Photograph of a Diprotodon optatum skeleton, presumably similar to the one identified as a gyedarra.
The gyedarra was a cryptid reported from Australia, described by Aboriginal informants as a huge, grass-eating quadruped which used to live in the inhospitible interior of Australia. The animals, which were the size of a draught horse, lived in water-filled holes in riverbanks and came out only to feed.[1][2][3]
An Aboriginal man from Gowrie who was shown the bones of Diprotodon in the early 1870's identified them as the bones of a gyedarra, which he said was around in the time of his "forefathers".[4][1] Karl Shuker and George Eberhart write that the gyedarra's reported habits are entirely consistent with the presumed habits of Diprotodon. Eberhart considers the animal extinct,[3] but Shuker and Bernard Heuvelmans suggest that Diprotodon could have adapted to arid conditions and could still exist in the interior, rarely seen even by Aboriginals.[1][2]
Similar cryptids[]
Other cryptids which have been speculated to be existing or lingerling diprotodonts include the dog-faced bunyip, gazeka, giant rabbit, and giant wombat.
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Shuker, Karl P. N. (1995) In Search of Prehistoric Survivors: Do Giant 'Extinct' Creatures Still Exist?, Blandford, ISBN 9780713-724691
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955) On the Track of Unknown Animals, Routledge, ISBN 978-1138977525
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
- ↑ Bennett, George "A Trip to Queensland in Search of Fossils", Annals and Magazine of Natural History (1872)