Let’s now address a question which rarely surfaces with most serious discussions of dinosaur extinction—are all dinosaurs really extinct? Yes, it’s a question that raises a few eyebrows here and a few giggles there, but, objectively speaking, it’s not as silly as many might believe. On the contrary, four compelling facts demand that we at least consider the possibility that some dinosaurs have survived: 1) Many dinosaur species existed, 2) many new animals have been discovered, 3) many “extinct” animals have reappeared among the living (lazarus taxa), and 4) many eyewitnesses have reported recent dinosaur sightings. Let’s take a closer look at these facts and see if we can draw any conclusions from them:
Many Dinosaur Species
Given the fact that we have identified hundreds of different dinosaur species, not including the numerous species of flying and marine reptiles that lived with them (which many people loosely call dinosaurs as well), how can we be sure that they all went extinct? Please bear in mind that the hundreds of currently known dinosaur species were identified in areas that we have explored and, in most cases, inhabited. But if they lived in unexplored areas, how do we know they don’t still live there?
This question gains even more legitimacy when we consider the sheer volume of unexplored forests and jungles around the world, including those in New Guinea, the Darien jungle, the Annamite mountains, the Greater Mekong, the Amazon River Basin, the Congo Basin, Mozambique’s Mount Mabu forest, and the jungles of Borneo. After all how can we be sure of what lives or does not live in areas that we don’t explore or explore very little?
New Species Found
Evidently we know amazingly little about what lives and does not live in those areas when we consider the “new” species often found in them. By very conservative estimates, hundreds (some say thousands) of new animals are found each year worldwide in unexplored regions like those mentioned above. That’s not to say that other areas don’t also contain new species. For example, in the last 30 years, more than 250 new animals have been found in the forests of North America and more than a dozen in the Arctic.
But to better illustrate my point (which I’ll reiterate later), let’s briefly focus on a tiny fraction of discoveries in the unexplored areas:
Saola: In 1992, in the forested Annamite mountain range in Vietnam and Laos, researchers discovered a new large mammal species called the Saola or Vu Quang ox (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis).
Spider: In 2001, the world’s largest huntsman spider, the 12-inch wide giant huntsman spider (Heteropoda maxima), was discovered in the northern Laos subregion of the Greater Mekong during a scientific expedition sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Giant Ape: In 2004, a new species of giant apes was discovered in unexplored jungle regions of Central Africa. The new apes, found north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and captured on video by primatologist Shelly Williams, appear to have traits of both chimpanzees and gorillas.
Gaboon Viper: In 2005, A new Gaboon viper (figure A6), and other forms of wildlife were found in Mozambique’s Mount Mabu forest by an expedition of scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, led by Jonathan Timberlake.
Various Species: In 2005, twenty different frogs, a honeyeater bird with scarlet wattles called the Wattled Smoky Honeyeater, and many other new species were found in a section of New Guinea’s Foja mountains rainforest by an expedition of U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists, co-led by American Dr. Bruce Beehler. In addition, they found the rare golden-haired tree kangaroo, which was found in that area for the first time ever.
Big Cat: In 2007, a new ‘big cat’ species was found in Borneo by another expedition led by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Though measured as the smallest of the ‘big cats,’ this clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) has the largest teeth of all cats, making it, in effect, the modern-day equivalent of the sabre-tooth tiger.
Many Species: Between 1997 and 2007, nearly 500 new animal species were found in the Greater Mekong during scientific expeditions sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature. These animals included, mammals, frogs, fish, lizards, snakes, and birds.
Gecko, Bird: In 2008, a striped leopard gecko (Limnonectes megastomias) and a fanged bird-eating frog were among the dozens of new species found in the same Greater Mekong region by another expedition sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Giant Rat: In 2008, two additional new species were found by that same team in the same region: a giant rat (Mallomys), over 3 feet in length and 3.3 lbs in weight, and a pygmy possum (Cercarteus), which is one of the world’s smallest marsupials.
Several Amphibians: In 2009, 10 new species of amphibians were discovered on the Colombian side of the Darien forest region, including salamanders and transparent frogs.
We could go on and on with examples, but the few we’ve just seen should suffice to illustrate my point that, again, if unexplored areas of our jungles and forests can conceal so many known and new animal species, why can’t they also contain one of more known or new dinosaurs species? And what about “extinct” animals that are found alive?
Both New and “Extinct” Animals Well Hidden
That’s right. When researchers venture into previously unexplored or little explored regions (like the Amazon rainforest area in figure they not only discover new species, but also find that numerous birds, reptiles, mammals, etc, that had been declared extinct (lazarus taxa) are actually alive and well in these areas. But whether new or previously extinct animals are found, the common denominator is that they had been hidden so well and for so long that no one knew they existed until someone explored the areas where they lived.
The point, of course, is that, if other animal species, both “new” and “extinct,” could remain alive and hidden for so long in our vast unexplored regions, then why couldn’t one or more of the nearly 1000 known dinosaur species (a number which is growing every day)? In the next section we’ll take a brief look at some of those species that have risen from the dead.
