SHUKERNATURE'S TOP TEN LIVING DINOSAURS OF CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Spectacular painting of the mokele-mbembe (William Rebsamen)

Time for another ShukerNature Top Ten!

Today, the only known living dinosaurs are of the avian variety – birds. However, the chronicles of cryptozoology are bulging with reports of mystery beasts that have been likened or potentially identified with other, supposedly long-vanished dinosaur forms. Here, then, in no particular order is my personal Top Ten of putative living dinosaurs of the non-avian, cryptozoological kind.

THE MOKELE-MBEMBE – A CONGOLESE WATER DRAGON, OR A DINOSAUR OF THE ISHTAR GATE?

According to the resident pygmies here, the vast, remote, and virtually inaccessible Likouala swamplands of the People's Republic of the Congo (formerly the French Congo) are home to a 27-ft-long amphibious 'water dragon' known as the mokele-mbembe ('one that capsizes boats'). They describe it as reddish-brown in colour, with a small head but very long neck and tail, an elephantine body, four sturdy limbs that leave behind large three-clawed footprints, and an appetite for the Landolphia gourds, which it browses upon like a reptilian giraffe, sometimes while still partly submerged in water. It is most frequently sighted by the native people in or near a very large body of freshwater known as Lake Tele.

The mokele-mbembe has been sought unsuccessfully by a number of Western expeditions since the 1980s, its most famous and tenacious seekers being now-retired Chicago University biochemist and spare-time cryptozoologist Dr Roy Mackal, and Scottish field cryptozoologist Bill Gibbons (via two Operation Congo expeditons and who has also sought similar beasts in Cameroon). Of particular interest is that when a range of animal images have been shown to the natives in an attempt to gain more information concerning the mokele-mbembe's appearance in the hope of identifying it, the images consistently claimed by alleged eyewitnesses to be closest to it have been ones depicting sauropod dinosaurs from prehistory, such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus (formerly called Brontosaurus).

Roy Mackal's book documenting the mokele-mbembe and other Congolese 'neo-dinosaurs' (Dr Roy Mackal/E.J. Brill)

Indeed, Mackal and Gibbons both consider a species of living, modern-day sauropod, surviving undisturbed in the Likouala's secluded and relatively inaccessible, inhospitable terrain, to be a plausible identity for this elusive creature. Another popular suggestion is that it may be a very large monitor lizard with an exceptionally long, elongated neck, but no such form of monitor is known from either the present day or the fossil record. And whereas monitors are almost exclusively carnivorous, the mokele-mbembe is entirely herbivorous.

Adding veracity to its eyewitnesses' testimony, similar creatures (known by such names as badigui, amali, and n'yamala) have been recorded elsewhere in tropical Africa too - including the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Gabon.

The mushussu or sirrush portrayed upon the Ishtar Gate of Babylon (Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin)

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect concerning the mokele-mbembe is how closely it resembles the Babylonian mushussu dragon as depicted on the Ishtar Gate. And it is known that early glazed bricks identical to those used in this gate's creation have been recorded from Central Africa - leading some naturalists to suggest that perhaps the early Babylonians visited this African region to obtain bricks for the gate, saw mokele-mbembes there, and upon their return to Mesopotamia their descriptions of this creature inspired the depictions of the mushussu on the gate. Boldest but most fascinating of all is the suggestion that at least one young mokele-mbembe may even have been transported back to Mesopotamia alive, explaining the so-called dragon that was worshipped in a temple by the Babylonians until killed by Daniel.

KULTA AND BURRUNJOR - DINOSAURS OF THE DREAMTIME?

This is how Rex Gilroy, a veteran investigator of Australian mysteries, has referred in his book Mysterious Australia to two of this island continent's least-publicised but most fascinating mystery beasts - the kulta and the burrunjor.

According to ancient Central Australian aboriginal lore, the kulta inhabited the great swamps that existed long ago in the far north, browsing inoffensively upon the region's lush vegetation. It possessed a small head, an exceedingly long neck and tail, an enormously bulky body, and four sturdy legs. This description is irresistibly similar to that of the sauropod dinosaurs, such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. Yet the aboriginals have no palaeontological knowledge, so how are they able to describe so accurately a type of reptile that officially died out millions of years ago - unless at least one lineage did not die out, but persisted undisturbed in this remote locality right into historic times? Yet whatever it was, it is no longer - centuries ago the swamps dried up, and the kulta died out.

Is this what the kulta may look like? (Charles Knight)

Even more extraordinary, however, is the burrunjor, a terrifying tyrannosaur-lookalike named after Burrunjor - a remote expanse of Arnhem Land in northern Australia where, according to longstanding Aboriginal testimony, this huge reptilian monster is said to live. Here it is even depicted in local Aboriginal cave art, portrayed as a gigantic bipedal creature, and enormous unidentified tracks have been reported from this region.

Varanids (monitor lizards) will sometimes rear up and run for a time on their hind legs, and there are some notably large varanid species native to Australia. So could this be the true explanation for the burrunjor - or should we be seeking an animate anachronism thriving amid the primeval wildernesses of Arnhem Land?

