Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous.

Join our community today!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Is there any cryptids that could be real?; Which cryptids could be real?
Topic Started: Feb 8 2018, 08:16 PM (4,373 Views)
GlarnBoudin
Member Avatar
Disgusting Skin Fetishist
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Dragonthunders
Feb 13 2018, 07:29 PM
Quote:
 
Did... did you just forget that Canada exists? Or that most of the areas where Bigfoot sightings occur are in deep, thick boreal forests, for that matter? IIRC, that sort of environment is extremely poor for preserving bodies, mostly due to the soil acidity. Also, I doubt that it would have a diet exactly like humans - my money's on it being able to take on tougher vegetation than any human, along with being able to stomach more 'aged' carrion, negating the need for fire.

They are not supposed to be a kind of temperate dweller, and living around the west and east coast of america? I'm seeing that there are some sightings in Canada but the most focal encounter ones are in the US regions.

Quote:
 
and nobody's ever seen a dead megamouth shark at all, especially since shark carcasses sink

There was like dozens of specimens found dead and alive by fishermen and one washed up in the Philippines.
I meant that they seem to be found most often in the Pacific Northwest, while many legends of similar creatures exist in Canada - ergo, we can assume that there should be Sasquatch in Canada if they're real. Given how remote most of the country is, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where they were hiding.

Also, color me corrected on the megamouth thing, I suppose.
Edited by GlarnBoudin, Feb 13 2018, 08:27 PM.
Quotes
Spoiler: click to toggle


Co-creator/corporate minion for the Pop Culture Monster Apocalypse!

My Projects
Spoiler: click to toggle

Coming Soon
Spoiler: click to toggle


My dA page.
My Fanfiction.net page.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LittleLazyLass
Member Avatar
Proud quilt in a bag

Quote:
 
It is my hypothesis that the South American mapinguari exists as a cultural memory of a late-surviving ground sloth, which may have persisted up until a thousand to a few hundred years ago or even more recently. The tamer version of this cryptid (the exaggerated one is a giant torso with jaws) is literally is described like a ground sloth and natives have affirmed that illustrations of ground sloths match the creature's appearance. It is among the most probable cryptids in my opinion, but the animal is probably extinct today.
I was thinking about mentioning this one too, it's another of the few I used to have faith in. Personally I knew from it from an episode of Mystery Hunters on the subject, which had reached the same ground sloth conclusion. There was also apparently a Finding Bigfoot episode on it, for whatever reason.

totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
Read First
Words Maybe
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bob-The-Seagull-King
Member Avatar
Bob, king of the seagulls
 *  *  *  *  *  *
GlarnBoudin
Feb 13 2018, 08:27 PM
Dragonthunders
Feb 13 2018, 07:29 PM
Quote:
 
Did... did you just forget that Canada exists? Or that most of the areas where Bigfoot sightings occur are in deep, thick boreal forests, for that matter? IIRC, that sort of environment is extremely poor for preserving bodies, mostly due to the soil acidity. Also, I doubt that it would have a diet exactly like humans - my money's on it being able to take on tougher vegetation than any human, along with being able to stomach more 'aged' carrion, negating the need for fire.

They are not supposed to be a kind of temperate dweller, and living around the west and east coast of america? I'm seeing that there are some sightings in Canada but the most focal encounter ones are in the US regions.

Quote:
 
and nobody's ever seen a dead megamouth shark at all, especially since shark carcasses sink

There was like dozens of specimens found dead and alive by fishermen and one washed up in the Philippines.
I meant that they seem to be found most often in the Pacific Northwest, while many legends of similar creatures exist in Canada - ergo, we can assume that there should be Sasquatch in Canada if they're real. Given how remote most of the country is, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where they were hiding.

Also, color me corrected on the megamouth thing, I suppose.
It doesn't matter if they live in Canada as well, I'm saying that considering that there are a fair few sightings in the USA, and even parts that have dense populations, that the lack of something such as a body for such a large animal is to be something that pushes bigfoot squarely in the highly doubt category for me.