Resurrected from Extinction
As mentioned above, a species could be declared extinct after remaining hidden from human view for short or long periods of time, but subsequently be discovered alive and well. Let’s examine a few instances where this very thing has happened:
Coelacanth
A well-known example of a lazarus taxon is the coelacanth. Evolutionists declared this fish extinct based on fossils from the so-called Cretaceous Period, meaning that, in their view, it lived contemporarily with dinosaurs. The coelacanth was found alive and well, however, in 1938, off the Chalumna river of eastern South Africa. Others were found subsequently in other areas.
Takahe
A flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand, the Takahe was thought to be extinct just before the end of the 19th century.It was found to be alive in 1948 by Geoffrey Orbell near Lake Te Anau in the Murchison Mountains, South Island.
Bermuda Petrel
This national bird of Bermud, which is also known as the Cahow, was listed as extinct since the early 17th century. It disappeared from sight partially as a result of being intensively hunted by early settlers in the New World. Survivors were discovered in Castle Harbour in 1951, however, and, since then, legal protection has put the Bermuda Petrel on the road to recovery. As of 2005, about 250 were known to exist globally.
Monito del Monte
The Monito del Monte was said to have been extinct for about 11 million years, but was recently discovered in in the southern Andes of South America. The fact that it lived in largely unexplored areas of the rain forests and was nocturnal helped it to stay hidden for so long.
La Gomera Giant Lizard
The La Gomera Giant Lizard was presumed extinct since the 19th century, but is now known to have survived on the Canary island of La Gomera.A team led by Juan Carlos Rando found living specimens of this wall lizard in 1985. As of 2004, only ninety of them were known to exist in the wild and about half as many in captivity.
No More Unfounded Assumptions: These are just a few of literally dozens of “extinct” animals that have reappeared in the land of the living. And I think they sufficiently refute the idea that we should automatically assume that a species is permanently gone just because we haven’t seen it for a certain period of time.
Now, after considering the hundreds of dinosaur species (and counting) that we’ve already found, plus the ample evidence we’ve seen that the unexplored regions of the world have long concealed and continue to conceal both new and previously “extinct” animals, let’s now examine the third reason why we shouldn’t totally dismiss the idea that dinosaurs might have survived—eyewitness sightings!
Sightings
The Policemen and the Pterosaurs
According to Lee Krystek (2003), one early morning while Officer Arturo Padilla of San Benito, Texas, was patrolling, his cruiser’s headlights suddenly illuminated something very dark flying by that, according to his description, resembled the pterosaurs depicted in figure A15. Shortly thereafter, Padilla’s fellow officer Homer Galvan, patrolling nearby, also reported seeing the animal.
Besides the general assumption of credibility that police officers normally enjoy, these officers’ stories were corroborated by a host of other people in that area, including Alverico Guajardo, of Brownsville, Texas, who saw the “monstrous bird” outside his mobile home, and several schoolteachers who estimated that it had a wingspan of at least 12 feet. One of them said it was a perfect match for pictures she had seen of pterosaurs.
Dinosaurs in Papua New Guinea?
Following up on rumors of creatures sighted in Papua New Guinea that resembled dinosaurs, Brian Irwin flew there in 2005 and 2006 and met with some of the 90 residents of Ambungi Island on the south coast of West New Britain where the animals were reportedly spotted. Those he interviewed not only substantiated the rumors, but also gave detailed descriptions of two creatures that fit the description of two dinosaur species nearly perfectly: According to Irwin, one of the animals had a “long tail and a long neck and was 40 to 50 feet in length, with an appearance like a ‘very large wallaby’ and having a head like a turtle’s head. It walked slowly on two legs and had smooth, shiny brown skin. The top of the head was estimated to be as high as a house and the underbelly of the creature was as high as an adult.”
Robert, one of the witnesses, said that the creature was identical to the picture of a therizinosaurus in a book Irwin showed him, except that it had a head looking more like a turtle’s as opposed to the horse-like head shown in the book. Interestingly enough, as Irwin notes, paleontologists acknowledge that the skull fragments found thus far for this dinosaur are insufficient to be sure of the head.
Sauropod Sighting Near Gasmata?
The second dinosaur reportedly sighted in Papua New Guinea was seen in water by a number of residents of Awrin Island, near Gasmata in West New Britain, in 2005, the same year the therizinosaurus was spotted. The witnesses included a local Catholic clergy, Simon Patolkit and his wife Margaret, who, through an interpreter, described the creature as being larger than the therizinosaurus, at about 60 to 70 feet in length. They said further that the top of the animal’s legs extended above the water, that it had a small “oval-like face,” and that its skin was green and like that of a crocodile. After observing it for about 30 seconds, they saw it sink and disappear below the water. Irwin was certain that they were describing a large sauropod dinosaur, such as an Apatosaurus. Again, one of the witnesses, clergy Simon Patolkit, is assumed to be more credible than an average witness.