EMELA-NTOUKA – THE CONGO'S 'KILLER OF ELEPHANTS'

The mokele-mbembe may well be the most famous Congolese 'neo-dinosaur', but it is not the only one. Sharing the latter’s inaccessible swamp-dwelling habitat in the People’s Republic of the Congo are several other mystifying creatures still awaiting formal identification by science, of which the most extraordinary must surely be the emela-ntouka (‘killer of elephants’). According to the local pygmies, this is a truly ferocious beast, reddish-brown in colour, hairless, and almost as large as an elephant itself, with massive legs, but able to submerge itself completely underwater. If an elephant attempts to cross a swamp or lake containing this formidable beast, the emela-ntouka will attack it savagely, disembowelling the hapless elephant with the long sharp ivory-like horn mounted on the emela-ntouka’s snout. It does not devour the elephant afterwards, however, as it is strictly herbivorous.

In the past, some cryptozoologists have attempted to identify the emela-ntouka as an unknown type of aquatic, swamp-dwelling rhinoceros. However, whereas the horn of all other modern-day rhinos is formed of compressed hair, the emela-ntouka’s is said to be solid ivory, just like the tusks of elephants. Also, it is described as having a very long, heavy tail, which is very different from the short, inconspicuous tail of all known living rhinos.

The emela-ntouka as depicted in Roy Mackal's book (David Miller/Dr Roy Mackal)

During his two separate 1980s expeditions to the Congo’s Likouala swamplands in search of the mokele-mbembe, Roy Mackal collected several reports and descriptions of the emela-ntouka too. These led him to speculate whether this remarkable beast could conceivably be an undiscovered, modern-day descendant of the ceratopsian dinosaurs, exemplified by such famous prehistoric stalwarts as Triceratops and Styracosaurus. Moreover, the one-horned Monoclonius would have borne a very close resemblance to the emela-ntouka, right down to the latter’s long heavy tail and its horn of bone, not compressed hair. Its only major difference is that whereas ceratopsians were known for the long bony frill protecting their neck, no such structure has been reported for the emela-ntouka.

THE ANOMALY OF ANGKOR WAT - A STEGOSAUR IN CAMBODIA?

Cryptozoological riddles can turn up in the most unlikely places, but few can be as unexpected as Cambodia's perplexing dinosaur carving. One of this country's most beautiful monuments is the jungle temple of Ta Prohm, created around 800 years ago, and part of the Angkor Wat temple complex. Like others from this time, it is intricately adorned with images from Buddhist and Hindu mythology, but it also has one truly exceptional glyph unique to itself. Near one of the temple's entrances is a circular glyph containing the carving of a burly, small-headed, quadruped beast bearing a row of diamond-shaped plates along its back - an image irresistibly reminiscent of a stegosaurian dinosaur!

The 'stegosaur' petroglyph at Angkor Wat (John and Lesley Burke)

This anachronistic animal carving is reputedly popular with local guides, who delight in baffling western tourists by asking them if they believe dinosaurs still existed as recently as 800 years ago and then showing this glyph to them. Could it therefore be a modern fake, skilfully carved amid the genuine glyphs by a trickster hoping to fool unsuspecting tourists? Or is it a bona fide 800-year-old artefact?

Angkor's Way - Michael J. Smith's spectacular artistic impression of cryptic, modern-day stegosaurs cared for by Cambodian monks (Michael J. Smith)

If so, perhaps it was inspired by the temple's architects having seen some fossilised dinosaur remains? After all, it surely couldn't have been based upon a sighting of a real-life stegosaur...could it?

THE GOLDEN DRAGONS OF TASEK BERA

Tasek Bera or Bera Lake is a very large, deep lake in the Malaysian state of Pahang, and according to the traditions of the local Semelai people it was (and still may be?) home to a number of huge water dragons whose scales were slate-grey when young but became golden as they matured. They had very long necks, serpentine heads bearing a pair of snail-like horns, sturdy bodies, and long tails. As they never emerged onto land, however, no-one had ever seen their limbs. These beasts' presence was confirmed by their loud, trumpeting cry.

Stewart Wavell's book, documenting Tasek Bera's dinosaurian 'water dragons'

As documented in his book, The Lost World of the East (1958), explorer Stewart Wavell paid two visits here during the 1950s to search for them, but he never saw one.

However, on one occasion he did hear a strident, twice-uttered staccato sound emanating from the centre of the lake that matched the native description of these creatures' cry. Was it just the trumpeting of an elephant – or the voice of a golden dragon?

THE CHIPEKWE, IRIZIMA, AND OTHER EMELA-NTOUKA COUNTERPARTS

Worthy of note is that reports of creatures very like the Congolese emela-ntouka have emerged from elsewhere in tropical Africa too. Zambia’s Lake Bangweulu is reportedly home to the single-horned chipekwe (‘monster’), with similar creatures also reported from Lake Mweru, Lake Tanganyika, and the Kafue swamps. The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) also has its own counterpart, dubbed the irizima, and there are even reports from as far west as Liberia.

Do emela-ntouka counterparts exist far beyond the Likouala swamplands? (Dr Karl Shuker)

In 2004, a French mokele-mbembe seeker called Michel Ballot photographed a stunning wooden sculpture of what can only be an emela-ntouka-type beast while visiting a village in northern Cameroon. It clearly depicts the animal’s elephantine body, single snout-horn, and long hefty tail, as well as a pair of small frilly ears not previously alluded to in accounts of this cryptid.

