Many of us have heard of cryptids; seen the internet posts and forums proclaiming their existence or simply joking about them, there have been highly produced television series and even a few scientific projects to explain the countless, ever-growing amount of sightings of these unproven and often strange myths of creatures, searching for an answer and an explanation that may have been there all along.

Many of these sightings of alleged beings that range from incredibly widespread to shockingly obscure have very real animals and stories behind them, ones inflated by exaggerations or simply outside circumstances that made them look more mythical than they actually are, scarier in the dark or simply coloured by the human imagination.

10 Real-Life Explanations For Famous Myths And Cryptids

10 Bigfoot – Bears

Bigfoot, sasquatch, yeti, many different names for one very similar being; a large, hairy primate with, yes, big feet and an allegedly elusive and intelligent nature, certainly one of the most famous – or infamous, depending on who you’re asking – cryptids ever, with possibly the most prominence in pop-culture or simply American culture itself, other than UFO-s.

Many sightings occur every single year, with many proven hoaxes and cases of misidentification but still a sense of true mystery when it comes to this proclaimed relative of ours. So, you may ask, what could be behind it? The answer, a lot of the time, is extremely simple; bears. Or, alternatively, bears with mange.

Mange, alongside other medical conditions that vastly alter an animal’s appearance are often the culprit of cryptid sightings and with a lot of bigfoot evidence turning out to be ones left by bears and multiple cases of sightings in which the caught “bigfoot” was actually a bear that lost parts of its fur and acted strangely due to mange, there hasn’t really been anything in the way of “real” evidence that suggests anything different.

Some people, however, still believe that bigfoot is out there, or, more specifically, that bigfoot-like sightings can be explained by remaining populations of Gigantopithecus, a large ape thought to be extinct that may still remain in select groups in certain parts of the world.^[1]

9 Chupacabra – Dog with mange

Another notorious cryptid, the Chupacabra, has been part of mainly Puerto Rican, Mexican, and general Mesoamerican folklore and legends, with a name that means “goat sucker” in Spanish, it’s gained more than a little attention and controversy over its many years of popularity.

The solution with this one, however, is even simpler and more provable than the one with bigfoot, yet it’s largely the same; mange. Yep, mange, dogs with mange, to be specific.

While there have been many stories of farmers losing goats to this creature, most sightings turn out to just be dogs or coyotes with a condition that causes them to look quite a bit like monsters – patchy, partially removed fur, strange appearance, increased activity at night due to skin sensitivity, and weight loss from decreased functionality arising from the condition make these poor animals seem a lot like monsters when you encounter one in the dark.^[2]

8 Jackalope – Rabbits, Shope papilloma virus

While not treated as seriously as some other beings of folklore, the jackalope has been around longer than most. A simple concept; a rabbit-like being with antlers is certainly a fairly simple concept to grasp, and one people out in fields may have seen plenty of times.

And really, they may have; as, again, an appearance-altering disease is the culprit.

Known as the Shope papilloma virus, or SPV, it sadly causes leporids, as in, rabbits and hares to grow keratinous, cancerous tumours on their outer body, sometimes resembling horns, small antlers, or even other strange, paranormal-seeming looks.

With the infection generally being more prominent in areas around the head, it’s no surprise that certain people have caught sight of rabbits with this condition and, not understanding the cause of it, attributed it to a different species or perhaps entirely different being entirely, however, the answer is a disappointing no, and jackalopes are sadly another sick animal.^[3]

7 Kraken – Giant Squid

Another extraordinarily old legend, the Kraken and other, similar beings, that is, massive squid- or octopus-like creatures that destroy ships and lurk in the depths have been subjects of tales almost as long as sailing has been around, and turns out, while the tales were coloured more than a bit, they were based on something entirely real and almost as incredible.

The Colossal squid is a lot like what the legends describe, a massive sea creature that, while doesn’t typically destroy ships, looks like it might as well be able to, and there have still been accounts of it doing just that, though they’re typically unverified.

These massive animals are estimated to be able to grow as large as 14 metres and weigh 700 kilograms, that’s 46 feet and 1,500 pounds, which makes the attributed tales quite unsurprising in hindsight.^[4]

6 Giant Spider – Both real and impossible

This one is a bit strange, admittedly, as the explanations of this one depend entirely on our definition of “giant”, as, in a sense, we already have giant spiders; the Goliath birdeater tarantulas and certain species of Huntsman spider may grow as large as 30 cm-s or 1 foot in legspan! Some would already say that’s absolutely massive!

