A giant animal in

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

is unusually large, either for their species or in relation to humans. The term ''giant'' carries some ambiguity, however in mythology definitions of what constitutes 'large' vary, with definitions ranging from 40 kg to 250 kg. At the upper, they may be further subdivided into small (250–500 kg), medium (500–1,000 kg) and large (over 1,000 kg). Megafauna often form one of the

mytheme In structuralism-influenced studies of mythology, a mytheme is a fundamental generic unit of narrative structure (typically involving a relationship between a character, an event, and a theme) from which myths are thought to be constructed—a mi ...

s of a story. The narrative may revolve around a real animal or a primordial

archetype The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...

of a gigantic creature, such as a

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

or the

Midgard snake In Germanic cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse language, Old Norse ; Old English , Old Saxon , Old High German , and Gothic language, Gothic ''Midjun-gards''; "middle yard", "middle enclosure") is the name for Earth (equivalent ...

Examples of megafauna

Africa megafauna mythology

Dingonek The dingonek is a creature said to have been seen near Lake Victoria in 1907 by big game hunter John Alfred Jordan and members of his hunting party, as recounted by fellow big-game hunter Edgar Beecher Bronson in his 1910 memoir ''In Closed Terri ...

Nandi bear In east African folklore, the Nandi bear is a creature said to live in East Africa.Jacobs, Louis L. (2000). ''Quest for the African Dinosaurs: Ancient Roots of the Modern World''. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 250. It takes its name from th ...

*Kongamoto *

Mokele-mbembe In cryptozoology, the Mokele-mbembe (also written as "Mokèlé-mbèmbé"), Lingala for "one who stops the flow of rivers", is a water-dwelling entity that supposedly lives in the Congo River Basin, sometimes described as a living creature, some ...

Grootslang The Grootslang or Grote Slang (Afrikaans and Dutch for "big snake") is a legendary creature that is reputed to dwell in a deep cave in the Richtersveld, South Africa. Legend The Grootslang is said to be a huge elephant-sized serpent that dwells i ...

* Salawa *

Werehyena Were-hyena is a neologism coined in analogy to werewolf for therianthropy involving hyenas. It is common in the folklore of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Near East as well as some adjacent territorie ...

Oceania megafauna mythology

Abaia Abaia is a huge, magical eel in Melanesian mythology. According to Melanesian mythology the Abaia is a type of large eel which dwells at the bottom of freshwater lakes in the Fiji, Solomon and Vanuatu Islands. The Abaia is said to consider all ...

Bunyip The bunyip is a creature from the aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. Name The origin of the word ''bunyip'' has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia ...

Gazeka Monckton's Gazeka, also called the Papuan Devil-Pig is an animal said to have been seen on Papua New Guinea in the early 20th century. It is said to resemble a tapir or a giant sloth, having a long, proboscis-like snout, and some theories suggest ...

* Yowie *

Tiddalik The tale of Tiddalik the Frog is a creation story from The Dreaming, Australian Indigenous Dreaming Stories. The legend of Tiddalik is not only an important story of the Dreamtime, but has been the subject of popular modern children's books. In som ...

* Rainbow Serpent

Central and South America megafauna mythology

* Headless Mule *

Mapinguari Mpinguari or Mpinguary, (also called the ''Juma'') are monsterous jungle-dwelling spirits from Brazilian folklore. Description There are two major depictions of it. Some described them as a hairy humanoid cyclops. This version is often said to ...

* Peuchen *

Yacumama Yacumama means "Mother of water" (from Quechua yaku "water" and mama "mother"), referring to an enormous serpent believed to live in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. The Yacumama is believed to be the mother of all creatures of the water. According ...

North America megafauna mythology

Amarok Amarok may refer to: Music * Amarok (band), a Spanish progressive rock band * ''Amarok'' (Mike Oldfield album), 1990 * ''Amarok'' (Nargaroth album), 2000 * ''Amarok'', 2010 album by Francisco López (musician) Other uses * Amarok (wolf), in In ...

Altamaha-ha In Georgia folklore, the Altamaha-ha (or Altie) is a legendary creature, alleged to inhabit the myriad small streams and abandoned rice fields near the mouth of the Altamaha River (after which it is named) in southeastern Georgia. Sightings are ...

Akhlut In Inuit folklore, the kăk-whăn’-û-ghăt kǐg-û-lu’-nǐk or akh’lut is an orca-like composite animal that takes the form of a wolf when on land, and is sometimes depicted as a wolf-orca hybrid. Inuit folklore In 1900, the American natura ...

Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

* Jersey devil * Mothman *

Mugwump The Mugwumps were Republican political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They were never formally organized. Typically they switched parties from the Republican Party by supporting Democratic ...

* Ogopogo * Thunderbird *

Tizheruk In Inuit religion, the Tizheruk is a mythical large serpent-like creature that is said to inhabit the waters near Key Island, Alaska. It is said to have a two-metre (6.6 ft) head and a tail with a flipper. The local Inuit claim that it has snatche ...

Snallygaster In American folklore, the snallygaster is a bird-reptile chimera originating in the superstitions of early German immigrants later combined with sensationalistic newspaper reports of the monster. Early sightings associate the snallygaster wit ...

