10 Mythical Creatures That Actually Existed

The Myth: The Roc is an enormous bird of prey found in mythology originating in the Middle East. The giant bird was popularized in various fairy tales and folklore from the region, and there's a Roc in One Thousand and One Nights as well as many other popular stories.

Descriptions of the Roc vary somewhat, but in most, it's an eagle large enough to pick up an elephant like the one pictured above. The Roc represents a fear of being picked up and carried off without any means of defending oneself, which has its roots in numerous paleolithic cultures.

Marco Polo recounted his identification of a Roc in the 13th century:

It was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size; so big in fact that its quills were twelve paces long and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him, the bird swoops down on him and eats him at leisure.

The Reality: The Roc as it has been described didn't likely exist, but there are analogs in the fossil record, which could easily have given birth to the myth. One such creature was the Elephant Bird of Madagascar, though the myth could have easily been borne by sailor's accounts of large eagles capable of carrying off newborns lamb.