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| SEA-SERPENTS: "This great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein." Psalms 104: 24-26 We here at American Monsters decided to use the generally accepted phrase "Sea-Serpents" for this category because that is the first thing that most of us think of when considering the vast pantheon of unknown creatures that dwell in the deep, salt water seas and oceans of our world. That having been said this list will include all manner of beasts which have been reputed to live in the uncharted depths of our oceans. Covering over seventy percent of our planet's surface the Earth's oceans are an ever evolving enigma by which we are constantly surrounded and perpetually surprised. Approximately two-thirds of the Earth's population live within 50 miles of the coast, and almost half of the world's major metropolitan centers are situated around the tide-washed estuaries and river-mouths of these aquatic continents. The oceans have long been considered to be the fount of all life as we know it, and continue to serve as the primary source of nourishment and employment for the better part of our planet's population. Still, as it has often been said, we know more about the surface of that cold satellite hovering 400,000 miles above, then about the vast, life rich, depths of the deep blue. No one can deny that our oceans are teeming with life, most of which has probably never seen the light of day, but there can be little doubt - even among the most hard line and conservative of marine biologists - that the oceans also serve as home to some of the most astounding and mysterious animals this world has ever known... and, more likely than not, more than a few that we haven't even imagined yet. |