Monday, 26 April 2010
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Picture of the day; Procoptodon, a wierd semi primate kangaroo!
Here is an image by artist Peter Trusler of the 2 meter tall Australian Procoptodon. It was a strange kangaroo like creature that died out 15,000 years ago and was primarily a browser, capable of reaching 3 meters into the trees with its long clawed hands. It also had a short tail, probably used to prop it up when feeding, as well as monodactyl (functionally one toed) feet. The short face and foreword pointing eyes allowed Procoptodon to focus on a single point with both eyes, enabling it to manipulate food with its hands in a coordinated way.
Of course this critter hopped like modern kangaroos; its ankle bones were abnormally wide to stabilize its single toed foot and allow for greater surface area of the leg pulling tendons.
Of course this critter hopped like modern kangaroos; its ankle bones were abnormally wide to stabilize its single toed foot and allow for greater surface area of the leg pulling tendons.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
The Mokele Mbembe; more info
Here is a video from a 1992 Japanese expedition to the Congo to find the Mokele Mbembe. It is a rather fuzzy image and appears to be a swimming elephant with its trunk held above the water rather than a Sauropod.
To finish of my cryptozoological series of posts I will be talking about even more possible prehistoric African animals alive today.
To finish of my cryptozoological series of posts I will be talking about even more possible prehistoric African animals alive today.
Ufkuygk
A kind of speechless silent film, but with music, by my friend Fred. You can visit his blog by looking at my followers section (he's the only one). The truth is if you visit this blog please leave comments so that I actually know if someone reads it (which I doubt is likely). I only use it as something to do when I am at home with not much to do or as somewhere to write about my ideas or interests.
Anyway Fred animates and plays all sorts of strange instruments in the band Shade Of Red, who's blog I also follow, although I am not sure that you can acsess it from my page, so here's a link. Like most of his animations it is very random, but this is the only one that I could really make sense of.
Anyway Fred animates and plays all sorts of strange instruments in the band Shade Of Red, who's blog I also follow, although I am not sure that you can acsess it from my page, so here's a link. Like most of his animations it is very random, but this is the only one that I could really make sense of.
Friday, 16 April 2010
Other possible living dinosaurs; the Mokele Mbembe's cryptid ecosystem!
Apologies for a slight misnomer of the titles in my two previous posts titled living dinosaur. In fact the term I should be using is; living nonavian dinosaur, because living dinosaurs are entirely unremarkable. You are probably no more than 20 meters away from one now. They are the birds. It is only dinosaurs that are not birds that allegedly died out 65 million years ago.
I am only about to include African cryptids that are believable and not likely to be misidentified known animals.
Above; Wuerhosaurus from China was one of the last Stegosaurs and had rectangular back plates very similar to planks of wood.
Firstly there is the Mibielu-Mibielu-Mibielu of the Congo. This animal reportedly has planks growing from its back and is aquatic, with an algal covering over its skin. Roy Mackal, a cryptozoologist compiled many of the sightings, but I have been unable to obtain much information. This animal could be a Stegosaur. Paranthodon, from the Cretaceous period of South Africa may well have been the last of the Stegosaurs we know of from fossils.
Above; With multiple horns Styracosaurus may be the most similar dinosaur to the Ngoubou beast.
The Ngoubou was fully confirmed a cryptid in 2000 by Whiliam Gibbons in Cameroon who was told by the natives of a rhinoceros like beast with multiple horns, possibly six of them as in Styracosaurus from North America. Ngoubou is the native name for a rhino, but the natives stated that the monster they described was clearly different. Another earlier sighting in the Congo during 1913 and reported by the London Times was catalouged in Bernard Heuvelmans's book; On the Track of Unknown Animals; "he came across an extraordinary monster, which charged at him. Lepage fired but was forced to flee, with the monster in chase. The animal before long gave up the chase and Lepage was able to examine it through his binoculars. The animal, he says, was about 24 feet in length with a long pointed snout adorned with tusks like horns and a short horn above the nostrils. The front feet were like those of a horse and the hind hoofs were cloven. There was a scaly hump on the monsters shoulder." The descriptions suggest this mystery creature could be a Ceratopsian, however these animals are only well known from North America and Asia. Possible Ceratopsian remains have come from South America and Australia suggesting they were present in the southern hemisphere during the Cretaceous period and could still be.
The above creatures should all be treated with skepticism. There is a high possibility that they are not real due to the lack of reports and evidence. What is certain is that the Congo is a big place where there are many undiscovered animals yet to be found. Perhaps not as extravagent as living dinosaurs, but certainly interesting.
I am only about to include African cryptids that are believable and not likely to be misidentified known animals.
Above; Wuerhosaurus from China was one of the last Stegosaurs and had rectangular back plates very similar to planks of wood.
