Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

pigeon were

birds once

found in the

United States.

People killed

so many of

them that both

types became

extinct in

1914.

The Tasmanian wolf is an extinct animal.

The last members of the species died out in

the 1930s.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Animals, Extinct 127

 

Animals,

Legendary

Stories about unusual animals were

commonplace in earlier times. Such

animals are called legendary because

they exist only in these stories, or

legends. The stories were often based on

travelers’ reports of animals that were

unfamiliar to them. Some famous

legendary animals include the dragon,

various sea serpents, the unicorn, and

the phoenix. Even today some people

speak of having seen animals such as

the yeti, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness

monster.

The Dragon

The dragon was usually thought of as a

huge scaly lizard or snake that breathed

fire and had wings like a bat. In the

Middle Eastern world, the serpent or

dragon symbolized evil. In Christian art

the dragon came to stand for sin. In

China, however, the dragon is known as

a kind creature.

Sea Creatures

Sea serpents were supposed to be

enormous snakes, or huge creatures that

inhabited the deep sea. Sailors

throughout the ancient world reported

having seen such creatures. In

Norwegian sea folklore, the kraken was

a huge creature, part octopus and part

crab. Accounts of these creatures might

have been based on sightings of giant

squid, which can reach a length of 60

feet (18 meters).

Mermaids were also mythical sea creatures.

They were thought to have the

head and upper body of a woman and

the tail of a fish. Stories of mermaids

may have come from people who saw

water-dwelling mammals, such as the

dugong and manatee. These animals

feed their young in human fashion

A sculpture of a dragon decorates a tiled

wall in Beijing, China.

Mermaids have appeared in many stories,

including “The Little Mermaid” by Hans

Christian Andersen.

128 Animals, Legendary BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

above water and from afar may have

looked like a person.

The Unicorn

The unicorn was a mythological animal

with a single horn on its forehead. Its

body shape resembled a horse or a

young goat. The unicorn was referred to

in the ancient myths of India and

China. It appears in artwork from the

ancient civilization of Mesopotamia.

During the Middle Ages (about AD 500–

1500) artists from Europe, the Islamic

world, and China included the unicorn

in their artwork as well.

The Phoenix

Mythological creatures also have taken

the form of birds. A fabulous bird

known as the phoenix was associated

with the worship of the sun in ancient

Egypt. It was said to be as large as an

eagle, with brilliant scarlet and gold

feathers. Legend had it that only one

phoenix existed at any one time and

that it lived at least 500 years. As its

death approached, the phoenix made a

nest. It then set the nest on fire and

was consumed in the flames. A new

phoenix miraculously emerged from the

ashes.

Modern Creatures

Some people have claimed to have seen a

“monster” in Loch Ness, a lake in northern

Scotland. No one has ever proved

the monster’s existence, however.

More recent legendary creatures are the

Abominable Snowman and Bigfoot. The

Abominable Snowman, or yeti, is a

monster thought to live in the Himalayan

mountain range. Reports of the

monster are based mostly on mysterious

markings in the snow. Many people

think that the markings come from

bears. Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, has been

described as a large, hairy creature

resembling a human. It is believed by

some to exist in the northwestern

United States and western Canada.

Animation

Animation is the art and science of making

pictures, or images, appear to move.

Animated movies and television shows

are popular forms of entertainment.

There are two basic types of animation:

traditional animation and computer animation.

The mermaid

is not the only

legendary

creature with

a human head

and an animal

body. The centaur

has the

body of a

horse, and the

sphinx has the

body of a lion.

A tapestry made in the 1400s

shows a unicorn with a large

horn.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Animation 129

 

Traditional Animation

Movies and television shows made with

traditional animation are also called

cartoons. Teams of artists create them

one picture at a time.

Thousands of drawings are needed for

only a few minutes of animation. Each

drawing is a bit different from the one

before it. For example, to show a character

walking, the first drawing might

show the character with both feet on the

ground. The next drawing might show

the knee with a tiny bend and the foot

slightly off the ground. In the third

drawing, the knee might be bent more

and the foot might be a little farther off

the ground, and so on.

To save work and time, artists paint or

draw the moving parts of a scene on

sheets of clear plastic film. They place a

drawing of the parts of the scene that do

not move under the clear film. In this

way they do not need to redraw the

background in every picture.

Then filmmakers use a special camera to

take a picture of each drawing on its

background. Each of these pictures is

called a frame. The camera records the

frames one after another on long strips