Shown Their Work / The Secret Saturdays

Yeah, it's a real thing.

Word of God says that a list of 500 real-life cryptids, mythological creatures, and prehistoric animals was compiled in preparation for this show. It's not hard to believe.

Not only that, but the creator is a self-professed lover of all things pseudoscience, mythology, and ancient history, and as a result, The Secret Saturdays is chock-full of references to historical sites, to pseudo-scientific concepts, and, of course, to cryptids. So many cryptids.

General

• "Kur" in Sumerian references a great many things, including the Underworld itself. At the time the show was created, it was also believed to be the name of the first mythological dragon, often depicted as serpentine.
  • Kur's tomb is a reference to the Koh Ker archaeological site (the Field Guide lists the tomb's name as the Kohker Temple), a temple dedicated to Shiva, a Hindu deity that destroys the world. Of his symbols, one is a cobra around his neck, which references him control over all the animals on earth, and the other is a trident, which bears an enormous visual similarity to the divining rod that Fiskerton's lemurian instincts compel him to create. All in all, the connotations of the real-life mythologies Kur references paint the picture of something that's very bad news.
• Drew's fire sword is a khadga in the design of the one wielded by Manjushri, boddhisattva of insight and wisdom. His sword specifically represents transcendent wisdom that cuts down ignorance and duality. Makes sense, as it was gifted to her by Buddhist Tibetan monks.
• Komodo dragons were once considered cryptids in the early 1900s.
• For all the Artistic License – Biology the show has taken, Zon is actually the correct size for her genus, Tropeognathus, and since pterosaurs had pycnofibres, her crest may be made of pycnofibres. She's also mainly quadrupedal, just like real-life pterosaurs.
  • The show even avoids Misplaced Wildlife - Zon's species would have lived in what became modern-day South America, which is where they found her.
• Paul Cheechoo's glasses are a pair of traditional Inuit snow goggles/sunglasses, referencing his First Nations origin.
• Kumari Kandam is a mythical lost continent that would have connected India, Madagascar, and Australia.
  • In real life, Lemuria is actually an alternate name for Kumari Kandam, although both are referenced in the show.
• The Methuselah tree that the Hassi guard is the name of the oldest tree in the world. In real life, it's had its location hidden in order to keep it safe from vandalism.
  • The Methuselah's reworking into a World Tree may be a reference to the Zamzam Well, a mythical water source said to originate from God in Islamic tradition.
• The scroll Wadi finds in the desert is probably a nod to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
• The Mondays come from the dimension within Tetzcatlipoca's smoke mirror - the "Smoking Mirror" being one of Tetzcatlipoca's epithets. Their world is gloomy and dark, which is a reference to how Tetzcatlipoca's stint as the world's sun was a failure - Tetzcatlipoca's sun was black and only gave off half the light of our current sun.
  • The Monday world is stated to be made of antimatter. Antimatter and matter do not get along, although the show takes some Artistic License – Physics in making reality fall apart - what actually happens when matter collides with antimatter is that it explodes, all the mass converted into energy. Kind of like what happened when Argost absorbed regular Kur while harboring antimatter Kur at the end of the show.
  • The mirror itself is made of polished obsidian, as Aztec mirrors actually were.
• EVP (short for electronic voice phenomenon) is an actual phenomenon associated with ghosts, in which ghosts are said to speak through electronic recordings. Ghost hunters actually use it as a technique to communicate with spirits of the deceased and to investigate hauntings.
• The naga are seen shooting fireballs up out of the river, a reference to the Mekong naga fireball phenomenon.
  • The naga's sworn enemies, the Legion of Garuda are named after Garuda, the King of the Birds in Indian mythology, who like them was a fierce enemy of the naga.
• Tsul'Kalu is a Cherokee mythological figure known as "The Great Lord of the Game."
  • The Judaculla rocks he guards in the show are sacred objects to the Cherokee.
• When Argost absconds with Zak, he runs off to Inaccessible Island. Inaccessible Island, as it turns out, is a real place — it's an extinct volcano island in the South Atlantic, ringed by sheer cliffs, which has been without permanent residents since 1873.

