It is time to revisit the Burrunjor story. A new book has been put
out on the subject and the attached material is part of it. As I
posted a couple of years ago the northern part of Australia and Papua
New Guinea were connected to form an extensive rainforest in the
present day Carpentian Gulf up to the end of the Ice Age a mere
10,000 years ago.
We have gathered plenty of indicative evidence that this region was
realistically a refuge for remnants of the age of the dinosaur. Thus
finding a Theropod in Northern Australia is actually both plausible
and possible, particularly when a google search located a local
natural refuge.
This report brings things up to date and also includes additional
reports from the Four Corners and Chile.
It appears that such creatures are to be found, but obviously with
considerable difficulty and that a blanket extinction which appears
difficult anyway was ameliorated as could be expected by occasional
survivor populations. Been nocturnal or been tied to water is a
reasonable adaptation for a large reptile and likely allowed local
survivals to occur.
What I have discovered in studying local reports describing strange
creatures, it that it is important to determine to understand the
ecological niche occupied by the creature and to have that inform a
round of testable hypothesis. Knowing that Bigfoot is forest adapted
and we are not pretty well explains the type of interaction.
Understanding that a larger condor can roost on the ground and get
cover easily in any large evergreen pretty well gives that creature
as large a potential range as the Bigfoot with even less chance of
been seen. These are all ecological niches that we simply do not
exploit in the same way and the competition is slight.
Think niche and you are half way to solving the mystery.
Right now dinosaur survivors are out there but are nocturnal and
avoid the heat of the day and may in fact be water loving. I suspect
the the Burrunjor will turn out to be amphibian like its cousin the
Croc. Thus we can get occasional rare night sightings from surprised
witnesses.
KASAI REX,
BURRUNJOR, AND MINI-T-REX: EVIDENCE OF SURVIVING CARNIVOROUS
DINOSAURS? PART 2
BEWARE OF BURRUNJORS
IN THE BUSH
By Rex Gilroy
(This article is
composed of excerpts from Rex and Heather Gilroy's new Book Out of
the Dreamtime—The Search for Australasia's Unknown Animals).
Since long before the
coming of White Men, traditions have persisted among the Aboriginal
tribes of Australia's 'Red Centre' to the Gulf Country and Kimberley
region, of a ferocious giant reptilian carnivore that roams the
landscape day and night in search of food, both animal and human.
Known as "Burrunjor",
the mere mention of its name is often guaranteed to send a shiver
down the spine of any Aboriginal. Yet it is not only Aborigines who
claim to have seen these monsters, but also many Europeans, stockmen,
residents of remote cattle stations and 4-wheel drive travellers.
Burrunjor can best be
described as a huge, bipedal-walking reptilian monster. Tyrannosaurus
comes to mind, although some suggest a species of Iguanodon, due to
the description of long arms. Whatever Burrunjor is, it leaves huge
three-toed tracks behind it wherever it strides. This is significant,
because there have been suggestions that Burrunjor could be based
upon the "extinct" giant Australian monitor Lizard,
Megalania prisca, which reached up to 30ft (9.14m) and which was
almost the height reached by the Burrunjors claimed to be seen by
both Aborigines and Europeans.
Out of the
Dreamtime—The Search for Australasia's Unknown Animals contains
three chapters on the subject of giant monitor lizards, not just in
Australia, but throughout Australasia. Burrunjor is however,
something else, for while even a giant monitor might copy its smaller
relatives and occasionally adopt a bipedal stance and even to run
bipedally for a short distance, Burrunjor is said to maintain a
bipedal stance for considerable distances.
If indeed Burrunjor is
a surviving form of dinosaur, it belongs to the Theropods, a group of
reptilian bipeds that became extinct either millions or at least
thousands of years ago, depending on your scientific view of origins.
Perhaps Burrunjor is a "neodinosaur", that is a latter-day
offshoot from this group.
The sandhills and mesa
country of Queensland's north-west, south of the Gulf forestlands,
which extend into the Northern Territory, are fabled "Burrunjor
lands" to the Aboriginal tribes.
Yet it is only fair to
point out that, while Burrunjor appears to prefer the open spaces of
Australia's interior, none of these reptilian nightmares has ever
been reported to have harassed remote towns and villages. Why hasn't
someone shot one of these monsters by now?