There are 2 long running shows that I'm aware of (one lasting for I think over 12 seasons) that involve people dedicating their entire jobs to trying to find something and they have found, like, nothing?
“The search for truth takes us to dangerous places,” said Old Woman Josie. “Often it takes us to that most dangerous place: the library. You know who said that? No? George Washington did. Minutes before librarians ate him.”
― Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale
“Librarians are hideous creatures of unimaginable power. And even if you could imagine their power, it would be illegal. It is absolutely illegal to even try to picture what such a being would be like.”
― Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale
"Blep"
― Diglett, My Blue Tonge
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Chuditch
Member Avatar
Dasyurid
 *  *  *  *  *  *
New Guinea seems to be the most likely place to find thylacines, given that large amounts of it are unexplored. There is also the remote possibility it survives on mainland Australia in some of the less-travelled areas. In fact thylacines were actually introduced to mainland Australia and the fate of these animals is unknown; however, why would the animals not have wandered into the more fertile areas that turn out to be the most populated? They actually could have survived in the largely uninhabited west of Tasmania; however, they would have to be damn lucky not to be spotted (well, they have supposedly been, but I mean confirmed), so it is unlikely at best. Not saying I believe the thylacine still exists, the unfortunate likelihood is that it is extinct, but it's a possibility.

While the thylacine is probably gone, it distracts attention from the other extinct Australian mammals. In fact, I dare say the thylacine is the least likely of Australia's extinct animals to still be alive. I mean, everyone goes looking for this rather large predatory mammal. Why don't they look for things like Pig-footed Bandicoots, White-footed Rabbit-rats, Lesser Bilbies, Desert Rat-kangaroos, Eastern Hare-wallabies, Desert Bandicoots, Lesser Stick-nest Rats, Broad-faced Potoroos, Long-tailed Hopping-mice, Gould's Mice... the list goes on. Australia has many small extinct mammals that were once widely distributed. Most are cryptic and elusive, found in remote areas and don't look like anything special. These are the animals that are easy to loose, especially in a place as vast as Australia. We constantly rediscover things we though were extinct, like the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby, Night Parrot, Gilbert's Potoroo, Dibbler, Leadbeater's Possum, Great Desert Skink, Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat, Parma Wallaby, so on, so on. So why don't people look for these? The answer is obvious; everyone wants to go after the big cool things. It’s a waste of time and resources to be honest, there are much more likely contenders for rediscovery. I'd be just as excited if we rediscovered Pig-footed Bandicoots, they are as unique as thylacines, but much more likely to still survive.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the 'finding the thylacine' matter; basically, while the thylacine has the small possibility of still surviving we shouldn't let it distract us from other, more likely contenders for rediscovery as it has been.
My wildlife YouTube channel
Projects
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GlarnBoudin
Member Avatar
Disgusting Skin Fetishist
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Bob
Feb 13 2018, 09:46 PM
It doesn't matter if they live in Canada as well, I'm saying that considering that there are a fair few sightings in the USA, and even parts that have dense populations, that the lack of something such as a body for such a large animal is to be something that pushes bigfoot squarely in the highly doubt category for me.

There are 2 long running shows that I'm aware of (one lasting for I think over 12 seasons) that involve people dedicating their entire jobs to trying to find something and they have found, like, nothing?
Actually, the Pacific Northwest's terrain's pretty bad for keeping a body intact; I can't remember the specifics, but one of the big ones was that the soil's quite acidic. Carcasses don't last long there, but well, it goes without saying.....
You would not assume that Washington State is a magical land of immortality just because you can't find any bodies there.
There's also the potential that this creature's smart enough to bury its dead, either to avoid detection or through a cultural belief.

Also, I fail to see how two reality TV series not doing anything productive is a valid argument.
Quotes
Spoiler: click to toggle


Co-creator/corporate minion for the Pop Culture Monster Apocalypse!

My Projects
Spoiler: click to toggle

Coming Soon
Spoiler: click to toggle


My dA page.
My Fanfiction.net page.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dragonthunders
Member Avatar
The ethereal archosaur in blue

One of these series, "Finding Bigfoot" is surrounding the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization in their work, which took the time to collect data, investigate reports, make whole procces of reconstruction of the events, and obtain video, audio and photographic evidence in each region they visit, in this case, and have been doing it for at least 6 years and 89 episodes across both USA and Canada, as well they have also done some "research" in other regions of the planet related to other unknown bipedal apes.