Firstly there is the Mibielu-Mibielu-Mibielu of the Congo. This animal reportedly has planks growing from its back and is aquatic, with an algal covering over its skin. Roy Mackal, a cryptozoologist compiled many of the sightings, but I have been unable to obtain much information. This animal could be a Stegosaur. Paranthodon, from the Cretaceous period of South Africa may well have been the last of the Stegosaurs we know of from fossils.
Above; With multiple horns Styracosaurus may be the most similar dinosaur to the Ngoubou beast.
The Ngoubou was fully confirmed a cryptid in 2000 by Whiliam Gibbons in Cameroon who was told by the natives of a rhinoceros like beast with multiple horns, possibly six of them as in Styracosaurus from North America. Ngoubou is the native name for a rhino, but the natives stated that the monster they described was clearly different. Another earlier sighting in the Congo during 1913 and reported by the London Times was catalouged in Bernard Heuvelmans's book; On the Track of Unknown Animals; "he came across an extraordinary monster, which charged at him. Lepage fired but was forced to flee, with the monster in chase. The animal before long gave up the chase and Lepage was able to examine it through his binoculars. The animal, he says, was about 24 feet in length with a long pointed snout adorned with tusks like horns and a short horn above the nostrils. The front feet were like those of a horse and the hind hoofs were cloven. There was a scaly hump on the monsters shoulder." The descriptions suggest this mystery creature could be a Ceratopsian, however these animals are only well known from North America and Asia. Possible Ceratopsian remains have come from South America and Australia suggesting they were present in the southern hemisphere during the Cretaceous period and could still be.
The above creatures should all be treated with skepticism. There is a high possibility that they are not real due to the lack of reports and evidence. What is certain is that the Congo is a big place where there are many undiscovered animals yet to be found. Perhaps not as extravagent as living dinosaurs, but certainly interesting.
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
More living dinosaurs; the Mokele Mbembe
Above; The Mokele Mbembe is said to kill hipppos. Perhaps to wipe out competition for food and resources. The Mokele Mbembe, known by different names around Africa is a large dinosaur like monster said to be aggressive, but not carnivorous. It has a long neck and mainly lives in rivers, hibernating in caves during the dry season. With the small head and big body it seems to resemble a sea serpent, but no sea serpent has for columnar legs capable of supporting its weight on dry land. Is the Mokele Mbembe a living Sauropod dinosaur?
The first references to the Mokele Mbembe; the one who stops the flow of rivers, can be found in French missionary Abbé Lievain Bonaventure's 1776 book where he describes animals of the Congo. One passage describes a set of footprints possible referable to this cryptid; "must have been monstrous: the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, and these formed a print about three feet in circumference." Other documents of footprints show consistency in having been large, at around 3 feet wide and three toed; 1919-1920, expedition into Africa conducted by the Smithsonian Institution; "African guides found large, unexplained tracks along the bank of a river" (Field Guide To Lake Monsters by Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe) *** 1927; Alfred Aloysius Smith, a trader working in Gabon during the 1800's wrights in his memoir Trader Bon where he refers to an unknown creature that leaves round three clawed footprints. 1966; Yvan Ridel photographs a set of three toed footprints near Laubomo. Sightings showing the Mokele Mbembe to be long necked and large bodied; 1909; Lt Paul Gratz refers to a native legend in Zambia of a Sauropod like creature. 1909; Big game hunter Carl Hagenbeck in his autobiography Beasts and Men refers to multiple sources including other big game hunters and natives in the Congo area informing him of a creature "half elephant, half dragon" or "some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the brontosaurs".* 1913; German Captain Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz includes descriptions of a beast sighted by natives in Cameroon; "The animal is said to be of a brownish-gray color with a smooth skin, its size is approximately that of an elephant; at least that of a hippopotamus. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth but a very long one; some say it is a horn. A few spoke about a long, muscular tail like that of an alligator."** 1939; in the German Colonial Gazette (Angola) a letter by Frau Ilse von Nolde describes encounters with a long necked monster called "coye ya menia" ("water lion").**** 1976; botanical expedition into Zaire lead by James Powell, monster called the "n'yamala" described to him by natives. When they were shown pictures of animals alive and extinct the natives said that of the long necked Diplodocus dinosaur most resembled the creature.***** 1980; Roy Mackal and James Powell visit Congo region and interview those who had seen the Mokele Mbembe. When Mackal and Powell were interviewed by Arthur C Clark, a cryptozoologist and sci-fi writer, he wrote a description from their findings; "animals 15 to 30 feet (5 to 9 m) long (most of that a snakelike head and neck, plus long thin tail). The body was reminiscent of a hippo's, only more bulbous ... again, informants invariable pointed to a picture of a sauropod when shown pictures of various animals to which mokele-mbembe might be compared."