Some believe these
monsters are from earth's geological past, periodically entering our
present-day through so-called "time windows". This
problematic theory could be used to explain all kinds of "extinct"
animals, both terrestrial and marine-dwellers, from Scotland's
"Nessie" to the Congo's Mokele mbembe, and other mysterious
creatures seen all over the world but never caught. However, I
propose to treat Burrunjor as a living "unknown" animal of
the Australian bush. Consider the following case-histories from the
Gilroys' new book…
Campfire stories
substantiating Aboriginal claims are commonplace across the far
north. Back in 1978, a Northern Territory bushman and explorer, Bryan
Clark, related a story that had taken place some years before. While
mustering cattle in the Urapunji area, he became lost in the remote
wilderness of that part of Arnhem Land. It took him three days to
find his way out of the region and back to the homestead from where
he originally set out.
He had not known at
the time, but his footprints had been picked up and followed by two
Aboriginal trackers and a mounted policeman. On the first night of
their search they camped on the outskirts of the Burrunjor scrub,
even though the two trackers protested strongly against doing so. The
policeman hobbled his horse, cooked their meal, then climbed into his
swag and went to sleep.
Old stories of the
mesa country say that one or more Burrunjor reptilian monsters would
emerge from this particular area as darkness fell, to raid cattle
stations, dragging off stock in their powerful jaws to devour,
leaving the remains scattered about the area of their huge tracks as
they returned to their lair. It is a region to avoid for Aborigines.
Later that night the
two Aborigines, shouting unintelligibly and grasping for their packs
and saddles, suddenly woke him up. The policeman also realized at
this moment that the ground appeared to be shaking. Hurriedly getting
to his feet, he too gathered up his belongings, and shortly
afterwards, the three galloped away. As he told Bryan Clark later at
the Urapunji homestead, he had also heard a sound, somewhat like a
loud puffing or grunting noise, certainly loud enough to be coming
from some large animal. When asked if he intended to include this
incident in his report, he replied he would not because he feared no
one would believe him.
The policeman warned
Bryan never again to return to that area, because if he got lost
there again he'd be "on his own", as no one would come
looking for him! The region's cave art, thousands of years old,
depicts these monstrous animals. Many Aborigines believe these
monsters wander back and forth across the Gulf country and Cape York
to this day.
[This
is way more activity than I had been led to believe. The creature as
expected is nocturnal and nicely avoids the heat of the day while out
hunting. More important, local stock men have learned to stay out of
its hunting range. This implies that setting up blinds and camera
stations will actually work very well around a bait station.]
Back in 1950,
cattlemen lost stock to some mysterious beast that left the
mutilated, half-eaten remains of cows and bulls in its wake over a
wide area, stretching between the border country and Burketown.
Searchers on horseback found huge reptilian tracks of some
bipedal-walking beast. They followed these three-toed tracks with
their cattle dogs through some rough jungle terrain until they
entered swampland beyond which was more dense scrub.
It was at this point
that the cattle dogs became uneasy and ran off. The horses were also
uneasy and obviously did not want to cross the swamp. While most of
the cattlemen decided their animals knew best, two men set off on
foot with their carbines.
The story goes that
they soon came across further tracks in an open area beyond the
swamp. While his mate searched about, the other man briefly spotted
the dark form of an enormous creature, perhaps 30-feet in height,
farther off in dense timber. The men left the scene in haste.
Johnny Mathews, a
part-Aboriginal tracker, claimed to have seen a 25-foot tall bipedal
reptilian monster, moving through scrub near lagoon Creek on the Gulf
coast one day in 1961. "Hardly anyone outside my own people
believes my story, but I known what I saw", he said in 1970.
In 1985 a 4-wheel
drive vehicle and its cargo of family travellers, the Askeys, heading
for Roper River Mission, happened to take a back road for some
sightseeing. Just as they were about to pull up and turn around to
resume their journey to the mission, they all saw, moving together
across an open plain some distance away, two bipedal-walking
reptilian creatures a good 20-feet tall respectively.
"The monsters
were a greyish-brown colour and dinosaur-like in appearance. We
didn't wait around", said the father, Mr Greg Askey.
