Ok, this had nothing to do with fishing, but I toss in a few comments of my own. There is a creature known from the recent fossil record (in China I believe) known as Gigantopithicus. It was a large biped primate that lived in mountainous conditions. Often believed to be the source of the legend of the Yeti (either because it was seen in person or more likely the bones were found and legends made from it). Native american lore of the west has some pretty old tales of the Sasquatch (Bigfoot). Perhaps the legend stemmed from bones found as well. Asian legends of dragons probably originated from the discovery of dinosaur bones, long necked sauropods (brontosaurus for example) surrounded by carnivore teeth. Thus a long necked critter with sharp teeth. Some Chinese markets still refer to ground dinosur bone as "Dragon". It is possible that the large primate survived into the modern era, after all there was a Native American found (alive) in the hills of CA (in either the 30's or 40's) who was the last of a stone age tribe that all of the gold prospectors in the previous century working in CA never saw or reported existing.

Who knows...fun to speculate though