Previously I've looked at stories of dinosaur survival into the modern era from Africa and Australia. Both interesting if completely bonkers examples of the genre, I now submit for your approval some more stories from the jungles of South America and elsewhere...
Alavaro Mesquita was a native Amazonian, who claimed to have a saurian encounter on the shore a swamp in the Rio Purús/Rio Juruá area of the Amazon basin. Whilst fishing along the shore he encountered he saw two red eyes high above the ground. Getting closer he saw what he described as a bipedal reptile, most closely resembling a Camptosaurus
He shot at the animal which fled deep into the swamp. He recounted his tale to a skeptical Rolf Blomberg, who was collecting interviews for his 1966 book Rio Amazonas
Another story, a creationist favourite, comes to us from a 1883 letter to the Scientific American called "A Bolivian Saurian,"
"“Sir,—The ‘Anglo-Brazilian Times,’ March 24th, 1883, says that the Brazilian Minister at La Paz, Bolivia, has remitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rio photographs of drawings of an extraordinary Saurian killed on the Beni after receiving thirty-six balls. By order of the President of Bolivia the dried body, which had been preserved at Asuncion, was sent to La Paz. It is 12 metres long from snout to point of the tail, which latter is flattened. Besides the anterior head, it has, 4 metres behind, two small but completely formed heads rising from the back. All three have much resemblance to the head of a dog. The legs are short, and end in formidable claws. The legs, belly, and lower part of the throat appear defended by a kind of scale armour, and all the back is protected by a still thicker and double cuirass, starting from behind the ears of the anterior head, and continuing to the tail. The neck is long, and the belly large and almost dragging on the ground. Professor Gilveti, who examined the beast, thinks it is not a monster, but a member of a rare or almost lost species, as the Indians in some parts of Bolivia use small earthen vases of identical shape, and probably copied from Nature.”"
A possible overweight Bolivian sauropod (with multiple heads)?
The fascinating adventurer Percy Fawcett also claimed to have encountered a sauropod, which he claimed was a diplodocus, along the Brazil/Peru border. This sighting occurred during a 1907 expedition on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society to map the border area. Fawcett is worthy of a post all to himself... check out his Wikipedia page and more info here. His son, Brian, later sketched the scene he imagined when he father saw the footprints of this large creature. Note the tail mark dragging in the ground, an artists imagination running away with him as current scientific opinion (and common sense) suggests dinosaurs, especially sauropods, didn't drag their tails!
Another, more detailed, 1907 encounter by Franz Herrmann Schmidt can found here. Reports of this nature by explorers in the Brazil/Peru area in the first half of the 20th century are relatively common. Later in the century we get lots of more recounting of native stories of large Mokele-Mbembe like monsters.
If you think the tales of dinosaurs in the jungles of South America are off-the-wall, just check out some stories from with the United States of America!
In a letter published in the August 22, 1982, issue of Empire Magazine, a Sunday supplement, Myrtle Snow of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, wrote that in May 1935, when she was three years old, she saw "five baby dinosaurs" near her hometown. A few months later a local farmer shot one after it took some of his sheep. "My grandfather took us to see it the next morning," she said. "It was about seven feet tall, was gray, had a head like a snake, short front legs with claws that resembled chicken feet, large stout back legs and a long tail."
But these were not her only sightings. There were two more: (1) "1 saw another one in a cave in 1937, but it was dark green." And (2) "On October 23, 1978, as I was returning from Chama New Mexico, about 7:30 P.m., in a driving rain, I saw another one going through the field towards the place where I had seen the one in 1937."
In 1934 a South Dakota farmer claimed that a giant, four-legged reptile forced his tractor off the road before disappearing into nearby Campbell Lake. Investigators found huge tracks on the shore. Prior to this sighting sheep and other small animals had been disappearing mysteriously. Source
So as always no evidence (surprisingly the Bolivian Saurian's corpse has never been located!), but plenty of explorers tales!
Picture of Camptosaurus used under license from FunkMonk
If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist
Werewolves have been part of the myths and legends of our ancestors for centuries, leading to a great deal of fear (and no doubt a great deal of mob "justice" on misidentified "werewolves"). But for all the terror movies can add to a subject (just see our reactions to sharks after Jaws came out) in the case of werewolves they have served only to make them an ever more distant, fantasy concept. But perhaps, just perhaps, there is more to the legends than meets the eye... Werewolves??, I hear you cry with derision. Well maybe that's not the best word for it as it comes attached with all sorts of transformational baggage. Instead think of bipedal wolves, the canine equivalent of bigfoot perhaps, or a "wolfman". Whatever gets you in the mood.