[here
they are eyeballed in broad daylight pretty well eliminating
alternative explanations.]
During their recent
(July-August 2006) Central Australian investigation, Rex and Heather
Gilroy picked up a number of ancient Aboriginal myths and legends
concerning these reptilian monsters, but they also obtained many
claims of sightings made within the last few years by people over a
wide area of the interior.
AUSTRALIA'S
ABORIGINES...DID THEY SEE DINOSAURS?
by Rebecca Driver
Africa's Congo jungle
is becoming increasingly known as the reputed refuge of a mysterious
creature called Mokele-Mbembe. The locals appear familiar with this
creature, which they readily identify from drawings of fossil
reconstructions as being like one of the dinosaurs. Few realize,
however, that similar accounts occur in other parts of the world.
Australian Aborigines have stories of encounters with huge, sometimes
frightening monsters which range from what sound like dinosaurs to
giant marsupials, also believed to have long become extinct.
The Aboriginal People
The term 'Aboriginal'
is loosely applied to the people who were living in Australia at the
time of European settlement 200 years ago. There were hundreds of
different tribes scattered across the continent, varying in their
language and customs.
Dreamtime Monsters
The myths and legends
of the Aboriginal people, including their accounts of the creation of
the world, are known as the Dreamtime. Such stories feature monsters,
of whom many are mythological. Others, however, may have reference to
real creatures, the Aborigines even insisting on their past
'flesh-and-blood' existence. Some of them are reminiscent of animals
regarded as prehistoric, which supposedly became extinct tens of
thousands, or even millions of years ago.
Aborigines did not
keep written records—their knowledge and traditions were passed
orally from one generation to the next. Such oral traditions tend not
to last more than a few hundred years without being distorted out of
recognition. This would suggest that some of these animals may have
still been living in Australia some two to three hundred years ago,
or even more recently.
Such a conclusion may
surprise many, but it would explain why documented encounters with
similar monsters post-date the time of European settlement.
The Geelong Bunyip
For instance, the
Geelong Advertiser, of Victoria, Australia, reported in July 1845
about the finding of unfossilized bone forming part of the knee joint
of some gigantic animal. The paper reported showing it to an
Aboriginal they regarded as particularly intelligent. He identified
it immediately as a "bunyip" bone, and a lithograph drawing
of the creature was produced. In 1990, for a commemorative 150th
anniversary issue of the Advertiser, the graphic artist Kevin McNulty
sketched the picture reproduced below, based on the text from the
original newspaper report.
When the bone was
shown to other Aboriginal people who "had no opportunity of
communicating with each other," they all instantly recognized
the bone and the picture as being of a "bunyip", a common
word in some Aboriginal languages for a frightening monster. They
gave detailed, consistent accounts of where a few people they knew
had been killed by one of these. The creature was said to be
amphibious, laid eggs, and from the descriptions, appeared to combine
'the characteristics of a bird and an alligator"—i.e. a
bipedal reptile. (Note that no crocodiles or alligators are found in
Australia except in its far north—Geelong is deep in the south).
One of the Aboriginals, named Mumbowran, showed "several deep
wounds on his breast made by the claws of the animal." The
description and sketch certainly fits well with some form of bipedal
dinosaur.
A large number of
Aboriginal stories of creatures of possible dinosaurian origin have
been collected by Rex Gilroy, a cryptozoologist. Two of these,
Burrunjor and Kulta, the accounts of which appear below, are also
featured in a book by zoologist Karl Shuker.
BURRUNJOR
Extending from the
Northern Territory's Arnhem Land east through the Gulf of Carpentaria
to Queensland's Cape York district is the story of "Burrunjor."
The description is reminiscent of an Allosaurus, a smaller version of
the well-known Tyrannosaurus (or the recently discovered Utahraptor).
In 1950, cattlemen on the border between the Northern Territory and
Queensland claimed losing stock to a strange beast which left
mutilated, half-eaten corpses in its destructive wake. A
part-Aboriginal tracker also claimed to have seen a bipedal reptile,
7–8 metres (25 feet) tall, moving through the scrub near Lagoon
Creek on the Gulf Coast in 1961. In 1984, huge three-toed footprints
from a gigantic bipedal reptile were found near Narooma, New South
Wales. Rex Gilroy confirmed the find and made a plaster cast of one
of the tracks. The track was approximately 2 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet
long.
