>> On the one hand, with how small the world feels these days, and all the drone mapping and whatnot,<<
Watch "Extinct or Alive" and then consider how accessible some of those places are, or not. Canada has completely lost control of the interior regarding wildfires.
>> it seems unlikely that some of the larger cryptids like Nessie are really out there.<<
An important thing to consider is "How big was that fish?" When you can't lay a measuring tape on something, then estimating its size is difficult if not impossible. In an area with other visual landmarks, you might manage to ballpark it. In the water, you are flat-out guessing. So while a house-sized Nessie is increasingly implausible, something the size of a giant otter or a ribbonfish is a lot more plausible.
>> On the other hand, there are still so many discoveries being made - animals, insects, plant life, caves - so who really knows? <<
Yep.
>> It's nice to think there are still some unknowable things out there.<<
There are definitely unknowable things out there. Listen to any marine biologist complaining about things that appeared on a submersible camera for 3 seconds, or something big that they only caught a flipper of that didn't match any known species at all, or worse -- all the unidentifiable animal sounds picked up by the watermike but not the camera. I suspect that the benthic zone is mostly cryptids.
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2024-01-19 08:39 pm (UTC)Yay!
>> On the one hand, with how small the world feels these days, and all the drone mapping and whatnot,<<
Watch "Extinct or Alive" and then consider how accessible some of those places are, or not. Canada has completely lost control of the interior regarding wildfires.
>> it seems unlikely that some of the larger cryptids like Nessie are really out there.<<
An important thing to consider is "How big was that fish?" When you can't lay a measuring tape on something, then estimating its size is difficult if not impossible. In an area with other visual landmarks, you might manage to ballpark it. In the water, you are flat-out guessing. So while a house-sized Nessie is increasingly implausible, something the size of a giant otter or a ribbonfish is a lot more plausible.
>> On the other hand, there are still so many discoveries being made - animals, insects, plant life, caves - so who really knows? <<
Yep.
>> It's nice to think there are still some unknowable things out there.<<
There are definitely unknowable things out there. Listen to any marine biologist complaining about things that appeared on a submersible camera for 3 seconds, or something big that they only caught a flipper of that didn't match any known species at all, or worse -- all the unidentifiable animal sounds picked up by the watermike but not the camera. I suspect that the benthic zone is mostly cryptids.