To those who have not met the President of the United States, he is a myth. A fantasy. If confronted with the challenge: Prove the president is real, a person could turn on their television, bring up a webpage, or provide a picture of the president. But is it really the president? The fact of the matter is that with today’s technology, it could be an illusion or an actor hired to play a part. That makes the president a fantasy creature until you have met or spoken to him in person. What does the President of the U.S. have to do with fantasy creatures? Because of his mythical status, he too is a fantasy creature.

Anything thought of or dreamed about has the potential to be real. History is dotted with creatures that were once thought to be solely fantasy. Dinosaurs themselves were once thought to be figments of the imagination, until people began to realize that the bones were real and not some weird person’s idea of a joke.

Are they fantasy?

Many fantasy creatures are thought to belong to the realm of fantasy because there is no proof of their existence other than hear-say. But if you look at the world around you, or pick up a scientific magazine you will quickly learn that new discoveries are being made every day. These discoveries range anywhere from inventions, which until they were invented were just pipe-dreams, to new insects that are being discovered at a rate of almost one insect species per day, to creatures thought to be long extinct suddenly being found alive and well.

One such creature that was believed to belong to the fantasy world was the Kraken. The Kraken was a giant sea creature with tentacles. It was known for submerging sailing ships throughout history. For over a century, speculation has been that the kraken was actually a giant squid, also thought to have been a delusional fantasy. In 2005, a giant squid was photographed by several Japanese scientists. (For more on this fascinating topic, click here)

Another creature, known as the coelacanth, was believed to have been extinct since the cretaceous period. When reports first started about fishermen pulling these fish from the waters off the South African coast, the world of science probably thought that someone was handing out loco weed to the local populace. Later, they would realize that it was not a case of hallucination, but a real fact. Since that time, over 200 of these fish has been caught.

The story of the kraken and the coelacanth can cause pause for many people who were once quick to declare that fantasy creatures were only figments of the imagination.

A problem of misidentification?

However, there may be another reason that people have not seen the unicorns or cameleopards of fantasy today. That reason is misidentification. Misidentification means that someone sees something that they are not familiar with and think that it is something else. This is not by fault of the viewer.

For instance, unicorns were originally not the beautiful white horses of our current mythology; instead there were a variety of these unicorn-like creatures. The most common appearance was of a small deer-like creature with cloven hooves and a single horn growing out of its forehead. A deer with one horn could easily match this description.

The unicorn first appeared when men started exploring the world around them, spreading from Europe to Africa, Asia, and beyond. Many stories were brought back from their exploits. The Persian unicorn is described as raging, heavy and when it runs it makes the earth tremble. This description could easily be of a rhinoceros.

The cameleopard is known by several names, including the Cameleopardalis and the Cameolpardel. It was often described as being the size of a camel. But unlike a camel it had spots like a leopard and two horns on the top of its head. Today, the cameleopard is commonly thought to be a misidentification of the giraffe.

Are fantasy creatures real?

Fantasy creatures are both real and creatures of fantasy. The creatures described in the past were romanticized into almost completely new creatures. Using the unicorn as an example, it originally appeared much more common than its modern white counterpart.

Fantasy creatures could easily be real, but not in the way that we currently think of them. The sad truth is that until you meet an acclaimed fantasy creature, you will never know.