Above; Eugene Thomas, a missionary in the Congo reported a Mokele Mbembe hunt in 1959 near lake Tele in the Congo area. After the natives built a spiked wall in a tributary to the Tele to prevent the beast from disrupting their fishing it was broken open and the Mokele Mbembe entered the lake. The pygmies hunted the creature and killed it. Apparently all those who ate its flesh died, perhaps due to food poisoning, a disease that the wounded animal had contracted or as the pygmies think; magic. The Mokele Mbembe is an aggressive, territorial, yet herbivorous semi aquatic animal that produces loud roaring sounds; 1909;* Hagenback's book also describes Hans Schomburgk's (big game hunter) tale of a creature living in Lake Bangweulu that killed hippos. 1913;** Von Stein's report also describes the feeding habits of the Cameroon monster; "Canoes coming near it are said to be doomed; the animal is said to attack the vessels at once and to kill the crews but without eating the bodies. The creature is said to live in the caves that have been washed out by the river in the clay of its shores at sharp bends. It is said to climb the shores even at daytime in search of food; its diet is said to be entirely vegetable. This feature disagrees with a possible explanation as a myth. The preferred plant was shown to me, it is a kind of liana with large white blossoms, with a milky sap and apple like fruits." 1919-1920;*** Coleman's book also describes a remarkable incident that occurred as the Smithsonian expedition drew to a close; "later in a swamp the team heard mysterious roars, which had no resemblance with any known animal." Ironically when the expedition was on a train running through a flooded area near a recent monster sighting the train derailed and four expedition members were killed, could this have been the work of an angry or provoked territorial dinosaur that crawled from the flood waters to face its metal adversary? 1932; in Cameroon a zoologist Ivan Sanderson reports seeing a large wounded creature retreating into a river. 1939; ****the Colonial Gazette reported the "water lion" to be a river dweller. 1976; *****Powell's monster whiteness's in Zaire reported that the beast ate the flowering liana as was described in Von Stein's report from Cameroon. 1979; Powell returns to Zaire and interviews several more native witnesses. They reported the n'yamala (as was the beasts native name) to be a herbivore, but aggressive and capable of destroying canoes when approached. Above; At least two seperate witnesess's (Powell 1976 and Von Stein 1913) say that the Mokele Mbembe is a fan of flowering lianas. All of this behaviour and appearance in the reports points towards the Mokele Mbembe and other African cryptids of similar description being long necked Sauropod dinosaurs that have been known from fossils in Africa right up to the end of the Cretaceous period. Reports suggest the creature is smaller than its ancestors, being about hippo sized rather than whale sized; so able to move easily in the dense Congo forest. In such a large jungle a semi aquatic monster could easily conceal itself. Above; the Mokele Mbembe is smaller than most Sauropods to allow it to move through the dense Congo rainforest. Other possibilities for the beasts identity may surprise you. Most trials with animal pictures shown to natives in the Congo basin reveal that the beast is most similar to a Sauropod dinosaur. In the BBC's documentary Congo aired in 2001, which I remember very well, the same experiment was carried out on a tribe of pygmies. As soon as the photograph of a rhinoceros was displayed to the natives immediately recognised it as Mokele Mbembe. Even though there are no rhinoceros in the Congo today it is possible that it's presence in native culture persisted and perhaps, due to the sightings, they occasionally visit the rain forest. Recall Von Stein's description of the beast "and only one tooth but a very long one; some say it is a horn". However; this does not explain the long neck and tail. I believe that the name Mokele Mbembe encompasses more than one beast. Perhaps some sightings have been those of rhinoceros and others of a Sauropod. Since both animals would be strange and alien to the natives of the Congo, perhaps they interpreted both as the same creature by combining their features. Other creatures such as Angola's coye ya menia, the n'yamala of Zaire and Von Stein's beast should be classified as the Mokele Mbembe, where as the other horned Mokele Mbembe should be considered as stray or relic Congolese rhinos. Above; Aegyptosaurus was a Sauropod dinosaur from the Cretaceous period of Egypt. Although Sauropods typically preferred dry climates it is possible for the Mokele Mbembe to have adapted to swamplands within the last 65 million years.
I must warn all budding cryptozoologists not to fall for the stories involving lost or damaged photographs and other definitive evidence because often people who claim this are trying to prove why, when they had the opportunity to prove a cryptids existence, they did not have the proof with them. Therefore I would advise all people to avoid believing in stories involving circumstances like these.
These stories shed doubt on the existence of such creatures rather than substantiate their existence and just make it harder for people to distinguish reality from myth. Let us hope that the Mokele Mbembe shows itself, for it may already be endangered by deforestation. If such a relic as a living dinosaur was found in the Congo forests; they and their wildlife would stand a higher chance of becoming completely protected.
