Tag: living dinosaurs

The Congo Dinosaur

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

What are the crown jewels of cryptozoology?

Gotta be the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and this, the dinosaur rumored to inhabit the swamps of the Congo–Mokele Mbembe.

By all accounts, Mokele Mbembe resembles a scaled-down (to elephant size) brontosaur living in some of the most difficult and inhospitable terrain in the world. It’s all swamps, even the pygmies don’t like to venture too far in. But the people who do live there declare that Mokele Mbembe is real.

So far, none of the expeditions sent to those swamps has come back with proof of Mokele Mbembe’s existence. The best we’ve got is this grainy, wobbly little bit of film, displayed above. Of course, if they ever did succeed in obtaining proof, Mokele Mbembe would instantly cease to be cryptozoology and be regular zoology instead. This is what gives cryptozoology its slightly cracked but also slightly noble flavor.

What if, somewhere in the world, there is a living dinosaur? What hath God wrought! What if dinosaurs have only gone almost extinct? ‘Cause “almost extinct” means “a little bit extant.” I mean, heck, the stories don’t go away, there are always stories: always people saying that they’ve seen a dinosaur.

And who wouldn’t want to see one?

‘Ninny Break: No, This Is not a Dinosaur’ (2016)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

It’s still not a dinosaur.

Really, how dumb do they think they are, that they can tell us a fish is a dinosaur and get away with it?

https://leeduigon.com/2016/10/10/ninny-break-no-this-is-not-a-dinosaur/

The Internet is in many ways a boon to civilization, but it does have its flaws. One of its flaws is a complete absence of quality control.

Not that I can think if anyone whom I’d want to be the quality controller!

Mr. Nature: Behold the Mighty Stegosaur

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for images of miller toy stegosaurus

Of all the Miller Co. wax dinosaurs I had in my childhood, only a couple of these Stegosaurs survive, a big one and a little one. For some reason, these were much less apt to be broken than the others.

And speaking of Stegosaur survival, there are persistent rumors that in the largely unexplored Likouala Swamps of the Republic of the Congo, a creature very like a Stegosaur still lives. The few people who live there call it mbielu-mbielu-mbielu, which means, I think, “What the hell was that?”

In western North America are found the best and biggest fossil Stegosaurs, Stegosaurus ungulatus and S. Stenops. Other species have been discovered in Europe, Tanzania, China, India, and, most recently, Australia (just footprints there, so far). So they must have been quite a successful group of animals.

There’s only so much we can learn from bones, though. Still puzzling are the exact arrangement of the armored plates along the Stegosaurus’ back and the seemingly inadequate size of its brain, indicative of a belief in socialism.

But we will learn much more when somebody finally captures a live mbielu-mbielu-mbielu.

And no, it’s not a fake fact I made up on the spot!

P.S.: Edgar Rice Burroughs, in his “Pellucidar” (prehistoric world inside the hollow earth) novels presented the Stegosaur as being able to glide through the air by lowering its back-plates, but he never found many takers for that theory.

Tyrannosaurus Photo… Ya Think?

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

I have a zillion things to do today, and I don’t know when (or if) I’ll be able to sit down and write–so here’s something for your amusement in the meantime.

This is purported to be a genuine photo of a live Tyrannosaurus rex wandering around somewhere near a railroad crossing. We don’t think there were any railroads during the Tyrannosaur’s heyday, so this one must be a survivor.

Then again, it could be a fake.

But boy, oh, boy, would I have had fun with this when I was ten years old! I think I can still have some fun with it now.