TYPE FILE · 13 CRYPTIDs

Reptilian Cryptids

Lizard men, giant serpents and creatures said to be living dinosaurs.

REPTILIAN · 1988

Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp

Scape Ore Swamp, near Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina

A seven-foot, green-scaled, red-eyed creature that a teenager said attacked his car beside a South Carolina swamp in 1988, sparking a summer-long craze.

REGIONAL LEGEND

REPTILIAN · 1913

Mokele-mbembe

Likouala swamps and Lake Télé, Republic of the Congo

A long-necked, elephant-sized river beast of Congo Basin lore, hunted since 1980 by expeditions hoping to find a living sauropod in the Likouala swamps.

REGIONAL LEGEND

REPTILIAN · 1955

Loveland Frog

Little Miami River, Loveland, Ohio

A four-foot frog-faced humanoid said to haunt the Little Miami River at Loveland, Ohio, reported in 1955 and by two police officers in 1972.

LOCAL LEGEND

Woodblock illustration of the nozuchi, a mallet-shaped serpent, from the Edo-period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue

REPTILIAN · 1972

Tsuchinoko

Mountain villages of central and western Japan

A fat-bodied, short-tailed snake said to leap, roll and even speak – Japan’s favorite cryptid, hunted every spring for prizes worth millions of yen.

REGIONAL LEGEND

Downtown Westbrook, Maine, along the Presumpscot River looking toward Bridge Street and Sacarappa Falls in winter.

REPTILIAN · 2016

Wessie

Presumpscot River, Westbrook, Maine

A giant snake seen by police along the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine, in 2016 – an escaped pet, a hoax or the state’s newest cryptid?

LOCAL LEGEND

REPTILIAN · 1898

Beast of Busco

Fulk Lake, near Churubusco, Indiana

A giant snapping turtle said to lurk in a small farm lake near Churubusco, Indiana, whose 1949 hunt made national news and gave the town its nickname.

LOCAL LEGEND

An 18th-century engraving of a cat-headed serpent, one of the Swiss mountain dragons recorded by Scheuchzer in 1723.

REPTILIAN · 1660

Tatzelwurm

The Alps of Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria

The “worm with paws” of the Alps: a stubby, cat-faced lizard said to lurk in mountain crevices, hiss, and kill with its poisonous breath.

REGIONAL LEGEND

Carbuncle Pond in Coventry, Rhode Island, ringed by woods

REPTILIAN · 1890s

Carbuncle Pond Serpent

Carbuncle Pond and Carbuncle Hill, Coventry, Rhode Island

A giant serpent with a glowing red gem in its forehead, said to haunt the woods of Coventry, Rhode Island, until the jewel sank in Carbuncle Pond.

FOLKLORE REPTILIAN · 1921

Alkali Lake Monster

Walgren (formerly Alkali) Lake, near Hay Springs, Nebraska

A 40-foot horned reptile said to lurk in a small Sandhills lake near Hay Springs, Nebraska – a 1920s newspaper sensation widely blamed on a famous hoaxer.

HOAX / DEBUNKED REPTILIAN · Early 20th century

Grootslang

The “Wonder Hole” cave, Richtersveld, Northern Cape

A colossal serpent said to guard a diamond-filled cave in South Africa’s Richtersveld – a prospectors’ legend of greed, peril and treasure.

FOLKLORE

The Ninnescah River near Murdock in Kingman County, Kansas – typical of the creeks and bottomland where the serpent was reported.

REPTILIAN · 1963

Kingman Serpent

Kingman County, south-central Kansas

A giant snake up to 20 feet long reported around Kingman, Kansas, in the 1960s, inspiring a monster hunt in 1969 by hundreds of armed volunteers.

LOCAL LEGEND

A car ferry crossing the broad Kasai River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

REPTILIAN · 1932

Kasai Rex

Kasai River valley, Democratic Republic of the Congo

A 1932 tale of a giant predatory reptile devouring a rhino in the Belgian Congo, backed by a crudely faked photo – the “living T. rex” that wasn’t.

HOAX / DEBUNKED

Dark water of the Likouala-aux-Herbes River reflecting the surrounding rainforest

REPTILIAN · 1980

Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu

Likouala-aux-Herbes River, northern Republic of the Congo

A river creature of the Likouala said to show only its back – a row of algae-covered “planks” – which some cryptozoologists have linked to a stegosaur.

LOCAL LEGEND