Please trust me; I have sourced most of this info mostly from the internet, but have checked the sources used. If a website does not have its sources cited or they are not reliable I ignore it.
Update: I treat the idea of a sauropod living in africa with great skepticism. I do not want to create the misunderstanding that I unquestionably accept the existence of the these creatures. I just like to keep an open mind to such possibilities.
Monday, 12 April 2010
The Burrunjor; a living dinosaur?
It is tall, resembles a meat eating dinosaur, inhabits specific territories in north Australia, occasionally leaving to pick off people and their livestock, three toed, scaley and often described as "Tyrannosaurus rex like" by eyewhitnesses, these stories have been told for thousands of years by the local Aborigines and therefore were described or imagined way before dinosaurs were discovered by the western world, as a result no influence has come from us in its appearence, its cave paintings adorn the surfaces of rocks around Australia, all showing a creature almost identical to a meat eating dinosaur, coming in different names depending where in Australia you are; Kooleen, or more commonly, Burrunjor. Could this creature be the last surviving Theropod dinosaur?
The Burrunjor is a little known dinosaur like cryptid. When the Bigfoot and Yeti take up the limelight more believable and intriguing creatures are overlooked. I find the Burrunjor and its tales the most convincing, even more so than those of the the Loch Ness Monster.
One area this monster is claimed to inhabit is Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. With an area of about 97,000 km² and a population of 16,230 it isn't exactly dense; especially when considering London, with an area of 1,706.8 km2 and a population of about 14 million. With lots of forest scrub and bush to conceal it as well as cattle and crocodiles to feed on the Burrunjor could definitely exist in a sparse and low population. The scary thing is this critter also occupies northern Queensland. In both places there is an area of land where the Burrunjor is said to roam and where no animals or Aborigines will willingly go, these lands, like their illusive owners are called Burrunjor. Now Aborigines, you could say are acting on superstitious beliefs, but animals reacting with fear in these places is most unusual.
Perhaps the most chilling story of the beast is that re told by Rex and Heather Gilroy, a pair of open minded investigators that have done a lot of research into the Burrunjor;
"In 1978, a Northern Territory bushman and explorer, Bryan Clark, related a story of his own that had taken place some years before. While mustering cattle in the Urupunji 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 that region and back to the homestead from which he had originally set out.
He didn't know it 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 in doing so. The policeman hobbled his horse, cooked their meal and then climbed into his swag and went to sleep.
Later that night the two Aborigines, shouting unintelligibly and grasping for their packs and saddles, suddenly woke him up. The policeman realised at this moment the ground appeared to be shaking. Hurriedly getting to his feet, he, too, gathered up his belongings. Shortly afterwards the three galloped away.
The policeman told Bryan Clark later at the Urapunji homestead that he also heard a sound, somewhat like a loud puffing or grunting noise, certainly loud enough to be coming from a large animal. When asked if he intended to include this in his report, the policeman replied that he would not because he feared that no one would believe him.
The policeman warned Bryan Clark never to return to that area, because if he got lost there again he would be "on his own": the police would not come looking for him."
Many more descriptive reports have been given. Often described as being about 20 feet in height/length, this monster is well known amongst cattle ranchers of the Gulf coast. In 1980 something big was stealing cattle; big enough to pick them up and carry them off. At first the stock men suspected crocodiles, but. Charles Waterman, a cattleman, described a "fearsome", mottled 20 foot tall beast carrying a cow in its jaws that bounded out of sight as he hid behind a bush. By this time they were fed up with this pest stealing their stock, assembling a team of 20 men and some dogs, the ranchers set off into the bush. When they reached a river the dogs started to behave strangely and ran off. Nearby was a set of reptilian trackways. The horses would go no further so the stock men headed back home.
Even more dramatic proof of what a Burrunjor can do was seen near the Mc Arthur river in Northern Territory in 1957 as 50 cattle began to panic. The ranchers were perplexed, especially when one of their team ran screaming into a nearby river for relative safety. Just like the Urupunji incident a loud grunting and snorting noise was heard. Witnesses viewed the silhouette of a tall monster fleeing into a nearby scrub land and daybreak revealed several mutilated cattle, some half eaten.
The anatomy and behaviour of the Burrunjor based on eyewitness reports along with references to sightings describing the feature in question as follows:
Above; Cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy with the plaster cast of one of the huge three-toed footprints, of a mysterious bipedal reptillian giant creature, found outside Narooma in June 1984.
The Burrunjor is a bipedal reptile with tree toes as in Theropod dinosaurs;
1950, Burketown region, two legged reptile tracks sighted by ranchers.
