People have been drawn to stories about exotic animals throughout our history. The further you go back in that history, the less likely those stories were accurate. Here is a gorgeous compendium of illustrations showing how people imagined real animals they had only heard about.

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Crocodiles from Liber Floridus (Book of Flowers), an encyclopedia by Lambert, Canon of Saint-Omer between 1090 and 1120.

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(via Erik Kwakkel)

Animals from the Rochester Bestiary, c. 1225-1250

A crocodile:


Elephants:


Lions and other animals:


A lion:


A colorful panther:


A crocodile from the Northumberland Bestiary, fol. 49v, mid-1250s


An elephant from the 13th century, by Guillaume le Clerc


An elephant from Italy, c. 1440


(via British Library)

Lions from the Ashmole Bestiary (f.10v), 1511


A whale from Adriaen Coenen's Visboek (Fish Book), 1560s


(via Koninklijke Bibliotheek)

An elephant and a giraffe by Noè Bianco, 1568


(via NYPL Digital Library)

The History of Four-Booted Beasts and Serpents, by Edward Topsell, 1658


A beaver:


A dromedary:


(via University of Houston Digital Library)

A history of the Earth and animated nature, by Oliver Goldsmith, 1825

A hippo:


Seals:


Lions:


(via Biodiversity Heritage Library)

A striped hyena, by Aloys Zötl, 1831


Gibbons, by Aloys Zötl, 1833


The Hoolock Gibbons, by Aloys Zötl, 1835


The Cheetah, by Aloys Zötl, 1837


A rhinoceros, by Aloys Zötl, 1861


A sea turtle, by Aloys Zötl, 1867


A walrus, by Aloys Zötl, 1879


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(via Wikimedia Commons 1 –2 and British Library)