Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or the Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor of folklore studies.
Oof. I went through a phase where I wanted to be one of these in middle school. I cringe every time I hear the word now.
I never considered cryptozoology to be a pseudoscience, since so many animals thought to be not real were then discovered to be real.
I guess after they found proof of all the big ones that used to be legends, they circled back around to "definitely not".
which is where people were before they found Komodo dragons and giant squids and gorillas.
okapis.
okapis and platypi can be forgiven, they don't even look real when you're staring at them.
but those are all subjects of cryptozoology that evidence found to be real.
All the animals you've mentioned here were well known for decades (even centuries) before the (pseudo)science of Cryptozoology was established in the 1950s.
It is absolutely pseudoscience. The only subjects of study are creatures that have no concrete evidence of existence. In the 75 years since the establishment of the 'discipline', no new species have been documented by cryptozoologists. Meanwhile, actual biologists discover (and more importantly document) hundreds of new animal species every year.
Even if some famous cryptid were to be proven to exist, it would immediately be no longer a cryptid. They're just animals, and would be studied by zoologists just like Komodo dragons are.
Cryptozoology is the study of unknown/legendary creatures that may be real.
following research and investigation, sometimes those creatures turn out to be real.
calling cryptozoology a pseudoscience is like calling chemistry a pseudoscience because you haven't figured out every chemical reaction yet.
Perhaps pseudoscience is too strong a word. It only becomes pseudoscience for me when it involves deception (such as portraying nonscientific narrative approaches as being motivated by the scientific method), but people have different bars for it
yea, that makes more sense.
I feel like "esoteric" field of science or the like makes a lot more sense.
While it's a small field that few serious scientists are devoted to, they used and use scientific methods to find a lot of animals previously thought to be myths.