Re: Cryptozoology - A discussion and a debate

[Guest]

Fate, we've had stuff on giant squids for -years- now. Here's a bunch of pictures just from wikipedia:

You'll have to /right click /view a few of them because of the website's size limits.

[Guest]

And here's a few pictures of the even larger Colossal Squid specimens, which is supposedly small for its genus:

[Fate Flyer]

O_O Ew, those are rather disgusting. xD Thanks though, for sharing! I guess that show I watched must have been really old or something? That's odd. But, man, that would be awfully freaky to encounter one of those squids in the ocean.

[Guest]

Oh yeah. One of those things has a shot at beating a sperm whale in a fight. They do enough damage to them as it is while they're being hunted.

I have a lot to say about ghosts and aliens, but I'll save that for whenever that thread goes up.

[Guest]

Oh yeah. One of those things has a shot at beating a sperm whale in a fight. They do enough damage to them as it is while they're being hunted.

Not a very good shot. It's like a raccoon fighting a bear.

[Guest]

Oh yeah. One of those things has a shot at beating a sperm whale in a fight. They do enough damage to them as it is while they're being hunted.

Not a very good shot. It's like a raccoon fighting a bear.

Those beaks of theirs are a major weapon. While the sperm whale definitely has a better chance, the squid is gonna cause some damage. I'd say the odds are a bit better than a raccoon versus a bear.

Probably should have mentioned that I didn't mean kill. >.> I just meant that they had a shot at causing the whale enough aggravation and pain that it leaves the squid well enough alone.

[Guest]

No, they really don't. Giant squid beaks are about the size of your head. Sperm whales are about the size of your house. There's not much room for combat.

Will the whale get scratched up? Sure. But unless it's a real pussy of a whale it's not going to be driven away.

[Fate Flyer]

Wouldn't sperm whales eat giant squid?

[Fluff]

Yeah, pretty much. Om nom nom.

[Guest]

Wouldn't sperm whales eat giant squid?

They would and they do.

[Twoface_ecafowT]

What about sperm whale vs colossal squid, hmmm?

[Guest]

Many sperm whales carry scars on their backs believed to be caused by the hooks of Colossal Squid. Colossal Squid are a major prey item for Antarctic sperm whales feeding in the Southern Ocean; 14% of the squid beaks found in the stomachs of these sperm whales are those of the Colossal Squid, which indicates that Colossal Squid make up 77% of the biomass consumed by these whales.[3] Many other animals also feed on this squid, including the beaked whales (such as the bottlenose whales), pilot whale, southern elephant seal, Patagonian toothfish, Pacific sleeper shark, and albatross (e.g., the Wandering and Sooty albatrosses). However, beaks from mature adults have only been recovered from those animals large enough to take such prey (i.e., the sperm whale and Pacific sleeper shark), while the remaining predators are limited to eating juveniles or young adults.[4]

[Fate Flyer]

Oh, interesting! Good find! Thanks for the info, Schro.

[Guest]

Not really a good find, I'm taking all of this from wikipedia XD

[Fate Flyer]

Lol oh, well hey, Wikipedia has a lot of nifty info (and I don't care what some teachers say - I trust the majority of it! haha).

[Guest]

Anything that's sourced is usually reliable. You can still use wikipedia for school papers, though, or so I'd think. Just use -their- sources as yours!

[Fate Flyer]

Oooh, good thinking!! XD (Onenitedrive got in trouble for using just Wikipedia for one of his papers recetly, hehe.)

[Mezrin]

In my school, if Wikipedia has given you any information or is listed as a source, your grade goes down 50%.

[Drako11]

Ya I get points taken off for using Wikipedia as well.....I trust most of the information on there though ^_^

[Kathryn Lacey]

Do I believe in:

Bigfoot/Yeti/Sequatchie?: No.
Chupacabra?: Undecided.
Dover Demon?: Yes.
Dragons/Sky Serpents?: Sort of…
Faeries?: Yes.
Giant Squid?: Yes.
Gnomes?: Yes.
Jersey Devil?: No.
Loch Ness Monster/Plesiosaurs?: Sort of…
Mermaids?: No.
Mongolian Death Worm?: No.
Mothman?: Undecided.
Tasmanian Tiger/Thylacine?: Yes.
Vampires?: No.
Werewolves?: No.

I don’t believe in Bigfoot. It doesn’t make sense to me that a creature like that could have survived in its decreasing habitat, mostly unseen for so long. Everything I ever see is a hoax. I strongly believe the Patterson-Gimlin video is fake. The gait of the supposed Bigfoot is extremely human. There isn’t even an apelike grace about it. Why would it walk so nonchalantly in front of a human? Someone even came forward and said he wore a costume, and it looks like a costume to me. I just think people keep seeing bears and believe they’re seeing Bigfoot.

I hadn’t really heard much more about El Chupacabra than the name and that it was a monster of legend, but after reading about it on the Internet, I’m torn. I have no idea what to believe. It’s an interesting story. Most of the animals believed to be un Chupacabra turned out to be mangy coyotes or unidentified at all. The mangy animal theory doesn’t really add up to the strange way the dead animals were found completely drained of blood with a few round holes in them. One theory was a Satanic cult, but I don’t buy that happening everywhere. I think there is a possibility of an animal sucking the blood from animals.

I think I do believe in the Dover Demon. It’s one of the bigger mysteries here. It was only sited over a couple of days and never seen again before or after as far as we know. I think it’s really fascinating. None of the witnesses had spoken to one another before or after the sighting ((at least not before they reported it)). It’s stupid to assume that just because they were all teenagers that they didn’t see what they thought they said. I think that they should be believed because sometimes those who are young are less likely to try to fog over their sighting with skepticism and explanations about what they saw.

