Monsters?

Last week KeY and I visited a museum in Annecy which had a display of monsters and chimeras - some really really strange creatures (the weirdest include a mongoose with a snake for a tail, a beaver that had a long, long ,long , flexible mouth, and a bird that had a tortoise shell. Like huge. encapsulating its main body. Really!)

I didn't think it was real, more like a joke played on the stupid visitors who can't speak french - then again, there was a platypus on display too... and I know how I'd react if you'd shown me an animal like that without background. It's either "Fraud!" or "Alchemy Transmutation!" (yes I'm a geek)

Today I'm feeling a bit less certain... After reading an article about the platypus, and one about a 26-foot 1000lb colossal (not giant) squid.

Maybe some of these things were real after all...