The creature kingdom is a pretty wild place , and chronicle is full of narration of creature that westerly scientist did n’t consider actually existed until evidence ultimately proved them wrong — include the animal below . Could Bigfoot , the chupacabra , or the Loch Ness monster be next ? ( Probably not . )
Gorilla
In1859 , French - American IE Paul du Chaillu returned from Central Africa with wild tarradiddle of humanoid freak so monolithic and strong they could bend the barrel of a gun with ease . The creatures had giant skull but could walk on two leg ; they also had the ability to vocalise eerily like people .
While pearl of this wight had made their way to the west in previous decade , it was still unknown to many multitude . And the stories of this animal du Chaillu brought back with him much vex him express mirth out of the scientific community .
Du Chaillu ’s reputation was repair the following year when renowned English anatomist Richard Owen invited him to confront his stories , skins , and skulls to London ’s elite . They were ravish , and his bestselling book of dubious truth brought this wight to the attention of the entire Western World . The mysterious animal ? The gorilla .
Narwhal
Most people in the Middle Ages did n’t know about narwhals . They did , however , believe in unicorn . The narwhal , a eccentric of whale that lives in the Arctic Ocean , has one long tooth that protrudes from its head and looksa lotlike the horn of a certain mythological wolf . When Arctic traders realized they could make ungodly amounts of money off of their European client by claim the narwhal tooth was in reality a unicorn horn … well , they did .
Because these supposed unicorn horn were so rare and valuable , natural endowment made from them became the must - have gift for European nobility . The Hapsburgs had aunicorn horn scepter ; Queen Elizabeth I drank out of a unicorn French horn chalice believe it would explode if poison was in her cup . The king of Denmark had anentirethronemade out of unicorn horns . Even churches put ground unicorn trumpet in the holy water in hope of offering miracle cures to parishioner .
The worldwide belief in unicorn waned in the18th centuryas more of the world was research and no hard grounds of tusk buck look . On the flip side , narwhals gained more prominence , even garneringmentionsin Herman Melville’sMoby DickandJules Verne’s20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . Between the literary nod and just our expansion of noesis about oceanic creatures in general , the narwhal quickly go from myth to fact in the scientific residential district .
Kraken/Giant Squid
For centuries , Panama hat told atrocious story of giant sea lusus naturae uprise from the trench to pluck ships beneath the waving . In the 1750s , Danish bishop Erik Pontoppidan draw the kraken as “ circular , flat , and full of arms or branches , ” and said that fisherman “ nemine contradicente affirm , and without the least variation in their accounts , ” that the creature exists some telephone number of miles offshore .
Despite other similar reports from around the world , including one of a 60 - invertebrate foot creature with a mouth full of jaggy teeth off the coast of Africa in1848 , not many believed that the monster actually existed . Theorieson the creature ’s line of descent included everything from a piddle - loving feather boa constrictor to a “ very big stamp . ”
It was n’t until 1857 that we would get our first theory resembling the Sojourner Truth . Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstruptook all of these ocean monstrosity descriptions from over sentence and hypothesized that there were probably some very big — some might even say “ giant”—squid floating around in the sea . Up until this point , only smaller squid had been firmly notice , along with one super large calamary beak that had wash ashore solo .
Over the next couple of decennary , Steenstrup was test justly when a handful of gargantuan calamary were discovered near the Canary Islands and Newfoundland — but they were stagnant . Because it lives so deep in the ocean , the so - called “ kraken ” has remain elusive even in modern times . The first photo of a living giant squid in its natural habitat was n’t catch until 2004 . The first television took almost another decade , when it was recorded2000 feetbelow the open of the Pacific Ocean .
Now , that ’s not to say that giant calamary were sinking ship back in the day ; it ’s more likely that sailors were prostrate to a small story embellishment . But with their farsighted tentacles and legendary size , it ’s well-heeled to see why the jumbo calamari may have been blame for destroying some boat .
Platypus
We can all agree that the platypus looks like it was put together by a sick scientist . First of all , it ’s a mammal that lay eggs , which is nigh unheard of — the only other mammalian to lie is arethe echidna(also known as the spiny echidna ) . Then you tack on the nib that appear like that of a duck , the behind of a beaver , andthenmake it poisonous .
So when British scientist were first presented with the soundbox of this odd animal in the eighteenth century , it ’s easy to see why they call up it was a gag . “ It of course energize the idea of some deceptive preparation by hokey means , ” George Shaw , thekeeperof the natural ingathering at what is now the British History Museum , wrotein 1799 . You ca n’t find fault him for being skeptical—“deceptive prep ” of strange creatures was perfectly in trend at the time . In the 1800s , P.T. Barnum displayed an unholymashupof monkey bones , Pisces parts , and papier mâché and charge people to see “ The Feejee Mermaid . ” And Cabinets of Curiosities were fill with objects of instinctive history , often with more emphasis on curiosity than truth .
Unlike mermaids , Shaw did eventually ascertain the platypus was existent , not a taxidermied nightmare , and was the first to name it the Platypus anatinus , meaning“the flavorless - footed duck . ” To tot to the outlandishness of the platypus , here ’s another fun fact : It ’s not officially called a “ duckbilled platypus . ” After Shaw deemed itPlatypus anatinus , it was notice thatPlatypuswasalreadybeing used for the genus of a type of beetle , so it had to be rename . coincidently , another scientist had get a platypus and gave it the nameOrnithorhynchus paradoxus , or “ paradoxical razzing - snout . ” Ultimately an animal that was thought to be a mashup would get another mashup , and today it croak byOrnithorhynchus anatinus , which is something like “ duck like skirt snout . ” But we still call it a “ platypus . ” Sorry , beetle .
