Picture taken from a Hetzel copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Sea monsters are sea-dwelling, mythical or legendary creatures, often believed to be of immense size. The Sea Monsters beastiary. ... Download high resolution version (492x708, 126 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (492x708, 126 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Pierre-Jules Hetzel. ... Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne (1828–1905), published in 1870 under the title Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. ... A legendary creature is a mythical or fantastic creature (often known as fabulous creatures in historical literature). ...

Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts; they can be slimy or scaly, often spouting jets of water. Often they are pictured threatening ships. This article is about monsters as a kind of legendary creature. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Dragon. ... Sea serpents are a kind of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine. ...

Sightings and legends

Historically, decorative drawings of heraldic dolphins and sea monsters were frequently used to illustrate maps, such as the Carta marina. This practice died away with the advent of modern cartography. Nevertheless, stories of sea monsters and eyewitness accounts which claim to have seen these beasts persist to this day. Such sightings are often catalogued and studied by folklorists and cryptozoologists. Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith. ... The Carta Marina (latin: the book of the sea) is the earliest map over the Nordic countries containing details and placenames. ... Cartography or mapmaking (in Greek chartis = map and graphein = write) is the study and practice of making maps or globes. ... Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore such as fairy tales and folk mythology in oral or non-literary traditions. ... Cryptozoology (from Greek: κρυπτός, kryptós, hidden; ζῷον, zôon, animal; and λόγος, logos, knowledge or study – zoology) is the search for animals hypothesized to exist, but for which conclusive proof is missing. ...

Sea monster accounts are found in virtually all cultures that have contact with the sea. Eyewitness accounts come from all over the world. For example, Avienus relates of Carthaginian explorer Himilco's voyage "...there monsters of the deep, and beasts swim amid the slow and sluggishly crawling ships." (lines 117-29 of Ora Maritima). Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed to have encountered a lion-like monster with "glaring eyes" on his return voyage after formally claiming St. John's, Newfoundland (1583) for England. Another account of an encounter with a sea monster comes from July 1734. Hans Egede, a Danish/Norwegian missionary reported that on a voyage to Gothaab/Nuuk on the western coast of Greenland: Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century. ... Himilco (Phoenician Chimilkât), Carthaginian navigator and explorer lived in 6th century BC. Himilco is the first known sailor from the Mediterranean Sea to reach the northwestern shores of Europe. ... Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c. ... St. ... 1583 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Events January 8 - Premiere of George Frideric Handels opera Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. ... Hans Egede Statue in Nuuk Hans Egede (January 31, 1686, Harstad, Northern Norway–November 5, 1758, Falster, Denmark) was a Norwegian Lutheran missionary, called the Apostle of Greenland. ... For other uses, including the disambiguation of Danmark, see Denmark (disambiguation). ... A panoramic photo of Nuuk taken in October 2006 Location of the Nuuk municipality in Greenland Nuuk (The Cape in Greenlandic) (Danish: GodthÃ¥b, which translates to Good Hope in English, and was the name of the ship which brought the settlers) is the capital and largest city of the...

[There] appeared a very terrible sea-animal, which raised itself so high above the water, that its head reached above our maintop. It had a long, sharp snout, and blew like a whale, had broad, large flippers, and the body was, as it were, covered with hard skin, and it was very wrinkled and uneven on its skin; moreover, on the lower part it was formed like a snake, and when it went under water again, it cast itself backwards, and in doing so, it raised its tail above the water, a whole ship length from its body. That evening, we had very bad weather.^{[citation needed]}

Other reports are known from the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans (e.g. see Heuvelmans 1968). “Pacific” redirects here. ... The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean or South Polar Ocean, is the oceanic division completely in Earths southern hemisphere encircling Antarctica, comprising the southernmost waters of the World Ocean south of 60° S latitude. ...

There is a Tlingit legend about a sea monster named Gunakadeit (Goo-na'-ka-date) who brought prosperity and good luck to a village in crisis, people starving in the home they made for themselves on the Southeast coast of Alaska.

