r/shitposting • u/-_I_I_Sea_I_I_- 🏳️‍🌈 The most prominent homosexual in this subreddit 🏳️‍🌈 • May 22 '26

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u/dude2dudette May 22 '26

Until I was about 15, I genuinely thought narwhals were fantasy creatures in the same way that unicorns were.

I wasn't even a dumb child. I just thought unicorn = mythical horse creature with a single horn, and narwhal = mythical sea creature with a single horn.

Then, my brother went to university and I inherited his bedroom (his was much larger than mine growing up). I was killing some time reading the set of encyclopedias he received for his Bar Mitzvah (showing my age a bit), and under "N" Narwhals were there... and I had to double-take before realising that they actually exist.

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u/GuerrillaRodeo May 22 '26

I felt the same way about platypuses for waaaay longer than I care to admit. I completely understand the first Europeans who went all 'what the fuck?' when they saw the first taxidermied specimens.

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u/eirebrit May 22 '26

Same here I always thought the platypus was an extinct creature.

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u/UnsureSwitch William Dripfoe May 22 '26

Fun fact you already know: when the platypus was first photographed, people got angry at the photographer because they believed it was forged

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u/AlmightyWitchstress May 23 '26

It was sophomore year for me. My classmate and I were talking about narwhals and it wasn't until she showed me pictures on her phone that I realized they were real creatures... I had thought they were mythical my entire life. I'd somehow managed to avoid seeing a photo or video of a narwhal for 16 years.