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As they say, in every fairy tale there is some truth, and as it turned out, sometimes this share falls on the role of dragons, hobbits and underwater giants the size of a 10-story building.
For those who dreamed of being in a fairy tale, site made a selection of 7 legendary creatures that actually existed.
The very word "hobbit" was coined by Tolkien, but there is evidence that little people actually existed.
During excavations in 2003 on the island of Flores in Indonesia, archaeologists discovered a human skeleton about 1 meter tall and with a head 3 times smaller than that of ordinary person. A little later, scientists found the remains of 9 more such people, and the age of the youngest of them was 12,000 years old.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that this is a separate species. And they gave him the name "Floresian man" (lat. Homo floresiensis), but most of them are called hobbits.
In addition, there are quite suitable volcanoes in Indonesia to, say, throw a ring at them if necessary.
Dragons are without a doubt the most famous of mythical creatures. Huge fire-breathing lizards that only a brave knight could defeat.
But there were also real animals, and it was quite possible to call them dragons. For example, megalania is the largest of the lizards, known to science. They grew up to 9 meters long, weighed 2,200 kg, and spit poisonous saliva. Sounds familiar, right? Megalania existed in the Pleistocene era and could meet a person, and their remains could give rise to the myth of dragons.
By the way, dragons still exist today. They are called Komodo dragons, live in Indonesia and can reach 3 meters in length, which is also a lot.
Giant squid, which, in fact, is a kraken, can exist today. Moreover, sailors and scientists have repeatedly confirmed this.
In 2015, a 3.7 meter long squid was discovered and filmed near Japan. As scientists later said, it was only a cub that can grow up to 25 meters in length. Agree, a 25-meter big man can easily grab with tentacles and drag even a large ship to the bottom.
Korean legends tell of imuji, huge pythons thought to be young dragons. According to legend, they lived in water or caves and had to live on earth for a thousand years before turning into dragons and flying to heaven.
The most big shark in the world - megalodon - plowed the depths of the oceans about 28 million years ago. Megalodon was a real king underwater world, reached 16 meters in length and weighed approximately 47 tons.
According to some versions of scientists, which are based on the remains found, these superpredators could survive until the appearance of man. And some believe that megalodons still live in unexplored waters to this day.
The famous novel "Moby Dick" was based on stories about a real-life giant white sperm whale. He attacked whaling ships and smashed them to pieces, sending them to the bottom. In 1819, the crew of a whaling ship hunted whales for a year and a half until a huge white sperm whale put an end to it.
In addition, experts in Peru found a well-preserved sperm whale skull, which was 12-17 meters long. This animal species was named Leviathan melvillei.
In the dark unknown sea waters mysterious creatures live at great depths, from ancient times terrifying on sailors. They are secretive and elusive, and still poorly understood. In medieval legends, they are represented as monsters attacking ships and sinking them.
According to the sailors, they look like a floating island with huge tentacles that reach the peak of the mast, bloodthirsty and ferocious. V literary works these creatures were called "krakens".
The first information about them is found in the annals of the Vikings, which speaks of huge sea monsters attacking ships. There are also references to krakens in the works of Homer and Aristotle. On the walls of ancient temples, you can find images of a monster dominating the sea. Over time, there were fewer references to these creatures. However, by the middle of the 18th century, the world again remembered the thunderstorm of the seas. In 1768, this monster attacked the English whaling ship Arrow, the crew and the ship miraculously escaped death. According to the sailors, they encountered a "small living island."
In 1810, the British ship Celestina, sailing on the Reykjavik-Oslo flight, met something up to 50 meters in diameter. It was not possible to avoid the meeting, and the ship was badly damaged by the tentacles of an unknown monster, so they had to return back to the port.
In 1861, the kraken attacked the French ship Adekton, and in 1874 sank the English ship Pearl. However, despite all these cases, academia thought giant monster nothing more than fiction. Until in 1873 he received material evidence of its existence.