Some parts of northern
Australia's vastness are still little explored, and large areas of it
are closed to public access. Perhaps some creatures unknown to
science are still to be found there. That this is possible was shown
a few years back when a tree, the Wollemi Pine, was found in a
national park in New South Wales. Scientists said it was "like
finding a small dinosaur." The tree is known from its fossils in
"dinosaur age" rock, but these are not found in any of the
layers in between. Unlike an animal, a tree cannot run away and hide,
yet this tree was completely unknown to science till recently.
IN CONCLUSION
Australia's Aboriginal
heritage is rapidly being lost. Many of the Dreamtime stories still
recall events from their history, such as a great flood similar to
the one described in the Bible and in the writings of many other
ancient cultures. There are several traditions which suggest that the
ancestors of today's Aborigines may have had contact with the last
few dinosaurian survivors of a rapidly drying continent. The details
in the newspaper report of what seems to have been a bipedal dinosaur
at Geelong last century seems hard to discount.
The many Aboriginal
accounts—even if only a portion of them have a basis in
fact—together with the photographic evidence of ancient rock
drawings and carvings of what are obviously dinosaurs, contradict the
conventional mainstream belief system, which insists that no man has
ever seen anything like a dinosaur, since these supposedly died out
millions of years before man appeared.
DINOSAUR SIGHTINGS IN
CORTEZ COLORADO?
November 4, 2002
News Specialist John
Hollenhorst reporting
It's astounding -- if
it's true. But, is it true?
[I
have seen this tale before and is noteworthy as it again is nocturnal
ans in country that has been pretty stable for the duration. It is
were survivors could be found]
Recently, reports have
surfaced of several strange sightings of a bizarre "mystery
lizard." Witnesses in Colorado, near the Utah border, say
believe it or not, it looks like a small dinosaur!
Eyewitness reports can
be be problematic. Sometimes fraudulent. Often deeply mistaken.
ALWAYS incomplete. But, you simply have to hear what witnesses around
Cortez, Colorado are saying about the mystery lizard. Is something
out there? Is there something bizarre that shows itself only once in
a while to a few astounded human beings?
"It was a
Jurassic Park flashback. I mean I was—I couldn't believe it,"
says Shannon Ystesund.
Ystesund and a
girlfriend were driving down this road the night of July 5. She says
a creature ran in front of the headlights, a very big lizard,
nearly vertical, running on its hind legs.
"We were, you
know, freaked out. Immediately we thought it was some kind of
dinosaur or a huge lizard. So we came home," she says.
"They just walked
in and they were real excited and they said, 'we just saw a little
dinosaur run across the road,'" says Ystesund's husband, Keith.
"Looked like the
little dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that surrounded everybody in the
tall grass fields," says Shannon.
Another lady gives
only her first name, Bea, because she's been reluctant to go public
with her story.
"Yes, I have,
because people think you're nuts," Bea says. "Like a
miniature dinosaur, you know. That would be as close as I can come to
describing it. And I've never seen anything like it."
Independent researcher
Nick Sucik says he's collected eight such stories in the Four Corners
area. A mother and daughter told him they were driving down this road
a couple of years ago and saw a creature run through their
headlights.
"They were both stunned, and I asked 'how did you feel about
it?' They said they just burst out laughing hysterically because it
was the most absurd thing they'd ever seen," Sucik said.
It's tempting to give
it a cutesy name, like the "Rock Ness Monster", or the
"Lizard of Oz-some Proportions". But that's a little
off-target. It doesn't seem to be all that big. Three to
three-and-a-half feet high, witnesses say. Roughly five feet long
measured nose to tail. Sucik avoids using the d-word: "Dinosaur".
"I'm sure there's
got to be some sort of more plausible explanation for something like
this, and yet at the same time we're stumped as to what it could be,"
he says. "Sightings like this almost always turn out to be
something other than what folks think they are," says Scott
Sampson with the Utah Museum of Natural History.
Dinosaur expert
Sampson says there is something easily mistaken for a dinosaur.
"Birds are dinosaurs in the truest sense of the word."
Imagine a bigger version of this: perhaps an escaped Ostrich or Emu,
seen suddenly and briefly under poor viewing conditions.