Today we shall be concentrating on a particular example, a creature known as the Beast of Bray Road (pretty damn awesome name if you ask me!), but in case you think tales of wolfpeople are somehow isolated incidents then please take a look here and here.
Sightings of the Beast started in earnest relatively recently in the late 1980s, although there are some older reports. Bray Road is near Delavan, Wisconsin and is the location of the first few sightings, hence the name of the Beast, although sightings have been reported across Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Michigan.
In 1989 Lorianne Endrizzi was driving along Bray Road when she thought she saw a person hunched over by the roadside. She slowed down to take a closer look. She was no more than six feet away from it. Endrizzi clearly saw a beast with grayish brown hair, fangs, pointed ears and glowing yellow eyes (which is what you'd expect a canine's eyes to look like when reflecting headlights). "His face was … long and snouty, like a wolf" she said. Unusually she reported that this muscular creature was crouched on it's rear legs whilst holding a prey animal in it's human like hands (sketch can be found at top of this page)
She had been prompted to report her story only after hearing rumours of a more recent encounter (the year then being 1999) from a lady named Doristine Gipson. On 31st October 1999 Doristine was on Bray Road, about half a mile from where Lorianne had had her own encounter a decade before, when she felt her right front tire leave the ground as if she had hit something. She stopped the car and had a look on the road but could see nothing. But as she looked around, peering into the darkness, she saw a form race towards her. She managed to throw herself back into the car but as she tried to pull away the creature jumped onto the bonnet. Thankfully it had been raining and the wetness of the car and the movement meant it slid straight back off and she was able to escape. Later that evening she was taking a girl trick or treating and had to drive past the spot. She again saw a form lying on the side of the road where she had left it but quickly rushed away as the form began to move again.
There are older reports:
"It all started one night in 1936 when a lone man driving down a dark stretch of US 18, just east of Jefferson City, saw a strange, hairy creature that stood at least six feet high and had a canine muzzle and strange three-fingered hands.
The beast was digging up one of the many Native American burial mounds that dapple Wisconsin’s countryside. The witness, a local named Mark Schackelman, drove on, but returned the next night to see if he could find evidence of the creature. Schackelman reports walking over to the mound, only to find the man-wolf standing there, stinking of decaying meat and growling a strange, three-syllable word that sounded like “Gadara.” The witness goes on to report that, understanding the creature to be some agent of evil, he began praying and slowly backing away until he reached his car and was able to escape." Source
And then:
Year: 1964
Location: Jefferson County, Wisconsin
Dennis Fewless was driving along Highway 89 around midnight when he saw a figure running across the road. When his headlights caught sight of the creature, it was eerily similar to werewolf seen in 1936 just a couple of miles away. Large and muscular, it stood around seven feet tall, covered in dark brown hair, with a dog-like face.
Fewless saw the creature run across the road, jump over a barbed-wire fence, and disappear into a corn field.
Fewless waited until the sun was up the next day to return to the scene of the werewolf sighting. He had hoped to find tracks to prove the size of the beast, but the ground was too hard. He was able to find the place in the cornfield where the werewolf had entered. The stalks of corn were broken and askew in such a way that supported the theory that a man-beast of massive size had been there. Source
There are further sightings listed here. Plus a few theories as to what the creature might be (in brief: a wolf, a coyote, a dog, a shunka warak’in, or a hoax). Personally? The sightings last for extremely short periods of time, usually in poor visibility and in the sort of lonely places one might start to let their imagination wander. I know, I know, this is all very dismissive and every paranormal researcher out there is preparing to hit me over the head with a piece of electronic equipment but... I've seen things myself. I know the human mind can see all sorts of things. There are plenty of brilliant and interesting stories here. But are there any wolfpeople in Wisconsin? I don't think so. But hey, I would say that! Linda S. Godfrey is the resident expert over there, and I'd suggest you check out her books to see what you think.
Honey Island Swamp is about 30km long and 10km wide and lies about 25 miles to the north east of New Orleans in eastern Louisiana. Despite it's close vicinity to a large urban area, the lack of roads make it relatively isolated and it is home to thriving populations of local wildlife. And perhaps to something more unusual...