Specific Cryptids

• The Cameroon flashlight frog is based on the real-life cryptid, the flashlight frog, first written about by Karl Shuker in his 1997 book, From Flying Toads to Snakes With Wings. It's said to be a tree frog with a glowing nose and a tongue covered in toxic saliva, traits that both made it into the show.
• The Al-Qassim firecracker beetle appears to be a nod to bombardier beetles in real life, which are capable of spraying a toxic spray at predators that can reach up to 212° F (100° C).
• The tapire-iauara is based on a folkloric creature from the Amazon rainforest by the same name. It's said to protect the forest from humans and attack people in boats.
• Argost's Devonian annelids reference the Devonian period, 419.2 Mya - 358.9 Mya. "Annelid" refers to segmented worms.
• Argost's Nicaraguan blood-sucking vines are a reference to the vampire vine/devil's snare, a cryptid plant that can supposedly be found in the jungles of Nicaragua, which sucks the blood of any victim it touches.
• Argost's earthquake-causing beetles are probably based on a creature from Japanese mythology called the jinshin-mushi. However, the legendary creature is much vaster than the small insects that appear in the series, and is also said to be part-dragon.
• The hibagon is an actual cryptid from Japan that's traditionally described as the Japanese counterpart of Bigfoot.
• The amaroks are based on a creature from Greenland Inuit legend of the same name. Rather than the werewolf-like guardian beings seen in the show however, it's said to be a gigantic wolf that stalks the Arctic in search of humans hunting alone at night to devour.
• The Alkali Lake monster is an actual legend from Nebraska's Alkali Lake (also called Lake Walgren), which like its depiction in the series, is said to resemble a giant alligator and to possess a single horn on its snout.
• The cherufe are based on a race of volcano spirits from Chilean folklore that are often described as resembling giant bipedal reptiles. In the myths, they are attributed with causing volcanic eruptions and other geological events.
• The owlman is a cryptid from Cornwall described as very similar to The Mothman. Its red eyes are said to instil fear in those who see it rather than hypnotizing humans however.
• Atmospheric jellyfish are genuine unidentified flying objects that have been sighted across the world since the mid-twentieth century.
• The duwa is based on a cryptid known as the ropen, an alleged surviving pterosaur from Papua New Guinea said to feed on human carcasses (hence its association with the Underworld in the series) and to glow in the dark.
• The Honey Island swamp monster is an actual cryptid from Southern Louisiana said to resemble a hybrid of a chimp and an alligator. Its depiction in this series as a hybrid of other cryptids might be based on actual legends of its origins that claim the monster to be the improbable child of an escaped chimpanzee and a local alligator.
• The grootslang is based on a monster from South Africa folklore, which like the monster seen in the show, is said to resemble a monstrous hybrid of an elephant and a giant reptile.
• The lau catfish are based on a cryptid from South Sudan described as a giant serpent with tentacles on its face, which has led some cryptozoologists to speculate them to be an undiscovered species of catfish. Furthermore, the electrical abilities displayed by them are based on the real-life electric catfish of Africa's rivers and lakes.
• In "Target: Fiskerton", the villains use reports of a cryptid called Buratsche-ah-llgs in Switzerland to lure the Saturdays into a trap. While the one the Saturdays encounter turns out to be a robot, there really is such a cryptid in the real world, and is indeed said to be a amorphous, multi-eyed lake monster just like the one the Saturdays faced.
• Maltese tigers are an actual alleged genetic mutation of the South China tiger with blue fur.
• The allegewi are a race of cannibalistic giants described in the legends of the Iroquois in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.
• Hinqumemen is an obscure legend from Native Americans of British Columbia, Canada described as a monster made entirely of water that pretends to be a lake in order to claim victims.
• The ahuizotl is based on a monster from Aztec mythology of the same name that, like the creature in the show, is sometimes said to be a simian lake-dweller that possesses a hand at the end of its tail and feeds on human eyeballs.
• The Lake Van monster is an actual cryptid from Eastern Turkey's Lake Van, and like the semi-crocodilian monster seen in the show, it is said to resemble a mosasaur (and supposedly be one by some cryptozoologists).