King Kong’s playmate: Kongamato
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 27th, 2005
What creatures might we be talking about by the end of December, thanks to the coming blockbuster, King Kong? Could one be a cryptid from the skies?
Is there a group of Jurassic pterosaurs (which includes the subgroup of animals called pterodactyls) alive and well in Africa? Sub-Saharan reports of giant flying monsters called kongamato ("overwhelmer of boats") by natives of today’s Zambia (formerly Rhodesia) have been discussed in the West since 1923.
It was in that year that Frank H. Melland wrote about them in his book, In Witchbound Africa. Melland described huge flying animals with membranes instead of feathers on its wings, great scary teeth in their mouths, and wings four to seven feet across.
In 1925, southern Rhodesia produced reports of a Kongamato attack on a man in a swamp, and reports issued from Africa in 1928, 1942, the 1950s, up through modern times, including a colleague of cryptozoologist Roy Mackal’s who saw one in 1988. I summarized all these reports in my 1999 book, Cryptozoology A to Z.
Look at the old 1933 version of King Kong and you will see some Kongamato clones. With the opening of the new Peter Jackson movie King Kong on December 14th, don’t be surprised to see pterosaurs flying around a few early scenes of that film too. Will this produce some renewed interest in those flying wonders of the Jurassic and whether or not they live on?
What it may cause is a renewal of the debate about whether ancient reptiles still exist or not. Or reawakening of the probable reality of a new species of bats, especially flying foxes, which are yet to be identified. But the movie may have people looking beyond merely the giant ape, that’s for sure.
- Similar Phenomena:
Pterosaurs did not just live in the Jurassic! They were around for the entire duration of the reign of the dinosaurs, and this time period was known as the Mesozoic! The Kongamato are most likely pterosaurs, probably rhamphorhynchid, or short neck, long head and long tail with teeth and, apparently, a bad attitude.