Neopterosaurs in East Africa

Illustration of the rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur Dimorphodon by Dmitry Bogdanov (Source).

Neopterosaurs have been reported from East Africa, especially Kenya and Tanzania. The term batamzinga (Swahili: "turkey") is said to be applied to such animals in Kenya, which are frequently equated with the kongamato of Zambia. Bernard Heuvelmans argued that Denman's bird of Uganda may belong to this category.

Attestations and sightings

Undated

J. L. B. Smith, codiscoverer of the coelacanth, received reports of "flying dragons" around Mount Kilimanjaro from the descendents of German missionaries, identified as the Trappe family. The missionaries had heard of these animals from local people, one of whom claimed to have seen such animal "in flight close by at night". Although the missionaries provided Latimer with "a good deal of information," their letter could not be found when Roy P. Mackal contacted Smith's widow. Hungarian naturalist Laslo Saska, a friend of the Trappes, confirmed their story to Bernard Heuvelmans, stating that the alleged pterosaur had been seen in the dense forests of Mount Meru, where the Trappes believed a number of unknown animals might exist.

In 1928, A. Blayney Percival recorded that the Kamba people believed in a large nocturnal animal which flew down from Mount Kenya during the nights. They only ever saw its airborne silhouette and its tracks, which revealed two feet and a heavy tail. A Kenyan living in Louisiana, Steve Romandi-Menya, claimed in 1998 that the "kongamato" was still known to rural people in Kenya. He described it as feeding on decomposing human flesh, and digging up graves not buried deep enough, like the ropen or duah.

1974

This section is about a suspected hoax

A significant portion of researchers who have investigated this sighting have supported the notion that it may be a hoax, but this may not be proven or universally accepted.

In 1977, Carl Pleijel of the Swedish Museum of Natural History told journalist Jan-Ove Sundberg that members of an English expedition to Kenya claimed to have seen a large, bird-like animal above a swamp, which they thought resembled reconstructions of Pterodactylus. However, Pleijel's source refused to make this claim publicly, and Pleijel himself did not know the identity of his source.

1988

An animal described as a pterosaur was reportedly seen in Sudan or South Sudan in 1988, by a boy who was walking through his village during the night. He claimed to have seen the animal perched on the roof of his uncle's hut. The boy froze, and the animal stretched out its wings, hopped over his head, and flew away. He described it as a 4' to 5' tall, olive-brown winged animal with leathery skin and no feathers, a "long bone looking thing" sticking out of the back of its head, and a long tail which reminded him of a lion's. The alleged eyewitness later sent his account to American cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb, who believes the animal was a rhamphorhynchoid. The eyewitness was particularly certain about the presence of both a crest and a long, lion-like tail.

Theories

A large flying lizard in the genus Draco has been suggested as an explanation for reports of flying reptiles (Source).

Some confusion with vultures has also been proposed (Source).

Two suborders of pterosaurs existed during the Mesozoic: the earlier, smaller rhamphorhynchoids (221—94 MYA), and the larger pterodactyloids (162—66 MYA). The most readily-apparent between the two suborders is that most rhamphorhyncoids had long tails and no crests, while the pterodactyloids were tailless, and often crested. With their long dragging tails, the neopterosaurs of East Africa are reminiscent of rhamphorhyncoids, while the Sudanese pterosaur combines features of both suborders. Bernard Heuvelmans writes that the 1974 account is so vague as to be uncreditable, regarding it and early stories of neopterosaurs in Namibia as probable hoaxes. Heuvelmans made no pronouncements on the possible identity of Africa's flying dragons, arguing that discovering them was more important than arguing about what they are. However, he did theorise on their behaviour, concluding that most of the flying dragons may be the same animal, as they are almost always reported from similar habitats: marshes near mountains, small forest ponds, and montane scrub. Heuvelmans theorised that these animals feed on small aquatic animals such as fish, amphibians, and turtles, which they spot from their nests in the trees or while hovering above the water, and catch by dropping like pelicans or cormorants, or even by diving underwater.

Dale A. Drinnon, who believes that some neopterosaurs such as the kongamato can be explained by large freshwater rays, suggests that accounts explicitly describing the cryptids as "flying lizards" may in fact refer to genuine flying lizards—a relative of Draco volans, but much larger than any known species in the genus Draco, closer in size to Triassic flying reptiles such as Icarosaurus, Kuehneosuchus, and Kuehneosaurus. Based on the writings of Ivan T. Sanderson, Drinnon suggests that the same animal was once known from the Middle East. Given the Swahili meaning of the name "batamzinga," Drinnon also argues that some reports are more likely to "politely" refer to some form of vulture. Drinnon also suggests that the corpse-eating behaviour of the Kenyan "kongamato" is merely a result of confusion with vultures.

Similar cryptids

In Africa, neopterosaurs have also been reported from Namibia and Zambia. These cryptids, along with the olitiau, are sometimes all lumped together.