Emela-Ntouka
Location: Congo Republic, Zambia, Cameroon, Gabon, Liberia.
Time: Reports of forest rhinos dating back to 1913, information about the emela-ntouka first gathered in 1980 and 1982, subsequent expeditions since. Traditional artwork located in 2005 and 2012.
As with the mokele-mbembe, there are other supposed dinosaurs said to lurk in the Congo jungle. The emela-ntouka, whose name means “killer of elephants” is supposedly one of them, combining the body of a rhino with the tail of a crocodile and a single bony horn on its nose. It has been considered to closely resemble horned dinosaurs like Monoclonius or Centrosaurus, and of course surviving horned dinosaurs would seem to suit creationist claims if they were real.
Some of the data is a little hazy though, the earlier reports talk about “forest rhinoceros” and not dinosaurs. In 1966 a photograph was taken of a very rhino-like footprint in the Congo. Other areas of the Congo have similar reports of ivory-horned beasts that resemble this dinosaur-rhino creature, but give it different names, such as “chipekwe”. One commonality among these myths, and in common with myths of other rhino-like creatures, is its habit of fighting and killing elephants with its single large horn. Like a hippo, it supposedly dwells in swamps.
Recently, some traditional carvings depicting the emela-ntouka have been found during cryptozoological expeditions, one of which was purchased and brought back to Europe. Later, artwork by a Frenchman living in the Central African Republic was exhibited that included drawings of a creature that looked much the same as the aforementioned carvings. So it seems that the iconography of the emelka-ntouka is firmly established, a large hairless beast with the body and feet of a rhino, a large crocodile-like tail, and a head bearing a single large horn, and elephant-like ears.
Various identities have been offered for this cryptid, the most publicized being that it could be a Centrosaurus-like horned dinosaur. More conservative theories place it as a mammal, potentially a forest rhinoceros, or even a relative of the horned afrothere, Arsinoitherium.
The truth behind this creature may be more complicated than it seems, Congolese natives recognize pictures of rhinoceros when showed various animal pictures by cryptozoologists, so in this way a rhino seems likely. However, no African species of rhino dwells in forest. The Congo is known to have been veldt or savannah as little as a few thousand years ago, when tribes first came to inhabit the area. Maybe this horned creature is a tribal memory of when plains animals like rhino lived alongside the ancestors of Congolese forest tribes. This answer is certainly more reasonable than to propose that a bona-fide dinosaur lives there.
If there were a creature that resembled the iconography of the confirmed carvings and drawings, it would not be a rhino; no rhino has a thick heavy tail. More primitive mammals from millions of years ago, like Barylambda and giant ground sloths, did have thick, heavy tails, indeed the living Aardvark still does. So, in our speculative vision, the Emela-Ntouka (Pseudoceratotherium elephoneus) is the sole-surviving member of an otherwise extinct Afrotherian group, related most closely to Arsinoitherium, but differing in having a single horn, and a thick, aardvark-like tail. We can assume that this creature shared an ancestor with Arsinoitherium some time in the early Eocene or late Palaeocene. To look at, the emela-ntouka is in some ways like a rhino, and in other ways not. The single horn is bony and has a sheath of keratin, much like Arsinoitherium’s horns, or those of sheep and cattle, but decidedly unlike the hair-based horn of rhinoceroses. It has a heavy, powerful body and legs, with feet much like those of a rhino, the whole beast grows to about the same size as the largest white rhinoceros. Uniquely for a big ungulate, it has a thick heavy tail, which is used for fat storage, and serves partly for communication of the animal’s mood, held high and stiff when alert, swaying and low when relaxed. The ears resemble those of an elephant, but smaller, and can be flapped to cool the animal when it overheats. Generally solitary outside breeding season, they prefer swampy or riparian terrain and most commonly feed near water, their diet consists of various kinds of jungle leaves, including liana. As with the hippopotamus, emela-ntouka feed on land, but spend a good deal of its time wallowing, resting and frolicking in swamps and rivers. When disturbed by predators or humans, it will retreat into water, but they are fiercely aggressive towards elephants, the purpose of this is little studied but assumed to be territorial in nature. Mating is done in the wet season on land, and the calf is able to walk, run and swim soon after birth.
