You used to sea them, now you don't

OK, sometimes my puns are lame. Usually they are lame, to be honest.

Sea Monsters!

Today’s header slideshow looks at sea monsters from the 16th and 17th century, some terrifying, some adorable, some baffling. The sea was a pretty weird place back in the day, man. I don’t know about you, but my favorite is the sea pig. I also really like the sea elephant.

I got these images from all over the place, so I’m sharing the various links here. That way you can click on them and read about them a bit if you’d like

Smithsonian, " the Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps," via the Wayback Machine (currently available page weirdly broken)

British Museum: The 'Gazi' Scroll

Wikipedia: The Sea Serpant

Strange Science, "Sea Monsters"

Wikipedia: Genoese Map

Wikipedia: Book of Treasures

Duke University, Dante’s Library: "Dante’s Teacher: Brunetto Latini, Trésor"

And finally, here’s a delightful little lecture from The Library of Congress’ YouTube page: