Dude, the GORILLA was once a cryptid. It was considered just a tall tale told by supersticious locals in Africa.

That's the thing about cryptids: There is not sufficient evidence for their existance, so they are not considered proven to exist. But they CAN be proven to exist. Just like the gorilla or the platypus, the right moment to start believing is somewhere around the time someone goes out there comes back and plops a dead specimen on a university dissection table. At that point scientists go like "well huh! I guess they exist after all." and go about re-writing the bestiaries.

Claims require evidence. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. But if such evidence is provided, nobody has any issues believing in them
.