List of cryptids

This is a list of cryptids, which are animals presumed by followers of the cryptozoology pseudoscientific subculture to exist on the basis of anecdotal or other evidence considered insufficient by mainstream science. While biologists regularly identify new species following established scientific methodology, cryptozoologists focus on entities mentioned in the folklore record and rumour. Entities that may be considered cryptids by cryptozoologists include Bigfoot, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, the Loch Ness Monster, or Mokele-mbembe. Related pseudosciences include young Earth creationism,[1][2] ghost hunting, and ufology. Some dictionaries and encyclopedias define the term "cryptid" as an animal whose existence is unsubstantiated.[3][4]

"Cryptids" redirects here. For the upcoming film, see Cryptids (film).

List

Animals

Aquatic or semi-aquatic

See also: List of lake monsters

Name	Other names	Description	Purported location	Depiction
Altamaha-ha	Altie	Sturgeon or plesiosaur-like river animal	Georgia, United States
Bear Lake monster		Lake monster	Idaho/Utah, United States
Bessie	Lake Erie Monster	Lake monster	Lake Erie, North America
Brosno dragon[5]	Brosnya	Lake monster	Lake Brosno, Russia
Bunyip[6]		Lake and cave animal	Australia
Cadborosaurus[7]	Caddy	Sea animal	Pacific Coast of North America
Champ[5][8]	Champtanystropheus americanus, Champy	Lake monster	Lake Champlain, North America
Chessie		Sea animal	Atlantic Coast of the United States, especially Chesapeake Bay
Dingonek[9]	Jungle walrus	A tusked water-dwelling animal	Western Africa
Dobhar-chú[10]	Water Hound	Extra-large otter-like carnivorous aquatic mammal	Ireland
Giant anaconda[11]	Megaconda	Giant snake	South America
Igopogo[5]	Kempenfelt Kelly	Lake monster	Lake Simcoe, Ontario (Canada)
Isshii[5]	Issie	Lake monster	Japan
Kraken		Sea animal	World's oceans
Kusshii[5]	Kussie	Lake monster	Japan
Lagarfljót Worm[12]	lagarfljóts ormurinn	Lake monster	Iceland
Lake Van Monster	Van Gölü Canavarı	Lake monster	Lake Van, Van, Turkey
Loch Ness Monster[13]	Nessie, Nessiteras rhombopteryx	Lake monster	Loch Ness, Scotland
Mamlambo[5]		Lake monster	South Africa
Manipogo[5]	Winnipogo	Lake monster	Lake Manitoba, Canada
Mokele-mbembe[7]		Dinosaur	Republic of the Congo
Nahuelito[5]	Nahuel Huapi Lake Monster	Lake monster	Nahuel Huapi Lake, Argentina
Ogopogo[5][8]	N'ha•a•itk, Naitaka	Lake monster	Lake Okanagan, Canada
Sea serpents[14]		Sea animals, dinosaurs	All bodies of water
Selma[5]	Seljordsormen	Lake monster	Lake Seljord, Telemark, Norway
Steller's sea ape[15]		Sea animal	Pacific Ocean
Tahoe Tessie	Lake Tahoe monster	Lake monster	Lake Tahoe, in California and Nevada, United States
Trinity Alps giant salamander		Giant salamander[16]	California, United States

