Blogpost 7: Release the Kraken!

     Even on the ancient times, mysterious creatures lingered on Earth already. Due to massive amount of Oxygen and lesser amount of other gases, life on Earth was far more gigantic than what we see now. One of the gargantuan creatures that still remains in our sociological belief is the ever famous Kraken.

     A lot of movies featured the Kraken as something who causes destruction and chaos to the ancient life. This somehow fired the hope inside us to believe that earlier some time, these colossal creatures ruled the seas.But, what exactly is the reason why people are so drowned to this ancient sea creature? 

     I read a certain article entitled "Release the Kraken! 2,000 of tales (and a smattering of truth) " by Nate Anderson of arstechnica.com that explained the reason why Krakens are so influential even around our time. The author said that one thing that famed the creature is literature. a writer named Pliny the Elder wrote a story about the creature but those kinds of tales were not that popular until the Scandinavians turned the creature into something more terrifying. They are even included on monster books published around the world even though they existed a long time ago only. But as time goes by, these stories that entertained and made people believe about the Kraken soon vanished and people started questioning whether it is real or not. Anderson also said that, "Almost imperceptibly, however, the new scientific thinking was having an effect on kraken legends; even the authors of fantastic adventure stories soon raised questions about just how credible such accounts were."

      In every mystery, one of the major reasons why it became so famous is because of litearry works. A lot of people tend to believe that something impossible to be alive can somehow be living during the ancient times just because of words and the tale of the Kraken is not an exception. 

      But despite the questions arising, a lot of people still believes that Krakens onced existed beneath the oceans. The myth  that fed people regarding impossible creatures thirst our hunger. But that didn't satisfy them, As a result, a lot of scientist and paleontologist, dedicated their lives finding evidences and fossils of the Kraken.

     On a certain article I read entitled, "Kraken Rises: New Fossil Evidence revives sea monster debate" by Stephanie Pappas of livescience.com that reported new fossil evidences for Kraken were found by a paleontologist named Mark McMenamin who presented his finding on the 30th day of October 2013. McMenamin said that it was pure luck to find the evidences of the monster. But despite this, the issue regarding Kraken existence never gained widespread acceptance. Some said that the fossils found by McMenamin might've been caused by natural occurrences but he explained that the shape of the bones is such that there is virtually zero probability that currents could have nudged them into that arrangement. The author said commented, "A perfectly reasonable, pedestrian, coherant story emerges that doesn't require wholesale invention of what is unknown or unprecendented"

    

     Some say that believing in Kraken is not necessary because even if it is real, we would never see them again due to the fact that it lived during the ancient times but McMenamin never stopped on searching for the answer. It is hard for someone to give proof to something extinct because the only thing we can present are fracture of bones which is believed to be easily manipulated by someone determined.

     Even with these evidences presented by someone who dedicates his life just to prove that Kraken exist, it will still remain as one of the mysteries of the ancient and modern dogma. Just like any other other cases, unless there is no solid evidence presented, the existence will still be debated.