1961, Lagoon Creek, Johnny Mathews, sees 25 foot tall bipedal reptilian monster.
1960, three toed tracks found near Alice Springs and Mount Isa.
1980, Kamuna district, Max Field finds a trackway of 50 footprints. The inner toe (37 cm) is longer than the outer ones (10 cm) as in dinosaurs.
1979, north of Burketown, Aborigional fishermen spot three toed footprints.
1922, north of Cloncurry, stock men sight a "big lizard monster" that was bipedal and moved its tail from side to side when walking. Theropods possess a muscle that runs from their femur to the base of the tail, as in crocodiles their tail would move side to side when walking.
1982, east Arnhem Land, human sized bipedal reptile sighted.*
1961, north of Mount Isa, kangaroo hunters spot a bipedal reptile 8 meters tall during a dust storm.**
1950, Jack Peckham a buffalo shooter spots some 38 cm footprints of a three toed bipedal animal in Arnhem Land.
The Burrunjor is a biological entity rather than a supernatural occurrence as shown by possible accounts of breeding behaviour;
1985; near the Roper River Mission, Askey family spots a pair of bipedal reptilian creatures 20 feet tall moving together. As the Burrunjor is often seen on its own this unique pairing may be a mated couple. ***
1982, * This east Arnhem Land individual may represent a juvenile animal as most sightings describe the Burrunjor as 20 or so feet in height.*
The Burrunjor produces a grunting huff and puff sound, is mottled with dark colouration and roams specific territories;
1978, Bryan Clark gets lost in scrub land in Urupuji area (for full account of this encounter look towards top of article), policeman searching for him hears loud puffing or grunting noise.
1982, interview with bushman Allan Richie who roams remote far northern areas of Australia, he found "Aborigines terrified of these animals.........There is one region..... beyond which no horse will go willingly-nor will most Aborigines." (territorial?) " Horrific sounds are heard....and the crashing of foliage in the jungle as the monsters move about."
1970, near Floraville, Jack and Jane Mulholland spot a "20 foot tall Tyrannosaurus rex like monster with a mottled skin coloration".
1977, Normanton district, Aboriginal couple run into a grey skinned Burrunjor that resembled a Tyrannosaurus, feeding on a bullock.
1982, * creature sighted in east Arnhem Land was said to be blackish brown coloured.
1961,** dust storm sighting said to be a dark object, possibly indicative of dark colouration.
1985, *** Askey family sighting, Greg Askey described the creatures; "The monsters were a grayish brown colour and dinosaur like in appearance. We didn't wait around."
Other factors such as its unusual effect on animals are consistent through out reports. The reasons I am most convinced by the existence of the Burrunjor are;
A; Even though this is a little known monster the reports show consistency unlike those of the Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster.
B; Out of all the places in the world for dinosaurs to have survived Australia is the most likely. Polar dinosaurs would be used to surviving the long periods of cold and darkness caused by the meteorite impact that possibly finished off the dinosaurs (during the Cretaceous period Australia was close to the south pole and joined to Antarctica).
C; Australia is a big poorly populated place that an intelligent large animal could remain relatively undetected in.
D; Arnhem land and the rest of Australia has an enormous crocodile population perfectly adequate to feed a sparse community of elephant sized predators.
E; There are not too many convenient cameras to take photos of the beast or buckets of plaster to take footprint casts, lying around the Australian outback. Or lost bodies of shot specimens that were either too big to take back, or disappeared when the hunter comes back in the morning to get it.
F; Aborigines describing beasts resembling carnivorous dinosaurs for thousands of years before they were even discovered, in a country where the most complete dinosaur skeletons found are at best highly fragmentary.
Evidence aside the Burrunjor could be a Neovenatorid as these were the most common Cretaceous predators in Australia, if not, it was definitely some other sort of meat eating dinosaur. Recently remains of a Tyrannosaur have been found in Australia. The fact that reports (1980 Charles Waterford sighting) show the creature carrying prey in its jaws rather than in its arms does point towards the Tyrannosaurs who had enormous heads and necks, whereas Neovenatorids had slender lower jaws and a weak bite, incapable of lifting something as large as a cow!
Above; three extinct animals other than dinosaurs that could be the the Burrunjor, in descending order; the omnivorous kangaroo Propleopus, the 3 meter tall bird Dromornis and the sloth like marsupial Palorchestes.
The Burrunjor is a little known dinosaur like cryptid. When the Bigfoot and Yeti take up the limelight more believable and intriguing creatures are overlooked. I find the Burrunjor and its tales the most convincing, even more so than those of the the Loch Ness Monster.
