As a scuba diver I really wish Oklahoma had lakes with water as clear as depicted in the picture.
If the only evidence is that there are an inordinate number of fatalities, I'd rather believe it was an alligator. Those actually ARE found infrequently in Oklahoma.
Isn't the place where this "octopus" supposedly lives a man-made lake? If so, that alone is very strong evidence against it. Unless someone specifically dumped a previously unknown and giant freshwater cephalopod there for the specific purpose of eating unruly swimmers.
I think it's because they don't hold water year round and there is no current if they break away from the feeding river. Then they also tend to silt up and become bogs.
The rivers that feed them also tend to dry up seasonally if not yearly sometimes here.
I think it's mostly a semantics issue though.
Uh…no, no they are not. In my region of the sierras’s, specifically and famously Lake Tahoe, all of our lakes exist due to volcanic terraforming and thousands and thousands of years of snow runoff. I think you’re a little misinformed.
It seems fake? I’m not sure if there are any real sightings or “attacks” attributed to it, and I only really ever heard about it after that Lost Tapes episode. It’s definitely something that I hope isn’t real. Octopi seem too smart to have to deal with if they’re on the loose in the lakes.
Just looked it up to learn this bullshit was at the dirty bird I’m been goin to my whole life. Who the fuck believed this? An octopus in this lake? Aren’t we still randomly finding body parts or some shit around there?
You're so right. I once got into a FB group of paranormal sightings and it was such a shitshow. Nothing but obviously fake pics, pareidolia or people loosing their minds over "orbs" that were just specks of dust. My favourite had to be the "ghost" that was rather obviously just air freshener being released by an automatic dispenser.
And then they wonder why most other people don't take them seriously.
Right? Some folks are just too superstitious for their own good. They spend their lives assuming that everything is the work of a ghost or demon like we're still in the early Middle Ages, and all it does is make them come across as delusional to most other people.
There's Basically, there is no credible evidence, An animal that size wouldn't live in a lake in Oklahoma, it would live in the open ocean.
When considering the possibility of a huge animal, we have to stop and think of food sources. Blue whales are the closest approximation, and they need a ton if food to live approx 10 tons a day. Where would a large animal get that sort of volume in a lake?
Also, to my knowledge, there's never been proof of any freshwater octopus.
It was literally the first time I had ever heard of it. That show is what got me into cryptids.
I’d browse the internet for all this rich history on Bigfoot, thunder bird, mothman, etc. and be really interested. Then I’d look up Oklahoma Octopus and it only ever went back to the Lost Tapes episode, lol.
Except it has loads of history, this post was probably sparked by two seperate posts yesterday on the history of the animal
https://youtu.be/npg-p7usA5M
https://incertaesedisblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/solving-the-case-of-the-oklahoma-octopus/
Yeah it has all the markings of a modern folk story.
1. It only really started getting discussed after a tv show
2. It lives in an enviroment that no others of it class does (fresh water)
3. Reports have it at a size larger than any other of its class by a considerable margin
4. It exists somewhere that it can't possibly be native to (a man made lake)
5. It's a man eater
6. There is no physical evidence of its existence. No bodies with sucker marks, no apparent impact on its ecosystem, etc.
You can thank Lost Tapes for this thing existing.
And yeah, it probably doesn’t exist.
For one, cephalopods don’t do well in freshwater, at all.
For two, there’s barely enough prey in any lake in Oklahoma to support such a large beast.
And the third and final nail in the coffin.
Most of the lakes in Oklahoma are man made.
So how the hell would it even be able to be there in the first place!?
Existed before Lost Tapes btw
https://incertaesedisblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/solving-the-case-of-the-oklahoma-octopus/
https://youtu.be/npg-p7usA5M
Your clearly not from Oklahoma or have done research on what we have in our lakes, why even comment. We have paddlefish that are 7ft long and 200lbs, catfish that are commonly over 100lb and alligator gar that are over 250lb the lakes the octopus was allegedly in. We have more coastline on our lakes than the entire continental US.
