(March 14) - Suspicious images that emerged last month showing what some believed to be a legendary giant snake in Borneo have been proven to be fakes.
The Daily Mail reported that the image below had sparked local villagers' fears that the mythical Nabau, a 100-foot-long serpent, had returned. But online investigators tracked down the real photo, identical to the image that created a frenzy but without the serpent figure.
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Scientific American talked to a Kansas librarian who was one of many to reveal the hoax. Nathan Chadwick explained that by using the reverse search engine TinEye, which crawls the Web for pixels that match an uploaded image, he was able to locate the original photo. According to many Web sites, the original image shows the Congo River in Africa, not the Baleh River in Borneo.
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A second photo that the Daily Mail included in its story was actually found to be an image that was entered in a 2002 hoax contest.
When AOL posted an earlier story about the photos and questions over their authenticity, 55 percent of those answering a poll said they believed the images did in fact show a 100-foot-long snake.
It would appear the Borneo monster is just a myth, but there are some giant creatures who share our world. Click through the photos below to see some of the recent ones discovered.
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Giant Creatures
World's Tallest Dog: The harlequin Great Dane has to make do without one of his giant legs. Gibson, photographed here with his owner in 2005, is battling bone cancer and veterinarians had to amputate his right front limb. The dog, who lives in Grass Valley, Calif., is a certified therapy dog and is expected to return to work visiting ill patients and veterans.
Sophia Hall / AP
Sophia Hall / AP