In August 1963 retired air traffic controller Harlan Ford and a friend, Ray Mills, saw a huge creature in the swamp which quickly ran away leaving large prints in the ground which quickly washed away. In 1974 they again encountered something in the swamp. Whilst hunting they claim to have found more prints near a dead boar which had had it's throat ripped out. They described the creature as being covered in dirty grey hair, with clawed hands and that it had widely parted yellow eyes. It was about 7 foot (2.2 metres) tall and 400 pounds (180kg) and stunk.
It may be that the creature was known of long before this first documented encounter. According to many sources, though none that I've found so far offer any proof of this, a creature known as a "Letiche" was described as "a carnivorous, aquatic-humanoid" that lived in the area by local indigenous tribes. They believed it to be a feral child raised by alligators. The local Cajuns supposedly knew it as "Loup Carou". It is now know by the far more easy to pronounce name of the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Swamp Monster Footprint Cast
A local legend believes that in the 19th century there was a train crash nearby in which a circus was being transported. Some chimpanzees escaped and bred with the local alligator population to create this strange creature. Although this is probably the least likely theory I've ever heard, sightings do tend to point out the strange reptilian and mammalian features of the monster.
There have been other sightings by others too. From this site we get the following (video and more available there):
Ted Williams lived on the bayou most of his life. He was a trapper and worked on the swampland every day. Ted claimed to have seen the creature many times, and he knew there was more than just one of them. He said, "I could have killed them, but I didn't cause they didn't seem to want to harm me. I'd see them swimming the river and get out on the bank then dissappear in the swamp." One day while fishing one crossed the river and walked right past him. One day Ted took his boat deep in the swamp to set trout lines. He was never seen again. No one has ever found him or his boat.
Harlan Ford's granddaughter is continuing the family monster hunting tradition and has made a DVD (see below for link to DVD). Here's a video promoting it with some more eyewitness accounts
Whist the description makes it sound very much like a bigfoot (or skunk ape) as you can see from the picture of the footprint above it is not five toed creature. Either it's a different species, an isolated interbred population of bigfoot (hence disfigurement) or completely made up (which is as usual my default position!). But whatever the case it continues the tradition of American aquatic monsters... which is always good!
September 12th 1952, 7:15pm. Three boys Edward (13) and Fred May (12), and their friend Tommy Hyer (10) were playing football on a school playground when they spotted something in the sky.
It was a bright object streaking through the sky until it appeared to land/crash on a hilltop of the nearby Bailey Fisher farm. The boys ran back to Edward and Fred's house and related the story to their mother Kathleen May. She agreed to accompany them to the hill with torchlights and brought with her Neil Nunley (14) Ronnie Shaver (10), and 17 year old West Virginia National Guardsman Eugene Lemon. Lemon also brought his dog.
As the 8 of them drew close to the site of the crash, Lemon's dog ran ahead. Just out of sight they heard it barking at something unknown before it came running back with it's tail between it's legs.
As the first two boys, including Neil Nunley, crested the hill the object seemed to crash into, they saw a pulsating red light some way in the distance. Before they could react to that (and before they could wonder what that pungent smelling mist that was burning their eyes was), Lemon spotted two shining eyes under an oak tree and turned the flashlight towards them.
There standing before them was a 10 foot tall creature, with a round red face with a "Ace of Spades" shaped frill around it. The body seemed dark, although it later was described as "green" hence the town's name for the beast. When the creature began to "glide" towards them, Lemon dropped the flashlight and the group fled.
The authorities were called. First the police. Then the local newspaper. I'm pleased to see Mrs May had her priorities straight. If I'd just seen a 10 foot monster my first few phone calls would not have included the local rag, but probably the fire brigade, the Army, perhaps even the RNLI. But really, the local rag??
Strangely on separate checks that evening the Sheriff and his deputy found nothing unusual whilst Mr. A. Lee Stewert, co-owner of the Braxton Democrat, found "a sickening, burnt, metallic odor still prevailing". Funny that.
