50,000 years ago, Australia was home to a gigantic monitor lizard called Megalania. In appearance, it would have resembled modern day Komodo dragons, except for one thing - its size. While Komodo dragons are known to reach lengths of about eight-and-a-half feet, Megalania is thought to have been anywhere from fifteen to almost thirty feet long!
Could something that large have survived, relatively hidden, into the present day? If eyewitness reports are true, it seems that this giant lizard may still be with us.
Peter Hancock, an author and journalist who also happens to be an expert on Aboriginal legends of Australia, has noted one story the Aborigines tell about a Megalania that fought a great white shark and dragged it out of the ocean. While this is likely just folklore, it does show that the people know about giant lizards that may have survived long past their supposed extinction date.
Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy has collected several stories of supposed Megalania sightings in recent times. The first comes from the 1890s, when, in the first year of that decade, the town of Euroa was terrorized by a "30 foot reptile" that "raided farms and killed livestock." Many people were said to have seen the creature.
Moving into the 20th Century, there are several stories of Megalania encounters. In 1968, a man named Steve, a member of the Australian military serving in Queensland at the time on the Normanby Range, and several other people taking part in a military exercise found the remains of a cow. They were quite concerned, since the cow had been ripped to pieces and had apparently been dragged a long distance. Around the dead cow, they found two foot long lizard prints in the mud.
Over 10 years after Steve's experience, in 1979, Gilroy received a phone call from a farmer living in Moruya. The farmer told Gilroy that he had seen a 20-foot lizard and that he had found tracks as well. Gilroy went to the location and made a plaster cast of one of the tracks left by the creature. In 2008, Gilroy found tracks along a forest trail located 185 miles from Moruya that were very similar to the ones he saw in 1979.
New Guinea may also be home to surviving Megalania - in the 1960s, a French priest traveling along a river there saw a "large lizard on a fallen tree in the sun."
If the witnesses are to be believed, there may possibly be something like a Komodo dragon on steroids hiding out in Australia.
This post is excerpted from an article I did for Cryptid Culture #6 (July 2017) on sightings of prehistoric survivors in Australia.
 |
| Megalania (3A and 3B) size compared to other monitors |
Could something that large have survived, relatively hidden, into the present day? If eyewitness reports are true, it seems that this giant lizard may still be with us.
Peter Hancock, an author and journalist who also happens to be an expert on Aboriginal legends of Australia, has noted one story the Aborigines tell about a Megalania that fought a great white shark and dragged it out of the ocean. While this is likely just folklore, it does show that the people know about giant lizards that may have survived long past their supposed extinction date.
Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy has collected several stories of supposed Megalania sightings in recent times. The first comes from the 1890s, when, in the first year of that decade, the town of Euroa was terrorized by a "30 foot reptile" that "raided farms and killed livestock." Many people were said to have seen the creature.
Moving into the 20th Century, there are several stories of Megalania encounters. In 1968, a man named Steve, a member of the Australian military serving in Queensland at the time on the Normanby Range, and several other people taking part in a military exercise found the remains of a cow. They were quite concerned, since the cow had been ripped to pieces and had apparently been dragged a long distance. Around the dead cow, they found two foot long lizard prints in the mud.
Over 10 years after Steve's experience, in 1979, Gilroy received a phone call from a farmer living in Moruya. The farmer told Gilroy that he had seen a 20-foot lizard and that he had found tracks as well. Gilroy went to the location and made a plaster cast of one of the tracks left by the creature. In 2008, Gilroy found tracks along a forest trail located 185 miles from Moruya that were very similar to the ones he saw in 1979.
New Guinea may also be home to surviving Megalania - in the 1960s, a French priest traveling along a river there saw a "large lizard on a fallen tree in the sun."
If the witnesses are to be believed, there may possibly be something like a Komodo dragon on steroids hiding out in Australia.
This post is excerpted from an article I did for Cryptid Culture #6 (July 2017) on sightings of prehistoric survivors in Australia.
Comments
Post a Comment