Komodo Dragons
Far from being a usual warning on quondam function , the phrasehere be flying dragon — or at least the Latin version of same — only really come along on a couple world from the 1500s . And there are some serious researchers who think that rather than being a warning it ’s completely descriptive , because the phrase appear near where the Komodo Draco lives .
Whether you reckon that ’s fanciful or not , the New geological era of Western Komodo Draco recognition dates only to around 1910 , when Lieutenant J.K.H. van Steyn van Hensbroek decided to investigate whether hearsay he was hearing about a jumbo lizard were truthful . His expedition did n’t take long — after a “ brief survey ” of the island , he found what he was looking for , even managing to kill one 7 - foot - long specimen . He sent the pelt to a zoo conductor in Java . Still , it would take another decade and a one-half for the Komodo firedrake to become more wide known .
In1926 , explorer W. Douglas Burden adjudicate to pretend to the East Indies to show footage and bring specimen back to the United States . Burden bring home the bacon , bringing two live Komodo Dragons to the Bronx Zoo , where M of people flocked to see the ancient creature . The American Museum of Natural History also benefited from the expedition , of track — several of the specimens collected by Burden are still ondisplayat the museum .
The museum is n’t the only place you ’ll find oneself Burden ’s influence today . Back in the U.S. , Burden ’s take a chance fascinated tribe , including his respectable champion Merian C. Cooper . Cooper , a film writer , conduct the details of Burden ’s stumble — a dashing explorer , an island with a cryptic monster , work the animate being back to civilization — and turn it into one of the most iconic movies of all prison term : King Kong .
Okapi
The ultimate myth - sour - veridical wight has to be the Okapia johnstoni , which looks like a zebra and a deer had a babe ( but itsclosest relativeis actually the Giraffa camelopardalis ) . Theonly placein the man the okapi can be found in the natural state is in the Democratic Republic of Congo , and they ’re famously solitary beast .
So , you may imagine that sightings were few and far between . Europeansdubbedthe animate being “ the African Unicorn , ” and the descriptions of them were so grotesque that most people did n’t quite consider they were true . Things started await up for the Okapia johnstoni when Dr. Henry Stanley — you make out , the one who said , “ Dr. Livingston , I presume?”—made note of its existence during a trip-up in1887 . Even then , animal scientist think it was some case of equid and classify it as such for quite some time .
In1901 , British official Sir Henry Johnston sent a piece of music of okapi hide to the British Museum , which is when modern scientific discipline finally considered the Okapia johnstoni “ get word . ”
Okapi sightings are still rare . Although they can be seen in many zoological garden these 24-hour interval , finding the okapi in its natural habitat is most out of the question . The first - ever photograph was just take in2008 — and that was the first sighting in more than 50 years .
Rhinoceros
“ A unicorn by any other name … ” OK , that ’s not how the Shakespeare quote go , but with as many false unicorn sightings as we ’ve had over the centuries , mayhap it should . Thirteenth one C Venetian adventurer Marco Polo , for example , reported that he had get font - to - cheek with a unicorn , and it wasnota gorgeous Mexican onyx Equus caballus .
Polo observe , “ Their pilus is like that of a Bison bison , and their feet like those of an elephant . In the center of the forehead they have a very tumid opprobrious horn … . Their head is like that of a groundless wild boar , and is always carried bent on to the ground . … It is a hideous beast to bet at . ” We now know that what he saw wasprobablya Sumatran rhino .
But even once Post - Classical Europe love the rhino was real , the portrayal were still rather mythical . In 1515 , German creative person Albrecht Dürer create a woodcut of a rhinoceros that would go on to be the defining image of the beast for the next 200 eld . The trouble ? Dürer had never actuallyseena rhinoceros . Using a survey from another artist and a description from a varsity letter , Dürer madethisprint depict the animal with armored plate and a tiny , pointless back horn .
The rhino in the drawing had been a gift to King Manuel I of Portugal , who plain wanted to see if it could beat an elephant in a fight . Do n’t worry — the fight never happen . Before the animal could harm each other , the elephant got spooked by the bunch and take flight .
But back to Dürer . Even though more precise mental image live , Dürer ’s became the example because of the medium he chose . The woodcut stand for the image was well reproduced , so it was wide used . Other artist based their work on Dürer ’s , spread the inaccuracy . Public perception did n’t really switch until the mid-1700s , when a rhino named Miss Clara was exhibited across Europe , provide accession to the mass and showing them what a rhinoceros actually seem like .
King of Saxony Bird of Paradise
Despite the imaginary name , the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise is n’t particularly spectacular — except for one not - so - little detail . Attached to the side of the male ’s header are two plume , describedby Britannica as “ long head - streamers composed of about 40 squarish lobes with an enameled appearing . ” They can feed downward like ribbons , but alsostandto shape a 5 - Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe around the eyes . The plumes are so strange and one and only in nature that when motion picture first arrive at ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe in the 1890s , he thought it was a fake , saying , “ I could not aid outcry that it was unsufferable that such a bird could subsist in nature ! ” He ’s almost right , since there is only one place it can be found in the total world : New Guinea .
Even intimately 100 eld afterward , the dame ’s singularly singular plumes continued to enamor expert : “ There ’s nothing else remotely like those plumes in the whole of the bird world , ” Sir David Attenborough said when he discover the doll ’s conjugation ritual in the 1990s .
To top it all off , the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise sounds as foreign as it looks , making noises thatsoundlike screeching , motionless and rattling .
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