animal with one large horn near the middle, and a smaller one of the side. I may not believe in evolution, but I do think that maybe the creature changed slightly until the useless smaller horn was gone.

Dragon-various reptiles:snakes, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, sea reptiles, etc.
Behemoth-real animal, a type of sauropod. Behemoth is described as having a TAIL like a cedar tree. I don't think elephants or hippos have those. (I believe dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time)
Leviathan-either a crocodile or a type of pliosaur, a short-necked sea reptile.
Bigfoot-a type of gorilla called a Gigantopithecus that lived in Asia that is supposedly extinct.

I guess you could say I believe in adaptation, but not evolution. I believe in animals changing slightly, but not an animal changing into a completely different animal over millions of years, like fish into amphibians. That's why there are crows with many different beaks, but not a completely different creature.

Thats evolution.

Well then I guess I believe in part of evolution. I don't believe that all life started from a common ancestor, and I don't believe people came from apes. I believe in adaptation, and I do think it is possible for animals to change through generations, like how there are different breeds of dogs. I don't think eventually dogs will evolve into something else, though. Anyway, let's get back to the main topic.

indeed. adaptation and evolution are dsitinct. evolution is change from one branch into another (eg, ape into man) adaptation is change from one species to another (eg, white rihno into asian rhino)

say a person has a new job. his coworkers all go slow and take their time to get theings perfect, thats what their boss likes, but the new guy is used to trying to rush and get things finished fast. fianlly his boss tells him how he wnats things done, and the new guy has to change his work strategy. he adapted. compar ehtis to a creature changing slightsly to cope, but is still the same crature, only wiht different behaviors or characteristics.

now, another guy is a computer programer, but somthing huge happened and he can no longer get any job vaguely connected to computer programming. he has to go to college to train to be somthing else, say a psycholgist. some of his freinds make it though, and continue to be computer programmers. he has evolved, his freind have adapted. compare this to a creature who must change alot to cope, and is no longer the same creature, but somthing else, while th eothers of its species maybe can cope by adapting.

am i making my point? .

Adaption ISNT evolution. Adaptation leads to evolution but its self isn't evolution.

Animal A needs to find vegetation in a now colder harsher climate then previous, it as difficulty and many of the species perish, but some survive by finding out they can eat fungi and moss like plants, those animals have adapted to the climate, over the next millenia they evolve to better suit their new life style.


Lesson learnt Adpation isn't evolution but leads to it.

man in mudboots, you mixed up leviathan and behemoth.
Leviathan is usually thought to be a whale, and Behemoth is thought to be a hippo. Although neither of those animals fit the descriptions very well.

'Behold Behemoth,
which I made as I made you;
he eats grass like an ox.
Behold, his strength is in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly.
He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs like bars of iron.
He is the first of the works of God;
let him who made him bring near his sword!
For the mountains yield food for him
where all the wild beast play.
Under the lotus plant he lies,
in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
For his shade the lotus tree covers him
the willows of the brook surround him.
Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;
he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mough.
Can one take him with hooks,
or pierce his nose with a snare?'
-Job 40:15-24

Leviathan
'His strong scales are his pride,
Shut up as with a tight seal.
One is so near to another
That no air can come between them.
They are joined one to another;
They clasp each other and cannot be separated.
His sneezes flash forth light,
And his eyes are like
the eyelids of the morning.
Out of his mouth go burning torches;
Sparks of fire leap forth.
Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth
As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
His breath kindles coals,
And a flame goes forth from his mouth.
In his neck lodges strength,
And dismay leaps before him.
The folds of his flesh are joined together,
Firm on him and immovable.
His heart is as hard as a stone,
Even as hard as a lower millstone.
When he raises himself up, the mighty fear;
Because of the crashing they are bewildered.
The sword that reaches him cannot avail,
Nor the spear, the dart or the javelin.
He regards iron as straw, Bronze as rotten wood.
The arrow cannot make him flee;
Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.
Clubs are regarded as stubble;
He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.
His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.
He makes the depths boil like a pot;
He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
Behind him he makes a wake to shine;
One would think the deep to be gray-haired.
Nothing on earth is like him,
One made without fear.
He looks on everything that is high;
He is king over all the sons of pride.'
- Job 42:15-32

oops. i feel pretty stupid now.....
heres an old lev pic, though not in accordance with scripture.

It has always seemed to me that Biblical creatures such as the Leviathan and the Behemoth may represent contact between ancient peoples and even more ancient animals that many scientists have presumed where extinct long before.

everybody brings that up. no, elephants and hippos dont fit, but keep in mind its unlikley that Job actually saw the leviathan or beamoth, he may have been writing what was described to him by somone else, who heard aobut it form somone else, and on and on. people tend to make somthing up when asked a question, rather than say they dont know, so he may have jsut said, "oh, its got a tail like a cedar" eventhough he couldnt remeber what the last fellow told him about its tail.
or he may have described in words a picture of an elephant or hippo, and judging by the art from that time period, well......yikes.