One area this monster is claimed to inhabit is Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. With an area of about 97,000 km² and a population of 16,230 it isn't exactly dense; especially when considering London, with an area of 1,706.8 km2 and a population of about 14 million. With lots of forest scrub and bush to conceal it as well as cattle and crocodiles to feed on the Burrunjor could definitely exist in a sparse and low population. The scary thing is this critter also occupies northern Queensland. In both places there is an area of land where the Burrunjor is said to roam and where no animals or Aborigines will willingly go, these lands, like their illusive owners are called Burrunjor. Now Aborigines, you could say are acting on superstitious beliefs, but animals reacting with fear in these places is most unusual.
Perhaps the most chilling story of the beast is that re told by Rex and Heather Gilroy, a pair of open minded investigators that have done a lot of research into the Burrunjor;
"In 1978, a Northern Territory bushman and explorer, Bryan Clark, related a story of his own that had taken place some years before. While mustering cattle in the Urupunji 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 that region and back to the homestead from which he had originally set out.
He didn't know it 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 in doing so. The policeman hobbled his horse, cooked their meal and then climbed into his swag and went to sleep.
Later that night the two Aborigines, shouting unintelligibly and grasping for their packs and saddles, suddenly woke him up. The policeman realised at this moment the ground appeared to be shaking. Hurriedly getting to his feet, he, too, gathered up his belongings. Shortly afterwards the three galloped away.
The policeman told Bryan Clark later at the Urapunji homestead that he also heard a sound, somewhat like a loud puffing or grunting noise, certainly loud enough to be coming from a large animal. When asked if he intended to include this in his report, the policeman replied that he would not because he feared that no one would believe him.
The policeman warned Bryan Clark never to return to that area, because if he got lost there again he would be "on his own": the police would not come looking for him."
Many more descriptive reports have been given. Often described as being about 20 feet in height/length, this monster is well known amongst cattle ranchers of the Gulf coast. In 1980 something big was stealing cattle; big enough to pick them up and carry them off. At first the stock men suspected crocodiles, but. Charles Waterman, a cattleman, described a "fearsome", mottled 20 foot tall beast carrying a cow in its jaws that bounded out of sight as he hid behind a bush. By this time they were fed up with this pest stealing their stock, assembling a team of 20 men and some dogs, the ranchers set off into the bush. When they reached a river the dogs started to behave strangely and ran off. Nearby was a set of reptilian trackways. The horses would go no further so the stock men headed back home.
Even more dramatic proof of what a Burrunjor can do was seen near the Mc Arthur river in Northern Territory in 1957 as 50 cattle began to panic. The ranchers were perplexed, especially when one of their team ran screaming into a nearby river for relative safety. Just like the Urupunji incident a loud grunting and snorting noise was heard. Witnesses viewed the silhouette of a tall monster fleeing into a nearby scrub land and daybreak revealed several mutilated cattle, some half eaten.
The anatomy and behaviour of the Burrunjor based on eyewitness reports along with references to sightings describing the feature in question as follows:
Above; Cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy with the plaster cast of one of the huge three-toed footprints, of a mysterious bipedal reptillian giant creature, found outside Narooma in June 1984.
The Burrunjor is a bipedal reptile with tree toes as in Theropod dinosaurs;
1950, Burketown region, two legged reptile tracks sighted by ranchers.
1961, Lagoon Creek, Johnny Mathews, sees 25 foot tall bipedal reptilian monster.
1960, three toed tracks found near Alice Springs and Mount Isa.
1980, Kamuna district, Max Field finds a trackway of 50 footprints. The inner toe (37 cm) is longer than the outer ones (10 cm) as in dinosaurs.
1979, north of Burketown, Aborigional fishermen spot three toed footprints.
1922, north of Cloncurry, stock men sight a "big lizard monster" that was bipedal and moved its tail from side to side when walking. Theropods possess a muscle that runs from their femur to the base of the tail, as in crocodiles their tail would move side to side when walking.
1982, east Arnhem Land, human sized bipedal reptile sighted.*
1961, north of Mount Isa, kangaroo hunters spot a bipedal reptile 8 meters tall during a dust storm.**
1950, Jack Peckham a buffalo shooter spots some 38 cm footprints of a three toed bipedal animal in Arnhem Land.
The Burrunjor is a biological entity rather than a supernatural occurrence as shown by possible accounts of breeding behaviour;
1985; near the Roper River Mission, Askey family spots a pair of bipedal reptilian creatures 20 feet tall moving together. As the Burrunjor is often seen on its own this unique pairing may be a mated couple. ***
1982, * This east Arnhem Land individual may represent a juvenile animal as most sightings describe the Burrunjor as 20 or so feet in height.*
The Burrunjor produces a grunting huff and puff sound, is mottled with dark colouration and roams specific territories;
1978, Bryan Clark gets lost in scrub land in Urupuji area (for full account of this encounter look towards top of article), policeman searching for him hears loud puffing or grunting noise.