"It could well be
a road-runner or some other kind of bird, and it could be a
perception, a distance problem making them look a little bit bigger
than they are," says Sampson.
Witnesses are emphatic
they didn't see a bird. Or feathers.
Jeff Thulin runs a
tourist stop called Reptile Reserve. He says he's heard the baby
dinosaur stories for years. He's skeptical but not ruling it out.
"I'd like to be
associated with a dinosaur. If someone could catch something, I'd pay
good money for it," Thulin says. The description does fit
foreign critters like the Monitor Lizard. And locally, the Collared
Lizard, although that's only just over a foot high.
The sightings date
back to the 1930s.
REPTOIDS SPOTTED IN
NORTHERN CHILE?
The Star (Iquique) 4
August 2004, Tranlation; Scott Corrales.
Strange creatures
described as "dinosaur-like" and standing 2 meters (6 feet,
6 inches) tall have been seen in recent weeks in Pampa Acha, a small
town 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the city of Arica in northern
Chile.
The two strange
creatures, described as small dinosaurs and with a physical
appearance similar to that of a kangaroo, were reported by the
occupants of a Terrano pickup truck between Iquique and Arica on
Thursday night, July 30, 2004.
The vehicle's driver,
Dario Riquelme, was traveling in the company of (Chilean) Army
official Hernan Cuevas, his wife and two young children. According to
his account, the situation which left the family rather nervous and
confused, took place at 9:30 p.m. that evening. It happened in the
Pampa Acha sector, only a few moments before passing the barrio
Presencias Tutelares, 17 kilometers south of Arica.
Riquelme and his party
left Iquique, just south of Chile's border with Peru, at 6 p.m. They
were only a few minutes away from Arica and were holding a normal
conversation when something strange darted in front of the vehicle.
"'My companion
said, 'Look at that tremendous beast!' and I managed to hit the
brakes. Then, after a few minutes, the second one ambled past, and it
was even more startling because it was just like a dinosaur, walking
on two legs. It had very noticeable thighs," Riquelme said.
According to the
driver's description, the figures were grey and hairless. The second
one, which crossed a few minutes later, was clearly seen by Riquelme,
Hernan Cuevas and his 12-year-old daughter, Tania. They estimated the
first creature's height at 2 meters (6 feet, 6 inches), thanks to the
fact that the beast's distance from the vehicle at the moment it
crossed was not more than 4 meters (13 feet). In the case of the
second "animal", they said it was smaller. but they were
able to see it clearly because it was a clear night and there was
moonlight. However, what was most remarkable about both creatures was
the speed at which they crossed the road and the strides they took.
Riquelme and Cuevas
had gone to Arica to purchase a vehicle...But the strange event
caused nervousness among Sr. Cuevas's wife and daughter. "The
good thing is that when they started screaming, my companion and I
didn't lose control and kept calm. Later we stopped to smoke a
cigarette and walked around. From there I descended (drove) calmly to
Arica, but I'm still nervous," explains the driver, who
contacted (the Chilean newspaper) La Estrella (The Star) immediately
after reaching the city.
Riquelme's account
coincides with that of Hernan Cuevas, who is a recruiting officer
with the Army.
"'When the first
crossing occurred, I asked Dario if he had seen it, and he said yes.
Then we started making comments as to what it might have been.
Shortly after, another one walked by, shorter, but very similar to a
dinosaur or a lizard running on two legs. Even my eldest daughter saw
it and let out a scream," Cuevas said.
Twelve-year-old Tania
stated that the creatures were very similar to a dinosaur and had
small hands. Meanwhile, Sra. Cuevas almost didn't realize what was
going on because she was paying attention to the couple's younger
child, who was asleep.
Neither Riquelme nor
Cuevas had ever experienced a similar situation and would not even
compare it with descriptions of other creatures, such as the alleged
Chupacabras that attack and exsanguinate (drain of blood) animals in
their fields. But they still have not managed to find an explanation
for what they saw Thursday night.
