Imaginary monstrous creatures, birds of exceptional human like qualities, horrible fuzzy creatures have always been a part of our mythology and folklore. For those who don’t believe in anything other than the creatures accounted for by science, cryptozoology is simply paranormal s**t and they think that this is something entirely out of the realm of science. There have been various views about cryptozoology and cryptids. If you are wondering what these both things mean then let us take the help of some renowned people in this field.

The general consensus about the word ‘cryptid’ is the idea or a creature which doesn’t have any scientific proof, like the Big Foot. But the real definition of cryptid is really vast. According to a famous cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman, cryptozoology is the study devoted to the discovery of creatures that have not been formally recognized by the modern science.

When it comes to the word cryptid, there have been various different definitions and ways to describe it. This term was first coined in the 1980s and there were debates and arguments for a long time as to what exactly the word meant. Bernard Heuvelmans, often referred to as one of the pioneers of cryptozoology, took a broader approach to the idea when he stated that a cryptid is any animal that has left behind circumstantial or testimonial evidence but no physical evidence.

Heuvelmans discards the idea of describing cryptids as otherworldly creatures with ghostly qualities because he thought that describing this concept in this way takes the subject out of the realms of science and pushes it towards folklore and mythology which is not right. While defining cryptids though, Heuvelmans opined that in order to be a cryptid, an animal should be unexpected or different in some way but it could also be ‘emotionally upsetting’.

It was in 2004, that Chad Arment’s cryptozoology textbook outlined the four different types of cryptids that should be under investigation. These were:

• Animals outside their usual geographic range
• Individuals within a species that have some extraordinary characteristic
• Creatures that look like a species declared extinct
• Creatures that are completely unlike anything accepted by science.

This attempt by Arment was his way of making cryptology more acceptable as a science than just a folklore and myth. Arment believed that cryptozoology is not the investigation of something paranormal. He believes that it is part of the same science that led to the discovery and confirmation of the existence of animals like the okapi and the lowland gorilla which were once thought to be just fanciful exaggeration of human imagination.

Cryptids and Cryptozoology is nothing but a very interesting wing of science which may or may not be accepted by the entire scientific community.

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Author: Technology and Beyond