Although again, it is a reality show, which comes to nothing and is completely made to entertain and not be something so serious and with doubtful credibility (of course, we are in a very mediocre times for documentaries), and everything that has been obtained has been nothing to prove the existence of the bipedal ape.




Projects

"Active" projects

The Future is Far
Welcome to the next chapters of the evolution of life on earth, travel the across the earth on a journey that goes beyond the limits, a billion years of future history in the making.

The SE giants project
Wonder what is the big of the big on speculative evolution? no problem, here is the answer

Coming one day
Age of Mankind
Humanity fate and its possible finals.

The Long Cosmic Journey
The history outside our world.

The alternative paths
The multiverse, the final frontier...

Holocene park: Welcome to the biggest adventure of the last 215 million years, where the age of mammals comes to life again!
Cambrian mars: An interesting experiment on an unprecedented scale, the life of a particular and important period in the history of our planet, the cambric life, has been transported to a terraformed and habitable mars in an alternative past.
Two different paths, two different worlds, but same life and same weirdness.




My deviantart


Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
lamna
Member Avatar


Quote:
 
There's also shit like a 9-foot tagged great white being apparently swallowed whole, sonar signals that don't match anything around, giant wounds on whales like enormous cookiecutter sharks, and suction cup scars on ships from something way too big to be any ordinary squid.


That tag was swallowed intact, the animal wasn't. A shark of that size is still prey to larger sharks, especially big females. It was almost certainly eaten by another great white.

As for bigfoot not being preserved because of acidic soil, yeah no. That's pretty thin.

I can't be sure, but I don't think their is a single large mammal in North America that lacks recent remains. I'm pretty sure their are subfossils and fossils of everything. I guess when Darren Naish's big book comes out I can check.

Oregon even includes the world's second best site for Holocene fossils (After La Brea in California) Fossil Lake. No bigfoot there. None in La Brea either, and they have fossil human too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Lake_(Oregon)

I do agree with Chuditch. Lots of small extinct animals, especially in Australia are worth taking a second look at. It took us decades to show Night Parrots were still around, mostly because they look like fat budgies and fly around at night in the outback. Nobody was gonna notice them.
Edited by lamna, Feb 14 2018, 09:06 AM.
Living Fossils

Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural


34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur.
T.Neo
 
Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
[flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash]
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Scrublord
Member Avatar
Father Pellegrini
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
GlarnBoudin
Feb 13 2018, 06:39 PM

Adding onto Tartarus' point, didn't you do exactly what you were complaining about literally one thread page ago, Scrublord?
Not really. I don't deny that some mythical creatures were influenced by animals that are now extinct, but that doesn't mean we should assume all of them were. In cases like the Pouakai, it's clear that the culture in question is describing an animal that they once saw alive and incorporated into their culture as a mythical figure. The Pouakai matches the Haast's eagle in almost every detail, including its alleged ability to kill humans.

Most other "extinct animal/legendary creature" connections stand on much flimsier ground, mostly because there's no proof that the culture in question encountered that animal to begin with. We don't know, for instance, whether the natives of the Amazon Basin ever actually encountered late-surviving ground sloths, or whether the inhabitants of Sumatra actually met Homo floresensis. In cases like these, other explanations should be considered before jumping to the "extinct animal" conclusion.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Niedfaru
Member Avatar
.
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Which other explanations would you like to see considered for Ebu Gogo/Orang Pendek, then?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Scrublord
Member Avatar
Father Pellegrini
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Well, as I mentioned before, there's actually a universal "beast-man" archetype that appears in folklore and mythology around the world. Pretty much every culture-- even those as isolated as Australia and Polynesia-- have some sort of hairy, half-human half-animal creature that represents the gap between people and other animals. Examples from European culture include the Woodwose of British legend and the ancient Greek god Pan.
So the various ape-men of cryptozoological lore--the Yeti, Bigfoot, the Orang-Pendek--are really just the modern incarnation of this ancient archetype, viewed through the eyes of a society more jaded by science.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
lamna
Member Avatar


Not a big fan of extinct animals inspiring mythological ones but the poukai seems more plausible than most, after all the Māori only arrived in New Zealand around 1300 AD and Haast eagles died out around 1400 AD.