1982, interview with bushman Allan Richie who roams remote far northern areas of Australia, he found "Aborigines terrified of these animals.........There is one region..... beyond which no horse will go willingly-nor will most Aborigines." (territorial?) " Horrific sounds are heard....and the crashing of foliage in the jungle as the monsters move about."
1970, near Floraville, Jack and Jane Mulholland spot a "20 foot tall Tyrannosaurus rex like monster with a mottled skin coloration".
1977, Normanton district, Aboriginal couple run into a grey skinned Burrunjor that resembled a Tyrannosaurus, feeding on a bullock.
1982, * creature sighted in east Arnhem Land was said to be blackish brown coloured.
1961,** dust storm sighting said to be a dark object, possibly indicative of dark colouration.
1985, *** Askey family sighting, Greg Askey described the creatures; "The monsters were a grayish brown colour and dinosaur like in appearance. We didn't wait around."
Other factors such as its unusual effect on animals are consistent through out reports. The reasons I am most convinced by the existence of the Burrunjor are;
A; Even though this is a little known monster the reports show consistency unlike those of the Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster.
B; Out of all the places in the world for dinosaurs to have survived Australia is the most likely. Polar dinosaurs would be used to surviving the long periods of cold and darkness caused by the meteorite impact that possibly finished off the dinosaurs (during the Cretaceous period Australia was close to the south pole and joined to Antarctica).
C; Australia is a big poorly populated place that an intelligent large animal could remain relatively undetected in.
D; Arnhem land and the rest of Australia has an enormous crocodile population perfectly adequate to feed a sparse community of elephant sized predators.
E; There are not too many convenient cameras to take photos of the beast or buckets of plaster to take footprint casts, lying around the Australian outback. Or lost bodies of shot specimens that were either too big to take back, or disappeared when the hunter comes back in the morning to get it.
F; Aborigines describing beasts resembling carnivorous dinosaurs for thousands of years before they were even discovered, in a country where the most complete dinosaur skeletons found are at best highly fragmentary.
Evidence aside the Burrunjor could be a Neovenatorid as these were the most common Cretaceous predators in Australia, if not, it was definitely some other sort of meat eating dinosaur. Recently remains of a Tyrannosaur have been found in Australia. The fact that reports (1980 Charles Waterford sighting) show the creature carrying prey in its jaws rather than in its arms does point towards the Tyrannosaurs who had enormous heads and necks, whereas Neovenatorids had slender lower jaws and a weak bite, incapable of lifting something as large as a cow!
Above; three extinct animals other than dinosaurs that could be the the Burrunjor, in descending order; the omnivorous kangaroo Propleopus, the 3 meter tall bird Dromornis and the sloth like marsupial Palorchestes.
One suggestion not yet made by Rex Gilroy is that the Burrunjor could be a surviving ice age mammal rather than a dinosaur. Australia has had its fair share of large bipedal animals in the last 65 million years. These include both giant herbivorous and omnivorous kangaroos, huge herbivorous birds weighing up to half a ton and strange sloth like marsupials that reared up to reach into trees. All of these animals were about 10 feet tall. Not as tall as the Burrunjor, but size is often exaggerated by eyewitnesses and is an easy mistake to make in such an arid and vast land as Australia.
Even more intriguing is the presence of several other types of mythical Aborigional creatures that resemble dinosaurs including the Kooleen, a more human like creature described by Aborigines as a man with a tail and scales that inhabits Victoria, walking through forests and eating "both trees and people" as it goes, suggesting that this animal is omnivorous. It too has been seen in the Gulf coast scrubland, the same area where the Burrunjor is sighted. The encounter occured in 1993 when a gemestone hunter was approached by a 4 foot tall greenish grey coloured creature that was bipedal, thin and short tailed. As it got closer, too close for comfort, he beat it with a pick axe handle and ran for his car. Other dinosaur like features include a lizard like head, three toed feet and front claws. The similarities in location and colouration between this critter and the Burrunjor suggest this may be a juvenile of the latter rather than a true Kooleen. Rex Gilroy suggests that the Kooleen is merely a Burrunjor "under a different name", I agree.
Above; a long lecked Sauropod dinosaur like this may be the ancestor of the more recent cryptid; the Kulta.