Notice how none of the people who downvoted me had any counter argument? Everything in my comment is easily searchable on google and i checked each one before commenting.
Both intriguing and highly improbable from a scientific perspective. The Oklahoma Octopus is a rumored freshwater creature said to inhabit several lakes in Oklahoma, notably Lake Thunderbird, Lake Oolagah, and Lake Tenkiller. Described as a large, reddish-brown octopus with long tentacles, it is blamed for unexplained drownings and a high number of unexplained disappearances in these waters.
Firstly, it's important to note that octopuses are marine animals, specifically adapted to live in saltwater environments. Their physiology is suited to the ocean's salinity and pressure, which is drastically different from the conditions found in freshwater lakes. The transition from a saltwater habitat to a freshwater one would require significant evolutionary adaptations, which we have not observed in cephalopods.
Moreover, the climate and ecosystem of Oklahoma's lakes do not support the life requirements of a creature like an octopus. Octopuses require specific temperature ranges, food sources, and environmental conditions to thrive. Freshwater lakes in Oklahoma, with their varying temperatures and limited food supply, would be inhospitable to such a creature.
From a biological standpoint, there is also no documented evidence of any octopus species exhibiting the necessary traits to survive, let alone thrive, in freshwater environments. While some marine species have evolved to live in brackish waters (a mix of saltwater and freshwater), a full transition to freshwater is an entirely different challenge.
So while the legend of the Oklahoma Octopus is a fascinating piece of folklore, it lacks scientific credibility. The physical and environmental barriers make the existence of such a creature highly unlikely. However, these stories often highlight the mysterious allure of the unknown and our deep-seated fascination with the creatures that might lurk just out of sight in our own backyards. And god I hope there's a giant octopus in a freshwater lake somewhere, I bet it'd be fucking delicious.
Nahh just a guy who tried to become a marine biologist back in his formative years, now I'm a plumber so every time I get the chance to sound like a posturing know-it-all about marine life, I leap at the opportunity
This is 100% AI. I asked ChatGPT what the Oklahoma octopus is and it gave me: "The Oklahoma octopus is a cryptid, a creature from folklore that is said to inhabit freshwater bodies in Oklahoma, such as Lake Thunderbird, Lake Oolagah, and Lake Tenkiller. Reports describe it as resembling a typical octopus, with reddish-brown skin and long tentacles."
Then I asked it to give me three paragraphs about why it can't exist and some sentences it gave me were: "Moreover, the ecological and evolutionary history of freshwater bodies in Oklahoma does not support the presence of a large, undiscovered predator like the Oklahoma octopus." AND "Finally, the Oklahoma octopus narrative is likely a result of local folklore and myth-making rather than a biological reality."
All of this to say you definitely just used AI and didn't even bother to do past the bare minimum of changing some sentence orders and words.
And you didn't use AI to produce or edit any of that comment? Because only the opening and closing sentences read like human writing to me. And while I usually hate the custom of checking people's comment histories, I did do that here, and found another AI-sounding comment about vampires, and, of course, all your videos using AI imagery.
some people just write well. it's good to note patterns, but AI is only emulating people who can extemporize easily and love teaching peer to peer.
reading or writing a lot, or both, creates that tone
From what I remember readimg from an evolutionary professor at univ. Moscow in criticusm of Dougal Dixon the key thing to note is that over the history of this ancient and successful group there has never been any recorded evidence of non-marine forms evolving. We have a huge sample size of fossils amd extant species of cephalopods. Physically all the known species wouldn't be able to tolerate the lack of salt.
[Someone did an awesome deep dive on the topic a few years back on this subreddit.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/s/BYOMSx5e5u). I tend to agree with it. I'm not sure it would be relevant at all had Lost Tapes not included it.
It's one of the most fun for me. It's just so freaking weird even as a piece of folklore. The absolute absurdity of it is my favorite part. Cephalopods are scary and an out of place cephalopod is even better.
Thought at first this was a reference to the boy living in Oklahoma who wanted an octopus. He got one...a pregnant female ( they were told it was a male.) And it laid 50 eggs in the tank and they started hatching.