Less than 400 year separate the Haast eagle and the Māori contacting Europeans.
Living Fossils

Fósseis Vibos: Reserva Natural


34 MYH, 4 tonne dinosaur.
T.Neo
 
Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
[flash=500,450] Video Magic! [/flash]
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Archeoraptor
Member Avatar
"A living paradox"
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *
that bigfoot video looks like a bad video edit IMO so out of place not better than the dancign alien video
Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know
Fanauraa; The rebirth of Aotearoa future evo set in new zealand after a mass extinction
coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest
and who knows what is coming next...........

" I have to know what the world will be looking throw a future beyond us
I have to know what could have been if fate acted in another way
I have to know what lies on the unknown universe
I have to know that the laws of thee universe can be broken
throw The Spec I gain strength to the inner peace
the is not good of evil only nature and change,the evolution of all livings beings"
"
Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Carlos
Member Avatar
Adveho in me Lucifero
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
lamna
Feb 14 2018, 01:39 PM
Not a big fan of extinct animals inspiring mythological ones but the poukai seems more plausible than most, after all the Māori only arrived in New Zealand around 1300 AD and Haast eagles died out around 1400 AD.

Less than 400 year separate the Haast eagle and the Māori contacting Europeans.

Pouakai might actually just be derived from the sounds local shorebirds make, so maybe not even that.
Lemuria:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

Terra Alternativa:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/

My Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/Carliro

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bob-The-Seagull-King
Member Avatar
Bob, king of the seagulls
 *  *  *  *  *  *
GlarnBoudin
Feb 14 2018, 12:56 AM


Also, I fail to see how two reality TV series not doing anything productive is a valid argument.
The reason I talked about the shows is to show that, despite being a community large enough to support multiple long-running television shows, the Bigfoot community has failed to show any evidence such as a piece of a body or high definition footage/pictures or really anything that can t be easily faked over the entire course of the entire history of the Bigfoot myth.

And so that's why I doubt the existence of Bigfoot.
“The search for truth takes us to dangerous places,” said Old Woman Josie. “Often it takes us to that most dangerous place: the library. You know who said that? No? George Washington did. Minutes before librarians ate him.”
― Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale
“Librarians are hideous creatures of unimaginable power. And even if you could imagine their power, it would be illegal. It is absolutely illegal to even try to picture what such a being would be like.”
― Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale
"Blep"
― Diglett, My Blue Tonge
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Picrodus
Member Avatar
:Ominous Wind:
 *  *  *  *  *  *
Archeoraptor
Feb 14 2018, 01:42 PM
that bigfoot video looks like a bad video edit IMO so out of place not better than the dancign alien video
This video was shot in 1967...Also there is no known costume or special effects studio at the time that had the capability to make anything remotely like it in its realism and all attempts to replicate it since have failed. Another thing to add is the northern third of California at the time then and even now is a pretty empty space. It may be the most populous state in the union but the majority of the population resides in Southern California. There's not too much going on along I-5 and US Route 97 in the 570+ miles (~917 km) between Sacramento and Portland with some larger population centers like Bend, Oregon on 97 and a few others on I-5 still fairly small by city standards and definitely do not account for the rural vastness in both these states.. I'm not saying the video is 100% real but I definitely can say that it isn't just a bad video edit. As was said by Little, the least that can be said in the way of being against its legitimacy is that it is one of the Greatest Hoaxes of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson–Gimlin_film Just for some more context.
Posted Image
My Deviantart A work in progress. Other Liked Quote: "The "habitable zone" will expand along with the Sun. This will warm once-frozen planets and their moons, bringing a brief springtime after a 10-billion-year winter."

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
ZetaBoards gives you all the tools to create a successful discussion community.
Learn More · Register for Free
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Science Central · Next Topic »
Add Reply