On October 26, 1873, English fishermen in one of the bays discovered some huge and presumably dead sea animal. Wanting to know what it is, they sailed up to it in a boat and poked a hook. In response to this, the creature suddenly came to life and wrapped its tentacles around the boat, wanting to drag it to the bottom. The fishermen managed to fight back and get a trophy - one of the tentacles, which was transferred to the local museum.
A month later, another octopus 10 meters long was caught in the same area. So the myth became reality. 
Previously, the likelihood of encounters with these deep-sea inhabitants was more real. However, there has been little to no news of them lately. One of recent events, associated with these creatures dates back to 2011, when the American yacht Zvezda was attacked. Of the entire crew and people on board, only one person could survive. tragic story"Stars" - the last famous case about a collision with a giant octopus.
Until now, there is no clear idea what species this animal belongs to; scientists consider it to be a squid, an octopus, and a cuttlefish. This deep-sea inhabitant reaches several meters in length, presumably some individuals can grow to gigantic sizes.
Its head has a cylindrical shape with a chitinous beak in the middle, with which it can bite through a steel cable. The eyes are up to 25 cm in diameter.
The habitat of these creatures extends throughout the oceans, starting from the deep waters of the Arctic and Antarctica. At one time it was believed that their habitat is the Bermuda Triangle, and it is they who are responsible for the mysterious disappearances of ships in this place.
Where this mysterious animal came from is still not known. There are several theories about its origin. That this is the only creature that survived the ecological catastrophe of the “time of the dinosaurs”. That it was created in the course of Nazi experiments at secret bases in Antarctica. That, perhaps, this is a mutation of an ordinary squid, or even extraterrestrial intelligence.
Even in our time of advanced technology, little has been studied about the kraken. Since no one saw them alive, all individuals exceeding 20 m were found exclusively dead. In addition, despite their huge size, these creatures successfully avoid photography and video filming. So the search for this deep-sea monster continues... 
The mythological giant got its name from Icelandic sea travelers, who claimed to have seen a huge sea monster similar to. Sailors of antiquity blamed the krakens for the mysterious disappearance of ships. In their opinion, the sea monsters had enough strength to drag the ship to the bottom...
Does the kraken really exist and what is the danger of meeting this mythical monster? Or is it just the tales of idle sailors, inspired by too violent fantasy?
The first mention of a sea monster refers to XVIII century when a naturalist from Denmark named Eric Pontoppidan began to convince everyone that the kraken really exists. According to his description, the size of the creature is equal to the whole island, and with its huge tentacles it can easily grab even the most big ship and drag along. The greatest danger is the whirlpool that forms when the kraken sinks to the bottom.
Pontoppidan was sure that it was the kraken that knocked sailors off course and caused confusion during travels. He was led to this idea by numerous cases when sailors mistakenly took a monster for an island, and when they revisited the same place, they no longer found a piece of land. Norwegian fishermen claimed to have once found the discarded carcass of a monster of the deep sea on the shore. They thought it was a young kraken.
There was a similar case in England. Captain Robert Jameson had a chance to tell about his meeting with a huge mollusk under oath in court. According to him, the entire crew on the ship was fascinated by how an incredible body either rose above the water, then plunged again. At the same time, huge waves formed around. After the mysterious creature disappeared, it was decided to swim to the place where he was seen. To the surprise of the sailors, there were only a large number of fishes.
Scientists do not have an unambiguous opinion about the kraken. Some made the mythical monster into the classification marine life, others denied its existence altogether. According to skeptics, what the sailors saw near Iceland is the usual activity of underwater volcanoes. This a natural phenomenon leads to the formation of large waves, foam, bubbles, bulges on the surface of the ocean, which is mistaken for an unknown monster from the depths of the sea.
Scientists believe that it is impossible for such a huge animal as a kraken to survive in the conditions of the ocean, since its body will be torn apart at the slightest storm. Therefore, there is an assumption that the "kraken" is a cluster of mollusks. Given the fact that many species of squid always move in whole flocks, then it is quite possible that this is also characteristic of larger individuals.
