The evidence for living dinosaurs is almost exclusively anecdotal. In fact, few people other than natives have claimed to have actually seen the animals:
- In 1776, Abbe Proyhart wrote of the discovery of clawed footprints in West Africa that were as large as three feet in diameter.
- The first recognized reports of what were described as dinosaur-like creatures emerged from central Africa in the late 1800s. Native tribe members told explorers of a large animal they called jago-nini, which translates to “giant diver.” Footprints said to be of this creature were about the size of a Frisbee. Other tribes who said they were familiar with this creature had other names for it, including dingonek, ol-umaina, and chipekwe.
- In 1913, a German explorer named Captain Freiheer von Stein zu Lausnitz was told stories of an animal that was “brownish gray with a smooth skin, its size approximately that of an elephant, at least that of a hippopotamus.” The native Pygmies called it mok’ele-mbembe (meaning “stopper of rivers”) and described it as having a long, flexible neck and a vegetarian diet, but would kill humans if they came too close.
- In 1932, cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson was told by tribesmen of a strange creature that left oversized hippo-like footprints, and which they called mgbulu-em’bembe.
- Cryptozoologist Roy Mackel and herpetologist James Powell set off on their own expedition for mok’ele-mbembe in 1980. They returned only with interviews with natives who had heard of the long-necked, 30-foot-long creature. They said that around 1959 one had even been killed by natives along Lake Tele to stop it from interfering with their fishing. Their legend stated that whoever ate meat from the animal, died. When Powell showed pictures of various local animals to the natives, they correctly identified them. When he showed them a drawing of a sauropod dinosaur, they said that was mok’ele-mbembe.
Apart from these stories, there is no direct evidence for living dinosaurs. Some expeditions claimed to have photos of some large, unidentified creature, but the images are quite fuzzy and the results inconclusive, at best. In 1992, a Japanese expedition to the area returned with 15 seconds of film taken from an airplane flying over Lake Tele. The footage showed a large object moving across the surface of the water, leaving a V-shaped wake behind it. But the object could not be positively identified.
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