Moreover, I have recently made a remarkable discovery of an entirely independent piece of native artwork that substantially corroborates the veracity of this sculpture, including the unusual ears. So look out for my revelation in a future ShukerNature article!

SOUTH AMERICAN NEO-SAUROPODS

Although reports of sauropodian cryptids are less numerous from South America than they are from tropical Africa, they are by no means unknown.

When traveller Leonard Clark journeyed up Amazonia's Perene River in 1946, for example, he encountered several tribes of Indians east of the Ucayali who described to him gigantic long-necked beasts of plant-eating persuasion that recalled the giant sauropod Diplodocus.

In 1975, while holidaying in the Amazon, a Geneva businessman (name unknown) met Sebastian Bastos - a 75-year-old guide who, by a lucky coincidence, had been educated in Switzerland and was therefore able to converse fluently with him. During one conversation, Bastos stated that some of his Indian acquaintances had claimed that beasts of this type frequent certain deep water holes in the jungle's heartlands, and occasionally come out onto land at night. Their heads, necks, and backs are about 18 ft long, and the Indians take great pains to avoid them.

Frustratingly brief is a reference in Exploration Fawcett (1953) by lost explorer Lt-Colonel Percy Fawcett - alluding to still-unfamiliar beasts in the forests of Bolivia's Madidi, he noted:

"...some mysterious and enormous beast has frequently been disturbed in the swamps - possibly a primeval monster like those reported in other parts of the continent. Certainly tracks have been found belonging to no known animal - huge tracks, far greater than could have been made by any species we know."

The mention of tracks suggests footprints - which favour dinosaurs over flippered plesiosaurs - but little else can be deduced from such a brief description.

Exploration Fawcett, documenting the lost explorer Lt-Colonel Percy Fawcett's South American expeditions (Arrow Books)

An earlier, slightly more detailed Fawcett-authored account on this same subject also exists – a letter by him that was published in London's Daily Mail on 17 December 1919. The relevant portion is as follows:

"A friend of mine, a trader in the rivers and for whose honesty I can vouch, saw in somewhere about Lat. 12 S. and Long. 65 W. [Bolivia-Brazil borderland] the head and neck of a huge reptile of the character of the brontosaurus. It was a question of who was scared most, for it precipitately withdrew, with a plunging which suggested an enormous bulk. The savages appear to be familiar with the existence and tracks of the beast, although I have never come across any of the latter myself...These swamps over immense areas are virtually impenetrable."

According to media reports from early 1995, a party of geology students investigating quartz deposits in the Sincora Mountain range of eastern Brazil had lately spied two strange dinosaur-like creatures bathing in the shallows of the Paraguaçu River passing through the Plain of Orobo. According to these eyewitnesses, the animals were each around 30 ft in total length, with a huge body, fearsome head, a long neck measuring approximately 6 ft, and an 8-ft tail.

THE MBIELU-MBIELU-MBIELU AND CO - SURVIVING STEGOSAURS?

In addition to the mokele-mbembe and the emela-ntouka, a third dinosaur-lookalike of the Likouala swamps is the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu. According to one of its alleged eyewitnesses - a young woman called Odette Gesonget, from the village of Bounila - this triple-named anomaly is a semi-aquatic creature "with planks growing out of its back". In a bid to identify it, Roy Mackal showed Gesonget several illustrated books depicting animals from the present day and also from the distant past - the picture that she unhesitatingly selected was that of the prehistoric plate-bearing dinosaur Stegosaurus. Comparable descriptions were offered, independently of one another, by natives encountered elsewhere during Mackal's Congolese travels too. Yet there is no suggestion from fossil evidence that stegosaurs exhibited any aquatic inclination.

Reconstruction of the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu (David Miller/Dr Roy Mackal)

It is possible that this beast, whatever its taxonomic identity may be, is one and the same as another mystery animal from the Likouala swamplands - the nguma-monene, reported from the Mataba tributary of the Ubangi River. According to native descriptions, it resembles a colossal snake (at least 130 ft long!), but bears a serrated ridge along most of its body's length consisting of numerous triangular protrusions, and can walk upon land, with a low-slung body and forked tongue. Could this be a snake-like dinosaur, or, alternatively, a primitive reptile descended from the ancestral forms that gave rise to lizards and snakes?

Reconstruction of the nguma-monene (David Miller/Dr Roy Mackal)

Mackal favours a single, very large, and radically new species of monitor lizard as the most satisfactory explanation for both the nguma-monene and the mbielu-mbielu-mbielu. Nonetheless, the latter's stegosaurian suggestions are evidently difficult to dismiss absolutely - as he confessed in his book A Living Dinosaur? (1987): "For me, mbielu-mbielu-mbielu remains an enigma."

IT’S THE DINOSAUR KANGAROO OF ARICA!

It’s always good to learn of a novel cryptid, and Chile’s Arica Beast is novel in every sense! As recounted in a number of media articles from 2004, several different motorists driving along the main road linking Iquique and Arica, through the Atacama Desert, have reported witnessing an extraordinary bipedal creature over 6 ft tall, with sharp teeth and three-toed footprints, which has been variously likened to a velociraptoresque dinosaur or even a ‘dinosaur kangaroo’!