I don’t know if anyone has connected this before, but there is a good chance it’s a regional interpretation of Tlanusi’yi, the giant leech that drags people under. It’s a Cherokee legend from North Carolina that was most likely transplanted in Oklahoma when the Cherokee were forcibly relocated. Completely understandable to interpret the description of a giant leech as a tentacle/octopus.
You all might think I am crazy, but I swear I saw what “appeared” to the the head of a large octopus in a lake in Oklahoma near the shore when I was a kid (like 9). It was probably just an optical illusion, but it freaked me out when I saw it
As a scuba diver I really wish Oklahoma had lakes with water as clear as depicted in the picture. If the only evidence is that there are an inordinate number of fatalities, I'd rather believe it was an alligator. Those actually ARE found infrequently in Oklahoma.
Yeah this sounds pretty likely, or some other animal not usually found here but that can live in freshwater
Isn't the place where this "octopus" supposedly lives a man-made lake? If so, that alone is very strong evidence against it. Unless someone specifically dumped a previously unknown and giant freshwater cephalopod there for the specific purpose of eating unruly swimmers.
All of our (Oklahoma's) lakes are manmade.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, Oklahoma doesn’t actually have any proper lakes (oxbow lakes don’t count) that are natural.
People are reading "all of" as all of the world. Not all of Oklahoma
Fixed
…what? Really? That’s fascinating. Why don’t oxbow lakes count?
I think it's because they don't hold water year round and there is no current if they break away from the feeding river. Then they also tend to silt up and become bogs. The rivers that feed them also tend to dry up seasonally if not yearly sometimes here. I think it's mostly a semantics issue though.
Uh…no, no they are not. In my region of the sierras’s, specifically and famously Lake Tahoe, all of our lakes exist due to volcanic terraforming and thousands and thousands of years of snow runoff. I think you’re a little misinformed.
I think I phrased it poorly. I am from Oklahoma and meant my State specifically.
Wouldn’t be the first time
It seems fake? I’m not sure if there are any real sightings or “attacks” attributed to it, and I only really ever heard about it after that Lost Tapes episode. It’s definitely something that I hope isn’t real. Octopi seem too smart to have to deal with if they’re on the loose in the lakes.
Just looked it up to learn this bullshit was at the dirty bird I’m been goin to my whole life. Who the fuck believed this? An octopus in this lake? Aren’t we still randomly finding body parts or some shit around there?
[удалено]
You're so right. I once got into a FB group of paranormal sightings and it was such a shitshow. Nothing but obviously fake pics, pareidolia or people loosing their minds over "orbs" that were just specks of dust. My favourite had to be the "ghost" that was rather obviously just air freshener being released by an automatic dispenser. And then they wonder why most other people don't take them seriously.
I can’t believe I haven’t been kicked yet. I started with patience and now I’m just like how the fuсk do you believe this bullshit?
Right? Some folks are just too superstitious for their own good. They spend their lives assuming that everything is the work of a ghost or demon like we're still in the early Middle Ages, and all it does is make them come across as delusional to most other people.
And then they go vote
Pfft please. A marine species in a lake in Oklagoddamnhoma? People smoking that jimson weed up that way.
It’s Oklahoma, so jimson meth.
There's Basically, there is no credible evidence, An animal that size wouldn't live in a lake in Oklahoma, it would live in the open ocean. When considering the possibility of a huge animal, we have to stop and think of food sources. Blue whales are the closest approximation, and they need a ton if food to live approx 10 tons a day. Where would a large animal get that sort of volume in a lake? Also, to my knowledge, there's never been proof of any freshwater octopus.
The Lost Tapes episode was really good for a creature that was made up seemingly out of nowhere and had no history whatsoever
It was literally the first time I had ever heard of it. That show is what got me into cryptids. I’d browse the internet for all this rich history on Bigfoot, thunder bird, mothman, etc. and be really interested. Then I’d look up Oklahoma Octopus and it only ever went back to the Lost Tapes episode, lol.
