Australia is a continent of paradise for herbivores: there are practically no large predators here. But it seems that it was not always so. In the rock paintings of primitive people, there is an image of a dragon-like creature. Fairy tale? Rather, a real large reptile, close to the monitor lizard
Paleontologists confirm that a large lizard, similar to a monitor lizard, really once lived on the kangaroo continent. Cryptozoologists are sure that Megalania is a large reptile that still leads a reclusive life in the thickets of the Australian bush.
Proof of megalania in the past is bones. Although paleontologists have not yet found a complete skeleton, about 80% of the megalania skeleton has been collected from fragments. All bones found are fossilized. Almost all. One part of the pelvic bone confuses paleontologists, while giving hope and enthusiasm to cryptozoologists: it is dry and fragile. What should this be talking about? The bones are no more than 300 years old, and official science claims that megalania was swept away thousands of years ago. The assembled skeleton makes it possible to judge the size of the Australian dragons that lived in the past - up to 6 m in length, and about carnivorousness: otherwise, why would Megalania have sharp, bent teeth?
Arguments in favor of the prosperous life of megalania today are only eyewitness accounts and casts of footprints.
Vivid evidence of the existence of a large reptile in the forests of Australia was obtained in 1961 by lumberjacks. At lunchtime, three young men heard the growing crunch of branches under the body of a large mass - a large colossus making its way through the dense undergrowth. Soon the very cause of the noise appeared - a powerfully built monitor-like creature six meters long. The lumberjacks took refuge in the cab of the car.
Later, young people shared their impressions of the huge claws and toothy jaws they saw. The car did not seem edible to the beast. The dragon crossed the clearing and disappeared into the forest. It happened in the mountains of Huathoga in New South Wales.
In 1979, Rex Gilroy made a plaster cast of a huge reptile paw print. Traces were left by megalania walking through a plowed field of one of the Australian farmers. The famous cryptozoologist asked the farmer to cover the rain marks until he arrived at the farm. The farmer honestly complied with the request - he threw grass at the tracks.
It has started raining … Only one footprint was miraculously covered by the old trough, and the researcher had an object of pride - a cast of a paw print of megalania. That it was megalania is beyond doubt. The nature of the chain of prints (distance between them, relative position) clearly shows that the field was quickly crossed by a six-meter reptile.
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With the hope of catching a living megalania, Gilroy interviewed eyewitnesses who saw the Australian dragon with their own eyes. During the study, about 600 evidence of encounters with a large reptile has accumulated.
Eyewitnesses described megalania as a 4-6 meter monitor lizard with huge claws and a brown spotted body color. Although the sight of a living dragon scares the Australians who have met him, no aggressive behavior was noted. Or there are simply no witnesses who could tell about the aggressiveness of megalania …
All jokes, but giant reptiles unknown to science roam the Australian continent. Why has not their existence been reliably proven and their systematic position has not yet been determined?
Australia's relatively small population is concentrated off the coast and in inland cities. Vast territories inland are so sparsely populated that even a rather large animal can easily hide from prying eyes.
For the same reason, new species of the animal species are regularly discovered in Australia.
Perhaps the time will come for megalania to move from the category of cryptids or completely extinct animals to the category of newly discovered species.