Mokele-mbembe

For the Cameroonian political theorist, see Achille Mbembe.

In Congo river basin folklore, Mokele-mbembe (Lingala 'one who stops the flow of rivers') is a water-dwelling entity, sometimes described as a living creature, sometimes as a spirit.

During the early 20th century, descriptions of the entity increasingly reflected public fascination with dinosaurs, including aspects of particular dinosaur species now known among scientists to be incorrect, and the entity became increasingly described alongside a number of purported 'relic dinosaurs' in Africa.

Over time, the entity became a point of focus in particular among adherents of the pseudosciences of cryptozoology and Young Earth creationism, resulting in numerous expeditions led by cryptozoologists and funded by Young Earth creationist individuals and groups with the aim of finding evidence that invalidates mainstream scientific consensus regarding evolution. Paleontologist Donald Prothero remarks that "the quest for Mokele Mbembe ... is part of the effort by creationists to overthrow the theory of evolution and teaching of science by any means possible". Additionally, Prothero observes that "the only people looking for Mokele-mbembe are creationist ministers, not wildlife biologists."

Mokele-mbembe appears in several works of fiction and is referenced in popular culture.

History

Numerous expeditions have been undertaken to Africa in search of Mokele-mbembe. During these, there were some sightings that have been argued by cryptozoologists to involve some unidentified dinosaur-like creature. Additionally, there have been several specific Mokele-mbembe-hunting expeditions. Although several of the expeditions have reported close encounters, none have been able to provide incontrovertible proof that the creature exists. The sole evidence that has been found is the presence of widespread folklore and anecdotal accounts covering a considerable period of time.

1909: Hagenbeck

1909 saw the first mention of a brontosaurus-like creature in Beasts and Men, the autobiography of famed big-game hunter Carl Hagenbeck. He claimed to have heard from two independent sources about a creature living in Rhodesia which was described to them by natives as "half elephant, half dragon." Naturalist Joseph Menges had also told Hagenbeck about similar stories. Hagenbeck speculated that "it can only be some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the brontosaurus." Another of Hagenbeck's sources, Hans Schomburgk, asserted that while at Lake Bangweulu, he noted a lack of hippopotami; his native guides informed him of a large hippo-killing creature that lived in Lake Bangweulu; however, as noted below, Schomburgk thought that native testimony was sometimes unreliable.

Reports of dinosaur-like creatures in Africa caused a minor sensation in the mass media, and newspapers in Europe and North America carried many articles on the subject in 1910–1911; some took the reports at face value, others were more skeptical.

1911: Gratz

According to German adventurer Lt. Paul Gratz's account from 1911:

The crocodile is found only in very isolated specimens in Lake Bangweulu, except in the mouths of the large rivers at the north. In the swamp lives the nsanga, much feared by the natives, a degenerate saurian which one might well confuse with the crocodile were it not that its skin has no scales and its toes are armed with claws. I did not succeed in shooting a nsanga, but on the island of Mbawala I came by some strips of its skin.

1913: von Stein

Another report comes from German Captain Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz, as described by Willy Ley in Exotic Zoology (1959), who was ordered to conduct a survey of German colonies in what is now Cameroon in 1913. He heard stories of an enormous reptile called "Mokéle-mbêmbe" alleged to live in the jungles, and included a description of the beast in his official report. According to Willy Ley, "von Stein worded his report with utmost caution," knowing it might be seen as unbelievable. Nonetheless, von Stein thought the tales were credible: trusted native guides had related the tales to him, and the stories were related to him by independent sources, yet featured many of the same details. Though von Stein's report was never formally published, Ley quoted von Stein as writing:

The animal is said to be of a brownish-gray color with a smooth skin, its size is approximately that of an elephant; at least that of a hippopotamus. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth but a very long one; some say it is a horn. A few spoke about a long, muscular tail like that of an alligator. Canoes coming near it are said to be doomed; the animal is said to attack the vessels at once and to kill the crews but without eating the bodies. The creature is said to live in the caves that have been washed out by the river in the clay of its shores at sharp bends. It is said to climb the shores even at daytime in search of food; its diet is said to be entirely vegetable. This feature disagrees with a possible explanation as a myth. The preferred plant was shown to me, it is a kind of liana with large white blossoms, with a milky sap and applelike fruits. At the Ssombo River I was shown a path said to have been made by this animal in order to get at its food. The path was fresh and there were plants of the described type nearby. But since there were too many tracks of elephants, hippos, and other large mammals it was impossible to make out a particular spoor with any amount of certainty.

