Do you believe in cryptids?

[Den Valdron]

Nothing is impossible for a mad scientist with tesla coils!

I'm afraid we have to settle for a slightly disgruntled lab assistant with a turkey baster.

Moas, mammoths, wooly rhinos, and giant sloths are cryptids?

And Tasmanian Wolfs. All of these animals are apocryphally reported to have survived their extinctions, in reports of sightings, footprints, scat, hides and other traces. Plus, they've left behind plenty of genetic material in the form of physical remains including feathers, bones and tissue, hides, leather, etc.

 

[West 36]

I'm afraid we have to settle for a slightly disgruntled lab assistant with a turkey baster.

It's a start. A possibly delicious start!
Bah, I'm sure we can find someone here who's crazy enough to fit the first part of our formula.

And Tasmanian Wolfs. All of these animals are apocryphally reported to have survived their extinctions, in reports of sightings, footprints, scat, hides and other traces. Plus, they've left behind plenty of genetic material in the form of physical remains including feathers, bones and tissue, hides, leather, etc.

Gotchya. That does raise (awesome) questions. Like that tasmanian wolf(tiger?) cub thats in a jar, or that frozen mammoth, or just the fact that material found from their bones is somewhat recent might hold the possibility of cloning them? Yes? Please?

 

[Den Valdron]

Gotchya. That does raise (awesome) questions. Like that tasmanian wolf(tiger?) cub thats in a jar, or that frozen mammoth, or just the fact that material found from their bones is somewhat recent might hold the possibility of cloning them? Yes? Please?

I think that if we searched diligently, we might find several different preserved pieces of Tasmanian Wolf and Mammoth, which might give us the genetic material to reconstruct a breeding population.

Moas might be harder, but I think that we might be able to recover preserved soft tissue from Moa bones, if we search far and wide enough.

And there is preserved hides and dung from giant sloths. In fact, the hides were so well preserved in cave conditions that they gave rise to rumours the critters might still be alive.

Less spectacularly, the Northern Auks and the Dodo probably exist in enough museums and collections that we might be able to batch something up.

Still, if you had to lay odds on any of them, I'd say our best bet would be taking wooly mammoth genetic material and inserting it into elephant (indian or african) ova or sperm, or maybe trying to conjure up a zygote. It's just barely possible that with existing technology available now, we could engineer a hybrid mammoth/elephant, and then backbreed it into something similar to an actual mammoth. Given the lifespan and gestation periods of elephants, the process would only take about 150 years, give or take a century.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

With all this talk of making one's own cryptid, someone may have actually beat you to it. Enter, the goatman. A half goat half man that was supposedly made by a mad scientist, and today runs around the backroads of maryland eating people's dogs.

Spoiler :

 

[El_Machinae]

You can never prove that something doesn't exist. Anything is possible, no matter how improbable.

There's the possibility that something never got a chance to evolve. You'll never see a centaur or a dragon in the natural world. It's probably completely possible to design on in the lab (someday), but they could not have evolved on our planet: the opportunity was never there.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

There's the possibility that something never got a chance to evolve. You'll never see a centaur or a dragon in the natural world. It's probably completely possible to design on in the lab (someday), but they could not have evolved on our planet: the opportunity was never there.

Don't mix up mythology with cryptozoology. I'm also pretty sure that dragons and centaurs never roamed the earth.

It's still interesting though. I saw a program that said dragons exist in some form in every ancient culture of the world, even though they never had contact. The reason why is when an ancient farmer finds a T-rex skull while plowing his field, he has no idea what it is, or how old it is, and imagines similar creatures are still walking around.

 

[Masquerouge]

Of course there are animals that are yet undiscovered. The question is what are more likely? Some random frogs and birds in the middle of the jungle, or some giant, hairy ape wandering around North America?

My thoughts exactly. Funny how famous cryptids are never worms or bacterias, because man there are sure a lot of discoveries there.

 

[El_Machinae]

Don't mix up mythology with cryptozoology. I'm also pretty sure that dragons and centaurs never roamed the earth.

It's still interesting though. I saw a program that said dragons exist in some form in every ancient culture of the world, even though they never had contact. The reason why is when an ancient farmer finds a T-rex skull while plowing his field, he has no idea what it is, or how old it is, and imagines similar creatures are still walking around.

I'm not trying to mix the two, though the lines are obviously blurry. We can rule our certain cryptids as being impossible, though, right off the bat.

 

[scy12]

I believe that there are some species not discovered because a few months ago there was a discovery of a new species in an island near Australia or atleast i think that is where it was. However different species may mean a bird which has a red colour on a part of it's body where the other species don't. Etc. There is no reason to believe that there is an ounce of truth in regard to certain cryptids where there are no evidence described. As a result there is no Bif Foot , Lochness monster .

