Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 65 Million BC.

When it comes to dinosaurs I’m basically a big kid. If there is a documentary playing on the ancient giant lizards I will pretty much drop what I’m doing and park my ass on the couch and watch until my heart’s content. Since we were small children and became fascinated with the super lizards we have all been fed the party line, sixty-five million years ago a great global catasrophe completely wiped out the dinosaurs and made way for the rise of mammals and eventually us, human beings. The only problem is, although everyone agrees that dinosaurs are extinct, no one can really agree upon what caused the mass extinction. The most popular theory was that a comet or a giant meteor struck earth causing a nuclear winter that blotted out the sun and killed everything. Some now think that a disease of some kind may have played a role and brought to an end the reign of the Dinosaur. And of course my favorite, ancient alien visitors in a quest to colonize our world hunted the dinosaurs to extinction.

Although there is no concrete proof that any of those theories one thing is certain tens of millions of years ago the dinosaurs became worm food and now grace the museums of the world with their remains. Yep, they are long gone, or are they? I know that some of you may be thinking, what kind of question is that I haven’t seen any giant lizards walking around eating people like popcorn. It is a strange question, and I have not lost my mind however I am curious to know what people in the Congo region in Africa have been seeing for countless generations. According to witnesses, who number in the thousands, have been seeing great beasts that seem to sound much like the creatures who should be long dead.

When whitey from Europe first penetrated the dense jungles of the Congo in 1776, and met the natives they heard tales of great and deadly creatures that inhabited Lake Tele and the surrounding swamps. I’m sure the first explorers heart’s jumped when the natives told them that the creature was the size of elephant, had a long snake like neck with a small head and a long tail that could kill dozens of men with one simple stroke. The natives of the region dubbed the great beast, Mokele Mbembe, a Lingala word that means, “He who stops the flow of rivers.” The creature, which was appropriately named, could do just that it could lay across a river and stop the water from flowing into the lake. At that time most Europeans were not familiar with such an animal, however they would do all they could to capture this creature and display it for all the world to see.

Ever since stories of a living dinosaur came out of the Congo region dozens of expeditions have been mounted to find the creature. Of course no live specimen has been discovered which has caused hundreds of sceptics to come screaming out of the woodwork there have been other discoveries made that some consider to be proof of the creature’s existence. Giant footprints measuring three feet in diameter with three toes have been discovered in the allegedly dinosaur haunted region. In the early 1800s a group of French Jesuit missionaries reported back to the King that they had witnessed the great beast and it was in their opinion that dinosaurs still inhabited the dark continent.

Another intrepid explorer who felt that he was man enough to brave the dense forests of the Congo was Englishman, Alfred Aloysius Smith. In 1870, the ambitious young man was determined to go to Africa and bag himself a great prize, the last living dinosaur on planet Earth. So as most stories of this sort go, Smith packed up his gear and made his way to an alien land thousands of miles away from his Native England with dreams of being the great white hunter. And like most stories of this sort the only thing that Smith obtained was a few anecdotal stories and a burning life threatning case of Malaria which eventually killed the young man. Dinosaur one, mankind zero.

The twentieth century roles around and stories of this fantastic creature is still making the rounds of the adventurous set. In 1909, Carl Hagenbeck, an American animal collector and big game hunter decides to leave the good old US of A behind and vows not to return unless he it’s riding on the back of a giant lizard. When Hagenbeck arrived in Africa, he learned of a great beast that was half elephant and half dragon that killed anyone who came near it. Either blinded by the possibility of fame or stupidity, Hagenbeck made his way into the dense dark jungles of western Africa to find his elusive and deadly quarry. And again, this explorer barely made it out alive half his team was either wiped out by disease or hostile natives. The only “evidence” Hagenbeck ever saw of the creature was on the Island of Mbawala when a local big game hunter presented the American with grayish-brown strips of skin he claimed belonged to the beast. And again no concrete proof.

Shortly before World War 1, Kaiser Wilhelm decided to take a stab at finding the beast and sent his top man, Captain Freiherr Von Stein Zu Lausnitz. The Kaiser was convinced that if any man could find this beast it would be the battle hardened Captain Lausnitz. The Captain was to go to the Congo, which was a German colony at the time, and send back reports of the area and if it all possible to capture this living dinosaur. Upon arrival to the region, the Captain was taken to the area by a local guide and reports that he witnessed the beast from a distance of two hundred feet. According to the historical record that is the last we hear of the brave German.

As the twentieth century rolled on folks started to loose interest in the possibly of a living dinosaur eeking out an exitense in the swamps of western Africa, that is until 1976, when an American Herpetologist decided to make the trek to the Congo. Upon speaking to the natives and showing them pictures of dinosaurs the natives tell the scientist that the creature that lives in the swamps and lakes looks like a Diplodacus a plant eating dinosaur that died out in the great extinction over sixty-five million years ago. The natives also report to the researcher a curious story that happened sometime in the 1950s. The natives say that a group of hunters was successful in capturing the creature and killed it for food. Unfortunately, the creature’s flesh was poisinous and all the hunters and their family members died, a body count of over fifty men women and children. Such a tragic tale did not hinder the brave herpetologists from making the journey to Lake Tele what did hinder the researcher was the unexpected. He and his team discovered that the high humidity caused his equiptment to break down and go on the fritz. Another expedition goes down in flames and not by the paw of a deadly denizen of the Jurrasic period.

Yesterday I was reading an article in a magazine and a British Zoologist was quoted as saying that only ten percent of the animals of the world have been discovered and classified. I found that rather amazing that would leave ninety percent that still need to be discovered and classified and if we were to go by eyewitness accounts and anecdotal stories it is possible that Mokele Mbembe may exist and be thriving in the dense forests and jungles of not only the Congo but other eqeutorial regions of the world. Unfortunately when it comes to the sceptics eyewitness accounts and anecdotal stories just won’t cut the mustard. They desire a specimen to study and put on display for the whole world to see and you can not do that with eyewitness accounts.

According to some researchers there are areas in Africa and South America that have remained relatively untouched for millions of years. The same flora still grows in abundance and the same fauna still lives and dies, does that mean it is possible that that fauna includes animals that were supposed to have died out millions of years ago? Sure why not, although it would seem highly unlikely however it would be pretty cool if someone did discover a living dinosaur and put it on display for the world to see. Oh well, until that day comes I guess all of us will just have to settle for bones in a museum.

Rick E. Hale
t_seeker@hotmail.com