A more recent development has been the mysterious "Bloop" picked up by hydrophonic equipment since 1997. While matching the audio characteristics of an animal, it was deemed too large to be a whale. Investigations thus far have been inconclusive. The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several times during the summer of 1997. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ...

It is debatable what these modern "monsters" might be. Possibilities include frilled shark, basking shark, oarfish, giant squid, seiches, or whales. For example Ellis (1999) suggested the Egede-rellis-phooba monster might have been a giant squid. Other hypotheses are that modern-day monsters are surviving specimens of giant marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaur or plesiosaur, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, or extinct whales like Basilosaurus. Binomial name Chlamydoselachus anguineus Garman, 1884 The frilled shark, Chlamydoselachus anguineus, is a primitive shark species, of the family Chlamydoselachidae in the order Hexanchiformes. ... Binomial name (Gunnerus, 1765) Range (in blue) The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is the second largest fish, after the whale shark. ... Genera Agrostichthys Regalecus Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fish comprising the small family Regalecidae. ... This article is about the animal. ... A seiche (pronounced saysh) or an underwater wave is a standing wave in a body of water. ... Whales are the largest species of exclusively aquatic placental mammals, members of the order Cetacea, which also includes dolphins and porpoises. ... This article is about the animal. ... Families Ichthyosauridae Leptonectidae Mixosauridae Ophthalmosauridae Shastasauridae Stenopterygiidae Teretocnemidae Ichthyosaurs (Greek for fish lizard - ιχθυς meaning fish and σαυρος meaning lizard) were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins. ... Families Plesiosaurs (IPA ) (Greek: plesios, near to + sauros, lizard) were large, carnivorous aquatic reptiles. ... The Jurassic Period is a major unit of the geologic timescale that extends from about 199. ... // The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i. ... Species Basilosaurus (King Lizard) was a genus of cetacean that lived from 39 to 34 million years ago in the Eocene. ...

In 1892, Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans, then director of the Royal Zoological Gardens at The Hague saw the publication of his The Great Sea Serpent which suggested that many sea serpent reports were best accounted for as a previously unknown giant, long-necked pinniped. 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans was a Dutch scientist. ... Coordinates: , Country Netherlands Province South Holland Area (2006)  - Municipality 98. ... Families Odobenidae Otariidae Phocidae Pinnipeds (fin-feet, lit. ...

It is likely that many other reports of sea monsters are misinterpreted sightings of shark and whale carcasses (see below), floating kelp, logs or other flotsam such as abandoned rafts, canoes and fishing nets. Insert non-formatted text hereLink title Families Alariaceae Chordaceae Laminariaceae Lessoniaceae Phyllariaceae Pseudochordaceae For other uses, see Kelp (disambiguation). ...

Alleged sea monster carcasses

The St. Augustine Monster was a carcass that washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida in 1896. It was initially postulated to be a gigantic octopus.

Sea monster corpses have been reported since recent antiquity (Heuvelmans 1968). Unidentified carcasses are often called globsters. The alleged plesiosaur netted by the Japanese trawler Zuiyo Maru off New Zealand caused a sensation in 1977 and was immortalized on a Brazilian postage stamp before it was suggested by the FBI to be the decomposing carcass of a basking shark. Likewise, DNA testing confirmed that an alleged sea monster washed up on Fortune Bay, Newfoundland in August, 2001, was a sperm whale.^[1] Image File history File links St_augustine_carcass. ... Image File history File links St_augustine_carcass. ... The carcass as it appeared after being dug out of the sand. ... Pen and wash drawing by malacologist, Pierre Denys de Montfort, 1801 from the descriptions of French sailors reportedly attacked by such a creature off the coast of Angola. ... A globster is an unidentified carcass of considerable size washed up on a seashore. ... The Zuiya Maru was a a Japanese trawler that caught a creature initially claimed to be a prehistoric plesiosaur off the coast of New Zealand in 1977. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Binomial name (Gunnerus, 1765) Range (in blue) The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is the second largest fish, after the whale shark. ... Genetic fingerprinting or DNA testing is a technique to distinguish between individuals of the same species using only samples of their DNA. Its invention by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester was announced in 1985. ... Fortune Bay is a fairly large natural bay located on the south coast of the island of Newfoundland, Canada. ... This article is about the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 Sperm Whale range (in blue) The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of all toothed whales and is the largest toothed animal alive, measuring up to 18 metres (60 ft) long. ...

