"Living Fossils" in Africa

Contrary to what one critic said on his web page, I have never led a group of creationists on an expedition in Africa; I went alone to Papua New Guinea (southwest Pacific). But other explorers have searched remote swamps of central Africa, and reports of living dinosaurs and living pterosaurs deserve attention.

David Woetzel in Africa

One of my living-pterosaur-investigator associates, David Woetzel, has explored in part of a tropical wilderness in Cameroon, Africa, searching for an apparent dinosaur. According to one blog post, "David Woetzel, explorer and cryptozoologist:"

Late in 2000, he accompanied the explorer William Gibbons into Cameroon, Africa, where they interviewed many natives. A creature called “li’kela-bembe” is greatly feared in the Likouala swamp region; exploreres believe it is similar or the same animal that is called “Mokele-mbembe,” a large sauropod dinosaur. The swamp itself is huge, about 55,000 square miles, the largest swamp in the world . . .

Although Woetzel did not, apparently, specifically investigate reports of living pterosaurs in central Africa, he did so in 2004, on Umboi Island in Papua New Guinea (a few weeks after my own expedition there).

Pterosaurs, "flying snakes," and bird watching in Africa

Another blog post is about the kongamato and similar flying creatures (apparent pterosaurs) in Africa, "Modern Pterosaurs in Africa:"

. . . perched on the edge of the roof, the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head . . . [Sudan, Africa]

In 1942, a flying snake like animal swooped down from a cave in the vicinity of a farm near Kirris West sixty miles east of Keetmanshoop, in south-west Namibia. The flying snake, or whatever it was, frightened Michael Esterhuise, a farm hand . . . ["'Flying Snakes' and Pterosaurs"]

The Wikipedia post for “kongamato” includes “the area concerned is advertised as a prime birdwatching site,” bringing up the question of why birdwatchers do not report living pterosaurs in Africa. . . . [but] birdwatchers are watching in daylight, when they can see. The point? . . . living long-tailed pterosaurs . . . fly at night. ["Bird watching sans pterosaurs"]

Read about living pterosaurs sited in two countried in Europe, the Philippines, and Indonesia