1927: Smith

Alfred Aloysius Smith, who had worked for a British trading company in what is now Gabon in the late 1800s, briefly mentions in his 1927 memoir the "jago-nini" and "amali":

Aye, and behind the Cameroon there's things living we know nothing about. I could 'a' made books about many things. The Jago-Nini they say is still in the swamps and rivers. Giant diver it means. Comes out of the water and devours people. Old men'll tell you what their grandfathers saw but they still believe its there. Same as the Amali I've always taken it to be. I've seen the Amali's footprint. About the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead of five.

He also speculates that "some great creature like the Amali" could be responsible for finding broken and splintered ivory in (now known to be mythical) elephants' graveyards, as well as claiming to have given a chiseled out cave painting of the amali to Ulysses S. Grant.

1932: Sanderson

Cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson claimed that, while in Cameroon in 1932, he witnessed an enormous creature in the Manyu River. The creature, seemingly badly wounded, was only briefly visible as it lurched into the water. Darkly colored, the animal's head alone was nearly the size of a hippo, according to Sanderson. His native guides termed the creature "m'koo m'bemboo", in Sanderson's phonetic spelling.

1938: von Boxberger

In 1938, explorer Leo von Boxberger mounted an expedition in part to investigate Mokele-mbembe reports. He collected much information from natives, but his notes and sketches had to be abandoned during a conflagration with local tribesmen.

1939: von Nolde

In 1939, the German Colonial Gazette (of Angola) published a letter by Frau Ilse von Nolde, who asserted that she had heard of the animal called "coye ya menia" ("water lion") from many claimed eyewitnesses, both natives and settlers. She described the long necked creature as living in the rivers, and being about the size of a hippo, if not somewhat larger. It was known especially for attacking hippos - even coming on to land to do so - though it never ate them.

1966: Ridel

In August or September 1966, Yvan Ridel took a picture of a large footprint with three toes, north-east of Loubomo, notable as hippopotamuses have four toes.

1976: Powell

In 1960, an expedition to Zaire was planned by herpetologist James H. Powell Jr., scheduled for 1972, but was canceled by legal complications. By 1976, however, he had sorted out the international travel problems, and went to Gabon instead, inspired by the book Trader Horn. He secured finances from the Explorer's Club. Although Powell’s ostensible research aim was to study crocodiles, he also planned to study Mokele-mbembe.

On this journey, Powell located a claimed eyewitness to an animal called "n'yamala", or "jago-nini", which Powell thought was the same as the "amali" of Smith's 1920's books. Natives also stated – without Powell's asking - that "n'yamala" ate the flowering liana, just as von Stein had been told half a century earlier. When Powell showed illustrations of various animals, both alive and extinct, to natives, they generally suggested that the Diplodocus was the closest match to "n'yamala".

1979: Powell

Powell returned to the same region in 1979, and claimed to receive further stories about "n'yamala" from additional natives. He also made an especially valuable contact in American missionary Eugene Thomas, who was able to introduce Powell to several claimed eyewitnesses. He decided that the n'yamala was probably identical to the Mokele-mbembe. Though seemingly herbivores, witnesses reported that the creatures were fearsome, and were known to attack canoes that were steered too close.

1979: Thomas

Reverend Eugene Thomas from Ohio told James Powell and Roy P. Mackal in 1979 a story that involved the purported killing of a Mokele-mbembe near Lake Tele in 1959. Thomas was a missionary who had served in the Congo since 1955, gathering much of the earliest evidence and reports, and claiming to have had two close-encounters himself. Natives of the Bangombe tribe who lived near Lake Tele were said to have constructed a large spiked fence in a tributary of Tele to keep Mokele-mbembe from interfering with their fishing. A Mokele-mbembe managed to break through, though it was wounded on the spikes, and the natives then killed the creature. As William Gibbons writes, "Pastor Thomas also mentioned that the two pygmies mimicked the cry of the animal as it was being attacked and speared... Later, a victory feast was held, during which parts of the animal were cooked and eaten. However, those who participated in the feast eventually died, either from food poisoning or from natural causes. I also believe that the mythification (magical powers, etc.) surrounding Mokele-mbembe [sic] began with this incident." Furthermore, Mackal heard from witnesses that the stakes were in the same location in the tributary as of the early 1980s.