A new report involving
the sighting of strange animals in the Pampa Acha sector was made
known Monday, August 2, 2004, and coincides almost exactly with the
one described Thursday by driver Dario Riquelme. The case involves
the six members of the Abett de la Torre Diaz family, who live at
Fuerte Baquedano, in the community of Pozo Almonte. All of them were
traveling from their home to Arica two weeks ago, and, as they
crossed the Pampa Acha sector, less than 20 kilometers (13 miles)
from the city, near Presencias Tutelares, they were faced with four
creatures they described at first as "dog- faced kangaroos"
that moved slowly through the air. The event occurred at
approximately 9 p.m. and left almost all of the family's members
traumatized. The family consisted of Carlos Abett de la Torre, a
(Chilean) Army non-commissioned officer, his wife Teresa (Diaz),
their three children and a three-year-old nephew.
"I was traveling
in the back seat with my brothers, talking, and suddenly everything
went dark. Then I told my brother what I was seeing, and he told me
to keep quiet because Mom gets nervous. Later I looked through the
window and saw more things that looked like birds, with dogs' heads
and backswept wings. My father said they were like gargoyles,"
explained Carmen Abett de la Torre, the couple's daughter.
Carmen added that she
wasn't sure if the creatures had wings or legs, but then they moved
them toward the rear. The height of the animals was calculated at 2
meters. Two of the beings "flew" over the vehicle; another
two appeared, but this time darting in front of the vehicle.
'We were speechless
for some 10 minutes, and my Mom told us to react, and then we started
discussing what we had seen."
Teresa Diaz, Carmen's
mother, was traveling in the front passenger seat beside her husband
and was the one who saw the creature the clearest. Her impression was
that these animals were moving slowly over the car first and then in
front of it. However, they appeared to match the vehicle's speed,
which was 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour). The situation
caused such nervousness among the whole family that all they wanted
to do was get to Arica and forget the traumatic incident. Once in the
city, they told their relatives what had happened.
"'Then we were
terrified to go back," Teresa added, with regard to the day they
were getting ready to return to their home in Fuerte Baquedano.
At the time of the
strange encounter, the moonlight provided certain visibility, which
as well as the similar (Riquelme) case made known last week, enabled
the beast to be clearly seen. Furthermore, the animals did not go any
further than 20 meters (66 feet) from the car in which the Abett de
la Torre family was driving.
All of the family
members agreed as to what they had seen. They were startled and
nervous as a result of the sighting. None of them went public for
fear of ridicule and mockery.
Carabinero (Chilean
national police) members of the Cuya barracks stated that until now
no one had approached them to report a similar event. However, they
had heard of strange creatures being witnessed in the Pampa Acha
sector from third parties. In any event, they added that they
constantly patrol the road near the sector where the incident
occurred. (See the Chilean newspaper La Estrella of Arica for August
1, 2004, "Strange creatures reported in Pampa Acha," and
for August 3, 2004, "More strange creatures reported in Acha."
Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, Claudio Ojeda y Liliana Nunez para
estos articulos de diario.)
COLORADO RIVER
DINOSAUR / MINI T-REX
Eyewitness Account
I live in Pueblo,
Colorado. I moved out here when I was six and have since heard
stories of the praire devil, the pig man and the mini-rex….
Me and my friend were
riding dirt bikes….when we observed something move across the
clearing in front of us. It was three to four feet long, greenish
with black markings on its back, and a yellowish-orange underbelly.
It walked on its hind legs, never dragging its tail. Its front limbs
(I call them limbs because they were more like arms than anything)
were smaller in comparison to the back ones, and it had four or three
claws....It also had some kind of lump or horn over each eye. When it
noticed our presence, it let out a high pitched screech…Immediately,
we rode back to my house for a camera….We took a picture of its
tracks…one of my other friends said he had a few pictures of the
creature, so I took a look at them, and to my surprise, I saw
pictures of the exact same thing I saw... North American Bio Fortean
Review.
Newspaper Account
Colorado's Mystery
Reptile Could Be Mini Dinosaur [Original headline: Mystery Reptile
Loose in County?]
Could the Southwest be
home to a mysterious new species of reptile? Nick Sucik, a private
researcher from Minnesota, thinks it's possible. Sucik has been
tracking sightings of an elusive lizard-like creature ever since
hearing tales of "river dinosaurs" from those involved in
the legally sketchy "reptile trade." The "dino"
is said to walk exclusively on its hind legs; to stand about 3 feet
tall; and to have armlike appendages instead of forelegs. The reptile
usually is seen near a wet environment and moves swiftly, with
grace, Sucik said.
