Though there are few scientists that take this science seriously, there are plenty of reasons to pursue the study of it: there are plenty of examples of discoveries, such as the coelacanth, a prehistoric fish which was thought to be extinct for millions of years, until the day when a specimen was caught off the south coast of Africa in 1938. The okapi, a creature which looks half-horse, half-zebra, was discovered in 1901. Even the lowland gorilla was once dismissed as a simple legend, until it was discovered in 1847 (however, even after its discovery, it was also dismissed that another species of gorilla existed, until the mountain gorilla was discovered in 1902). Today, we continue to discover new animals, like the Java rhinoceros which was found in the late ‘90's. Furthermore, the Cape lion, supposedly extinct for 135 years, has been found in 2000. Again in 2000, on Friday, November 3rd, scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of squid, which had been caught by fishermen in Madrid, Spain. What most of these animals have in common, however, is that they have been discovered after rumours circulated during many years about their existence.

But scientists are still wary because hoaxes are not unheard of. Quite to the contrary, they're common enough. Although the following example is more in the anthropological field, it still clearly demonstrates what happened many times before: people were too sure of themselves and failed to investigate further on their "discovery".

After the discovery of a humanoid skull in 1912, it had been announced that it was the "missing link" in the evolution of man. Unfortunately, in 1953, the Piltdown Man (as it was known by then), had now been debunked as being a clever hoax: the cranium was that of a man, dating back to the medieval ages, and the jaw was that of an orangutan, a well known primate.

But even if hoaxes contribute to the lack of credit of cryptozoology, it does happen that some discoveries are not taken seriously; in fact, quite to the opposite of the story of the Piltdown Man! When furs and stuffed specimens of the duckbilled platypus were brought to England from Australia in 1798, scientists thought they were fake. No one believed that such a "monstrosity" could exist, and that these specimens were just the creative and ingenious creations of a taxidermist. This was the popular belief until Everard Jones, in 1802, dissected one of the stuffed specimens to conclude that they were indeed real.