Papuan “Hairy Lizard”
Location: Papua New Guinea
Time: Second-hand account collected in 1906, published in 1922.
Another kind of cryptid, which is painfully common in the literature, are oddball creatures known from a single sighting, and never heard from again. Such things are generally dismissed by mainstream zoologists, and rightfully so. People can mistake a completely mundane creature for an odd unknown one in certain circumstances, and people may produce false memories or hallucinations that have no basis in reality to begin with, this can be a product of bad mental health or illicit drugs, but can also occur in otherwise healthy people. Hoaxes and tall tales can fall into this category too, people are well able to make things up, and not all tall tales become prominent features of folklore or urban myth.
So what to make of the “hairy lizards” of Papua? This account was obtained by A.W. Monckton from some gold-miners who were excavating a hillside, and had exposed some small cave networks, from which they had flushed out some fair sized “lizards” covered in hair. They had no specimen to corroborate their story, but Monckton gave them a jar and some spirits to preserve the next specimen they found.
There are, so far known, no lizard species that possess hair. As to what these miners had actually seen, there isn’t enough descriptive information to attempt at finding out. There is the distinct possibility that these people were simply liars, and playing a joke on Monckton. It would appear obvious to most that long-tailed furry creatures like rodents do not look at all like “lizards with hair”, but maybe these people saw partially decomposed possums or rats and had trouble recognising them. In the absence of other sightings, this really seems like a case where we should regard this as a quirky traveller’s anecdote, nothing more.
In the hypothetical event that these creatures were actually real, maybe they were primitive sprawling mammals like platypi? So, the Papuan Saurothere (Papuamonotrematum saurosimilis), despite its name, is in many ways a typical platypus, besides its more terrestrial habits compared to true platypi. Reaching about 50 to 60 centimetres long, it is distributed in a few separate populations around New Guinea, that indicate a larger range in the past. It is generally found on the forest floor, digging through and turning over leaf litter and debris, in search of invertebrates, frogs and lizards. While it can and does swim sometimes, it does most of its foraging on land, and only retreats to water when threatened by a predator. Face and bill are shorter and deeper, as it has less need to keep a low, water-surface profile, and its tail is lizard-like and cylindrical, gently tapering. The prominent venom spurs are generally used as a deterrent if the animal is seized by a predator such as a man or large bird; the sting is about as bad as that of a large wasp. As with all platypi, they dig burrows to nest and shelter in, but will eagerly take advantage of natural cave formations so long as they are not too damp. Phylogenetically, it is more primitive than the true Platypus, and retains molar teeth into adulthood; it seems to have descended from true platypi just before Obdurodon appeared. As such, it may be secondarily terrestrial, so sadly its physiology is not indicative of basal platypi.
Location: Papua New Guinea
Time: Second-hand account collected in 1906, published in 1922.
Another kind of cryptid, which is painfully common in the literature, are oddball creatures known from a single sighting, and never heard from again. Such things are generally dismissed by mainstream zoologists, and rightfully so. People can mistake a completely mundane creature for an odd unknown one in certain circumstances, and people may produce false memories or hallucinations that have no basis in reality to begin with, this can be a product of bad mental health or illicit drugs, but can also occur in otherwise healthy people. Hoaxes and tall tales can fall into this category too, people are well able to make things up, and not all tall tales become prominent features of folklore or urban myth.
So what to make of the “hairy lizards” of Papua? This account was obtained by A.W. Monckton from some gold-miners who were excavating a hillside, and had exposed some small cave networks, from which they had flushed out some fair sized “lizards” covered in hair. They had no specimen to corroborate their story, but Monckton gave them a jar and some spirits to preserve the next specimen they found.
There are, so far known, no lizard species that possess hair. As to what these miners had actually seen, there isn’t enough descriptive information to attempt at finding out. There is the distinct possibility that these people were simply liars, and playing a joke on Monckton. It would appear obvious to most that long-tailed furry creatures like rodents do not look at all like “lizards with hair”, but maybe these people saw partially decomposed possums or rats and had trouble recognising them. In the absence of other sightings, this really seems like a case where we should regard this as a quirky traveller’s anecdote, nothing more.
In the hypothetical event that these creatures were actually real, maybe they were primitive sprawling mammals like platypi? So, the Papuan Saurothere (Papuamonotrematum saurosimilis), despite its name, is in many ways a typical platypus, besides its more terrestrial habits compared to true platypi. Reaching about 50 to 60 centimetres long, it is distributed in a few separate populations around New Guinea, that indicate a larger range in the past. It is generally found on the forest floor, digging through and turning over leaf litter and debris, in search of invertebrates, frogs and lizards. While it can and does swim sometimes, it does most of its foraging on land, and only retreats to water when threatened by a predator. Face and bill are shorter and deeper, as it has less need to keep a low, water-surface profile, and its tail is lizard-like and cylindrical, gently tapering. The prominent venom spurs are generally used as a deterrent if the animal is seized by a predator such as a man or large bird; the sting is about as bad as that of a large wasp. As with all platypi, they dig burrows to nest and shelter in, but will eagerly take advantage of natural cave formations so long as they are not too damp. Phylogenetically, it is more primitive than the true Platypus, and retains molar teeth into adulthood; it seems to have descended from true platypi just before Obdurodon appeared. As such, it may be secondarily terrestrial, so sadly its physiology is not indicative of basal platypi.