Snowflake Challenge 10: Five Things
Jan. 19th, 2024 05:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithSnowflake Challenge #10: Five Things
Five Things! The five things are totally up to you. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
My Five Most Favorite Cryptids
Cryptobiology is the study of lifeforms that may or may not exist in the modern world. It includes attempts to pin down creatures considered mythical and species considered extinct that still have unverified sightings. Also, cryptobiology is a real science that uses scientific methods in these search attempts. Calling it pseudoscience is data-cropping -- especially when you consider the significant list of cryptids that have been verified. For an example of seeking possibly-not-extinct species, see Extinct or Alive.
1) Thylacine (aka Tasmanian wolf). Marsupial predator about the size of a wolf. Known to exist, widely believed extinct, but sightings persist. Claimed sightings have not been confirmed.
2) Ivory-billed woodpecker. Large woodpecker with a pale beak. Known to exist, widely believed exinct, but sightings persist. Last confirmed sighting in 2004. Most claimed sightings are indistinct and difficult to verify. As they live in old-growth forests, often swamps, and have far-flung territories they have always been very hard to spot.
3) Loch Ness Monster. The archetypal freshwater lake monster. Unusual for cryptids, the many sightings do not agree on general parameters but instead form several clusters (e.g. sea serpent-like, plesiosaur-like). While it is implausible for there to be a viable population of truly giant creatures going unnoticed, the frequency of sightings suggests that there may be "something" out there unverified by science. That is a big, old, deep lake that likes to keep its secrets.
4) Silphium. One of the few cryptids that is a plant rather than an animal, this was a relative of giant fennel. Known to exist, widely believed extinct, exact nature lost to history. Possibly rediscovered; debate continues.
5) Mokele-Mbembe. A dinosaur-like animal from the Republic of Congo. Unverified, but occasional reports persist. While it's hard to hide a truly giant creature, a jungle is a good place to hide things, even fairly large things.
EDIT 1/19/24 -- I forgot to include the Pictish Beast! It has a long snout and legs or flippers that coil at the ends. "The Happiness of the Bee" includes a brief appearance, and its notes have a description with an excellent photograph.
+ 1) My favorite book about cryptids is Mirabile by Janet Kagan.
Read about more cryptids. What are some of your favorite cryptids?
Five Things! The five things are totally up to you. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
My Five Most Favorite Cryptids
Cryptobiology is the study of lifeforms that may or may not exist in the modern world. It includes attempts to pin down creatures considered mythical and species considered extinct that still have unverified sightings. Also, cryptobiology is a real science that uses scientific methods in these search attempts. Calling it pseudoscience is data-cropping -- especially when you consider the significant list of cryptids that have been verified. For an example of seeking possibly-not-extinct species, see Extinct or Alive.
1) Thylacine (aka Tasmanian wolf). Marsupial predator about the size of a wolf. Known to exist, widely believed extinct, but sightings persist. Claimed sightings have not been confirmed.
2) Ivory-billed woodpecker. Large woodpecker with a pale beak. Known to exist, widely believed exinct, but sightings persist. Last confirmed sighting in 2004. Most claimed sightings are indistinct and difficult to verify. As they live in old-growth forests, often swamps, and have far-flung territories they have always been very hard to spot.
3) Loch Ness Monster. The archetypal freshwater lake monster. Unusual for cryptids, the many sightings do not agree on general parameters but instead form several clusters (e.g. sea serpent-like, plesiosaur-like). While it is implausible for there to be a viable population of truly giant creatures going unnoticed, the frequency of sightings suggests that there may be "something" out there unverified by science. That is a big, old, deep lake that likes to keep its secrets.
4) Silphium. One of the few cryptids that is a plant rather than an animal, this was a relative of giant fennel. Known to exist, widely believed extinct, exact nature lost to history. Possibly rediscovered; debate continues.
5) Mokele-Mbembe. A dinosaur-like animal from the Republic of Congo. Unverified, but occasional reports persist. While it's hard to hide a truly giant creature, a jungle is a good place to hide things, even fairly large things.
EDIT 1/19/24 -- I forgot to include the Pictish Beast! It has a long snout and legs or flippers that coil at the ends. "The Happiness of the Bee" includes a brief appearance, and its notes have a description with an excellent photograph.
+ 1) My favorite book about cryptids is Mirabile by Janet Kagan.
Read about more cryptids. What are some of your favorite cryptids?
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-01-21 02:03 pm (UTC)That would be completely unnerving, especially if you know (and you shouldn’t really be out in such a place unless you do know, imo)
I think cryptids for me are something that may have survived from older times, rather than something from myth (such as werewolves for instance).
Thunderbird, well, there have been some airplane-sized birds in the fossil record. Surviving condors are fucking huge.
Condors are immense.
I was reading some people on a remote road in Australia who saw a wedge tailed eagle that had been feeding on a dead animal in the road and they swore it was immense but apparently they can grow huge as well.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-01-21 08:46 pm (UTC)I agree.
Of course, I have ulterior resources; I read as "part of nature" to much wildlife. I stepped on a rabbit once. I am a throne of birds. So it doesn't take much for the normal sounds to resume.
>> I think cryptids for me are something that may have survived from older times, <<
Many are.
>> rather than something from myth (such as werewolves for instance).<<
*chuckle* Look up the Wolf Soldiers from Native American history and their spirit gifts. Invisibility, super-strength, psychic pack-hunting teamwork, interesting stuff going on there. And the Norse had a sort of spirit-possession with both wolves and bears; I've seen therianthropes talking about that.
>> Condors are immense.<<
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentavis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagornis#Pelagornis_sandersi
>> I was reading some people on a remote road in Australia who saw a wedge tailed eagle that had been feeding on a dead animal in the road and they swore it was immense but apparently they can grow huge as well.<<
Nearly 10-foot wingspan is certainly huge.