Bring me the head of the Arica Beast! (Dr Karl Shuker)

In the words of one eyewitness, Hernan Cuevas: “A weird animal looking like a dinosaur with two legs and huge thighs crossed the road in front of my car”. Not surprisingly, the local authorities were, and remain, very puzzled.

THE NGOUBOU – A SECOND CONGOLESE NEO-CERATOPSIAN?

When Bill Gibbons conducted his initial expedition to Cameroon in November 2000, he discovered not only that this country apparently possessed its own version of the mokele-mbembe but also that it allegedly harboured an extraordinary horned mystery beast akin to but even more spectacular than the emela-ntouka.

Looking through pictures of living and fossil animals, the local Batu people and pygmies pointed to pictures of prehistory’s famous three-horned ceratopsian dinosaur Triceratops, and stated that a beast somewhat similar to that animal lived here. They called it the ngoubou, and claimed that it inhabited savannah areas to the west of the Boumba River. It is also known in the Sanga region near the Central African Republic. They stated that it was the size of an ox, sported a large frill around its neck (which differs slightly in the female), a beaked mouth, and bore several horns, but in a different manner from those of Triceratops.

Life-size reconstruction of Styracosaurus (Dr Karl Shuker)

This baffled the team, until one of the locals drew an image of what the ngoubou looked like, revealing that it bore a series of six horns around the edge of its frill, which, as team member John Kirk later realised, made it look irresistibly similar to a ceratopsian called Styracosaurus. As this particular fossil dinosaur was not depicted in any of the pictures shown to the native people by the team, they clearly had not been influenced in that way, thus making the correspondence all the more remarkable.

Of course, based upon current palaeontological beliefs, many of the creatures reported here display lifestyles very different from that of their purported prehistoric antecedents, especially with regard to the frequent claims by eyewitnesses that these neo-sauropodian, neo-ceratopsian, and neo-stegosaurian cryptids are amphibious. If, however, such mystery beasts are truly modern-day dinosaurs, this means that they have undergone 65 million years (or more) of continuous evolution from their fossilised antecedents, which may conceivably have engineered all manner of behavioural and ecological as well as morphological changes, so such lifestyle discrepancies or deviations would by no means be implausible or, indeed, unexpected.

Proudly wearing my Operation Congo 1985 t-shirt (Dr Karl Shuker)

Nevertheless, as with all cryptids it is unwise, pointless even, to speculate too specifically in relation to these mystery beasts' zoological identities without any physical, tangible evidence to examine. And, unfortunately, they all appear to exist amid some of the world's most inaccessible and inhospitable localities. Let us hope, therefore, that one day soon, a future expedition by Bill Gibbons or some other tenacious, enterprising explorer will return with this long-awaited proof of their reality, and then at last we shall know the true identity of at least one of this ShukerNature article's tantalising selection of anachronistic anomalies. The last of the dinosaurs, or merely the first of an entirely new flourish? Who can say?

For an extensive survey of putative living dinosaurs worldwide, check out my book In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995).

GOING APE ABOUT THE KOOLOOKAMBA

Late 19th-Century engraving of Mafuka, the most famous koolookamba specimen

Not a single verified example of a hybrid between a chimpanzee and gorilla has ever been recorded by science - which is why the koolookamba is such a controversial creature of cryptozoology.

This mystery ape was first brought to European attention by the explorer Paul du Chaillu, who shot what he initially assumed to be a large adult male chimpanzee in Gabon's Ashankolo Mountains during April 1858. However, its head was rounded, as was its bare black face, its eyes were large and set wide apart, it had well-developed eyebrow ridges, a flat nose, and elevated, projecting cheekbones - which are all characteristics more typical of a gorilla (two species of which are recognised today - the western gorilla Gorilla gorilla and the eastern gorilla G. beringei, of which latter species the mountain gorilla is a subspecies, G. b. beringei).

19th-Century engraving of a koolookamba

Consequently, du Chaillu stated that he considered his specimen to be totally separate from both chimp and gorilla. So too did the local native people - who claimed that this strange type of 'intermediate' ape lived exclusively in the mountains, never inhabiting lowland regions. They even had a special name for it - the koolookamba ('that which speaks 'kooloo''), after its distinctive call, 'kooloo' (and also spelt variously as koolokamba and koolakamba). Accordingly, in 1860 du Chaillu formally christened his newly-created species Troglodytes koolokamba - the first of several different scientific names, and identities, that would be applied to this ambiguous ape.

Left side of Mafuka's head – engraving from 1896

Over the years, a number of other koolookambas have been obtained from Gabon and elsewhere in equatorial West Africa. Some have even been displayed alive in zoos. Perhaps the most famous captive koolookamba was 'Mafuka' (also spelt 'Mafuca' in some sources) - a large aggressive female brought from Gabon's Loango Coast and exhibited at Dresden Zoo in the 1870s. Another fierce individual from the late 1800s was 'Johanna' - displayed at the Barnum Bailey World Show after four years at Lisbon Zoo. In the 1980s, the Holloman Air Force Base's chimpanzee colony at Alamagordo, New Mexico, contained two adult female koolookambas - 'Minnie' and 'Sevim'.

