List of megafauna in mythology and folklore

A giant animal in mythology is unusually large, either for their species or in relation to humans. The term giant carries some ambiguity; however, in mythology, definitions of what constitutes 'large' vary, with definitions ranging from 40 kg to 250 kg. At the upper, they may be further subdivided into small (250–500 kg), medium (500–1,000 kg) and large (over 1,000 kg). Megafauna often form one of the mythemes of a story. The narrative may revolve around a real animal or a primordial archetype of a gigantic creature, such as a dragon or the Midgard snake.

A Hydra. The 16th-century German illustration.