If we want to go that beyond that, however, things aren’t looking too good – or, to any readers with arachnophobia, things actually look quite lovely, as it’s a simple scientific fact that spiders are limited in size, and our Goliath birdeaters and massive Huntsman spiders may be the largest spiders we ever see.

Spiders lack proper lungs and thus their size is tied largely to the oxygen content in the air, even the largest arachnids in prehistoric times that we’ve found haven’t grown to over a metre in length, and until they develop lungs or the oxygen in the air increases significantly, things are staying that way, so no, giant spiders, other than the very real ones we have on Earth, are not real.^[5]

10 Cryptids That Could Be Real

5 Mongolian death worm – Tartar sand boa

The Mongolian death worm has also had its fair share of controversy in recent history. A legendary creature that’s been part of Mongolian folklore for a long time, called “olgoi-khorkhoi”, meaning “large intestine worm” by the locals, it’s described as a gigantic red worm that inhabits the Gobi desert, travels underground, has a fearsome jaw, and the ability to spit venom or even create a powerful electric discharge, and, that upon touching it, you die instantly.

There have been multiple investigations to find this scary creature, with the successful findings of.. A snake! When presented to the locals who have seen the creature, they claimed it was the same one they’re seeing just now, when, in reality, it was nothing but a snake called the Tartar sand boa, Eryx miliaris, a large snake that certainly looks wormlike but is, in fact, just a snake that’s not red and possesses no supernatural abilities.^[6]

4 Mothman – Owl

Another American cultural icon, at least to some, the Mothman is perhaps even more ridiculous than the jackalope, yet it has a very strong culture behind it.

Considered by many to not even be a cryptid but rather an alien or supernatural being, as the name implies, it’s typically portrayed as the hybrid of a moth and a man, a large, winged, incest-like humanoid that’s described as an omen that either warns us of bad things to come or causes them himself, with alleged sightings at many horrible events, such as the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant.

The reality, however, is that, aside from the ridiculous concept, some sightings have been very real, though also incredibly easy to explain. Barn owls are reasonably large, winged birds with mysterious appearances and eyes that could explain what people describe as the Mothman’s frightening, glowing eyes in the dark.

These birds love abandoned areas and while the sighting of a barn owl behind tragedies might be an omen by itself, the human mind certainly has a way of attributing neutral things to bad events in search of a reason behind tragedy.^[7]

3 Jersey Devil – Sandhill Crane

The Jersey Devil, as its name clearly suggests, is a devilish legendary creature said to inhabit New Jersey, the Pine Barrens of South Jersey specifically. Traditionally described as a bipedal creature with wings and a mammal-like head such as a horse’s or goat’s, often depicted with hooves, a tail, and tales of a horrible scream, the legend has seen many variations since its inception ranging all the way back to the early days of America as we know it today.

While the image is strange and frightening, the explanation again seems to be quite simple, as the Jersey Devil seems to be a tale made up by English settlers and, while the legend has persisted for over 250 years, there hasn’t been a single confirmed sighting and, even aside from the silly concept being a telling sign, we can pretty safely say that this is a hoax and many believe that the creature is based on the Sandhill crane, a large, tall, heavy-bodied bird with no supernatural aspects, though certainly amazing in its own right, with a breeding range that extends into New Jersey.^[8]

2 Mermaid – Manatee and Dugong

Mermaids are frequently thought of as beautiful, majestic creatures, half-fish, half-human beings, frequently though not always depicted as women, it’s no wonder they’ve been a popular figure in fantasy and pop-culture in recent decades, also gaining a decent amount of real-life traction due to an Animal Planet documentary that claimed to deal with the concept of real mermaids, but was promptly proven to be completely fake.

While extremely interesting, and certainly beautiful, majestic creatures in many folktales, though often terrifying in the case of sirens, evil creatures that lured sailors out, only to kill them, the reality is neither this dignified nor this terrifying, in fact, it’s rather close to being the opposite of both.