 

[MobBoss]

A cryptid is any unknown animal that may or may not exist. I.E. The Loch Ness Monster, The Thunderbird, Bigfoot (), which also goes by Sasquatch, the Yeti, the abominable snowman, or the yowie, depending on where you live.

I for one do believe that there are animals science has yet to discover, and nothing any of you say is going to change my mind about that.

New Species are being discovered almost daily, so sure...

As to my cryptid I offer....the treeman: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22041771/

 

[Den Valdron]

New species of worms and beatles, sure. But I think we can definitively say that all land dwelling megafauna are thoroughly accounted for.

 

[sourboy]

Chupacabra FTW.

All animals that eventually are classified start out as cryptids, no?

 

[LulThyme]

..........

 

[Den Valdron]

Chupacabra FTW.

All animals that eventually are classified start out as cryptids, no?

No.

************

 

[Pannonius]

I'm an X-Files fan, so I pretty much believe in everything.
I want to believe! (Finally a chance to write this on CFC. )

 

[Chazumi]

Murlocs are real. I have fought them.

Agreed, when I was a young paladin with 17 charisma and a million hitpoints, killing them was like taking candy from a baby.

 

[sourboy]

No.

************

Cryptids are unknown animals not proven to exist. I think I'm safely correct in saying this is true until they are proven existance. Thus yes, all animals start as cryptids.

If you want to define cryptids as legends or myths? Pfff... next thread.

 

[scy12]

Cryptids are unknown animals not proven to exist. I think I'm safely correct in saying this is true until they are proven existance. Thus yes, all animals start as cryptids.

If you want to define cryptids as legends or myths? Pfff... next thread.

You understand that several animals where identified to exist before by our Human ancestor species before our particular Human species Homo Sapiens came to exist.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

My thoughts exactly. Funny how famous cryptids are never worms or bacterias, because man there are sure a lot of discoveries there.

Well, forgive me for saying so, but worms and bacterias are not much fun.

Also, you never hear the story about the time someone saw that crazy bacteria, and tried to take it out with a 12 gauge pipette, but it got away, and all thats left is this blurry picture that skeptics say is rising swamp gas.

For worms, I guess the only exception would be the mongolian death worm.

Spoiler :

 

[Den Valdron]

http://www.lorencoleman.com/cryptozoology_faq.html

“Cryptid” is derived from “crypt,” from the Greek kryptos (hidden); “id,” from the Latin ides, a patronymic suffix; and the Greek “ides,” which means “in sense.” When the suffix id is used it typically applies to an implied lineage or similar usages, as in “perseid” (meteors appearing to originate from Perseus, typically around August 11).

Bernard Heuvelmans’s definition of cryptozoology itself was exact: “The scientific study of hidden animals, i.e., of still unknown animal forms about which only testimonial and circumstantial evidence is available, or material evidence considered insufficient by some!”

http://www.babylon.com/definition/cryptid/English

Cryptids are creatures presumed extinct, hypothetical species, or creatures known from anecdotal evidence and/or other evidence insufficient to prove their existence with scientific certainty. The term "cryptid" was first coined in 1983 by John Wall. A cryptid may also be known as an Unidentified Mysterious Animal (UMA). The study of cryptids is known as Cryptozoology.

By the very definition, unknown animals are unknown animals. It's like an invisible ghost. If its unknown, then you don't know about it, you never hear about it. To be a valid cryptid, you have to know about it in some way.

By the same token, most extinct animals are simply extinct. They're dead. Pushing up daisies. Gone forgotten post facto rigor mortified. They are Ex-critters. They have gone to that great critter factory in the sky.

To get an unknown or extinct animal up to cryptid status, you need some indication that they are actually around. If you don't have any, then they are not around. Cretaceous T-Rex is not a cryptid animal. Twentieth century T-Rex would be a cryptid animal if anyone believed that there was one poking around. If you had conclusive proof, they'd jump straight into real critter and non-cryptid status.

To be a cryptid, a critter has to be known but not proven. Identified, but not accepted by science. The Orangutang is proven and accepted by science, it is not a cryptid. The Orang Pendek is known and identified, but not proven or accepted by science, its a cryptid. A hypothetical cosmic jello in Borneo with unknown or unidentified properties, is not known or identified, so it doesn't make cryptid status. The Flores Man is extinct and doesn't make cryptid status.

The coelecanth, megamouth shark and colossal squid went straight from unknown/extinct to proven real animals. They never spent any time in the cryptid category.