Reports of sightings
trickled in, first in Pagosa Springs in 1982, then in Pueblo, Sucik
said. And, he said, the same thing happened here in Cortez — "But
it was kind of unexpected how we heard about it."
An Unsolved Mysteries
episode had featured the story of a Cortez couple who had been
visiting in Arizona. While there, the couple apparently saw the body
of a reptile unlike any they had ever seen before. "It looked
like a toy to them," Sucik said, and when they told their tale,
"No one took them seriously." Except, perhaps, for Sucik
himself.
In an attempt to
follow up on the story, Sucik wrote the Journal and later placed a
classified ad, seeking communication from anyone who might have seen
the enigmatic reptile. The letter netted a response from Northern
California, but the ad brought results from closer to home. According
to Sucik, a woman and her daughter emailed him details of a similar
sighting that took place in 2001 as they were driving in the Yellow
Jacket area.
"Suddenly, this
thing runs out. At first, they thought it was a young deer, because
of its size," Sucik said.
The women described it
as having a long neck and skinny legs like a bird. However, it had no
feathers and its "arms" seemed to go out of its upright
neck rather than its body. The women estimated that the creature
would measure about 5 feet, if stretched from neck to tail.
"It looked to
them like a cross between a bird and a dinosaur." When they got
home, each drew a picture of the creature and realized they had each
seen exactly the same thing, he said.
The description
matched that of other sightings, and the women happened to have been
near an irrigation creek. "Every reference we've heard usually
affiliates them with water," Sucik said. "That's where the
term 'River Dino' comes from."
Sucik discovered it
wasn't the first sighting in the area. In March or April 1996, a
local woman said she saw something similar near her home at the
Kampark outside Mesa Verde.
"I was sitting on
the couch, and looked out the front door," the woman, who did
not wish to be identified, told the Journal. "I saw something,
not a lizard, really, about 3 1/2 feet long and 3 1/2 feet high. It
moved very fast. As far as I remember, there were only two legs that
seemed to balance it."
She said the creature
moved very swiftly, and had a cone-shaped nose and a tail that
extended about 2 feet out from its body. It had come from a pond
area.
"It was kind of
unusual," she said "I didn't know if I was seeing things,
or what. I never had anything like that happen before. "I
thought, 'Maybe it's someone's pet', I wasn't frightened; I just
thought it was unusual."
She checked reference
books, but could not find anything similar to what she'd seen. Jeff
Thulin of the Reptile Reserve told her it might have been a monitor
lizard, however, monitors could not live throughout the winter
locally.
Thulin said others
have since mentioned that they have seen "a large lizard running
around. I don't know any specifics at all except that it's large and
looks out of place."
"It doesn't match
anything," he said of the description. The woman said she has
tried to put it out of her mind. "Some people think you're
nuts."
Sucik isn't sure what
people have seen. A lizard, he said, "is a reptile on four legs.
These reptiles are always on their hind legs. The only reptile to fit
that morphology is a dinosaur—that kind of creates extra interest.
It's not strange. It's like a new species that hasn't been classified
in the area."
Sucik said it's
possible the reptile is an escapee from trade in exotic pets. Even
so, the description doesn't match anything known, he said. He
welcomes reports of sightings at nicksucik@hotmail.com or 22969 Old
Gov Trail, Nisswa, MN 56468, and also suggests checking
www.herper.com/nabr/nabr4.pdf
(Story originally
published by: Cortez Journal / CO | Katharhynn Heidelberg - July
30.02)
UPRIGHT MYSTERY
CREATURE
Mystery upright
creature allegedly photographed on a Florida Farm. The individual
only noticed the "creature" after the film was developed.
Is it a bipedal lizard (little T-rex), a tall squirrel, a talented
dog or was it photo shopped? (Sent in to Coast to Coast.)