Even more intriguing is the presence of several other types of mythical Aborigional creatures that resemble dinosaurs including the Kooleen, a more human like creature described by Aborigines as a man with a tail and scales that inhabits Victoria, walking through forests and eating "both trees and people" as it goes, suggesting that this animal is omnivorous. It too has been seen in the Gulf coast scrubland, the same area where the Burrunjor is sighted. The encounter occured in 1993 when a gemestone hunter was approached by a 4 foot tall greenish grey coloured creature that was bipedal, thin and short tailed. As it got closer, too close for comfort, he beat it with a pick axe handle and ran for his car. Other dinosaur like features include a lizard like head, three toed feet and front claws. The similarities in location and colouration between this critter and the Burrunjor suggest this may be a juvenile of the latter rather than a true Kooleen. Rex Gilroy suggests that the Kooleen is merely a Burrunjor "under a different name", I agree.
Above; a long lecked Sauropod dinosaur like this may be the ancestor of the more recent cryptid; the Kulta.
There is also the Kulta. Aborigines of central Australia say it is a giant rain forest dwelling serpent, with a small head, thin long neck, big fat body supported by 4 legs and a long thin tail sticking out behind it. This description deeply resembles a Sauropod dinosaur, these long necked herbivores one roamed Australia during the age of dinosaurs and we have fossils to prove it. Like the Burrunjor it may have been a late survivor, but it clearly was not as sucsessful as the Burrunjor. The myth states that as its swamp forests dried up the Kulta died out. This account certainly correlates with Australia's recent climatic changes. It has become progressively hotter and drier over the last 100,000 years. This climate change has caused the extinction of many known prehistoric forest animals in Australia such as the giant Mekosuchine crocodiles and 10 foot tall flightless Dromornithid birds, both dying out about 50,000 years ago. In true consistency with the Aborigines account there are no modern tales I am aware of that describe a recent encounter with the Kulta.
Untill more evidence is found for Australias Jurassic Park I will remain skeptical, may open minded people like Rex and Heather Gilroy continue to research and test these strange occurences. Maybe someday we will not need to clone dinosaurs from fossilized DNA, because we will have living specimens hiding in our own backyards without us knowing it. Even if the Burrunjor and its contemporaries are not real the dinosaurs never did go extinct, they just changed. Today birds are the direct descendants of mesozoic dinosaurs and there is mounting evidence to suggest that some well known dinosaurs like Velociraptor actually evolved from flying ancestors and are in effect giant toothy flesh eating flightless birds.
All info in this article sourced from either Rex and Heather Gilroys Mysterious Australia website or their Nexus magazine article EVIDENCE FOR DINOSAURS IN AUSTRALIA that got me so interested in this little known creature.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Walker Texas Ranger
From now on every few days or so I will place one episode of cheesy Chuck Norris glory on my blog, enjoy!
With moustaces like Freddie Mercury and stiff upper lips we take a look at some of the worlds finest stuffies!
Name: Sir Miquand of Hickelby Roycott Von Hampster the third.
Comments: Miquand enjoys tea, in fact he loves it. To clean his moustace of "sausage" resedue he has a personal tosh cleaning monkey called Biron trained in Switzerland. His hobbies include ostrich riding and feeding the ducks.
Name: Lord Theivingsnootybastardfailedlabourpoliticianwhostealsourmoneyandpartakesinbenefitfraudandhangsaroundin"gentelmens"clubs.
Comments: After getting toled he was a crap politician cos he wasn't good enough at stealing our money he was put in the house of lords and givien an enormous pension. Soon went mad with power and richness
Name: King Herbert the third of Romaniastanland.
Comments: Herbert is a noble gentelman who likes nothing more than to peer into camera lenses and try to look intellectual by raising one eyebrow.
Name: Harold Barber Duke of Tweed.
Comments: Has had 35789601 wives, each one married him for one of the following reasons;
Name: first name changes daily. Sirname; Tossa.
Comments: Spends most of his time trying to find a first name that will not sound dirty when said with the sirname.
Comments: Miquand enjoys tea, in fact he loves it. To clean his moustace of "sausage" resedue he has a personal tosh cleaning monkey called Biron trained in Switzerland. His hobbies include ostrich riding and feeding the ducks.
Name: Lord Theivingsnootybastardfailedlabourpoliticianwhostealsourmoneyandpartakesinbenefitfraudandhangsaroundin"gentelmens"clubs.
Comments: After getting toled he was a crap politician cos he wasn't good enough at stealing our money he was put in the house of lords and givien an enormous pension. Soon went mad with power and richness
Name: King Herbert the third of Romaniastanland.
Comments: Herbert is a noble gentelman who likes nothing more than to peer into camera lenses and try to look intellectual by raising one eyebrow.
Name: Harold Barber Duke of Tweed.
Comments: Has had 35789601 wives, each one married him for one of the following reasons;
A; for a joke
B; cos he is rich
D; cos he lied about his age on dating sights and heavily photoshoped his prophile picture
Name: first name changes daily. Sirname; Tossa.
Comments: Spends most of his time trying to find a first name that will not sound dirty when said with the sirname.
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