Library of Cryptozoology

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. ...

Alexander [Laime] is a keen student of wildlife on the tepuis, and he insists that on his 1955 expedition to Auyan he encountered three dinosaur-like lizards. Over tea in a corner of his garden he told us he had come upon them while searching for diamonds in one of the rivers on top of Auyan-tepui. "They were sunbathing on a rocky ledge above the river," he said. "At first I thought they were seals, but when I sneaked closer, I saw they were creatures with enormously long necks and ageless reptilian faces. Each had four scale-covered fins instead of legs." For proof Alexander rummaged through a pile of papers and came up with some drawings that he had made at the time. To me they resembled plesiosaurs, marine reptiles that became extinct 65 million years ago.