Mokele-mbembe

In the Congo’s 55,000-square-mile Likouala swamp, tribes describe “one who stops the flow of rivers”—a creature matching sauropod descriptions: long neck, small head, massive body.

Local Knowledge

Tribes describe:

• Elephant-sized or larger
• Long neck, small head
• Herbivorous, eating malombo plants
• Reddish-brown color
• Three-clawed footprints

Expeditions

Since the 1900s, dozens of expeditions have searched. They found consistent eyewitness accounts but no photographs, specimens, or DNA.

The Question

Probably not a dinosaur—the evidence isn’t strong enough. But those swamps are real, vast, and unexplored.

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In the Congo swamps, something lives that “stops the flow of rivers.” Maybe it’s folklore. Or maybe something very old is still hiding.