Living Giants and Mythical Monsters

Once our world was filled with monstrous creatures. Giant reptiles and mammals roamed the land and seas and some even soared across the sky. Today the earth has only a few truly large animals and many of those species are in decline or even near extinction.

There are stories of strange giant creatures like big foot or the Loch Ness monster that many people believe really exist. Cryptozoologists search for evidence that could reveal the truth about these strange creatures.

Myths and legends from every corner of the globe describe giant monsters from ancient times. Giant creatures, dragons and lake monsters fill folklore and stories about Bigfoot, the yeti and lake monsters regularly appear on the Internet and in tabloid magazines. The truth is often more interesting than fairy tales as you discover real monsters in the world of today, yesterday and fantasy.

Open a tabloid magazine and you are like to find an article that mentions the abominable snowman or Bigfoot. Exciting as these tales are you may not realize that giant apes exist in nature today and truly huge apes and other mammals existed in the distant past.

Today the largest mammals on earth are the great whales

Mythical Monsters-The Yeti

The stories of mythical giant creatures living in the wilds can be found in nearly every part of the globe. Native Americans call him Sasquatch. In Tibet he’s the yeti. The names change but the description remains eerily similar. People who have encountered the beast all describe a creature 7-9 feet tall, stinky and covered in coarse hair.

The story of the Yeti in modern times can be reliably traced to a report made by B.H. Hodson to the British Government. Mr. Hodson was serving as a representative of Her Majesty’s government to the Court of the Kingdom of Nepal. He reported that he and his group of native hunters were attacked by a large hairy beast. This is the very first reported sighting of the yeti by a foreigner.

The yeti has also been sighted in the Himalayas and on the slopes of Mount Everest. In 2011, a party of investigators claimed to have found proof of the yeti’s existence in the Kemerovo province of Siberia.

Many of the Bigfoot and yeti sightings are little more than hoaxes but you have to wonder. There have been so many sightings in so many different parts of the world over such a long span of time. Could such a creature have once existed? Could it still be out there?

Gorillas-Real Living Giants

There are some true primate giants living in the mountainous regions of Africa. The gorilla is the largest living member of the primate family. An adult male mountain gorilla can reach a height of 6 feet and weigh 500 pounds. The species is divided into three separate subspecies: the western lowland gorilla, eastern lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas.

All gorillas are members of a critically endangered species on the verge of extinction. Conservation action is being undertaken by the nations of Africa with the establishment of preserves to prevent poaching and los of habitat in an effort to save the gorilla. The most serious threat this magnificent giant faces comes from a much smaller primate—man.

Gigantopithecus-an extinct giant

Three million years ago Gigantopithecus lived in parts of modern day China and Southeast Asia. Standing nine feet tall and weighing over 600 pounds, the giant ape lived in forests eating a diet of bamboo much like the Panda does.

The first fossil remains of Gigantopithecus were identified in 1935 by G.H. von Koenigswald in a Chinese apothecary shop. The teeth of the giant ape had long been used in Chinese folk medicine as a cure for various ailments because they were thought to be dragon’s teeth.

More teeth and jaw fragments have been found in China and Vietnam and enough fragments assembled to create skull representations. These teeth and jaws are much more massive than those of living primates and some scholars estimate the animal could have weighed as much as 1,200 pounds.

Big

Polar bears are the biggest land predators alive today. Over ten feet tall when rearing up and weighing in at nearly a thousand ponds.

Bigger

The Short Faced Bear

Big and scary, yes but not the biggest or the scariest. That honor belongs to members of the short faced bear family. The term short faced bear describes a family of extinct bears with long legs and a distinctive sloping forehead and short, broad snout.

The North American short faced bear, Arctodus simus, was a truly monstrous animal. Weighing in at over 1,700 pounds, the animal stood nearly six feet tall at the shoulder. There is some debate over whether this giant was a true predator or a scavenger who stole the kills from other large predators.

Studying skeletal remains gives scientists an idea of what kind of musculature and physical appearance an animal will have. The long leg bones make some scientists think that the giant short faced bear could run almost as fast as a horse to attack its prey. Paleobiologists with the Yukon government in Canada think that the animal couldn’t run very fast but instead walked over long distances to find and steal the kills of predators like saber toothed cats and hyenadons. [i]

Biggest

Polar bears are big, Arctodus simus was bigger. The largest bear of all time is the South American short-faced bear. A true giant, this monster bear grew to over 3,500 pounds in weight and nearly 12 feet when rearing up on its hind legs. The study of fossil bear remains found in Argentina in 1935 by Dr. Blaine Schubert of East Tennessee State University revealed the giant bear to be an omnivore.

Unlike the North American bear which grew larger over time the South American variety started big and got smaller later on. The short-faced bear migrated into South America about 2 million years ago and quickly attained its monstrous size.

The Alaska Science Forum, Ned Rozell
http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF18/1817.html