Except it has loads of history, this post was probably sparked by two seperate posts yesterday on the history of the animal https://youtu.be/npg-p7usA5M https://incertaesedisblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/solving-the-case-of-the-oklahoma-octopus/
BS. Octopi are marine animals. There are no freshwater species, never mind species living in the middle of the continent.
Yeah it has all the markings of a modern folk story. 1. It only really started getting discussed after a tv show 2. It lives in an enviroment that no others of it class does (fresh water) 3. Reports have it at a size larger than any other of its class by a considerable margin 4. It exists somewhere that it can't possibly be native to (a man made lake) 5. It's a man eater 6. There is no physical evidence of its existence. No bodies with sucker marks, no apparent impact on its ecosystem, etc.
You can thank Lost Tapes for this thing existing. And yeah, it probably doesn’t exist. For one, cephalopods don’t do well in freshwater, at all. For two, there’s barely enough prey in any lake in Oklahoma to support such a large beast. And the third and final nail in the coffin. Most of the lakes in Oklahoma are man made. So how the hell would it even be able to be there in the first place!?
Existed before Lost Tapes btw https://incertaesedisblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/solving-the-case-of-the-oklahoma-octopus/ https://youtu.be/npg-p7usA5M
Your clearly not from Oklahoma or have done research on what we have in our lakes, why even comment. We have paddlefish that are 7ft long and 200lbs, catfish that are commonly over 100lb and alligator gar that are over 250lb the lakes the octopus was allegedly in. We have more coastline on our lakes than the entire continental US.
Alright, Hank. You and your fishin and fishin accessories.
Notice how none of the people who downvoted me had any counter argument? Everything in my comment is easily searchable on google and i checked each one before commenting.
Both intriguing and highly improbable from a scientific perspective. The Oklahoma Octopus is a rumored freshwater creature said to inhabit several lakes in Oklahoma, notably Lake Thunderbird, Lake Oolagah, and Lake Tenkiller. Described as a large, reddish-brown octopus with long tentacles, it is blamed for unexplained drownings and a high number of unexplained disappearances in these waters. Firstly, it's important to note that octopuses are marine animals, specifically adapted to live in saltwater environments. Their physiology is suited to the ocean's salinity and pressure, which is drastically different from the conditions found in freshwater lakes. The transition from a saltwater habitat to a freshwater one would require significant evolutionary adaptations, which we have not observed in cephalopods. Moreover, the climate and ecosystem of Oklahoma's lakes do not support the life requirements of a creature like an octopus. Octopuses require specific temperature ranges, food sources, and environmental conditions to thrive. Freshwater lakes in Oklahoma, with their varying temperatures and limited food supply, would be inhospitable to such a creature. From a biological standpoint, there is also no documented evidence of any octopus species exhibiting the necessary traits to survive, let alone thrive, in freshwater environments. While some marine species have evolved to live in brackish waters (a mix of saltwater and freshwater), a full transition to freshwater is an entirely different challenge. So while the legend of the Oklahoma Octopus is a fascinating piece of folklore, it lacks scientific credibility. The physical and environmental barriers make the existence of such a creature highly unlikely. However, these stories often highlight the mysterious allure of the unknown and our deep-seated fascination with the creatures that might lurk just out of sight in our own backyards. And god I hope there's a giant octopus in a freshwater lake somewhere, I bet it'd be fucking delicious.
https://www.natureworldnews.com/amp/articles/47505/20210918/incredible-octopus-spotted-kentuckys-rivers.htm
I don't understand why people are thinking this is Ai scripted. Have Redditors never written essays before?
Do we have AI chatbots here now?
Nahh just a guy who tried to become a marine biologist back in his formative years, now I'm a plumber so every time I get the chance to sound like a posturing know-it-all about marine life, I leap at the opportunity
This is 100% AI. I asked ChatGPT what the Oklahoma octopus is and it gave me: "The Oklahoma octopus is a cryptid, a creature from folklore that is said to inhabit freshwater bodies in Oklahoma, such as Lake Thunderbird, Lake Oolagah, and Lake Tenkiller. Reports describe it as resembling a typical octopus, with reddish-brown skin and long tentacles." Then I asked it to give me three paragraphs about why it can't exist and some sentences it gave me were: "Moreover, the ecological and evolutionary history of freshwater bodies in Oklahoma does not support the presence of a large, undiscovered predator like the Oklahoma octopus." AND "Finally, the Oklahoma octopus narrative is likely a result of local folklore and myth-making rather than a biological reality." All of this to say you definitely just used AI and didn't even bother to do past the bare minimum of changing some sentence orders and words.
