The Top Ten creatures of Cryptozoology

I was doing my normal daily reading through the various science sites I frequent, and I came across this.

Top ten: Cryptozoological creatures


Thought some people might be interested in it.


In my personjal opinion, it's lacking, but that's just my opinion.

yeah ivory-billed woodpeckers dont belong on a "cryptozoology" list. they are an endangered species of woodpecker. nothing enigmatic. and the chupies should sure as heck be on there.

That's a silly list. Gorillas and King Cheetahs cannot possibly be put on the same list as Nessie and Bigfoot. They (the first two) have moved from the Crypto list early in the 19th century... I agree with Hawker9... There's a couple of others (like chupa, yeti, champ, mothman - to name a few) that deserve to be on the list.

Here's the list for anyone that is wary of links:

1. Thylacine
   
2. Okapi
   
3. Lochness Monster
   
4. Ivory billed woodpecker
   
5. King cheetah
   
6. Homo floresiensis
   
7. Coelacanth
   
8. Bigfoot
   
9. Giant squid
   
10. Gorilla
    

The king cheetah is a cheetah with splotches instead of spots, they are the result of a mutation, according to the site. Intersting in that its then a cryptid that is a mutant, rather than a stable species.

All of these animals, except the coelacanth, I'd say qualify by a broad definition of cryptids. A cryptid can be an animal that's never been demonstrated to exist, or a species thought to have gone extinct but is still sighted. The Coelacanth was thought to be extinct, then simply found. The ivory billed woodpecker's existence is still debated, the okapi was probably not beleived by anyone listening to the reports. The thylacine is something I think everyone agrees is a cryptid, it'd certainly beleived to be extinct, yet we hear reports all the time.

I like the fact that the gorilla is there, it was an animal that had long been reported, and is rather fanatistical and hard to beleive. But if gorillas can exist for so long, perhaps big foot can.


But only, what, two organisms on that list are what we usually think of when we think of cryptids no, bigfoot and nessie.

I'd've thought that champy, the yeti, the orang pendek, and a host of other actual hard core cryptids should be there.



Lets try to agree on a real Top Ten cryptid list. This one was like a weak Letterman top ten.

What should be number 10?
My vote is Mokele Membe.
Anyone else?

[edit on 22-11-2005 by Nygdan]

NYGDAN wrote : " All of these animals, except the coelacanth, I'd say qualify by a broad definition of cryptids"

what ???????? sorry mate but IMHO thats a bit more than a " broad definition " of crtypid

thylacine and the ivory wood pecker are VERY real - its thier status as viable or extinct species that is in question

the gorrilla , squid and okapi are again very real - we knew there were squid down there because the bodies continued to wash up

the cheetah is an issue of exact taxonomy

now to be a little less negative , a list of 10 cryptids in no particular order :

1 - Mokele Membe
2 - bigfoot / yeti / sasquatch etc
3 - nessie , champie and other fresh water " monsters "
4 - chupubara
5 - mongolian death worm [ google it ]
6 - bunyip [ australian ]
7 - beast of bodmin
8 - true lycathropes - were wolves etc
9 - " classic " mermaids
10 - alien space bats - BWAAAA . ok ok - i admit i have run out of ideas

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
NYGDAN wrote : " All of these animals, except the coelacanth, I'd say qualify by a broad definition of cryptids"

what ????????

I agree, its a very very broad definition. When I hear 'cryptid' I think bigfoot and nessie personally. Tho I can see a good case made for thylacines or even some of the odd 'dogs' and maybe even ABCs (alien big cats)


With the gorilla and opaki, you can see how for a long time there were reports of these animals and people simply didn't beleive that they existed. Similar with the 'king' cheetah, though I agree thats a minor difference.

The giant squid is a perfect example tho, its existence was very much in question not too long ago. Blobs would show up on beaches every so often, but people would dispute it saying squids can't get that big and it must be a rotted whale carcass (indeed, often it was). So the giant squid was a crpytid, or hidden animal. Then, it was found. So like the gorilla it moved out of it. If bigfoot was found tomorrow tho, we couldn't really call it a cryptid anymore, I'll agree, but most cryptozoologists consider the animals to be real, just un-proven. That orignal list apparently was like a 'cryptids of all time' sort of list.

The more I think about the 'king' cheetah tho the less I like it as a cryptid. There are often hard to confirm reports of variations of an animal species.

We could definitly restrict our list to ones still hidden, so no giant squid or thylacine.

The mongolian death worm is a good classical cryptid too!


edit to add:
also, Homo Florensis? What a crock, the thing's extinct, and been extinct long before anyone knew about it, and there's never been a sighting of homo florensis (sure there are stories about elves, but thats not the same at all). A cryptid is, perhaps, an animal that we have an idea of first, and then evidence for, not the reverse.



[edit on 22-11-2005 by Nygdan]

So it looks like mokele Membe defintly woudl make our list.

But what other cryptid has to be on it?

You cant forget the flying Cryptids

Mothman
Jersey Devil
Thunderbird

U cant forget The GOATMAN of Maryland and the DOVER DEMON!