Location: Congo Republic, Zambia, Cameroon, Gabon, Liberia.
Time: Reports of forest rhinos dating back to 1913, information about the emela-ntouka first gathered in 1980 and 1982, subsequent expeditions since. Traditional artwork located in 2005 and 2012.
As with the mokele-mbembe, there are other supposed dinosaurs said to lurk in the Congo jungle. The emela-ntouka, whose name means “killer of elephants” is supposedly one of them, combining the body of a rhino with the tail of a crocodile and a single bony horn on its nose. It has been considered to closely resemble horned dinosaurs like Monoclonius or Centrosaurus, and of course surviving horned dinosaurs would seem to suit creationist claims if they were real.
Some of the data is a little hazy though, the earlier reports talk about “forest rhinoceros” and not dinosaurs. In 1966 a photograph was taken of a very rhino-like footprint in the Congo. Other areas of the Congo have similar reports of ivory-horned beasts that resemble this dinosaur-rhino creature, but give it different names, such as “chipekwe”. One commonality among these myths, and in common with myths of other rhino-like creatures, is its habit of fighting and killing elephants with its single large horn. Like a hippo, it supposedly dwells in swamps.
Recently, some traditional carvings depicting the emela-ntouka have been found during cryptozoological expeditions, one of which was purchased and brought back to Europe. Later, artwork by a Frenchman living in the Central African Republic was exhibited that included drawings of a creature that looked much the same as the aforementioned carvings. So it seems that the iconography of the emelka-ntouka is firmly established, a large hairless beast with the body and feet of a rhino, a large crocodile-like tail, and a head bearing a single large horn, and elephant-like ears.
Various identities have been offered for this cryptid, the most publicized being that it could be a Centrosaurus-like horned dinosaur. More conservative theories place it as a mammal, potentially a forest rhinoceros, or even a relative of the horned afrothere, Arsinoitherium.
The truth behind this creature may be more complicated than it seems, Congolese natives recognize pictures of rhinoceros when showed various animal pictures by cryptozoologists, so in this way a rhino seems likely. However, no African species of rhino dwells in forest. The Congo is known to have been veldt or savannah as little as a few thousand years ago, when tribes first came to inhabit the area. Maybe this horned creature is a tribal memory of when plains animals like rhino lived alongside the ancestors of Congolese forest tribes. This answer is certainly more reasonable than to propose that a bona-fide dinosaur lives there.
If there were a creature that resembled the iconography of the confirmed carvings and drawings, it would not be a rhino; no rhino has a thick heavy tail. More primitive mammals from millions of years ago, like Barylambda and giant ground sloths, did have thick, heavy tails, indeed the living Aardvark still does. So, in our speculative vision, the Emela-Ntouka (Pseudoceratotherium elephoneus) is the sole-surviving member of an otherwise extinct Afrotherian group, related most closely to Arsinoitherium, but differing in having a single horn, and a thick, aardvark-like tail. We can assume that this creature shared an ancestor with Arsinoitherium some time in the early Eocene or late Palaeocene. To look at, the emela-ntouka is in some ways like a rhino, and in other ways not. The single horn is bony and has a sheath of keratin, much like Arsinoitherium’s horns, or those of sheep and cattle, but decidedly unlike the hair-based horn of rhinoceroses. It has a heavy, powerful body and legs, with feet much like those of a rhino, the whole beast grows to about the same size as the largest white rhinoceros. Uniquely for a big ungulate, it has a thick heavy tail, which is used for fat storage, and serves partly for communication of the animal’s mood, held high and stiff when alert, swaying and low when relaxed. The ears resemble those of an elephant, but smaller, and can be flapped to cool the animal when it overheats. Generally solitary outside breeding season, they prefer swampy or riparian terrain and most commonly feed near water, their diet consists of various kinds of jungle leaves, including liana. As with the hippopotamus, emela-ntouka feed on land, but spend a good deal of its time wallowing, resting and frolicking in swamps and rivers. When disturbed by predators or humans, it will retreat into water, but they are fiercely aggressive towards elephants, the purpose of this is little studied but assumed to be territorial in nature. Mating is done in the wet season on land, and the calf is able to walk, run and swim soon after birth.