Mafuka's face – engraving from 1896

In short, it is clear that koolookambas exist. Far less clear, conversely, is their identity - just what is a koolookamba? The complexity of this question is exemplified by the intense deliberation that took place in 19th-Century zoological circles regarding Mafuka's identity.

The most conservative school of thought claimed that she was just an unusual chimpanzee. In contrast, some zoologists were persuaded by her heavy brows, fairly small ears, wide nose, and powerful, projecting jaws to classify her as a small gorilla (the confirmed identity of a female koolookamba sent to Basle Zoo in 1967). Certain others, echoing du Chaillu, felt sure that she represented a separate third species - one that subtly combined characteristics of chimpanzee with those of gorilla but remained taxonomically distinct from both.

Engraving of the right side of Mafuka's head

Most dramatic (yet most popular) of all, however, was the opinion voiced by zoologist Dr Richard Lydekker among others. Namely, that her interspecific combination of features showed that Mafuka was actually a crossbreed - resulting from a mating in the wild between a chimpanzee and a gorilla. Indeed, in 1881, German game hunter Hugo von Koppenfels alleged that he had positive proof that such hybridisation did occur (and these two ape forms are certainly closely related), but no such proof has ever been accepted by zoologists.

The fundamental problem responsible for the dilemma of the koolookamba's true identity is the extraordinary diversity in outward and cranial morphology exhibited by the chimpanzee across its wide geographical distribution. This explains why, by 1919, at least 20 different species of chimpanzee had been distinguished and accepted as valid by some zoologists. These included such distinctively-named forms as the soko (native to the jungles west of Lake Tanganyika) and the nschiego mbouvé (native to Gabon, like the koolookamba).

19th-Century engraving of a Gabonese nschiego mbouvé, based upon a stuffed specimen

Since the extensive taxonomic researches published by German primatologist Dr Ernst Schwarz during the 1930s, however, only two species have been recognised by most authorities.

One of these is the pygmy chimpanzee or bonobo Pan paniscus - yet another identity lately proposed for Mafuka by some researchers (click here for a separate ShukerNature article devoted specifically to the fascinating history of the bonobo).

Pygmy chimpanzee or bonobo (Dr Karl Shuker)

The other is the common chimpanzee Pan troglodytes, which is usually split into four subspecies - P. t. verus (West Africa), P. t. schweinfurthi (Central Africa), P. t. ellioti [=vellerosus] (Nigeria and Cameroon), and P. t. troglodytes (Central West Africa). One of several former full species included by Schwarz within the last-mentioned subspecies was the koolookamba - but this was one puzzling primate from the past that would not be laid to rest quite so easily.

In 1967, primatologist Professor W.C. Osman Hill reclassified the koolookamba as an additional chimpanzee subspecies in its own right, dubbing it P. t. koolokamba. Nevertheless, many researchers do not support the koolookamba's revived claim to independent status.

Painting of Pan troglodytes koolokamba ( (c) Josef Smit)

As pointed out by gorilla expert Don Cousins and American anthropologist Dr Brian Shea, individuals displaying the koolookamba's distinctive morphology arise spasmodically in totally separate populations of chimpanzees - thus indicating that the koolookamba is merely the product of a chance assemblage of genes, rather than a segregated form that breeds true.

Having said that, there does seem to be a link between koolookamba occurrence and montane habitat. And as its distinguishing features happen to be much the same as those that delineate eastern Africa's mountain gorilla G. beringei beringei from eastern Africa's lowland gorilla G. b. graueri, could the koolookamba therefore constitute an incipient mountain-favouring race of chimpanzee?

Sepia-tinted engravings of Mafuka

In the absence of further research (preferably incorporating comparative DNA analyses featuring 'typical' chimps, koolookambas, and gorillas), however, it seems likely that the koolookamba will be monkeying around with zoological opinion for a long time to come!

Nor is this anomalous anthropoid the only controversial chimpanzee on record. Others include the Bili ape, the mystery chimpanzee of Yaounde Zoo, the ufiti of Malawi, 'ape-man' Oliver, thumbless chimps, chocolate-coloured chimps, and, most extraordinary of all, the spiny-backed chimpanzee – but these must wait for future ShukerNature posts!

An engraving of Mafuka the koolookamba appearing on this Liberian postage stamp issued in 1906

GOODBYE, IVAN - MY TRIBUTE TO IVAN MACKERLE, 1942-2013

It was with great sorrow that I learnt earlier this week that Ivan Mackerle, the Czech Republic's pre-eminent cryptozoological and Fortean researcher-explorer as well as a longstanding friend and correspondent of mine, died on 3 January after a long illness. He was 71.

Ivan alongside an information board concerning Austria's Tappenkarsee lindworm

During more than four decades of investigations worldwide, Ivan sought a wide range of cryptids, including the Alpine tatzelworm and Tappenkarsee lindworm, the New Guinea ropen, the Loch Ness monster, the thylacine on mainland Australia, the Brazilian troa, the Sri Lankan nittaewo, and even Madagascar's giant elephant bird and man-eating tree. And although, sadly, he never succeeded in encountering any of his ultra-elusive quarries, he gathered considerable quantities of very valuable anecdotal and hitherto-unpublicised background information for each one.