I don’t believe that dragons currently exist, but I do believe that some sort of creature similar to dragons existed during the age of dinosaurs. Something similar could have also existed a little after that, but I believe they’re extinct now.

I don’t really know much about faeries other than they can sometimes help bring good fortune to those who leave them offerings and bad fortune to those who spurn them. I had never heard of the ugly, sharp-teeth versions. I half believe faeries exist, but I don’t think they exist in the Americas. I think they exist in Europe and the Middle East. I did find a YouTube video about the TAPS crew in Ireland that I find interesting. I’m pretty sure those are faeries, but they could also be gnomes which are just a type of faerie in my mind.

I believe that giant squid could exist. I see no reason why not. There are plenty of other enormous creatures residing in our seas. I had thought there was evidence of them, and I guess I was right. I wasn’t one hundred percent certain at first, but now I am. :: eyes those pictures of Schrödinger’s :: Ew…

I can’t bring myself to believe in the Jersey Devil. It just seems more like a story told to keep children from wondering away on their own into the woods where they could become lost than truth.

I believe the Loch Ness Monster could exist, but I doubt it’s still alive unless it reproduced which is unlikely to me.

I don’t believe merpeople exist unless they have a completely different shape than we believe. The way human bodies are made, they can’t survive the pressure of the deep ocean, so while I think it could be possible they have some tiny semblance of a human upper body shape, I find it unlikely. I think it’s a bit more likely that horny, tired seamen mistook manatees for beautiful merpeople.

I don’t believe in the Mongolian Death Worm. There’s very little information on it, but the whole thing seems unlikely. It’s said to look like cow intestine, and I think someone just mistook the intestine for the worm.

I’m not sure what to believe with the Mothman. I think it’s interesting how people saw him right up to the point of the Silver Bridge collapse and very little after that, but I don’t know if they saw what they claimed. It is interesting that so many different people claimed to have seen it so often in such a short span of time, though.

It’s already a fact that Tasmanian Tigers at least existed, but I see no reason why they have to be extinct just because the last one in captivity died so long ago. They’re probably just severely endangered which would explain the occasionally spotting without the solid evidence.

I don’t believe in vampires or were-creatures. The idea is interesting, but frankly, I don’t see why they’d need to hide themselves from us if they’re soooo much more powerful than we are. I’m glad they don’t really exist. However, people who could shape shift into animals wouldn’t be so bad.

Do ghosts and aliens count as cryptids? I didn’t see them on the list anywhere I looked. I strongly believe in both. I already have a long post about ghosts in my experience in the ghost thread around here.


Wikipedia isn't allowed as a formal source in my old high school, but there were other sources from which to gather information that they gave us, so it wasn't so bad.

[Fate Flyer]

Wow, go you, Kathryn!

I agree that the gait of the supposed Bigfoot does appear human. I know that Bigfoot has been a hoax on numerous occasions, and that costumes do exist, so I'm still undecided on what to believe.

I like your viewpoints and opinions on everything. (Oh, and thanks for the link to the TAPs video! That was creepy.) I have to say that your point of views seem very reasonable. I agree that it could be likely some of these things did exist at one period in time. I also admire the research you've done.

I think that aliens and ghosts would qualify as cyptids, and yes, I agree with you there.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Now you can see why it took me so long to get a post in this thread. hahah I had to read a lot about the ones of which I'd never heard and about which I had very little knowledge which was the majority. Plus, I wanted to look at some of the things about which you'd spoken through the thread, namely the television shows and the Patterson-Gimlin video.

I actually thought that the recent hoax about having found Bigfoot's dead body was going to be the one thing that would have made me believe in it, but it turned out to just be pieces of a gorilla costume. Man... those guys got into deep shit for taking it as far as they did. I thought it was funny after the fact. Even I believed it, but I wasn't surprised ((though I was disappointed)) when it turned out to be untrue.

Just because I don't believe in something doesn't mean I wouldn't love to be proven wrong beyond reasonable doubt ((like with merpeople and Bigfoot)).

[Fate Flyer]

Lol I can imagine! I had to look into a lot of them myself.

Just because I don't believe in something doesn't mean I wouldn't love to be proven wrong beyond reasonable doubt ((like with merpeople and Bigfoot)).

You said it exactly. I also feel the same way.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Well.. some things would be nice to not exist for sure... like the Mongolian Death Worm... ^;_;^ It's frightening. It's like... Tremors with acid and electricity.

[Aesalon]

Just wanted to throw in one little thing:

This GUY was able to remain undetected in an aquarium for a long time...it does leave a little hope for all the cryptos out there living in these untracked wildernesses...

[Guest]

To Kath:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YktEWmLVTvM&feature=related

I don't really care about the text and all the unsourced factoids, but the point is to look at the side-by-side. The differences are ridiculously clear.

[Kathryn Lacey]

I stand corrected. I believe in the Mongolian Death Worm, but only the aquatic version. ^^_^^;;

[Kathryn Lacey]

I know this isn't the Mongolian Death Worm, but I figured this would definitely fit here.

I found a story about a giant worm. ^^_^^

Searchers Shovel Northwest Dirt Seeking Giant Worm

[Fate Flyer]

Hmm, interesting. I liked this part: "Johnson-Maynard and her team of worm hunters..." XD That's the craziest title! They've had that kind of electro shocker for awhile now to bring worms to the surface, haven't they? I say this, because I could swear that's what Matthew Broderick did in Godzilla! Lol!

[Kathryn Lacey]

I don't know. I just know they're using it now. It sucks that they have to resort to something that could essentially kill the worm they want to study. I wish there was a super effect way to go about it that wasn't potentially deadly. Then they could study a live worm.

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