Cryptozoology and Prehistoric Creatures

The Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) For many years fossil evidence collected and studied by palaeontologist around the world, had caused them to conclude and universally agree, that the Coelacanth (a prehistoric fish) had gone extinct approximately 70 million years ago. Around 375 million years ago, the coelacanth and lungfish genus were among the first species to develop limbs and crawl from the sea to become terrestrial vertebrates. In many regards they are our very ancient ancestors. In 1938 a startling discovery reverberated across the global scientific community that turned conventional wisdom upside down. A living coelacanth was caught in the seas just off of the South Africa coast. This event spawned a widespread search effort across the entire scientific community, as well as the commercial sector (reward potential). In the early 1960’s a small population of coelacanth were discovered off the coast of the Comores Islands northwest of Madagascar. Found living at a depth of 650 – 1,650 feet they were thought to be the only survivors of this prehistoric species. In September of 1998, however, a postdoctoral student (Mark Erdmann) announced that he had discovered two coelacanths off of a small island at the tip of northeastern Sulawesi which is nearly 6,214 miles from the site of the Comores Islands discovery. Additional research on this discovery has indicated that the Sulawesi coelacanths were likely separated from the other population about 6 million years ago. Genetically, they may also be a distinct coelacanth species.

Living Dinosaurs Indigenous encounters, so far unproven. While there is no convincing evidence that dinosaurs (except birds) have survived into modern times, there is some level of concurrence that it would be (theoretically) possible for them to survive in a in a warm and stable equatorial environment. The biggest challenge to this theoretical position is that no fossilized evidence has ever been found that would suggest that any species of dinosaur survived past the Cretaceous or most certainly not the Cenozoic period. This of course, represents a huge time-gap between the generally accepted period of extinction for the dinosaur and the present era. As a result of this lack of hard evidence, the scientific community considers the current existence of any dinosaur to be highly unlikely. If we temporarily suspend judgment on the time-gap question, the key to the survival 'based-on climate-stability’ theory is that the climate of the environment would have to remain relatively constant for the last fifty to sixty million years. That being said, there are two regions of the world that have a reasonably long history of climate stability, equatorial Africa and equatorial South America. Interestingly, both areas also have a long history of indigenous peoples recounting encounters with creatures resembling dinosaurs. These encounters are communicated through eyewitness accounts, native sagas and traditional folk art. The most frequent reported (alleged) sightings of dinosaurs come out of the rainforest regions of the Congo, Cameroon, and Gabon. In these African accounts, a creature resembling a sauropod (the largest species of dinosaur to ever walk the earth) is fairly well described. Eyewitnesses describe the creature as being as much as 30 feet long, a reddish-brown color, with a very long neck and tail. They described the body size as rounded and similar in size to an elephant. Physical evidence, such as tracks, indicate a large round foot with three claws. The animal is said to live in and under the water most times and is always encountered around swampy areas near deep pools of water or rivers. It appears to be a herbivore, but has been reported to kill hippopotamus on sight, however, it never eats them. It has also been reported to attack and overturn boats that it come into its territory. The creature is called Mokele-mbembe by the local inhabitants, and when asked to draw a picture of the creature, they always draw something that resembles a sauropod dinosaur. When shown a picture of a sauropod dinosaur, they say, "yes that is Mokele-mbembe." The translation of Mokele-mbembe is "One that stops the flow of rivers." The most recent reported sighting was in April of 2000 on the Boumba River in Cameroon. The two witnesses were Congolese Security Police officers. Perhaps the next sighting will be captured on video?


Articles by: Dr. Von Zuko 2007©