Ivan seeking Madagascar's infamous man-eating tree

Ivan also examined many non-cryptozoological anomalies, such as the fate of the lost explorer Lieut.-Col. Percy Fawcett, Dracula's castle, the singing fishes of Batticaola, the mysterious 'cauldrons' in Siberia's Valley of Death, the ruins of Nan Madol in Micronesia, and the Czech Republic's very own historical enigma - the golem of Prague. And he meticulously documented all of his researches and findings in his many books, articles, and the films of his expeditions that he always produced.

Tajemství Pražského Golema - Ivan's book on the golem of Prague

However, he will be remembered above all else for his diligent, ground-breaking trio of expeditions to the Gobi Desert in search of the terrifying Mongolian death worm or allghoi khorkhoi. Today, it is unquestionably one of the world's most famous cryptids, yet it was virtually unknown to the West before Ivan first brought it to widespread popular attention via a World Explorer article in 1994.

Dr Jarda Prokopec and Ivan (on right) seeking the death worm in the Gobi Desert

In addition, Ivan actively encouraged my own interest in this remarkable cryptid, very kindly providing me with numerous documents and translations from Mongolian publications never before chronicled in English-language works, and always permitting me to incorporate in my own writings any of his expedition photographs and other illustrations prepared by him that I wished to use. Thank you, Ivan - I am and shall always be sincerely grateful to you for your generosity.

Mongolské Záhady - Ivan's book documenting the death worm and other Mongolian mysteries

The world is a sadder, less exciting place when pioneering, trail-blazing figures like Ivan depart from it. However, his legacy will live on not only in his publications and films but also in those many future generations of anomaly seekers inspired by him - not least of whom is his own son, Danny, now almost 50 years old, who accompanied him on several of his later expeditions.

Příšery Odnikud ('Monsters From Nowhere') - one of Ivan's books devoted to cryptozoological mysteries

Goodbye Ivan, I am so sorry that you are no longer here, but I pray that you now have the answers to all of those fascinating mysteries that you pursued for so long and for which we who remain here still strive. RIP my friend.

NB - All photographs included in this ShukerNature tribute article are © Ivan Mackerle

AN INTERVIEW WITH CFZ AUSTRALIA

Proudly wearing my Great Barrier Reef Australia shirt from 2006 alongside a thylacine painting in my study (Dr Karl Shuker)

I was recently interviewed by Rebecca Lang of CFZ Australia for their website's continuing 'Meet the Cryptozoologist' series - click here to view my interview.

HERE'S HIPPOTURTLEOX - THE HORNED MONSTER OF TIBET'S LAKE DUOBUZHE

Detailed reconstruction of the possible appearance in life of the hippoturtleox (Tim Morris)

Due to the political situation, much of Tibet's terrain and freshwater bodies of water are little-known or entirely off-limits to Westerners. Occasionally, however, a highly intriguing report emerges that suggests there may be some fascinating zoological discoveries waiting to be made here.

One such report briefly hit the headlines worldwide in September 1984, a mere 12 years after the creature itself had been captured. It claimed that back in 1972, a truly bizarre beast had been caught alive in Tibet's Lake Duobuzhe. It was described as having an ox-like body with hippopotamus-like skin, the legs of a turtle and a pair of short curled horns on its head. As a result of its composite morphology, it was duly dubbed a hippoturtleox by American cryptozoologist J. Richard Greenwell when documenting it within the Spring 1986 issue of the International Society of Cryptozoology's newsletter.

Delightful illustration of the hippoturtleox (Thylacine333/deviantart.com)

Tragically, however, following its capture this extraordinary-sounding creature was shot and bayoneted to death by some Chinese soldiers, then dragged to a nearby village, but the subsequent fate of its scientifically-priceless carcase is unknown (though it is quite likely to have been eaten – an ignominious fate shared by several other cryptozoological specimens down through the years). Nothing more has ever been reported about Lake Duobuzhe's hippoturtleox, and nothing like it has ever been reported since. Strangely, I have been unable to locate Lake Duobuzhe online or in any atlas either, although there are literally thousands of lakes occurring on the Tibetan plateau, so this is not necessarily surprising. It is believed that the area used to be under the ocean, which then retreated, explaining the presence of so many lakes in the area today, a number of which are filled with saltwater.

Always assuming that the story was indeed genuine, what could this creature have been? Its body's general shape, the appearance of its skin, and certainly its limbs are all reminiscent of a large freshwater chelonian – but if this is indeed what it was, how can its horns be explained? Could they have been a pair of specialised respiratory snorkels, perhaps? Or might they even have been real horns? After all, a horned chelonian would not be without precedent.

Cast of skeleton of the extinct Lord Howe Island horned tortoise Meiolania platyceps (Unnormalized/Wikipedia)

Until as recently as 2000 years ago, the island of New Caledonia, situated to the east of Australia, was still home to an extraordinary cryptodire tortoise called Meiolania mackayi, whose skull bore a cluster of protuberances, including a pair of large, laterally-pointing horns. Much bigger Meiolania species formerly lived in Australia too (M. brevicollis), as well as on Lord Howe Island (M. platyceps), and Vanuatu (M. damelipi), but these all became extinct before their New Caledonian counterpart.

