It seems to me that perhaps the buru could be a type of monitor lizard that has developed a type of giganticism. This has happened before in many isolated species including monitors such as the Komodo dragon, which is an example of a process called island giganticism. Animals in an island ecology will typically evolve to be larger or smaller depending on certain ecological factors (this is known as Foster’s Rule). In situations where there is an absence of predators or significant competition in an island habitat, and especially when there are plentiful food resources, some animals can become significantly larger over time (In contrast to island dwarfism).

The impression I get from reading the article is that the valley the Buru is said to inhabit is very isolated, and surrounded by mountains. This is interesting to me because as far as island biogeography is concerned, any ecology isolated and surrounded by unlike ecologies can be considered an island. If this is the case with this valley, we could be essentially seeing island giganticism at work, and a similar situation to what happened in the evolution of the Komodo dragon. Also, since the Buru is said to be aquatic in nature, this would allow it to become even larger since its greater body weight would be supported by water.

The one thing that is still curious is the presence of those wicked digging claws. This seems more fitting with a predominantly terrestrial animal that does a lot of burrowing, digging, or things like rooting through tree stumps for grubs.

One thing I am confused about is when he mentions Gerald Russel. He says:

“They were both in Africa and came across a large creature later known as Mokele-Mbembe, which was considered a long necked dinosaur.”

As in came across the legend ? Or did he/they have an actual encounter with something he/they believed to be the Mokele ?