There is an opinion that in the area of the mysterious 
The Bermuda Triangle settled none other than the largest kraken. It is assumed that it is he who is guilty of and people.
Many believe that krakens are demonic creatures, peculiar monsters from the depths of the sea. Others endow them with intelligence and. Most likely, each of the versions has the right to exist.
Some sailors swear they have seen huge floating islands. Some ships even managed to pass through such "land", as the ship cut through it like a knife.
Back in the century before last, fishermen from Newfoundland discovered the body of a huge kraken stranded. They were quick to report it. The same news came over the next 10 years several more times from different coastal regions.
Sea giants received official recognition thanks to Addison Verrill. It was this American zoologist who was able to compile an accurate scientific description of them and allowed the legends to be confirmed. The scientist confirmed that krakens belong to molluscs. Who would have thought that the monsters that terrified sailors are relatives of ordinary snails.
The body of the sea octopus has a grayish tint, consists of a substance similar to jelly. Kraken resembles an octopus, as it has a round head and a large number of tentacles dotted with suction cups. The animal has three hearts, blue blood, internal organs, the brain in which the nerve nodes are located. Huge eyes are arranged almost the same as in humans. The presence of a special organ, which is similar in action to jet engine, allows the kraken to quickly move long distances in a single dash.
The dimensions of the kraken do not agree with the legends a bit. After all, according to the descriptions of the sailors, the monster was equal to the island. In fact, the body of a giant octopus can reach no more than 27 meters.
According to some legends, krakens guard the treasures of sunken ships at the bottom. A diver who is "lucky enough" to find such a treasure will have to make a lot of efforts to escape from the enraged kraken.
Marine life is very diverse and sometimes frightening. The most bizarre forms of life can lurk in the abyss of the seas, because humanity has not yet been able to fully explore all the expanses of water. And sailors have long had legends about a powerful creature that can sink an entire fleet or convoy with its mere appearance. About a creature whose appearance inspires horror, and whose size makes you freeze in amazement. About a creature the likes of which are not in the stories. And if the sky above the world belongs to and, the earth under their feet belongs to the Tarascans, then the expanses of the seas belong to only one creature - the kraken.
To say the kraken is huge would be an understatement. For centuries, a kraken resting in the abyss of water can reach simply unimaginable sizes of several tens of kilometers. It is truly huge and scary. Outwardly, it is somewhat similar to a squid - the same elongated body, the same tentacles with suction cups, all the same eyes and a special organ for moving under water using air draft. That's just the size of the kraken and the usual squid are not even close comparable. The ships that disturbed the peace of the kraken during the renaissance sank from just one hit with a tentacle on the water.
The Kraken is mentioned as one of the most feared sea monsters. But there is someone to whom even he must obey. V different nations it is called by different names. But all the legends say the same thing - this is the God of the seas and the lord of all sea creatures. And it doesn’t matter how you call this super creature - one of his orders is enough for the kraken to throw off the shackles of a hundred-year sleep and do what he was instructed to do.
In general, legends often mention a certain artifact that gave a person the ability to control the kraken. This creature is by no means lazy and absolutely harmless, unlike its owners. A kraken can sleep for centuries, or even millennia without an order, without disturbing anyone with its awakening. Or maybe in a few days to change the face of the whole coast, if his peace is disturbed or if he was given an order. Perhaps, among all creatures, the kraken has the greatest power, but also the most peaceful character.
You can often find references to the fact that many such creatures are in the service of the Sea God. But to imagine that this is true is very difficult. The huge size of the kraken and its strength make it possible to believe that this creature can be on different ends of the earth at the same time, but it is very difficult to imagine that there are two such creatures. How terrifying can be the battle of such creatures?
