7 MYTHICAL Creatures that Actually EXISTED

A mythical creature can be one of two things. Either something completely made up like a unicorn, a minotaur, or a volaco goose, which is part raptor, part goose. Or alternatively, it can be an animal seen but never positively identified, such as a yeti or a chupacabra. But many animals were thought to be mythical before they were discovered. Ancient Greeks believed the gorilla was a myth. Manatees were also thought to be made up. And when the naturalist George Shaw first saw the platypus, he famously thought it looked so stupid it must have been a hoax. But did you know there are other more outlandish creatures from some of your favorite movies and TV shows which really existed? And some of them are still around today. Let's find out which, in our list of 7 Real Mythical Creatures and Monsters. Number 7. Hobbits In 2003, a team led by archaeologist Mike Morwood conducted an excavation on the Island of Flores, in Indonesia, when they discovered the skeleton of a human only a pinch taller than one meter. But it wasn't a child, and nor was it a prehistoric Danny DeVito. This skeleton is believed to be an example of the long-extinct Homo florenciensis, a hobbit-like creature which lived between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. With their small brains and body size, some scientists say these hobbits were simply malformed Homo sapiens. But the popular consensus is that they do actually share a genetic ancestry with both human beings and Neanderthals. The last of the hobbits died out 12,000 years ago, but it wasn't Sauron who was responsible. It was probably man. Scientists believe man caused Homo florenciensis extinction, because modern humans first made their way to Australia 50,000 years ago. And to get there, they must have crossed Indonesia, meaning contact and conflict with the last of the hobbits was therefore extremely likely. And here we are blaming orcs for destroying the Shire, when it was us all along. Number 6. The Dire Wolf The number of Dire Wolves in Game of Thrones seems to be diminishing by the episode. But these giant hounds were a real species, and the last one is thought to have died out only 10,000 years ago. Their Latin name is Canis Dearos, which translates as fearsome hound. And fearsome they certainly were. Its teeth were capable of gliding through flesh like a sword through Ned Stark's neck. Oh, by the way, spoiler alert. Heck, if you haven't seen the first series, then what are you doing with your life? Dire Wolves also had the strongest jaws of any known canine species in all of dog history, which is a history class I'd love to take. Their prey included animals as large as bison, horses, and even the mighty mastodon. But it's believed that the reliance on eating mega herbivores was one of the reasons they went extinct. I suppose when you've tasted mastodon meat, you don't really want to degrade yourself by eating squirrels. And would you really fancy your chances trying to convince this guy to turn vegan? Number 5. The Kraken If you've seen our Mysteries of the Ocean video, you'll know that colossal squids are thought to roam the oceans. But could one have grown to such a size that it could take down an entire ship? Many of the Kraken stories hail from 13th century Icelandic sagas, and around this time, sailors of North Atlantic and Norwegian seas would have used ships such as the Kog and Gnar, which were wooden vessels between 15 and 25 feet wide. Now, the largest squid we know of was almost twice as long as that, and evidence points to some colossal squid growing to nearly 70 feet. So these medieval tales of giant cephalopods dragging a ship down to its doom may not have been mere folklore after all. Number 4. Vampires Whilst there's no evidence of any human beings transforming into a bat, or being able to get away with having such a cliched accent without getting punched in the face, many of the ailments and qualities vampires supposedly possessed have been observed and diagnosed in humans, leading many to wonder if these conditions were the original source of the vampire myth. Porphyria is a hereditary disease which causes abnormal metabolism of the blood's hemoglobin pigment, and some of its symptoms include a sensitivity to sunlight, which can cause skin lesions, extreme mental disturbances, and it also makes your pee dark. Guess that's why you never see Dracula taking a whiz. Some other diseases, such as plague, can also make blood form at the lips, making sufferers look like they'd just sunk a delicious human slurpee, and the bat connection could be explained by the fact that they are known carriers of rabies, which when transmitted to humans can cause brain disturbances and hypersexuality. We can't explain the aversions to garlic and silver, but vampires were also thought to be unable to walk on consecrated ground such as churches or temples, nor could they enter a house unless invited, which makes me think vampires were all just super polite atheists riddled with rabies and porphyria. At three, zombies. The internet is obsessed with three things, kitty cats, bacon, and zombies. If you could combine the three into some sort of cafe where they serve you the smoked flesh of reanimated felines who sit casually on your lap as you consume their delicious zombie kitty bacon, you'd make millions. But unlike bacon and cats, zombies are actually a real thing. There are several brain diseases which cause sufferers to display symptoms similar to those of the walking dead. Creutzfeldt-Jakob, also known as mad cow disease, causes muscle spasms, a lack of balance, hallucinations, dementia, and occasional limb jerking. Sounds pretty zombie-like to me. Some chemicals can also cause zombification, such as the poison found within the Japanese blowfish. And some disreputable Chinese gang masters have also been known to dose their employees with such toxins in order to get them to work mindlessly for hours on end. Oh, and what about bringing dead flesh back to life? I hear you YouTube commenters screaming at me. Well, in India at this very moment, there are clinical trials underway for a drug called BQA-001. The project is named ReAnima, and it seeks to use this drug on brain-dead patients to bring the expired parts of their brains back to life. The zombies are coming, people, and there aren't enough comatose sheriff deputies to save us all. Number 2. Dragons In our recent video on the possibilities of genome editing, we heard about a genetic scientist who claimed the creation of flying dragons was technically feasible. But as most of you who've been to the zoo already know, dragons genuinely do exist, albeit much smaller ones minus the fire and wings. But what you might not have known is exactly how big they used to be. The megalania was a gigantic version of modern monitor lizards and komodo dragons, and could grow up to 8 meters long weighing nearly 2 tons. And if being bitten by one of these things isn't bad enough, their saliva also contains a blood thinner as an extra f*** you, which means you'd bleed out from the wound in no time. This makes them the largest venomous vertebrate ever known. But of course these fellas weren't a patch on how huge the dinosaurs used to be. However, humans didn't exist at the same time as the dinosaurs, whereas we were very much around to meet and greet the ferocious megalania. The latest any megalania remains have been dated to is around 50,000 years ago, in southern Australia. And as we learned earlier, this is when modern humans first made their way to the oceanic continent when they crossed Indonesia. So humans first had to kill off a bunch of hobbits, and then they had to contend with actual dragons. What's next? Giant anaconda? Number 1. The Giant Anaconda The South Korean legend of the emoji talks of a long, serpent-like dragon which was not a destructive, gold-hoarding psychopath like those from European folklore. This one was actually quite a nice guy. It's likely that this mythical beast was based on the huge reticulated pythons found across Asia, of which the largest was a quarter-ton monstrosity which measured 24 feet, and was found on a Malaysian building site earlier this year. Imagine finding that on your lunch break. But the remains of even bigger serpents than this have been discovered in South America. The fossil of Titanoboa cherrygenosis measured at 46 feet long and is estimated to have weighed over a ton. That anaconda seriously got buns, huh? But we'll never check that luggage, because we're still unsure if creatures of this size still exist today. Interestingly, the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who we recently mentioned in our Mysteries of the Jungle video, claimed to have shot and killed a 62-foot anaconda in 1906. Was he making it up? Or are there more of these giant beasts waiting for us in the jungle? And if so, should we send Nicki Minaj to find out? Yes, yes we should. Did you enjoy finding out that all the weird monsters and creatures from your nightmares are actually real? If not, perhaps you might want to learn how to fight one by studying the top 7 badasses from history. And it just so happens we've made a video of them to help. Aren't we nice?