Ninjemys oweni - a small Meiolania-related Pleistocene horned tortoise from Queensland, depicted on an Australian postage stamp issued in 1997

Without a body, preserved tissues, a photograph, or even an eyewitness drawing to examine, Tibet's hippoturtleox seems destined to remain an unclassifiable anomaly within the chronicles of cryptozoology – unless, one day, a second specimen appears. If it does, we can but hope that it will be treated more humanely than its mystifying species' previous representative.

Head-on view of the extinct Lord Howe Island horned tortoise Meiolania platyceps (David Morgan-Mar/Wikipedia)

This ShukerNature blog post is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Mirabilis: A Carnival of Cryptozoology and Unnatural History (Anomalist Books: New York, 2013).

 

SYLVIORNIS AND THE DYNASTY OF THE DU

A reconstruction of the possible appearance in life of Sylviornis neocaledoniae, aka the du (Tim Morris)

Whereas most birds incubate their eggs simply by sitting on them, thereby directly harnessing their own body heat, those fowl-like species known as the megapodes are renowned for eschewing this tried and trusted method in favour of much more remarkable and ingenious versions. Some megapodes, for example, excavate pits in the ground, within which they then bury their eggs in order for them to be hatched by whatever external sources of heat are present - including the sun's rays, subterranean steam, and even volcanic activity. Others, conversely, erect huge mounds composed of dead plant material, inside which they deposit their eggs and allow the heat generated internally by the rotting vegetation to incubate them.

Today's megapodes are little more than dwarfs in comparison with certain fossil species. If, as currently believed, the ancestors of today’s aboriginals reached Australia no later than 45,000-55,000 years ago, they would have been familiar with the Australian giant megapode Progura [=Leipoa] gallinacea. Although generally similar in overall shape, this very robust species was approximately half as large again as today’s biggest megapodes. These are Australia's closely-related but only 2-ft-long mallee fowl Leipoa ocellata and its slightly larger brush turkey Alectura lathami - this latter vulture-headed species creates mounds up to 9 ft in height. Leg bones of an even larger, hitherto-unknown form of megapode have been discovered in a Polynesian midden on one of Fiji’s tiniest islands, demonstrating that it too was clearly contemporary with early humans. Yet even these sizeable species pale into insignificance in comparison with a truly spectacular relative, recently exposed as a bona fide prehistoric survivor.

Set of ornamental tiles depicting an Australian brush turkey, the largest living megapode species (John Hill/Wikipedia)

To the east of Australia is the island of New Caledonia, a former French territory whose southernmost tip looks out towards a very much smaller isle nearby, the Isle of Pines. In 1976, the Bulletin de la Société d'Études Historiques de Nouvelle Calédonie published an extremely interesting paper by historian Dr Paul Griscelli, who revealed that, according to oral traditions of the Houailou people (one of the isle's native Melanesian tribes), this minuscule speck of land once harboured an enormous and extraordinary bird.

Their ancestors called it the du, and described it as a huge, aggressive bird with red plumage and a star-shaped bony casque on its head. Although unable to fly, it could run very swiftly, usually with its wings outstretched. It laid a single egg, which took four months to hatch (from November's close to April's onset), but it did not incubate the egg itself.

Reconstruction of Sylviornis incorporating traditional native descriptive details of the du in a Geobios paper authored by Prof. François Poplin and Dr Cécile Mourer-Chauviré (see below)

As expected with any item of mythology, there were certain aspects that were unquestionably fictional. In particular, it was asserted that the du practised a most unlikely cuckoo-like deception to avoid brooding its egg - by laying it in a hollow banyan tree used as a lair by some form of giant lizard, in order for the lizard to incubate it instead!

In stark contrast to such tall tales as this, however, the fundamental, mainstream details regarding the du are precise and sober, indicating that these may have stemmed from sightings long ago of some real creature. Even so, bearing in mind that many fabulous birds of monstrous form with no claim whatsoever to a basis in truth do occur in numerous myths and folktales around the world, it is nonetheless very possible that the du would have been dismissed as nothing more than just another example of such a fantasy animal, especially as there appeared to be no way of pursuing the matter further. Fortunately, the du's seemingly imminent descent into obscurity was not to be.

While preparing the final draft of his paper, Griscelli received some staggering news. Excavating fossils at Kanumera, on the Isle of Pines in 1974, Paris lecturer Dr J. Dubois had disinterred some bones that had since been identified by Professor François Poplin of Paris's Natural History Museum as limb portions from a gigantic bird! Relics of the du? In addition, when the bones were dated by radiocarbon techniques, they were found to be no older than 3,500 years, and as humans were known to have reached the Isle of Pines prior to this period they would have been well acquainted with the birds.

Magnificent painting of a Sylviornis family (© Éric Alibert / inclusion here strictly on Fair Use/non-commercial basis only)

The dimensions of this vanished bird's remains have shown that it was as large as the modern-day emu (5-6 ft tall), and flightless. Indeed, after studying the bones, in 1980 Poplin published a scientific description of this dramatic species (Comptes Rendus), named by him Sylviornis neocaledoniae, in which he announced that, like the emu, it too may have been a ratite – i.e. one of those widely-dispersed species of giant flightless bird that also include the ostrich, rheas, and cassowaries, as well as the extinct moas, and elephant birds.

