Real or legendary?

← Real 28

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  Axolotl ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This salamander from the lakes of Mexico City keeps its larval look all its life, gills included. It can regrow its legs and even part of its heart. In the wild, it is critically endangered.

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  Cat ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real, of course: cats have lived alongside humans for nearly 10,000 years. They probably moved closer to the first farming villages of the Middle East, drawn by the mice raiding the grain stores.

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  Dodo ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  It really existed! This flightless bird lived on Mauritius. It died out at the end of the 17th century, less than a hundred years after sailors arrived on the island with their ships and animals.

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  Komodo dragon ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Despite its name, it is very real. This monitor lizard from the Indonesian islands is the largest lizard in the world: it can grow to more than 3 metres and 70 kilos. Its venomous bite lets it bring down prey as big as a buffalo.

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  Griffon Vendéen ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Nothing to do with the mythical creature: the Griffon Vendéen is very real. It is a French breed of hunting dog with a rough, shaggy coat. There are several varieties, from the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen to the Grand Griffon.

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  Manatee ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This peaceful, plant-eating marine mammal grazes on seagrass in warm waters. In 1493, Christopher Columbus noted that he had seen three mermaids, far less beautiful than they were said to be: they were probably manatees.

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  Lion ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real. It lives mainly in Africa, and a small population survives in India, in the Gir Forest. It is the only big cat that lives in groups: a pride brings together several lionesses, their cubs and one or a few males.

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  Wolf ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real. Long gone from Britain, wolves have spread back across Europe and returned to France in 1992, crossing from Italy into the Mercantour National Park. Our dogs descend from wolves domesticated more than 15,000 years ago.

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  Tarantula ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! These big hairy spiders from warm regions look frightening, but most are not very dangerous to humans. Some South American species measure more than 25 centimetres across, legs included.

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  Platypus ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  It really exists! This Australian mammal has a duck's bill, lays eggs, and the male has a venomous spur. When the first specimen reached Britain, European scientists thought someone had stitched it together as a hoax.

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  Parrot ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! Some parrots, such as the African grey, can imitate hundreds of words. The most famous, Alex, studied for thirty years by an American researcher, could name colours and shapes and count up to six.

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  Octopus ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! The octopus has three hearts, blue blood and eight arms covered in suckers that can taste what they touch. It can open a jar, squeeze through a tiny hole and change colour in an instant.

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  Tardigrade ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real, even though it is less than a millimetre long. This "water bear" lives in mosses all over the world. Dried out, it survives extreme cold, radiation and even the vacuum of space, as an experiment in orbit showed in 2007.

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  Triceratops ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  It really existed: this plant-eating dinosaur lived in North America around 66 million years ago, just before the great extinction. It had three horns and a broad bony frill, and weighed as much as an elephant.

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  Okapi ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This relative of the giraffe, with zebra-striped legs, lives in the forests of the Congo. Long dismissed as an explorers' rumour, it was only described by science in 1901.

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  Narwhal ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This Arctic whale has a long spiral tusk that can be more than 2 metres long. In the Middle Ages, these tusks were sold for a fortune as genuine unicorn horns.

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  Pangolin ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! It is the only mammal covered in scales, made of keratin like our fingernails. When threatened, it rolls up into a ball like an artichoke. It is also one of the most trafficked mammals in the world.

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  Aye-aye ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This lemur from Madagascar taps on tree trunks with an extremely long, thin finger, listens for the echo, then pulls out the grubs hidden in the wood. On the island, it is seen as a bad omen.

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  Pink fairy armadillo ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This tiny armadillo from Argentina, the size of a hand, has a pale pink shell over silky white fur. It spends almost its whole life under the sand, which makes it very hard to observe.

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  Dumbo octopus ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This little deep-sea octopus owes its nickname to two fins that look like the ears of Disney's elephant. It lives as deep as almost 7,000 metres below the surface.

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  Coelacanth ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This fish was thought to have died out with the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago, until a live specimen was caught off South Africa in 1938. Its fleshy fins look rather like legs.

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  Oarfish ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! Nicknamed the "king of herrings", it is the longest bony fish in the world: it can grow to more than 8 metres. This silvery ribbon with a red crest is probably behind many sea serpent stories.

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  Naked mole-rat ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This pink, wrinkly rodent from East Africa lives underground in colonies around a queen, like bees. It can live for more than 30 years and almost never develops cancer.

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  Star-nosed mole ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This North American mole has a star of 22 pink tentacles at the tip of its nose, one of the most sensitive touch organs in the animal kingdom. It can find and swallow its prey in a flash.

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  Mantis shrimp ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This crustacean strikes its prey so fast that it can crack the glass of an aquarium. Its eyes have far more types of colour receptors than ours, making it one of the most sophisticated visual systems known.

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  Leafy seadragon ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This relative of the seahorse lives off the coast of Australia. Its body is covered in leaf-shaped growths that make it look like a piece of seaweed. As with seahorses, it is the male that carries the eggs.

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  Saiga ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This antelope from the steppes of Central Asia has a nose shaped like a small trunk, which filters out dust in summer and warms the freezing air in winter. It came close to extinction and is slowly recovering.

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  Shoebill ✓ Right ✗ Wrong

  Very real! This large bird from the swamps of East Africa has a huge bill shaped like a clog. It can stand still for hours before pouncing on a fish, and greets its fellow shoebills by clattering its bill.