The reality of mermaid sightings is often chalked up to two animals, one more than the other; manatees and dugongs, large-bodied marine mammals, majestic in their own right but not anything close to the prospect of beautiful and perhaps evil fish-tailed women resting on rocks out at sea, these animals are vividly more real and perhaps comparatively disappointing.^[9]

1 Nessie – Eels, Greenland shark, and many more

Finishing the list with Nessie, also known as the Loch Ness Monster, potentially the most famous cryptid and mythical creature of all time, it’s easy to imagine that Nessie hasn’t managed to avoid plenty of potential and reasonable animal misidentifications, and yes, it really hasn’t.

Stated to be a long-necked marine animal, generally depicted as being extremely close to an extinct Plesiosaur in appearance, the creature is said to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland, a large, deep loch that has sparked many people’s fantasies of an ancient creature that was only presumed to be extinct still lurking there, the reality, however, is again attributed to a simple animal; eels. Many experts think that sightings of Nessie may be explained simply by sightings of large eels, and with the way its famous pictures look and many sightings are described, they fit the description of a slender eel very well.

The Loch Ness Monster and its many sightings have also been seemingly correctly attributed time and time again to bird and boat wakes,, and even the idea of a slightly cryptid-like animal, the Greenland shark making its way to the lake. With many hoaxes and simple animal misidentification, Nessie, however amazing, is not looking very real after all.^[10]

Top 10 Cryptids You’ve Never Heard Of

Incredibly, these stories of people who found remarkable artifacts without a metal detector, a map, or hours of research. Was it a need for reorganization, perhaps spring cleaning? Whatever the reason, good fortune was on their side.

This list uncovers ten artifacts of history found by locals and civilians. And begs the question—what better reason to do a more thorough search through your attic or basement?

10 Ancient Greek Crown—Hellenistic Age

Life became a little brighter for a man from Somerset, England, who has since chosen to remain anonymous. The fortunate gentleman inherited a great many possessions from his grandfather, a collector who followed his passion around the world. One of the inherited assets was a cardboard box, stored under the man’s bed. It was forgotten for a decade or longer until, at last, the rough, likely dust-covered box again saw the light of day. Under faded newspaper, the man from Somerset discovered a crown of gold. Unsure of what had been found, he decided to call in the experts.

An appraiser from Duke’s of Dorchester in Dorset, Guy Schwinge, arrived at the cottage. To say he was astonished by the laurel wreath of gold might be an underestimation. The artifact weighed under half a kilogram (1 pound) and was only 20 centimeters (8 inches) across. Schwinge estimated the wreath to be Ancient Greek in origin, perhaps 2300 years old, probably from the Hellenistic Age.

The Hellenistic Age was ushered in by the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ended with the rise of Augustus in Rome in 31 BC. The exquisite golden laurels of Ancient Greece were granted as prizes for athletes and artists, worn ceremonially, and often left with aristocratic family members after their passing.

After further appraisal, the pure gold crown was estimated to be worth upward of $130,000. The auction by Duke’s of Dorchester was set for June 9, 2016, where it was anticipated the piece would fetch as much as $200,000.^[1]

All from a box left under a bed.

9 Lost Caravaggio Painting

In 2014, a family in Toulouse, France, ascended to their attic to address a water leak. Behind an old mattress against a wall, they discovered a dust-covered, partially water-stained painting. The family, who asked for anonymity, called an auctioneer for an appraisal. Marc Labarbe, the auctioneer, studied the 1.4-meter by 1.8-meter (5-foot by 6-foot) painting and deemed it worthy of further inspection. He took a picture of the painting and sent it to Paris to an appraiser of art, Eric Turquin.

It took five years before Turquin was able to see the painting for himself. Well worth the wait. The painstakingly cleaned canvas had been painted in 1607—Caravaggio’s >em>Judith and Holofernes. In a story from the Old Testament, Judith of Bethulia slipped into the tent of a drunken, or sleeping, Assyrian general, then beheaded him. The painting depicts Judith’s last stroke of decapitation. A Caravaggio, indeed, Turquin agreed—one that had been lost to the world for 400 years. He authenticated the painting, worth up to $170 million.

Doubt surrounded the painting’s authenticity, as a more modest version of the painting was already displayed in the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Rome. However, X-rays and testing revealed brush strokes that were changed before the artwork was completed. Forgeries lack those alterations. Authenticated and restored, the masterwork was set to be sold at auction.