Another modern example of a "sea monster" was the strange creature washed up on the Chilean sea shore in July, 2003. It was first described as a "mammoth jellyfish as long as a bus" but was later determined to be another corpse of a sperm whale. Cases of boneless, amorphic globsters are sometimes believed to be gigantic octopuses, but it has now been determined that sperm whales dying at sea decompose in such a way that the blubber detaches from the body, forming featureless whitish masses that sometimes exhibit a hairy texture due to exposed strands of collagen fibers. The analysis of the Zuiyo Maru carcass revealed a comparable phenomenon in decomposing basking shark carcasses, which lose most of the lower head area and the dorsal and caudal fins first, making them resemble a plesiosaur. For other uses, see Jellyfish (disambiguation). ... “Autobus” redirects here. ... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 Sperm Whale range (in blue) The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of all toothed whales and is the largest toothed animal alive, measuring up to 18 metres (60 ft) long. ... For other uses, see Octopus (disambiguation). ... Tropocollagen triple helix. ...

Legendary sea monsters

Loch Ness Monster (Painting)

• Capricorn, Babylonian Water-Goat, in the Zodiac
• Beebe's Monster
• Charybdis, of Homer
• Coinchenn, from whose bone the Gae Bulg is made in Celtic mythology
• Curruid, the sea monster who killed the Coinchenn
• Iku-Turso
• Jörmungandr, the Norse Midgard Serpent.
• Kraken
• Leviathan
• Proteus
• Scylla, of Homer
• Sirens, of Homer
• The Rainbow Fish
• Tiamat, the constellation Cetus
• Yacumama, South America

Image File history File linksMetadata Loch-Ness-Monster. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Loch-Ness-Monster. ... Capricorn is an astrological sign, which is associated with the constellation Capricornus. ... The term zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun across the heavens through the constellations that divide the ecliptic into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude. ... In Greek mythology, Charybdis, or Kharybdis (sucker down, Greek Χάρυβδις), is a sea monster, daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, who swallows huge amounts of water three times a day and then belches it back out again. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... In Celtic mythology, Gáe Bulg (notched spear) was the spear of Cuchulainn, given to him by Aife. ... Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. ... Iku-Turso [] (the eternal Turso; also known as Iku-Tursas, Iki-Tursas, Meritursas, Tursas, Turisas among others) is a malevolent sea monster in the Finnish mythology. ... Thor goes fishing for the Midgard Serpent in this picture from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript. ... For other uses, see Kraken (disambiguation). ... This article is about the biblical creature. ... This article is about Proteus in Greek mythology. ... Three of Scyllas heads as portrayed in The Odyssey (1997) TV miniseries; the film depicts each head striking with snake-like speed and accuracy and devouring men whole. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... The Siren, by John William Waterhouse(circa 1900 In Greek mythology the Sirens or Seirenes (Greek Σειρήνες or Acheloides) were sea deities who lived on an island called Sirenum scopuli. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... The Rainbow Fish is a legendary creature in Hinduism as large as a whale which ate Vishnus incarnation Buddha who removed suffering from the world. ... For other uses, see Tiamat (disambiguation). ... Cetus (a name from Greek mythology, referring to a Whale or Sea monster, see Ceto) is a constellation of the southern sky, in the region known as the Water, near other watery constellations like Aquarius, Pisces, and Eridanus. ... In the mythology of the indigenous people of South America, the yacu-mama is a sea monster, fifty paces long, believed to inhabit the mouth of the Amazon River and the nearby lagoons. ...

