Anon. (1992) Beyond the Horizon: Adventures in Faraway Lands, National Geographic Society, p. 127

Then there is the matter of dinosaurs ... The December 1990 issue of the German magazine GEO–usually nonfiction–features "Search for the Monster," a report that makes Auyantepui sound like Loch Ness. The article describes a trip that was inspired by the sighting of a strange animal several years before. Then three men helicoptered to the tepui and spotted a long-necked, saurian-looking creature swimming in a lagoon. All had left their cameras in camp. They went back to retrieve them, and as they returned to the lagoon, the mysterious animal animal reappeared! By the time they landed, it had vanished, leaving only widening ripples on the water's surface. No footprints, no pictures. I made light of the story, unaware that Fabian's brother, Dr. Armando Michelangeli, a founder and the president of Terramar, was one of the trio. Armando stepped in: "Look. I was there. I saw it. It had a head about the size and shape of a rugby football, and a neck about a foot long. It wasn't a river otter because they feed primarily on fish, and there are no fish in that lake. It wasn't a tapir because they can't climb cliffs. What was it? I don't know."

On another trip to Auyan-tepui, however, Terramar scientists turned up tapir tracks. Other scientists have also found them. Armando Michelangeli has even sighted cougars. Perhaps GEO's "monster" was a tapir–though no one knows how it got there. At any rate, this is hardly the first dinosaur tale to come out of tepui country. Area resident Alexander Laime claims he saw several long-necked, finned, reptilian creatures one day in 1955, also atop Auyan-tepui. Laime's animals resembled plesiosaurs, only smaller: about three feet long. He was still looking for more of them, 36 years later.

...

Terramar co-founder, biochemist Dr. Fabian Michelangeli, told me about the Makiritare Indian belief in Anakaka–a giant man-ape that supposedly dwells near one of the most southerly tepuis. Wags, Dr. Michelangeli said, have lost no time in nicknaming Anakaka "Tepui-yeti".

 

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