Living dinosaurs?

steddyeddy

http://karlshuker.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/shukernatures-top-ten-living-dinosaurs.html

Thought I would post a link to British zoologist's blogspot. He deals with cryptozoology and this particular blog is in relation to extant dinosaurs. To be honest I dont find these very credible but I thought people might find this interesting. Sorry if it's posted in the wrong place. Here's an example to get you interested:

KULTA AND BURRUNJOR - DINOSAURS OF THE DREAMTIME?

This is how Rex Gilroy, a veteran investigator of Australian mysteries, has referred in his book Mysterious Australia to two of this island continent's least-publicised but most fascinating mystery beasts - the kulta and the burrunjor.

According to ancient Central Australian aboriginal lore, the kulta inhabited the great swamps that existed long ago in the far north, browsing inoffensively upon the region's lush vegetation. It possessed a small head, an exceedingly long neck and tail, an enormously bulky body, and four sturdy legs. This description is irresistibly similar to that of the sauropod dinosaurs, such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. Yet the aboriginals have no palaeontological knowledge, so how are they able to describe so accurately a type of reptile that officially died out millions of years ago - unless at least one lineage did not die out, but persisted undisturbed in this remote locality right into historic times? Yet whatever it was, it is no longer - centuries ago the swamps dried up, and the kulta died out.

Is this what the kulta may look like? (Charles Knight)

Even more extraordinary, however, is the burrunjor, a terrifying tyrannosaur-lookalike named after Burrunjor - a remote expanse of Arnhem Land in northern Australia where, according to longstanding Aboriginal testimony, this huge reptilian monster is said to live. Here it is even depicted in local Aboriginal cave art, portrayed as a gigantic bipedal creature, and enormous unidentified tracks have been reported from this region.

Varanids (monitor lizards) will sometimes rear up and run for a time on their hind legs, and there are some notably large varanid species native to Australia. So could this be the true explanation for the burrunjor - or should we be seeking an animate anachronism thriving amid the primeval wildernesses of Arnhem Land?

Wibbs

Dunno about the Kulta, but the burrunjor may have a more prosaic explanation, though still a crypto one. IIRC there was a giant member of the kangaroo family. If they lasted until humans made it there they could be what informed the legends? After all they see bipedal creatures there today only smaller.

Adam Khor

Wibbs wrote: »

Dunno about the Kulta, but the burrunjor may have a more prosaic explanation, though still a crypto one. IIRC there was a giant member of the kangaroo family. If they lasted until humans made it there they could be what informed the legends? After all they see bipedal creatures there today only smaller.

There were actually several giant kangaroos, but I guess the one you're thinking of is Procoptodon goliah, the so called short-faced kangaroo:

Procoptodon did coexist with humans for a short while and was possibly exterminated by them. Some sources say it went extinct 40.000 years ago, others say 10.000.

But I doubt Procoptodon would be mistaken for a reptilian creature, and its footprints wouldn´t look like any modern animal's, as it only had one toe, with a big hoof-like claw.

I'm thinking a better explanation would be Varanus priscus aka Megalania, the giant monitor lizard, which would look more like a "dinosaur" than Procoptodon, as it could grow to enormous size too and was probably able to rear on its hind legs like them. It would certainly be more "terrifying" than Procoptodon and may have eaten people during the time both species coexisted.

I find it fascinating that the Australian aborigins have culture and stories supossedly dating back to the Pleistocene with little change at all, and many believe that they have stories about prehistoric creatures such as Wonambi, the giant snake, and others- so maybe this burrunjor, even if not alive today, may be sort of an ancestral memory of Megalania, or the land croc Quinkana, or giant bird Genyornis, or maybe a mix between them all?

Rubecula

Re- Living Dinosaurs:

I give you Number 1)

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/ostrich/

And Number 2)

http://images.yourdictionary.com/emu

And Number 3)

http://animals.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/birds/greater-rhea/

I could do a few more like this but you get the idea.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

Re- Living Dinosaurs:

I give you Number 1)

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/ostrich/

And Number 2)

http://images.yourdictionary.com/emu

And Number 3)

http://animals.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/birds/greater-rhea/

I could do a few more like this but you get the idea.

How could you leave out the most epic of them all:

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1415/942004034_60d96c3344_z.jpg?zz=1

Capt'n Midnight

<cough>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoatzin , it's even got claws

Galvasean

I'll believe in extant sauropods and tyrannosaurs when I see one. So, in other words, never.

Rubecula

Adam Khor wrote: »

How could you leave out the most epic of them all:

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1415/942004034_60d96c3344_z.jpg?zz=1

I was tempted to add that too, but I thought it may be overdoing it a bit