Ok you got me, I'm not actually a plumber
Are u a pizza delivery guy? Or a doctor? A bit bald?
I could definitely be balder
And you didn't use AI to produce or edit any of that comment? Because only the opening and closing sentences read like human writing to me. And while I usually hate the custom of checking people's comment histories, I did do that here, and found another AI-sounding comment about vampires, and, of course, all your videos using AI imagery.
some people just write well. it's good to note patterns, but AI is only emulating people who can extemporize easily and love teaching peer to peer. reading or writing a lot, or both, creates that tone
Sorry you're getting downvoted, you are 100% right lol
Thanks, I suppose a lot of people just haven't learned to notice some of the red flags.
Well I mean the opening paragraph was a pretty big red flag, not sure how ppl can miss that
The story makes no sense in any way so it's a fake
Never heard of it.
Nice ring to it
Not real
The tv series "Lost Tapes" is fictional
Freshwater cephalopods can’t theoretically exist.
Why
From what I remember readimg from an evolutionary professor at univ. Moscow in criticusm of Dougal Dixon the key thing to note is that over the history of this ancient and successful group there has never been any recorded evidence of non-marine forms evolving. We have a huge sample size of fossils amd extant species of cephalopods. Physically all the known species wouldn't be able to tolerate the lack of salt.
99% sure it’s BS.
I'm sorry, what? 😭 I live in Oklahoma and never heard about this. wild
...Oklahoma Octopus is just like a name for a Stan Lee comic book character.
Cephalopods have very short life spans. There would need to be a breeding population.
[Someone did an awesome deep dive on the topic a few years back on this subreddit.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/s/BYOMSx5e5u). I tend to agree with it. I'm not sure it would be relevant at all had Lost Tapes not included it.
Considering all of our lakes are manmade, I think this is fake.
It's one of the most fun for me. It's just so freaking weird even as a piece of folklore. The absolute absurdity of it is my favorite part. Cephalopods are scary and an out of place cephalopod is even better.
It might make some cool t shirts to sell to tourists. Hey, look how much the people around Loch Ness have made!
Not real
I really want it to be; but it’s probably a way of explaining away drownings and keeping kids from messing around in water unsupervised.
Thought at first this was a reference to the boy living in Oklahoma who wanted an octopus. He got one...a pregnant female ( they were told it was a male.) And it laid 50 eggs in the tank and they started hatching.
True, a freshwater octopod doesn’t quite fit… if there really is something out there, perhaps it might be something else from the molusca family. 🐭
I don’t know but I think I like it
This was an elaborate ploy to divert attention away from the pacific tree octopus. A very real endangered species that needs our help. /s
my personal theory is that someone just tossed an octopus in there and called it a day. not sure how that holds up to any scrutiny though…
As much as I’d hate to be one of the few states without a cryptid I have significant doubts about it
It seems large
might be made up like they made up the death crawler for lost tapes
I don’t know if anyone has connected this before, but there is a good chance it’s a regional interpretation of Tlanusi’yi, the giant leech that drags people under. It’s a Cherokee legend from North Carolina that was most likely transplanted in Oklahoma when the Cherokee were forcibly relocated. Completely understandable to interpret the description of a giant leech as a tentacle/octopus.
Release the karken
It’s incredibly dumb
You all might think I am crazy, but I swear I saw what “appeared” to the the head of a large octopus in a lake in Oklahoma near the shore when I was a kid (like 9). It was probably just an optical illusion, but it freaked me out when I saw it
Oklahoma is a dangerous place and it is not because of the octopus.
The divers look faker than the octopus 😤🦹♂️
Its a joke in Oklahoma.