Comparing the dimensions of Sylviornis neocaledoniae to those of an average-sized human and automobile (http://palaeos-blog.blogspot.co.uk / inclusion here strictly on Fair Use/non-commercial basis only)

Three years later, however, following further researches, Poplin changed his mind and announced that Sylviornis was actually an immense megapode (Comptes Rendus). Moreover, as he and co-worker Cécile Mourer-Chauviré discussed in another paper (Geobios, February 1985), there is an intriguing supplementary source of evidence favouring this identity, contained within the Houailou's mythology - for, according to their oral traditions, the du did not incubate its egg. Unfortunately, however, if we exclude from serious consideration their lizard-hatching legend, their folklore offers no clue as to the egg’s resulting fate.

Nevertheless, as Mourer-Chauviré and Poplin pointed out just a few months later (La Recherche, September 1985), researchers seeking the answer to this riddle on the Isle of Pines might not have to look very far for it, because if Poplin's later hypothesis is correct, the riddle's answer is readily visible in many parts of the isle, and also on New Caledonia.

Sepia-tinted sketch reconstructing Sylviornis (Markus Bühler)

Both of these islands bear a great number of very large mound-like structures, measuring up to 150 ft in diameter and as much as 15 ft in height. Constructed from materials present in their immediate surroundings (soil, particles of iron oxide, coral debris, sometimes black silicon as well), their precise nature has never been conclusively ascertained - despite a century of archaeological investigations.

In the meantime, it has simply been assumed that they are ancient tumuli (burial mounds) erected by the islands' early human occupants. However, no human remains have been found within them. Hence Mourer-Chauviré and Poplin postulated that they may really be egg-incubator mounds of Sylviornis, the last visible evidence of this mighty species' former existence. If ultimately verified, this identification would not only solve a long-standing topographical mystery but also demonstrate that Sylviornis existed on New Caledonia itself, not just on the Isle of Pines.

Sylviornis skull fragment and tibia, in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (FunkMonk/Wikipedia)

Speaking of New Caledonia, it is possible that a much smaller megapode once hailed from this island too. When Captain James Cook’s second voyage reached New Caledonia in 1774, one of its members recorded seeing a small, bare-legged form of gallinaceous bird that could well have been a megapode. Certainly, fossil bones of a comparably-sized megapode of relatively recent date (geologically speaking) have been unearthed here; their species has been named Megapodius molestructor.

Returning to the du/Sylviornis issue, there is no doubt that a mound-erecting megapode the size of an emu would have been a stunning sight, and it is one that may have persisted for much longer than originally believed. According to Dr Jean-Christophe Balouet in his book Extinct Species of the World (1990), this species is thought by some researchers to have survived into early historical times - until at least the 3rd Century AD (though more conservative estimates date its extinction at around 150 BC).

Even so, it had vanished long before its island domain was reached by Europeans - but why? After all, during his researches into Houailou mythology, Griscelli found that for at least a time the du had been deemed by their ancestors to be little less than an avian deity - a sacred creature of reverence. The punishment for killing a du was death, and an insignia in the shape of its stellate casque was a symbol of great esteem, worn only by the most powerful of tribal chiefs. But, like all things, customs change, especially when eroded by changing priorities.

New Caledonia postage stamp from 1995 depicting Sylviornis neocaledoniae

On as tiny an island as the Isle of Pines, food was scarcely plentiful, particularly for entire human tribes, and, not surprisingly, cannibalism was prevalent in those early days of human occupation. It could only be a matter of time, therefore, before the awe-inspired taboos protecting the du would be weakened and violated by the more practical realisation that these enormous, robust birds were actually an abundant, readily accessible source of top-quality meat. And so it was that this colossal bird's once-exalted status plummeted precipitously, and prosaically - from the du as demi-god, to the du as dinner!

There could only be one outcome. Long before Westerners could ever receive the opportunity of witnessing this magnificent bird, Sylviornis had been exterminated. For many centuries it would survive merely as a curious native legend, its morphology and lifestyle preserved only by verbal transmission through successive generations of its annihilators' descendants - until the day when its bones would finally be disinterred, and the reality of the Isle of Pines' bygone feathered deity at last be confirmed beyond any shadow of doubt.

A First Day Cover (FDC) issued by New Caledonia on 16 May 1995, commemorating Sylviornis

From mythical du to extinct Sylviornis - clearly not a resurrection . . . or is it? Tantalisingly, while visiting New Caledonia in 1991, Danish zoologist Lars Thomas discovered that the native people speak of the du as if it were still alive today, and describe it accurately. Racial memories - or Sylviornis survival?

Finally: In 2005, Mourer-Chauviré and Balouet published a detailed revisionary Sylviornis neocaledoniae paper in which they reclassified this enigmatic mound-building species, deciding that it was sufficiently distinct from all other megapodes to warrant the creation of an entirely new taxonomic family to accommodate it – Sylviornithidae.

A fictional but irresistible mega-sized megapode – the giant purple megapode dreamed up and drawn after the artist had seen the fossil skeleton of a real giant megapode at the San Francisco Academy of Sciences (Abalone Da-SeaSnail/DeviantART.com / inclusion here strictly on Fair Use/non-commercial basis only)

This ShukerNature post is excerpted from my book Extraordinary Animals Revisited (CFZ Press: Bideford, 2007).