h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've always wondered about these....Just because lots of people have seen them doesn't make them any the less fantastic.

Camels:- Try explaining a four legged animal with 5 feet. Then go on to explain that it can go without eating/drinking for 3 weeks at a time; has a strange shaped appendige on it's back; has a roar like a rusted, dying engine; walks like a marionette - two legs on one side, then the two on the other (and it looks like it's suspended on strings); has more knees than seem possible....

Alligators:- Don't bleed when they loose a limb; never stop growing; slow their hartbeat down to 1 a minute and this way can live for a year without eating; have been around since the time of the dinosaurs...

Colecath:- Not sure how to spell this one. The supposedly extinct armour plated fish.

Ravens:- Prone to flying upsidedown

The aforementioned Giant Squid

And so on.

Any others? Anyone?

You forgot the duckbill. But where does the camel has it's fifth foot? I hope it is not a naughty answer

Naughty, Moi?

On the front of a camel's chest, the bit that would be in contact with the hot sand when it sits down, the camel has a horny, knarly pad of skin which is I guess more heat retardant.

how does the camel have 5 feet? and is this the dromedary or the camel?

Marco Polo returned home from China with credible stories about humans with heads like dogs - he had seen them himself.

Baboons, we call them today.

The unicorn was witnessed by travellers a few centuries back, all though it was a lot fatter than expected - and quite hostile. Grey, quadropedal (is it called that?) and with a knack for stampeding and horning into things.

Rhinos we call them, and there's a longer name which I don't remember how to spell.

People could even return home with genuine unicorn horns, showing them for money and selling them for even more money, as everybody knew of the great powers of the unicorns horn!

The narwhale was off course not so happy about that.

-KimotoCat (who also exists... somewhat...)

The dog-headed men was not necessarily baboons. I doubt they would be described as men. And people are still seeing dog-headed men today.

There are two animals that are described as the unicorn, one of them is the Rhino. The other is some form of goat apparently.

Have you ever heard of the Dog Boy of Mexico? He has hair all over his body and kind of looks like a straight-haired poodle-boy-type. he's very happy with his appearance and can also do trampoline tricks. he travels with the mexican circus.

speaking of circuses, there was a circus in america that claimed to have a unicorn. but it was actually a goat with a horn stapled to his head, unfortunately (especially for the goat!)

and where i'm from, in the swamps, there are tons of mythical creatures. there's the loup garoux, which is sort of like a werewolf from the bayou, and swamp gas, which is labeled as a gas, but is fabled to attract travelers to their death. and anyone who has ever seen a white alligator would surely think it was a mythical creature.

Actually, there is more than one "dog boy"--he and others have a rare genetic condition. I can't remember the name of it.
Oh, and I think the other candidate for unicorn was the Ibex.

Well, Marco Polos dog-men may not have been baboons, that's just what I've read somewhere. Okay, souyrce-criticism. But then, source-criticism is what this is all about in some ways...

I think there are mythical creatures everywhere. And sometimes, myth creeps in under our skin and reminds us of the fact that we are only humans and thus subject to predators of ANY kind...

An example:
I once, in the early eighties, attended a boardingschool (approximately, it's not quite the same in Denmark, but we lived there for the term.) where there was this girl with (YIKES!) connected eyebrows. Being her own type, she started to not-claim that she was a werewolf. (A bit like a certain Dirk Gentley claiming not to be psychic!)
She refused to come out at full moons, reported in ill at the day following such and made facial twists and low growls deep in her throat when that night of the month came.
There even was a story that she'd once ripped (get this) a can of mackerel filets into shreds only to awaken next day remembering nothing of it but having mackerel under her nails and finding the can opened with what seemed to be claws. The actual can was never seen on the school.
During one incident, she and some others went to pick up something on campus grounds at night, when the clouds suddenly spread, revealing a wonderfull view to a full moon. She immediately started shivering violently and beg for the others that they should all get inside rigt nos. More facial twitches, arm and leg spasms and throaty sounds and I can tell you about some girls who virtually ran into the safety of the houses.
If she really was a werewolf? I don't know, I don't think so. But she definitely had the entire school by the throat. Nobody ever directly dared to say with certainty that she was not. And seing it as the school was all ready haunted by the ghost of a former noblewoman who fell to her death here a few centuries back, (it was an old noble estate,) a werewolf just seemed to fit in.
Add to that the vivid imagination of teenagers, and in particular teenage girls.
I wonder where she is today? And what she does during a full moon...

So if mythical creatures exist or not remains, well, myth. Untill the local aquarium comes up with a mermaid or the zoo with a cagefull of unicorns (or dragons in asbesthos cages), I suppose we wont know for sure.
But, as my example so nicely prooves, when faced with myth, we are not quite ready to dismiss it.

-Kimoto(the Were)Cat

Connected eyebrows is not that uncommon. I believe that famous latin author had it as well, I can't remember her name at the moment. But it seems to me that girl might have had some mental illness, lycanthropy perhaps. And the rest was just the kind of rumours you can expect at a "hoejskole".

I do know of JoJo the dogfaced boy. His disease is probably one of the causes of the idea of werewolves. As for dog-headed men, many people have reported seeing them. But in many cases it seems to have been more a symbolic description, than an actual one. But baboons I doubt would have been seen as men. I think these giant lemurs that used to live on Madagascar are more likely candidates.

How about the platypus?!

A mammal that lays eggs, has a bill like a duck, claws (males have a poison one), a tail like a beaver...

Duckbill or platypus, whatever you call it, it's quite weird.

I don't believe in platypus!

I don't believe in llamas.

Hear! Hear!

BTW - I don't think that girl was affected by lycanthropy, I just think she was an actress kinda lass, pulling her fellow students round by their noses.

Is Santa a mythical creature?

Is Kevin Costner?

santa...maybe. kevin costner... well, i've never actually seen a kevin costner. i've seen video footage, but it could very well be a hoax. whether the costner is real or not, i fear it every night as i pull my bedsheets up over my nose and say, "waterworld does not exist. the Costner isn't real!"

santa...maybe. kevin costner... well, i've never actually seen a kevin costner. i've seen video footage, but it could very well be a hoax. whether the costner is real or not, i fear it every night as i pull my bedsheets up over my nose and say, "Waterworld does not exist. the Postman doesn't exist. the Bodyguard isn't real. the Costner isn't real!"

What a relief if you're right!

But what about the Polar Bear then?

i'm pretty sure i've seen a polar bear in a zoo. i know i've seen penguins, and the penguins have told me about polar bears. normally i wouldn't believe a penguin, but they all have the same story. they do have differing accounts about kevin costner.

and what about michael jackson? he's like the horse of a different color from the wizard of oz. he's the amazing morphing man.

Amazing...

Due to some geographic aspects, such as the fact that penguins and polar bears inhabit each their end of the planet, I would have believed the penguins to know nothing about polar bears.

Oh, were they neighbours in the Zoo?

I wonder if we'll ever find out if Kevin Costner really exist or if it's just some lousy actor in a Kevin Costner-suit. A bit like Santa?

The mystery, the mystery...

-KimotoCat, the Mystery Cat