Pterosaur Sightings in Cuba
A fairly well known case among researchers of modern day dinosaur sightings is that of Eskin C. Kuhn, an American marine. He spotted the two creatures flying by in the late 1970s shortly after arriving for duty at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He estimated that they were flying at an altitude of about 100 feet overhead and said that he got a very clear view of their features and movements. He described their wings as very large and bat-like in structure and texture and their wing movements as very graceful. The extremely large and rear-crested heads of the animals were attached to long necks with crooks in them. At the other end, the creatures possessed a long tail that appeared to have a tuft of something, perhaps hair, at the end. Being an accomplished artist, Kuhn illustrated what he saw in the picture above. By the way, Eskin indicated that he saw the two apparent pterosaurs in the general vicinity of thick virgin forest area, once again suggesting a place where animals can stay hidden for a very long time.
Li’kela-bembe
In the virgin forests of Cameroon, the local natives tell of a large and powerful animal that lives in a swampy region near the Boumba river; an animal that they call Li’kela-bembe. They describe it as having an upper and lower body about as large as an elephants, a head like that of a snake, an extremely long neck and tail, an overall length of up to 75 feet and a height of up to 18 feet—the spitting image of an Apatosaurus.
In a 2001 article in the Concord Monitor, Sarah Earl reported that David Woetzel, the the CEO of CCR Datasystems, had led a recent expedition to that region in search of the creature and, although he didn’t personally see it, he saw plenty of evidence characteristic of that species, including its large footprints and the caves and tunnels it is said to dig out near rivers. This, coupled with endless eyewitness accounts of encounters with it, convinced him that, “the odds are 75 to 80 percent that these types of creatures exist.”
Woetzel indicated that he was prompted to launch the expedition in early 2001 by missionaries to Cameroon who had returned with stories of dinosaurs that inhabited the rivers and swamps there. Once there, he and accompanying researcher William Gibbons, were the first whites to visit the areas along the Boumba and Loponji rivers, began hearing accounts by local natives that matched those of the missionaries.
To test their honesty, he showed them pictures of animals that did not live in Africa, such as the grizzly bear. To their credit, they would say no such animals existed there. But when he showed them pictures of large sauropods, like those described by the missionaries, they reacted with excited recognition and told him where they lived, how they looked, what they ate, and how they behaved.
To test their honesty, he showed them pictures of animals that did not live in Africa, such as the grizzly bear. To their credit, they would say no such animals existed there. But when he showed them pictures of large sauropods, like those described by the missionaries, they reacted with excited recognition and told him where they lived, how they looked, what they ate, and how they behaved.
Alias Mokele-mbembe
In Gabon and especially in the Lake Tele region of the Republic of the Congo, are said to live the most frequently sighted and well-documented dinosaurs of modern times—Mokele-mbembe. Eyewitness descriptions of Mokele-mbembe are very similar and, in some cases, identical to those of Li’kela-bembe. Most witnesses and researchers, in fact, have come to regard the two as one and the same. Stories of the creatures originate from most areas around the Congo River Basin.
There are dozens of credible reports of the creature from non-native witnesses. One of them, predictably (and as in the case of l’kela-bembe), by a missionary. In 1776 French missionary Abbe Lievain Bonaventure saw the animal’s footprints and wrote that it “must have been monstrous: the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, and these formed a print about three feet circumference.”
Zoologist Eyewitness: One of the earliest credible non-natives to actually encounter Mokele-mbembe was naturalist and zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson, who claimed he saw one in 1932 during of his scientific expeditions to the Cameroon side of the Congo River Basin. Another zoologist, Marcellin Agnagna, who led a Congolese expedition to Lake Tele in 1983, also claimed to have seen one. He described it as a sauropod in overall body shape with reptilian skin, a proportionately small head and eyes and nose resembling those of a crocodile.
Missionary Eyewitness: Another eyewitness was a missionary pastor, Reverend Eugene P. Thomas from Ohio, who reported seeing two of the creatures in the 1950s. According to his account, given to Roy P. Mackal in 1979 and recently confirmed to William Gibbons, he actually saw a group of natives of the local pygmy Bangombe tribe who killed one of the animals at Lake Tele. After the creature entered the lake to feed on the vegetation, the pygmies corralled it inside a spiked barrier and the converged on it and speared it to death.
By the way, Mokele-mbembe means ‘one who stops the flow of rivers’ in the Lingala language. Interestingly enough, Job 40:23 gives a similar description of the behemoth (see Chapter 7 of "100 Year Cover-up Revealed: We Lived with Dinosaurs!").
The Operative Questions: So, given our keen awareness of the many new and extinct animals that we’re constantly finding alive in underexplored regions of the world and the many reports, by seemingly credible eyewitnesses, of recent encounters with living dinosaurs in those regions, shouldn’t we now give more than just passing attention to our operative questions: Isn’t it possible that one or more of the hundreds (and counting) of known dinosaur species that we thought were extinct can also be found alive in those areas? How can we be sure what we will or will not find until we have sufficiently checked? What do you think?
Truly such creatures do exist....new technologies will help us find them....I pray for the day my Great Grandkids will be able to see a Wooly Mamooth back in the Tundra....how cool is that...
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