“Living fossils” are presently-living organisms that standard biology textbooks refer to as “ancient.” Whether or not cockroaches
and crocodiles are ancient, living many millions of years ago—this is hotly contested between evolutionists and creationists. But
the creatures themselves are interesting and deserve attention.
Cryptozoology deals with possibly real creatures that are not yet
classified by zoologists, at least not yet by non-cryptozoologists. Some of these cryptids may turn out to be “living fossils,” however,
and wouldn’t that be interesting if dinosaurs and pterosaurs were still living? According to some reports, some of them still live.
Consider the following web sites about the Mokele-Mbembe, ropen, indava, and ogopogo. The world may have strange creatures—real,
living creatures—absent from biology textbooks.
But some "living fossils," like the Coelacanth, are classified.
The Living
Coelacanth
“To be enlightened by the Coelacanth, look not at the anatomy of fishes but at the mentality of humans. What is to be learned
from a fish that is labeled a 'living fossil?' It’s a lesson from the mistakes of biology textbooks written before the 1938 discovery
of the Coelacanth, and those mistakes may be more numerous and significant than is now commonly known.”
Cryptid dinosaurs
and pterosaurs
"In the jungles of central Africa countries of Congo,
Cameroon, and Gabon are reports of an animal with a long neck, a long tail, and rounded shape tracks with three claws. The closest
known animal [explanation]
. . . is a sauropod dinosaur.”
"Late in 2006, I interviewed
Paul Nation in his home in Granbury, Texas, just days after he had returned from Papua New Guinea.”
“It’s
common practice for many major documentary producers to either ignore the possibility of [real] living pterosaurs or dinosaurs,
or to treat unorthodox sightings as if [they're] unreliable simply because what is described seems to be a dinosaur or a pterosaur.”
By the explorer William Gibbons
“I can confirm that at least two of the pygmies
who were directly involved in the killing of a Mokele-mbembe at Lake Tele about three decades ago were acquainted on a personal level
with missionary pastor Eugene P. Thomas. I have discussed this incident with Pastor Thomas, and he was able to confirm . . . details
of the story . . .”
“In South-Central British Columbia, in Lake Okanagan, lives something local people call
‘Ogopogo.’ Local natives who recite legends use another name for the lake monster: Naitaka. . . . the creatures (yes, there must be
more than one to have a breeding population) can be between 20 and 50 feet long, with a horse-like head and a snake-like body. . .
.”
Strange as it may seem to modern people of developed nations, Grendel, in the epic poem
of Beowulf, bears resemblance to a creature like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, though the story seems to make it clear that the monster was
not nearly as large as the largest fossils we have of a T. R."
"Late in 2007, I interviewed
Susan Wooten by email concerning her sighting of an apparent pterosaur that flew over a highway near a swamp in South Carolina. She
told me that ‘It looked as big as any car, and had NO feathers, not like a huge crane or egret.’ With a wingspan that she estimated
at 12-20 feet . . ."
"How could living pterosaurs escape the notice of scientists for centuries? Two words: 'nocturnal,'
'rare.' But something else has prevented the discovery of these amazing animals: dogmatism of standard biology."
Three native
eyewitnesses
(includes a video of three young native men of Umboi Island)
“ . . . three native young men saw a giant ropen flying over a crater lake around 1994. When asked about the tail,
they said that it had a “diamond.” The tail was ‘long’.”
Books reviewed included the subjects
of living dinosaurs, living pterosaurs, the Min Min light of Australia (apparently barn owls), and a near-death experience (NDE).
The
Indava (a pterosaur?)
“On the mainland of Papua New Guinea, lives a colony of creatures unclassified by science
but known to the villagers as ‘indava.’ . . . According to the nonfiction book "Searching for Ropens," rare Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs
still fly in the Southwest Pacific . . .”