Historically reported sea monsters

Sea monsters actually reported first or second hand include

• A giant octopus by Pliny. N.B. Not the giant octopus of the Pacific.
• Mermaids
• Sea monk
• Various sea serpents
• Tritons by Pliny

Pen and wash drawing by malacologist, Pierre Denys de Montfort, 1801 from the descriptions of French sailors reportedly attacked by such a creature off the coast of Angola. ... There are two famous persons named Pliny: Pliny the Elder, a Roman nobleman, scientist and historian who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD The great-nephew of the former, Pliny the Younger, a statesman, orator, and writer who lived between 62 AD and 113 AD. This... Giant Octopus may refer to the following: Octopuses of the genus Enteroctopus Colossal Octopus or lusca, a cryptid This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ... A mermaid (from the Middle English mere in the obsolete sense sea (as in maritime, the Latin mare, sea) + maid(en)) is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. ... Illustration from The Book of Days, published in 1869 The sea monk, or sometimes monk-fish, was a sea monster found off the coast of Denmark almost certainly in 1546 (Paxton & Holland 2005). ... Loch Ness Monster (Painting) by Heikenwaelder Hugo Sea serpents are a kind of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine. ... Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the deep. ... There are two famous persons named Pliny: Pliny the Elder, a Roman nobleman, scientist and historian who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD The great-nephew of the former, Pliny the Younger, a statesman, orator, and writer who lived between 62 AD and 113 AD. This...

Currently reported specific sea monsters

• Cadborosaurus, of the Pacific Northwest
• Colossal Claude & Marvin the Monster, Mouth of the Columbia River
• Chessie of the Chesapeake Bay
• Lusca
• Morgawr
• Ayia Napa Sea Monster , of Ayia Napa, Cyprus

see also Lake Monsters for details of currently reported freshwater monsters. Cadborosaurus willsi, nicknamed Caddy, is the name given in a formal description to a cryptid species. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Chesapeake Bay - Landsat photo The Chesapeake Bay where the Susquehanna River empties into it. ... Carcass that washed ashore in St. ... Morgawr (meaning sea giant in Cornish), is serpent-like cryptid purported to live in the sea near Falmouth Bay, Cornwall. ... The Ayia Napa Sea Monster is a cryptid, claimed to inhabit the coast off of Ayia Napa in Cyprus, a popular tourist resort in the Mediterranean. ... Lake monster is the name given to the phenomenon of large animals being sighted and being supposed to exist in lakes, although their existence has never been confirmed scientifically. ...

Fictional sea monsters

• Cthulhu, of H. P. Lovecraft
• Godzilla
• Ebirah
• Hydra
• The Krakens in The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
• The Sea Monster from Monkeybone
• The Vensephone
• It from It Came from Beneath the Sea
• Gyarados, of Pokémon
• Seadramon, of Digimon

Cthulhu in the lost city of Rlyeh For other uses, see Cthulhu (disambiguation). ... This article is about the author. ... This article is about the character itself. ... Ebira ), is an fictional enormous shrimp that was first featured in the 1966 movie, Godzilla vs. ... For other uses, see Hydra. ... For other uses, see Kraken (disambiguation). ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... John Wyndham (July 10, 1903 – March 11, 1969) was the pen name used by the often post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris. ... Monkeybone is a 2001 film that combines live-action with stop-motion animation. ... film poster of It Came From Beneath The Sea It Came From Beneath The Sea is an American black and white 1955 science fiction film produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer for Columbia Pictures Corp. ... Gyarados ) is a fictional sea monster in the Pokémon series of games. ... The official Pokémon logo. ... Seadramon is a fictional character from the Digimon franchise, an aquatic Digimon. ... Digimon , short for デジタルモンスター dejitaru monsutā, Digital Monster) is a popular Japanese series of media and merchandise, including anime, manga, toys, video games, trading card games and other media. ...

References

• Ellis, R. (1999) In Search of the Giant Squid. Penguin. London.
• Heuvelmans, B. (1968) In the Wake of the Sea Serpents. Hill & Wang. New York.
• Pliny Natural History III (Books 8 -111) (Translated by H.Rackham). Loeb. Harvard.

• Sea Monsters That Weren't
• "...An Alleged Plesiosaur carcass netted in 1977..."
• "... Ireland Mystery Animals..."
• SEAMONSTER, an environmental sensor web in coastal Southeast Alaska