In some epics, there are mentions of battles between krakens, which suggests that to this day, almost all krakens died in these terrible fights, and the sea god commands the last survivors. A creature that does not produce offspring, free in food and rest, has reached such huge dimensions that one can only wonder how hunger has not yet driven it to land and why it has not yet been met by researchers. Perhaps the structure of the kraken's skin and tissues makes it impossible to detect and the creature's century-long sleep hid it in the sands of the seabed? Or maybe there was a depression in the ocean, where researchers have not yet looked, but where this creature is resting. One can only hope that even if it is found, the researchers will be smart enough not to arouse the wrath of the thousand-year-old monster and not try to destroy it with the help of any weapon.
Perhaps the most famous sea monster- kraken. According to legend, he lives off the coast of Norway and Iceland. Exists different opinions about what it looks like. Some describe it as giant squid, others like an octopus. The first handwritten mention of the kraken can be found with the Danish bishop Eric Pontoppidan, who in 1752 recorded various oral legends about it. Initially, the word "kgake" was used to refer to any deformed animal that was very different from its own kind. Later, it passed into many languages and began to mean precisely the "legendary sea monster."
In the writings of the bishop, the kraken appears as a crab fish with huge size and capable of dragging ships to the bottom of the sea. Its dimensions were truly colossal, it was compared with a small island. Moreover, it was dangerous precisely because of its size and the speed with which it sank to the bottom. From this, a strong whirlpool appeared, which destroyed the ships. The kraken spent most of its time hibernating on seabed, and then a huge number of fish swam around him. Some fishermen allegedly even took risks and threw their nets right over the sleeping kraken. It is believed that the kraken is to blame for many maritime disasters.
According to Pliny the Younger, the remoras stuck around the ships of the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, which to some extent served as his defeat.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. some zoologists have suggested that the kraken may be giant octopus. The naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his book "The System of Nature" created a classification of real-life marine organisms, into which he introduced the kraken, presenting it as a cephalopod. A little later, he deleted it from there.
In 1861, a piece of the body of a huge squid was found. Over the next two decades, many remains of similar creatures were also discovered on the northern coast of Europe. This was due to the fact that the temperature regime changed in the sea, which forced the creatures to rise to the surface. According to the stories of some fishermen, on the carcasses of sperm whales they caught, there were also marks resembling giant tentacles.
Throughout the 20th century repeated attempts were made to catch the legendary kraken. But it was possible to catch only young individuals, whose growth in length was about 5 m, or only parts of the bodies of larger individuals came across. Only in 2004, Japanese oceanologists photographed a fairly large individual. Prior to that, they followed the routes of sperm whales that eat squid for 2 years. Finally, they managed to bait a giant squid, whose length was 10 m. For four hours, the animal tried to break free
·0 bait, and oceanologists took about several names of photographs, which show that the squid has a very aggressive behavior.
Giant squids are called architeutis. So far, not a single live specimen has been caught. In several museums, you can see the burying of the preserved remains of individuals that were found already dead. So, in the London Museum of Qualitative History, a nine-meter squid preserved in formalin is presented. A seven-meter squid is available to the general public in the Melbourne Aquarium, frozen into a piece of ice.
But can even such a giant squid harm ships? Its length can be more than 10 m.
females larger than males. The weight of squid reaches several hundred kilograms. This is not enough to damage a large vessel. But giant squids are known for their predatory behavior, so they can still harm swimmers or small boats.
In the movies, giant squids pierce the skin of ships with their tentacles, but in reality this is impossible, since they are devoid of a skeleton, so they can only stretch and tear their prey. outside aquatic environment they are very helpless, but in the water they have sufficient strength and can resist marine predators. Squids prefer to live at the bottom, rarely appear on the surface, but small individuals can jump out of the water to a fairly high height.
Giant squids have the largest eyes among living creatures. Their diameter reaches more than 30 cm. The tentacles are equipped with strong suction cups, the diameter of which is up to 5 cm. They help to hold the prey firmly. The composition of the giant squid's bodies and Lou includes ammonium chloride (butyl alcohol), which preserves its zero plane honor. True, such a squid should not be eaten. All these features allow some scientists to believe that the giant squid can be the legendary kraken.
