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
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Iirc oar fish and giant squids were cryptids
You are correct about oarfish and technically giant squid. Though the giant squid was heavily exaggerated in its cryptid form
What about the colossal squid? Could they have been conflated?
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
Angler fish reproduction has entered the chat.
Shit's like something out of fucking Alien.
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.
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".
I'm convinced every "bigfoot" sighting is actually "bear with mange walking on its hind legs"
Pandas
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.
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.
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).
Any chance it was a frigate bird? Their tail isn't exactly diamond shape but they kind of have a pterosaur shape to them.
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).