A private buyer bought the painting before the auction, for a price that was also kept private.^[2]

8 Diamond Ring

A woman from Isleworth, West London, attended a car boot sale, or yard sale, where she perused a display of fake jewelry. She bought a large “diamond” ring in 1987 for £10 ($13). It was clouded and rather unremarkable in appearance. She wore it for over two decades before a jeweler inspected the ring more closely. They advised her to have it appraised. The large diamond was real—a 26-carat diamond from the 19th century.

Sotheby’s in London authenticated the jewel, which then sold for an incredible £656,750 ($850,000).^[3]

7 Gold Lacquer Chest

In 1970, a French shell engineer browsing lacquerware bought a 1.5-meter-long (5-foot) chest for £100 ($130), which today would be about £1300 ($1600. He resided in South Kensington for sixteen years, using the chest to prop up his television. When he retired and was able to return home to the Loire Valley, the chest became a bar. And there it sat until his passing when the house was emptied, and its contents were appraised. To the appraisers’ amazement, the television stand turned bar storage was a treasure missing since the 1940s.

The Victoria and Albert Museum had searched for the chest through collectors and auction houses, a search that spanned half a century. Strangely enough, the artifact was less than a mile away from the museum. The cedar and gold lacquer chest was crafted in the 1600s, a masterpiece by a master crafter, Kaomi Nagashige of Kyoto/Kyote, Japan. It remained with the Dutch East India’s Japanese office until it was sold in 1658.

The buyer was a Minister of France, Cardinal Mazarin, who left the chest to his family for generations. From France, the chest traveled to England, where it was bought by the English novelist William Beckford. In 1882, the chest was sold to Sir Trevor Lawrence, a surgeon and art collector who died in 1913. It resided with a Welsh coal mine owner, Sir Clifford Cory, until 1941 when the chest was lost to history. Except, Zaniewski, a Polish doctor living in London, had bought. Zaniewski sold it to the French shell engineer in 1970, who kept it until after 1986. Only then was it seen by brothers and auctioneers Phillippe and Aymeric Rouillac.

Nagashige’s masterwork was auctioned on July 9, 2013. It was bought by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for £6.3 million ($7.75 million).^[4]

6 Shakespeare’s Last Play?

John Stone, a scholar of the University of Barcelona, was browsing the Royal Scots College’s library, Salamanca, when he noticed a book of English plays. Within the pages of plays, he found William Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen. Published in 1634, written from 1613 to 1614 with playwright John Fletcher, the play was completed before Shakespeare returned to his home in Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was possibly the last play Shakespeare wrote before he died in 1616.

The Two Noble Kinsmen remains one of the lesser-known works of Shakespeare. The edition was bound in leather, the original binding from the 1600s. Shakespeare may have written Acts I and V, though that is still debated by scholars. While the book has not been sold, to give an estimation of worth, Shakespeare’s First Folio was sold by Christie’s auctioneers in 2020 in New York for more than £7.33 million ($9 million).^[5]

5 Painting in a Kitchen, Cimabue

Cimabue, or Cenni di Pepo, was an artist of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Florence and was a painter in the 14th century. Cimabue didn’t sign his eleven pieces of artwork painted on wood; only those eleven are accredited to him. One of them was found in France, hanging in a house in Compiègne. The woodwork painting was only 26cm x 20cm (10″ x 8″), but it was a masterwork even so—known as Christ Mocked.

The house’s owner, a woman who remains anonymous, then 90 years old, considered it mere religious kitsch. In other words, worthless. It had been in the kitchen for decades; no one in the family knew where the painting had been acquired.

In 2019, the owner of the house decided to sell and move. They called auctioneers from the auction house Acteon in Senlis, France. Philomène Wolf arrived at the house. With only a week to appraise the contents of the house, Wolf saved the “worthless” work from the trash bin. It was sent to be further appraised at the Cabinet Turquin in Paris.

Turquin’s determined the art piece to be a Cimabue. In fact, the small painting was from 1280, part of a diptych, or a set of painted wooden panels, that portrayed eight scenes of the “passion and crucifixion of Christ.”

