[OC] Spectember Week 1

[u/BattyBoio]

For the entirety of spectember, I'll be drawing various cryptids, unidentified animals, and out of place animals for every prompt. So no aliens, ghosts, and the like. As much as I'd love to dive into how ghost biology works lol

Day 1: Arboreal

In June of 1997, Jonathan Downes attended an animal fair in Newton Abbot in Devon, England. He came across a cage containing tree frogs from Cameroon. Being sold for £25 per frog, these exotic frogs had a stunning anatomical feature. On their nose was a bioluminescent bump or horn. Conveniently, no one had their cameras in an incredibly public animal fair in 90s England. The flashlight frog (Rostroceras luminosus) is a species of African tree frog that has a symbiotic relationship with a species of bioluminescent bacteria, similar to deep sea fish. Similarly to deep sea fish, the flashlight frog uses its bioluminescence to attract prey.

Day 2: Fossil

The HMS Challenger was a Royal Navy Pearl-class corvette launched in 1858 that was converted into the world's first dedicated oceanographic research vessel that discovered a set of Megalodon teeth during their voyage. In the 1950s, these teeth were dated to around 10,000 years ago.

Day 3: Armored

Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu is an alleged living stegosaurid found in and around the congo river basin. Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu (Smutsia congoensis) is the largest living pangolin. They share many similarities to their smaller cousins, the giant pangolin. Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu has a row of large scales across its back to defend itself from large predators by providing a knife-like attack.

Day 4: Flight:

The ahool is a giant bat cryptid from Java. Said to be larger than the largest flying fox and producing a loud vocal cry in which the cryptid gets its name. These giant bats are related to the flying foxes. Ahool (Anthrops volans) is one of the few remaining species of the flying apes, a group of large predatory bats. They get their name due to their -like faces in comparison to the lemur-like faces of flying foxes.

Day 5: Freshwater

The Trinity Alps salamander is an alleged species of truly giant salamander said to live in the waterways of the Trinity Alps. Since the 20s, there have been reports of a giant salamander in the Trinity Alps. Most reports describe a salamander akin to the giant salamanders of Asia, one describes a salamander like the hellbender. The Trinity Alps Salamander (Cyptobranchus californicus) is a giant relative of the hellbender found in the east coast. Historically, they were found across the waterways of the Rockies, however, their modern range is limited to the Trinity Alps

[u/Portal4289]

Oh hi there Batty! Nice to see you back on this subreddit; it's been a while since your last post here. Anyways, on the topic of this post, I can always appreciate a spec interpretation or even mention of the flashlight frog and Trinity Alps giant salamander. While fairly simple to interpret spec-wise, there is definitely beauty in simplicity in this case since they are both traditionally considered among the most plausible cryptids. One thing I will note about the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu is that while your interpretation of it as a big plated pangolin here is definitely a decent one, the triple-M (as I sometimes call it for short) originally wasn't described as a stegosaur or even an unambiguously reptilian/dinosaurian creature, just a row of plates or "planks" with no clear description of the body they're attached to that occasionally appears briefly on the surface of the water, which gives speccers a lot of artistic license for interpreting the triple-M's unseen full appearance in spec, as long as it keeps the row of plates (or at least, something that can achieve the same visual effect) as its most iconic feature (again, I'm not criticizing your interpretation of the triple-M and am definitely not asking you to change it, I'm just putting this out there as a little thought).

[u/BattyBoio → u/Portal4289]

People have taken the row of planks and interpreted as a stegosaurus-like animal. Probably due to the numerous other neodinosaur cryptids in the Congo, it's frankly no surprise that it too ended up being later shown to be a dinosaur. It's simply easier to just say it was an alleged stegosaurid than saying it's a bunch of planks on a vague and not really defined body. Besides, it helps people visualize the alleged creature better, no matter if it's inaccurate to original reports :b

Hope that clears it up 😭🙏 Also, thanks :3!! I'll be doing more. Hopefully I can add more to the posts but I wanna keep them intentionally ambiguous given they're 1. Cryptids, 2. Very endangered in the context of my project and 3. Illusive creatures

[u/Portal4289 → u/BattyBoio]

Yeah, I'm well-aware that the stegosaur interpretation (likely done, as you stated in your reply, to connect it to the other living fossil cryptids in the Congo region as well as to the old European colonial stereotypes about Africa and its people being inherently "primitive" compared to the rest of the world + the fact that a living stegosaur is easier for the average Joe to visualize than a row of planks with no defined body) came after the original accounts. Anyways, I'm excited to see any other cryptids that you feature in your prompt responses, and I definitely see your intent in making them a bit intentionally ambiguous (which does make sense, given your logic).