Terrestrial

Name	Other names	Description	Purported location	Depiction
Almas[5][8]	Abnauayu, almasty, albasty, bekk-bok, biabin-guli, golub-yavan, gul-biavan, auli-avan, kaptar, kra-dhun, ksy-giik, ksy-gyik, ochokochi, mirygdy, mulen, voita, wind-man, Zana	Non-human ape or hominid	Asia/Caucasus
Barmanou[5]	Barmanu, Big Hairy One	Ape or hominid	Middle East/Asia
Beast of Bodmin Moor[17]		Large felid	Cornwall, England
Beast of Exmoor[11]		Big cat	England
Bigfoot[18]	Sasquatch	Large and hairy ape-like creature	United States and Canada
British big cats[17]	Alien big cats (ABCs), phantom cats, mystery cats, English lions, Beast of Bodmin, Beast of Exmoor	Carnivorous mammal	Great Britain
Bukit Timah Monkey Man[19]	BTM, BTMM	Forest-dwelling hominid or other primate	Singapore
Chuchunya[20][5]		Large hominid	Russia
Chupacabra[21]	Chupacabras (Spanish for goat-sucker)		Puerto Rico (originally), South and Central America, Southern North America
Ebu gogo[22]		Small primate, possible early hominid	Flores, Indonesia
Elwetritsch[23]		Mammal	Germany
Fouke Monster	Jonesville Monster, Southern Sasquatch, Boggy Creek Monster	Hominid or other primate	Arkansas, United States
Great Spider	Jba Fofi, Congolese Giant Spider, Giant Spider	Enormous Spider	Congo, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Louisiana, United States, Zimbabwe
Honey Island Swamp monster	Letiche, Tainted Keitre	Hominid or other primate	Louisiana, United States
Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp	Lizard Man of Lee County	Bipedal	South Carolina, United States
Mapinguari[24][25][26]	English: Brazilian bigfoot,[27] Karitiana: kida harara,[28] Machiguenga: segamai[29][30]	Alternately described as a hairy humanoid cyclops with a gaping mouth on its belly, or a relict giant ground sloth	South America, particularly Brazil
Minhocão[5]	Big Earthworm	Caecilian	South America
Mngwa[17]	Nunda	Carnivorous mammal	Tanzania
Mogollon Monster	Mug-ee-yun Monster	Bipedal primate	Mogollon Rim, Arizona, United States
Mongolian death worm[11]	Allghoi (or orghoi) khorkhoi	Worm-like animal	Gobi Desert (Asia)
Monkey-man of Delhi[11]	Black Monkey	Big black monkey	Old Delhi, India
Orang-bati[5]		Bipedal	Indonesia
Orang Mawas[5]	Mawas, Orang Dalam, Hantu Jarang Gigi	Primate	Malaysia
Ozark Howler	Ozark Black Howler	Carnivorous mammal	Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, United States
Shunka Warakin		Carnivorous mammal; wolf-like, boar-like, hyena-like	Western United States (especially Montana)
Skunk ape[31]	Stink Ape, Myakka Ape, Myakka Skunk Ape	Primate	Florida, United States
Yeren[32][31]	Yiren, Yeh Ren, Chinese Wildman	Primate (possible hominin)	China
Yeti[33]	Abominable Snowman	Large and hairy human-like entity, various other descriptions	Himalayas (Asia)
Yowie[34]		Large and hairy human-like entity, various other descriptions	Australia

Winged

Name	Other names	Description	Purported location	Depiction
Jersey Devil[13]	Leeds Devil	Winged bipedal horse	United States, mainly the South Jersey Pine Barrens, as well as other parts of New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania
Mothman[35]	Popularized by John A. Keel's book The Mothman Prophecies	Winged bipedal	Mason County, West Virginia, United States
Thunderbird[36]		Giant bird	North America

See also

• Animalia Paradoxa
• Crypsis
• Cryptozoology
• Fearsome critters
• Legendary creature
• List of cryptozoologists
• Lists of legendary creatures
• List of megafauna discovered in modern times
• List of urban legends