Philomène Wolf estimated the painting to sell for about $400,000. Turquin’s expected an auction offer of nearly $7 million. To everyone’s utter stupefaction and glee, the painting sold for nearly $27 million.^[6]

4 Chess Piece in a Drawer

A walrus-ivory chess piece, nicked, faded, and worn, was found in a Scottish family’s kitchen drawer. Their grandfather, an antique dealer, had purchased it for £5 ($6) in 1964 in Edinburgh. As stated by the family, neither their grandfather nor any other member of their family knew it was of any value. After finding the chess piece, the grandchildren brought it to Sotheby’s in London.

Researchers at Sotheby’s knew the rook was world-famous. It was one of 93 chess pieces from the famous Lewis Chessmen. Five of those Viking artifacts, 900 years old, are still missing. They were originally found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The rook had been lost for nearly two hundred years.

The auction house estimated the piece to be worth £1 million ($1.3 million).^[7]

3 (Another) Painting in an Attic, Van Gogh

In 1910, a Norwegian industrialist, Christian Mustad, bought Sunset at Montmajour, which he believed to be painted by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Van Gogh. A French ambassador to Sweden convinced Mustad that the painting was a forgery. It was banished to the attic of Mustad’s Norwegian house, where it remained until 1991. The inheritors of the house brought it to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. They were told the painting was a forgery, mainly because it was unsigned. Van Gogh signed his paintings with his first name, Vincent, and sometimes hid the signature within the painting.

In 2011, the painting was reassessed by the Van Gogh museum. Though it took two years, Sunset at Montmajour was finally accredited to the master painter. It had been completed near Van Goh’s house in Arles, France, on July 4, 1888, only two years before the artist’s death. A letter from Van Gogh to his brother, Theo, revealed that the painting hadn’t been signed because of the artist’s disappointment with the piece. “It was well below what I’d wished to do,” Vincent wrote, which led to the painting’s authentication.

The Van Gogh Museum chemically analyzed the paints from the Sunset painting. The pigmentation of the paints was the same as those used by the artist. Scans of the canvas were matched to other paintings of Van Gogh’s from that month—Van Gogh painted 2,100 pieces in his lifetime. He wrote about many of them to his brother, who had been responsible for selling the artwork. The artist only sold one painting in his lifetime, the Red Vinyard, for 400 Belgian francs, $400.

An anonymous owner bought, Sunset at Montmajour. Its sale price is unknown, though in 1987, the famous Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers sold for nearly $33 million. The most famous Van Gogh, Starry Night, is worth hundreds of millions.^[8]

2 The Garden Planter

It was 1982 when a Northumberland family bought a house near Hadrian’s Wall, Newcastle, England. Their dilemma: what to do with the 2.1-meter (6′ 9″) “trough” in their backyard? They decided to use it for planting… for thirty years—until they saw a similar structure for sale at an auction house. Upon inspection of the garden planter, a copper plate on the back read, “Bought from Rome in 1902.” Carved into the front were the Three Graces from Greek mythology: charm, beauty, and creativity.

Experts were called for an appraisal, including Guy Schwinge, of Duke’s auction house in Dorset, England. The family was told their planter was a 2,000-year-old sarcophagus of Carrara marble from the 1st or 2nd century AD. It may have been taken from a mausoleum, the resting place of an affluent Roman.

The sarcophagus was lifted from the property and brought to Dorchester, where it was auctioned. While the auction price is unknown, a similar sarcophagus sold for over $130,000.^[9]

1 The Ancient City in a Basement

A man in Turkey was in the middle of renovating his basement when he knocked down a wall to reveal the discovery of a lifetime. It was 1963 in Cappadocia when the basement wall came down and uncovered a room that led to a tunnel. Where did the tunnel lead? Almost 61 meters (200 feet) underground—to an entire ancient Byzantine-era city of stone. Scholars debate the date, ranging from 2000 BC for the Hittites, 700 BC for the Phrygians, or AD 780–1180 for the Christians. It may have been in use up to the 1920s as a refuge from natural disasters and war.

The city was called Derinkuyu: 18 levels of inhabitable space, all of which could be individually blocked off with rolling stone doors. Deinkuyu connected to other underground cities through tunnels that spanned miles and had more than six hundred entrances. Twenty thousand people, or more, would have thrived, with food storage rooms, including those for livestock, stables, schools, kitchens, chapels, wineries, and wells. Also, tombs and a dungeon were found.

Derinkuyu became a tourist attraction in 1969, open to the public.^[10]