Further reports came in:
At 6:30 the next morning, the director of the Board of Education saw a flying saucer take off, not far from his house, and immediately reported it to the Sutton newspaper. Only then was he informed of the happening of the night before. Mr. Stewart, the owner of the paper, immediately went to the hill and could still smell the odor on the ground. He discovered two tracks where the reported object had landed. No wagon had been in this part for many years and the weeds were several feet high. The grass was freshly depressed, and closer search disclosed a piece of black plastic material which did not burn when tested by Stewart. The piece has been analyzed and we hope to get a report soon through Mr. Smith. Samples of ground and vegetation were also collected by airforce [sic] officers.
Further inquiries at the Lemon house revealed that Mrs. Lemon and a friend were having coffee at the time of the landing, and their house shook so violently that coffee spilled over the table and they thought the house had fallen off its foundation. The radio went off for 45 minutes and came back on by itself.
In his systematic questioning of everyone in the valley, Smith found that a girl, 21, of Weston, 11 miles from the Lemon farm, was confined in the Clarksburg Hospital for three weeks, after having seen a figure of the same description, and emitting the same odor reported by witnesses of the Sutton occurrence. Her mother confirmed the girl's story that they had seen the monster when they were on their way to church more than a week before Mrs. May's experience. Source: CSI Bulletin #2
What I find so fascinating about all this is that an entire mythology has grown up on this monster based on a fleeting glance of it, and that these folks were willing to go on record claiming it to be a monster based on nothing more that a few moments of contact.
Honestly, one adult amid a group of excitable young boys and an exuberant pet dog does not a convincing witness make and I quite honestly believe that this particular monster can be explained away by a meteor, some flashing aerial lights and an owl as suggested here. What depresses me most is that people seem desperate to explain these sorts of things away by the weird rather than erring on the side of caution. Bless 'em.
Further Reading
The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed - Frank C. Feschino (UK Amazon, US Amazon)
This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist
Thomas George Bowes-Lyon and Charlotte Grimstead, Lord and Lady of Glamis and heirs to the Earldom of Strathmore, are the great, great grandparents of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. On October the 21st 1821, Lady Glamis gave birth to her second child and her first son. His name was Thomas Bowes-Lyon, and sadly for all involved he is recorded as passing away that very same day. But was that really the end of the story?
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
Little Thomas was born in poor health and deformed in some unidentified ways. The midwife left soon after his birth but it would seem lacked the decency to keep his difficult birth a secret and spread word around the nearby village of Glamis. When his death was later announced few believed it, and when no gravestone was forthcoming to mark his passing these suspicions turned into wild rumour.
The story goes that he did not die on the day of his birth but instead was brought up in a secret room of his parent's Glamis Castle where he would be kept alive but denied his right to the title of Lord Glamis.
The room was supposedly 10 ft by 15 ft and accessible only via the chapel, he was fed though a barred slot by the "factor" of the estate (basically the estate manager) who was, along with the Earl of Strathmore, the heir to the earldom (once they had reached 21) and the families lawyer , one of the few people to know of the existence of the monster.
Peter Underwood described the monster as being “an enormous flabby egg” with short arms, legs and an almost non-existent neck on a hairy round body. The short arms and legs suggest some form of limb deficiency, an extremely common deformity but the hairy round body seems less likely.
This story, like so many other "historical" stories here in Britain, has become embellished ad infinitum with a hundred different varieties. Trust me, once a castle or house is taken over by a trust and opened to the public these stories just run and run!! For instance some locals are said to have encountered the "monster" being taken for walks by two assistants, although he was extremely ungainly on land. However he is reported to have been able to swim like a fish when allowed to do so!
One very famous story is that some time in the 19th century the Earl of Strathmore had guests around. Whilst he was off out somewhere they bribed the butlers to allow them to open all the windows in the house. Once done they attached a handkerchief, towel or bed linen (delete as appropriate) to each and went outside. They found that despite having gone to every accessible room they could see four windows (or sometimes just the one) that were still dark and shut. At this point the Earl returned and angrily made them leave for their impertinence (no offense but I would have too! Disgustingly bad manners).
Another story is of a workman who happened upon the entrance to the monsters secret room and upon seeing what lay there promptly ceased work. He was only silenced with a large gift of money and a transport to Australia.
Perhaps a more detailed version of that event lies with the story of one of the factors of the estate, Andrew Ralston, being told the secret and from that moment forth refusing to spend a night in the castle and on one snowy evening even making the servants dig a path back to his residence some distance away!