Citations

1. Hill, Sharon A. (2017), Scientifical Americans: The Culture of Amateur Paranormal Researchers, McFarland, p. 66, ISBN 9781476630823
2. Card, Jeb J. (2016), "Steampunk Inquiry: A Comparative Vivisection of Discovery Pseudoscience", in Card, Jeb J.; Anderson, David S. (eds.), Lost City, Found Pyramid: Understanding Alternative Archaeologies and Pseudoscientific Practices, University of Alabama Press, p. 32., ISBN 9780817319113, Creationists have embraced cryptozoology and some cryptozoological expeditions are funded by and conducted by creationists hoping to disprove evolution.
3. "Cryptid". The Oxford Dictionary. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
4. "Sasquatch". Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
5. "The world's greatest imaginary animals". Salon. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
6. "Australia's terrifying cryptid of the swamp". Retrieved 12 December 2018.
7. Loxton and Prothero (2015:261-295).
8. Michael Shermer; Pat Linse (November 2002). The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 72. ISBN 9781576076538.
9. "10 mysterious monsters of Africa". Afrikanza. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
10. "Ireland's hound of deep - Dobhar Chu". Irish Central News. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
11. "Cryptozoology: What else is out there?". TNT Magazine. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
12. "Is this Iceland's Loch Ness monster? Lagarfljot river worm caught on film". The Independent. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
13. S.J. Velasquez (31 October 2015). "The monster you should never find". BBC Online. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
14. Loxton and Prothero (2015:228-326).
15. Nickell, Joe (Winter 2016–2017). "Steller's Sea Ape: Identifying an Eighteenth-Century Cryptid". Skeptical Briefs. Vol. 26 no. 4. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
16. Fortean Times. John Brown Pub. 1997. p. 43.
17. "Fantastic Cryptids And Where To Find Them". Forbes. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
18. Loxton and Prothero (2015:29–70).
19. "On the hunt for the elusive Bukit Timah Monkey Man". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
20. O'Carroll, Eoin (28 September 2018). "Bigfoot and beyond: Why tales of wild men endure". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
21. Brian Regal (15 October 2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia: A Critical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-35508-0.
22. "Maybe Bigfoot believers aren't crazy after all". New York Post. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
23. Press, Clayton. "Oliver Laric Celebrates the Year of the Dog at Metro Pictures". Forbes. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
24. Eberhart, George M. (2002). Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-57607-283-5. OCLC 50562074.
25. Coleman, Loren; Clark, Jerome (2008). The Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature. Paw Prints. ISBN 978-1-4395-6477-6. OCLC 259258061.
26. Coleman, Loren (26 July 2014). "Giant Anteaters Kill Two Hunters in Brazil ~ An anteater "stood on its hind legs"? #Mapinguari?". Twitter. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
27. "Man v. Monster: Brazilian Bigfoot Full Episode | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
28. Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden "Sobre caes e indios: domesticidade, classificacao zoologica e relacao humano-animal entre os Karitiana", Revista de Antropología 15 (2009) p. 125-143
29. Oren, David C. "Does the Endangered Xenarthran Fauna of Amazonia Include Remnant Ground Sloths?", Edentata (June 2001) p. 2-5
30. Rohter, Larry (8 July 2007). "A Huge Amazon Monster Is Only a Myth. Or Is It?". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
31. Caleb W. Lack, PhD; Jacques Rousseau, MA (8 March 2016). Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience: Why We Can't Trust Our Brains. Springer Publishing Company. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-8261-9426-8.
32. "It's the monstrous new trend sweeping travel – what is cryptid-tourism?". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
33. Loxton and Prothero (2015:73–117).
34. Caleb W. Lack, PhD; Jacques Rousseau, MA (8 March 2016). Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience: Why We Can't Trust Our Brains. Springer Publishing Company. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-8261-9426-8.
35. Kantrowitz, Lia; Fitzmaurice, Larry; Terry, Josh (16 January 2018). "People Keep Seeing the Mothman in Chicago". Vice. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
36. "The mythic child-stealing Thunderbirds of Illinois". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 11 December 2018.

References

• Loxton, Daniel and Donald Prothero (2013). Abominable Science: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52681-4.

External links

• The dictionary definition of cryptid at Wiktionary
• Media related to Cryptozoology at Wikimedia Commons