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
"The eastern half
of the island of New Guinea—second largest in the world—was
divided between Germany (north) and the UK (south) in 1885. The
latter area was transferred to Australia in 1902, which occupied the
northern portion during World War I and continued to administer the
combined areas until independence in 1975. A nine-year secessionist
revolt on the island of Bougainville ended in 1997, after claiming
some 20,000 lives."—CIA World Factbook
"Papua New Guinea
is a raw land, remarkably untamed and as variegated as swamp and
jagged limestone; mud and moss forest; suffocating heat and Highland
chill; plumed, pearl-shelled villagers and prosaic hill people; tiny
tree kangaroos and enormous Queen Alexandra Birdwing
butterflies"....Source: LonelyPlanet.com
Police Hunt 'Dinosaur'
in Papua New Guinea March 12, 2004 - 12:38PM
Reports that a live
dinosaur had been sighted on a volcanic island of Papua New Guinea
prompted the deployment of heavily-armed police in search of the
mystery creature. Villagers in the superstitious island province of
East New Britain this week said they fled in terror after seeing a
three-metre tall, grey-coloured creature with a head like a dog and a
tail like a crocodile. They said the creature was living among thick
green plants in a mosquito-ridden marsh just outside the provincial
capital Kokopo, near the devastated town of Rabaul which was buried
by a volcanic eruption in 1994. Kokopo's Mayor Albert Buanga said the
dinosaur would make a great a tourist attraction, if it existed.
A government official
today confirmed police carrying M-16s and shotguns searched the area
but found no trace of the creature. Eyewitness Christine Samei told
reporters she ran for her life after seeing a three-metre tall (10
feet), grey creature with a head like a dog and a tail like a
crocodile which was as fat as a 900-litre water tank.
"It's a very huge
and ugly looking animal," Samei told local media.
A government official
said the villagers had identified the creature from books and movies
about dinosaurs.
"They told us it
was a dinosaur," the official told AAP.
Although police found
no trace of the creature, Senior Sergeant Leuth Nidung warned
villagers to take extra precautions when going about their daily
business, amid reports it had eaten three dogs. Villagers were told
to report any further sightings immediately to police, who were
already organizing a more thorough search of the area.
Black magic and other
superstitions are common in many parts of PNG's predominantly
village-based society.
Each year large
numbers of foreigners visit the area to see World War II relics as
well as the devastated town of Rabaul - the only urban centre in the
world built inside the crater of a giant volcano.
Dinosaur-like creature
spotted in Papua New Guinea
Ananova: Police in
Papua New Guinea have been ordered to search part of a remote island
after locals reported seeing a giant dinosaur-like creature roaming
the area.
Villagers on the
island of New Britain reported seeing a 3-meter-tall (Approx. 10
feet), grey-coloured animal with a head like a dog and a tail like a
crocodile.
One woman said she saw
the creature in a marsh just outside the provincial capital Kokopo on
the eastern end of New Britain. "I heard the people talking
about it and went there to see for myself. Its very huge and ugly
looking animal," she said.
A local councilor told
The National newspaper that villagers said the creature had been seen
by women on several occasions and had reportedly eaten three dogs.
Armed police and
villagers carrying bush knives searched the marsh but found no trace
of the creature, the newspaper said.
500 MILES AWAY AND 5
YEARS EARLIER
Dinosaur-like Reptile
Sighted at Lake Murray
December 11, 1999
A DINOSAUR-like
reptile has reportedly been seen by villagers in the Lake Murray area
recently. Boboa station councillor, Sangame Sangame told The
Independent that villagers on two separate occasions saw the creature
on December 11 and again on December 12.
Councillor Sangame
said that villagers travelling in a canoe saw the reptile wading in
shallow water near Boboa, in the first sighting. He said that a
Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) pastor and church elder saw the creature
on the second occasion not far from the first sighting.
Mr. Sangame said that
the animal has a body as long as a dump truck and nearly two metres
wide (6.5 feet). It has a long slender tail and a long neck. The head
is shaped like a cow's, has large eyes with sharp teeth as long as
fingers. The reptile walks on two hind legs which are as thick as
coconut palm tree trunks. It has two smaller forelegs. The skin is
similar to a crocodile's and has largish triangular scoops on the
back. Mr Sangame said that he reported the sightings to the Lake
Murray police.
Many people from the
savannah grasslands of the South Fly district claim that they have
seen large lizards similar to the Komodo dragons of Indonesia. There
have also been reports of large lizards up to 1.7 metres living in
tree tops.
No comments:
Post a Comment