Finally, the story goes, it is said the beast lived for many years well into the 20th century. When Her Majesty's grandmother enquired as to the mystery (how she would know given it was a SECRET I don't know) with the aforementioned Ralston she was supposedly rebuffed with:
“It is fortunate that you do not know it and can never know it, for if you did know you would not be a happy woman.”
Perhaps there is a kernel of truth to the story. It's possible that young Thomas did survive but was very disabled. Being loving, but Victorian, people his parents were too ashamed to tell anyone but continued to provide for him quietly. Perhaps trusted servants did take him for walks and even for a swim but the ignorant and backwards folk of Glamis saw not a disabled human being but a "monster" and embellished things from there. Could it be that this is not the tale of a monster but instead of some poorly understood disabled child?
Otherwise the ever changing details and the fact that the monster was meant to be a secret suggest to me this story is an early urban myth, a ghost story to keep adults amused and children thrillingly terrified. And really there's nothing wrong with that!
Could there really be monsters in this world? I'm not talking cryptozoological mysterious animals, but real versions of those scary, looming bipedal monstrosities of our nightmares. Could something like the Creature of the Black Lagoon or one of it's many movie brethren be out there, waiting for us down dark roads and in all the scary places?
On the 5th of March 1954, the Creature from the Black Lagoon was released to scare and stun cinema audiences the world over.
A little over a year later, fact seemed to be following fiction. In May 1955, on a quiet road near Loveland in Ohio, bordering the Little Miami river, one lone business man encountered monsters.
Some time in the early hours he spotted three strange figures in the road, and pulled up to the curb to observe them more closely. He described them as about 3- 4 foot tall, with leathery skin, standing upon two legs. These bipedal creatures appeared reptilian but even more strongly resembled frogs in their facial features and their webbed hands and feet. An artists impression can be found here.
Now I'm sure both we and the anonymous business man must be thinking at this point things can't get any stranger than this. He decided to make a exit but as he pulled away one of the creatures pulled out a "wand", held it above it's head and sparks were seen to fly from it. Needless to say, our intrepid witness made a very quick getaway!
Just a few months later one girl may have had an even closer encounter...
About 250 miles from Loveland is the town of Evansville in Indiana lying alongside the Ohio River (of which the Little Miami river is a tributary). Three months after the weird encounter in Loveland, two girlswere taking a swim in the river. Darwin Johnson and Chris Lamble were enjoying the sun on the 21st August 1955 when, suddenly, Johnson was seized around the knee by an unknown hand and dragged under the water. She kicked herself free of this unwanted attention and resurfaced but was immediately seized from behind.
As her friend screamed her heart out, Johnson made one last attempt to break free and grabbed hold of her friends inner tube violently. Somehow they both made it back to shore without further attack. Johnson had multiple cuts on her leg along with a green, palmprint shaped stain which could not be removed for several days. This led to a nickname for the "creature" among some cryptozoologists of "The Green Clawed Monster".
Whilst no one saw the assailant, could this underwater menace be related to the Loveland Frogmen?
It wasn't until the 3rd of March, 1972 that the Loveland frogmen made another appearance. A police officer was cruising along Riverside Road, Loveland at a very slow speed due to icy conditions. He noticed something like a dog lying by the curb, but no sooner did he see it than the creature darted out in front of the cruiser forcing him to hit the brakes.
The creature lay prone in the beam of headlights. As the officer peered out of his window screen he watched as it stood upright on two legs and stared right back at him, it's eyes glowing from the reflection of his headlights. It then clambered over the railing on the side of the road, down the slope and into the Little Miami river.
The officer described this creature in exactly the same way as that poor businessman did 20 years previously. Another officer investigated the scene the next day but found little evidence of the encounter beyond some scratch marks on the railings which the frogman went over.
Two weeks later Mark Mathews, another police officer, had an encounter with something although later recanted on what he saw. American Monsters describes events accordingly:
The second sighting occurred two weeks later while police officer Mark Mathews had an encounter of his own. According to the report officer Mathews, while driving into Loveland, spotted what he believed to be an injured animal lying on the pavement.
Mathews climbed out of his cruiser with the intention of removing the carcass from the already ice slickened road, when the creature abruptly lurched upwards into a "crouched" position. Taken aback by the Frog Man's Reptilian visage, Mathews unholstered his revolver and took a shot at the creature, which then proceeded to hobble over to the side of the road and step over the guardrail - all the while keeping a watchful eye on the trigger-happy officer. Mathews' "Frogman" matched the first officer's description down to the last detail, with the exception of a tail, which was absent in earlier reports.