Wechuge The wechuge is a man-eating creature or evil spirit appearing in the legends of the Athabaskan people. In Beaver (Dane-zaa) mythology, it is said to be a person who has been possessed or overwhelmed by the power of one of the ancient giant spiri ...

* Wendigo *

Hidebehind The Hidebehind is a nocturnal fearsome critter from American folklore that preys upon humans that wander the woods,Botkin, B. A. (1977). ''The American People: Stories, Legends, Tales, Traditions and Songs''. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. a ...

Hodag In American folklore, the hodag is a fearsome critter resembling a large bull-horned carnivore with a row of thick curved spines down its back. The hodag was said to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen, as the incarnation of the accumulati ...

Hugag In American folklore, the hugag is a fearsome critter resembling a hippopotamus with an extensive upper-lip, preventing it from grazing, and joint-less legs preventing it from lying down. Name usage The word hugag well predates its usage as a te ...

* Underwater panther

Eurasian megafauna mythology

Akkorokamui The is a gigantic octopus-like monster from Ainu folklore, similar to the Nordic Kraken, which supposedly lurks in Uchiura Bay in Hokkaido. It is said that its enormous body can reach sizes of up to in length. Its name can be translated as ...

Bake-kujira The is a mythical Japanese ''yōkai'' (ghost, phantom, or strange apparition) from western Japan. It is supposedly a large ghostly skeleton whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine ma ...

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

Bakunawa The Bakunawa is a serpent-like dragon in Philippine mythology. It is believed to be the cause of eclipses, earthquakes, rains, and wind. The movements of the Bakunawa served as a geomantic calendar system for ancient Filipinos and were part of t ...

* Basan *

Behemoth Behemoth (; he, בְּהֵמוֹת, ''bəhēmōṯ'') is a beast from the biblical Book of Job, and is a form of the primeval chaos-monster created by God at the beginning of creation; he is paired with the other chaos-monster, Leviathan, and ...

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

* Fenghuang *

Chinese dragon The Chinese dragon, also known as ''loong'', ''long'' or ''lung'', is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and Chinese culture at large. Chinese dragons have many Outline of life forms, animal-like forms such as Bixi (my ...

s * Chimera *

Each Uisge The each-uisge (, literally "water horse") is a water spirit in Scottish folklore, known as the each-uisce (anglicized as ''aughisky'' or ''ech-ushkya'') in Ireland and cabyll-ushtey on the Isle of Man. It usually takes the form of a horse, and ...

* Japanese dragons *

Gashadokuro Utagawa Kuniyoshi's , also known as ''Takiyasha_the_Witch_and_the_Skeleton_Spectre">Utagawa_Kuniyoshi's_,_also_known_as_''Takiyasha_the_Witch_and_the_Skeleton_Spectre'' _are_ Takiyasha_the_Witch_and_the_Skeleton_Spectre">Utagawa_Kuniyoshi's_,_als ...

* Genbu *

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

* Cerberus * Hellhound *

Hibagon The or is the Japanese equivalent of the North American Bigfoot or the Himalayan Yeti. Sightings have been reported since the 1970s around Mount Hiba in the Hiroshima Prefecture. History of the Hibagon The Hibagon is described as a "black crea ...

Hippocampus The hippocampus (via Latin from Greek , 'seahorse') is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, a ...

Hydra Hydra generally refers to: * Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology * ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to: Astronomy * Hydra (constel ...

Manticore The manticore or mantichore (Latin: ''mantichōra''; reconstructed Old Persian: ; Modern fa, مردخوار ) is a Persian legendary creature similar to the Egyptian sphinx that proliferated in western European medieval art as well. It has the ...

Mongolian death worm The Mongolian death worm ( mn, олгой-хорхой, ''olgoi-khorkhoi'', "large intestine-worm") is a creature alleged to exist in the Gobi Desert. The creature first came to Western attention as a result of Roy Chapman Andrews's 1926 boo ...

Nāga The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...

Nue The Nue (鵺, 鵼, 恠鳥, or 奴延鳥) is a legendary yōkai or mononoke. Appearance In the ''Tale of Heike'', it is described as a Japanese chimera having the head of a monkey, the limbs of a tiger, the body of a Japanese raccoon dog and th ...

Karkadann The Karkadann (Arabic كركدن ''karkadann'' or ''karkaddan'' from ''Kargadan'', Persian: كرگدن) is a mythical creature said to have lived on the grassy plains of India and Persia. The word ''kargadan'' also means rhinoceros in Persian a ...

* Kelpie *

Kraken The kraken () is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear off the coasts of Norway. Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern age at the turn of the 18th century, in a travelogu ...

* Leviathan *

Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster ( gd, Uilebheist Loch Nis), affectionately known as Nessie, is a creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or mor ...

Ushi-Oni The , or gyūki, is a yōkai from the folklore of western Japan. The folklore describes more than one kind of ''ushi-oni'', but the depiction of a bovine-headed monster occurs in most. ''Ushi-oni'' generally appear on beaches and attack people ...

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

* Qilin * Shisa * Sphinx * Roc *

Unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

Timingila The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruks ...

* Yeti * Ziz

References

{{Fantasy fiction Mythological archetypes