In 1776, a French missionary named Abbé Lievain Bonaventure was exploring Africa. He wrote about the huge round footprints he had seen on the ground made by an enormous animal, although he had not seen the animal itself. He said the footprints were about three feet in circumference, much larger than an elephant’s!

Today, scientists and hunters know this creature as “Mokèlé-mbèmbé” (in the Lingala language it means “one who stops the flow of rivers”). This creature has never been seen by a westerner nor photographed. Yet the natives of Congo swear they have seen it. A scientist showed the natives, who claimed to have seen the Mokèlé-mbèmbé, a series of photos and pictures of various animals. When they were shown lions and hippopotamuses, the natives simply called out their names in their native language. When he showed them a picture of a sauropod (an extinct dinosaur with a long neck and tail and a small head), they all called it Mokèlé-mbèmbé!

Congo is a large country in West Africa. Many parts of Congo are undeveloped, mountainous and still made up of thick rainforest - the perfect hiding place for a dinosaur if there is one!

A German officer, Captain Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz, made a survey of Congo in 1913 and reported details of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé. Although he did not see the animal, he reported it to be the size of an elephant with a long neck, with only one tooth and a long muscular tail like that of an alligator. It was capable of sinking canoes.