His later tale is somewhat different, if actually slightly LESS believable if that was somehow possible. Here it is recounted by X-Project Paranormal Magazine
In an e-mail interview with retired officer Mark Mathews, the second police officer that saw the bizarre creature in March 1972, he states, "There is absolutely nothing to the incident that relates to 'monsters' or the 'paranormal'. This entire thing has been habitually blown out of proportion...".
Mr. Mathews continues with his first-hand account of what he saw:
"It was and is no 'monster'. It was not leathery or [had] wet matted fur. It was not 3-5 feet tall. It did not stand erect. The animal I saw was obviously some type of lizard that someone had as a pet that either got too large for its aquarium, escaped by accident or they simply got tired of it. It was less than 3 feet in length, ran across the road and was probably blinded by my headlights. It presented no aggressive action."
Mr. Mathews pointed out more discrepancies in this famous story. He shot at the creature, as no one had believed his partner's sighting a few nights before. Despite being hit, the lizard still escaped and Mathews suspected it either died of the wound or eventually died from the cold weather. The dramatic, commonly described scene of the lizard standing erect and stepping over the guardrail while keeping it's watchful eyes on Officer Mathews in fact, never happened.
Hmm... this officer's a little trigger happy indeed!! But then again police officers are only human and just as likely to do stupid, dangerous things as anyone else.
If we are to believe the tales of the Loveland Frogmen we must completely rearrange our worldview, because for these creatures to exist we must imagine possibilities outside the fields of known science and head into realms of fantasy. But sometimes that isn't a bad thing. Maybe there is something out there...
A few months after the two police officers encounters, on the 19th of August 1972, two boys - Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike - had their own encounter with an aquatic monster in Thetis Lake, British Columbia, Canada. The Thetis Lake Monster was born...
This freakishly scary fiend of a fish is quite different from most lake monsters in that it has a humanoid body similar to that of the beast from the film The Creature from the Black Lagoon. In 1972, two teenagers on the shore of the lake said they witnessed a scaly, humanoid form suddenly rise from the water. The two teens turned and took off, but the creature caught up and cut one the boy's hands with a barbed fin on its skull. - Epoch Times
A day after the story was published in a newspaper (which would be the 23rd August 1972) two men came forward claiming to have also seen the monster but on the opposite of the lake to where the two boys saw it.
But perhaps this story lends some credence to Officer Mathews recantation of his original story in favour of a large escaped pet.
The mystery was solved soon afterward. On August 26, the Province newspaper said police got a call from a man who’d lost a teju lizard (below left) in the area the previous year. Tejus, which are native to South America and often kept as pets (their mottled black-and-white skins are also used for cowboy boots), grow up to three feet long. The police decided the lizard matched the monster’s description, and closed the case. - Unknown Victoria
So perhaps these water monsters are really nothing more than large lizards misidentified by the ill-informed. Speaking of which:
W. Haden Blackman suggested in his 1998 Field Guide to North American Monsters that something's still lurking around. “If you do come across it, remember these kind of creatures are all considered extremely dangerous,” wrote Blackman, who told would-be hunters to carry a flaming torch to prevent an attack – a bit of advice far more deadly in the tinder-dry park than any old reptile. - Unknown Victoria
Beware cryptozoologists offering tips of dealing with mystery animals is all I can say. What sort of person makes up remedies for things they don't even know for sure are real??? Madness.
Here's a little video from the Monster Spotter team on the Loveland Frogmen.
Further Reading
Mothman and Other Curious Encounters - Loren Coleman (UK Amazon, US Amazon)
Monster Spotters Guide to North America - Scott Francis and Ben Patrick (UK Amazon, US Amazon)
This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist
Alavaro Mesquita was a native Amazonian, who claimed to have a saurian encounter on the shore a swamp in the Rio Purús/Rio Juruá area of the Amazon basin. Whilst fishing along the shore he encountered he saw two red eyes high above the ground. Getting closer he saw what he described as a bipedal reptile, most closely resembling a Camptosaurus 
Linda S. Godfrey (
)
(
)
, 
)
, 
)
, 
)
, 
)
, 
) 
, 
)
, 
)
, 
, 
)