1980: Mackal-Powell

For his third expedition in February 1980, Powell was joined by Roy P. Mackal. Based on the testimony of claimed eyewitnesses, Powell and Mackal decided to focus their efforts on visiting the northern Congo regions, near the Likouala aux Herbes River and isolated Lake Tele. As of 1980, this region was little explored and largely unmapped, and the expedition was unable to reach Lake Tele. Powell and Mackal interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mokele-mbembe, and Clark writes that the descriptions of the creature were "strikingly similar ... animals 15 to 30 feet (5 to 9 m) long (most of that a snakelike head and neck, plus long thin tail). The body was reminiscent of a hippo's, only more bulbous ... again, informants invariably pointed to a picture of a sauropod when shown pictures of various animals to which mokele-mbembe might be compared." Mackal and Powell were interviewed before and after this expedition for the TV program Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World.

1981: Mackal-Bryan

Mackal and Jack Bryan mounted an expedition to the same area in late 1981. He was supposed to be joined by Herman Regusters, but they came in conflict in terms of finance, equipment and leadership and decided to split and make separate expeditions. Although, once again, Mackal was unable to reach Lake Tele, he gathered details on other cryptids and possible living dinosaurs, like the Emela-ntouka, Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, Nguma-monene, Ndendeki (giant turtle), Mahamba (a giant crocodile of 15 meters), and Ngoima (a giant monkey-eating Eagle). Among his company were J. Richard Greenwell, M. Justin Wilkinson, and Congolese zoologist Marcellin Agnagna.

The 1981 expedition would feature the only "close encounters" of the Mackal expeditions. It occurred when, while on a river, they heard a loud splash and saw what Greenwell described as "[a] large wake (about 5") ... originating from the east bank". Greenwell asserted that the wake must have been caused by an "animate object" that was unlike a crocodile or hippo. Additionally, Greenwell noted that the encounter occurred at a sharp river bend where, according to natives, Mokele-mbembe frequently lived due to deep waters at those points.

1987 saw the publication of Mackal's book, A Living Dinosaur?, in which Mackal detailed his expedition and his conclusions about the Mokele-mbembe. Mackal tried, unsuccessfully, to raise funds for additional trips to Africa.

1981: Regusters

In 1981, American engineer Herman Regusters led his own Mokele-mbembe expedition, after having a conflict with the Mackal-Bryan expedition that he intended to join. Regusters and his wife Kai reached Lake Tele, staying there for about two weeks. Of the 30 expedition members (28 were men from the Boha village), only Herman Regusters and his wife claim to have observed a "long-necked member" traveling across Lake Tele. They also claim to have tried filming the being, but said their motion picture film was ruined by the heat and humidity. Only one picture was released showing a large, but unidentifiable, object in the lake. The Regusters expedition returned with droppings and footprint casts, which Regusters believed were from the mokele-mbembe.

It also returned with sound recordings of "low windy roar [that] increased to a deep throated trumpeting growl", which Regusters believed to be the Mokele-mbembe's call. This recording was submitted for technical evaluation with a noted physicist, Kenith W. Templin, whose specialty was sound waves and vibration analysis, but it was inconclusive, except to note that the sounds were not attributable to any known wildlife. Despite this result, Regusters' conclusions about this tape were later challenged by Mackal, who asserted that the Mokele-mbembe did not have a vocal call. Mackal asserts that vocalizations are more correctly associated with the Emela-ntouka, a similarly described creature found in the Central African legends.

1983: Agnagna

Congolese biologist Marcellin Agnagna led the 1983 expedition of Congolese to Lake Tele. According to his own account, Agnagna claimed to have seen a Mokele-mbembe at close distance for about 20 minutes. He tried to film it, but said that in his excitement, he forgot to remove the motion picture camera's lens cap. In a 1984 interview, Agnagna claimed, contradictorily, that the film was ruined not because of the lens cap, but because he had the Super 8 camera on the wrong setting: macro instead of telephoto.

1985: Nugent

In December 1985 Rory Nugent spotted an anomaly moving through the middle of Lake Tele, a "black periscope shape" approximately 1 kilometer from his position on the shore. In his account published as a book, Nugent claimed that it was shaped like a "splendid french curve" and moving through the water with little wake. When he went to launch a boat to investigate he was ordered at gunpoint by the natives not to approach it. Nugent quotes his guides as saying, "The god can approach man, but man never approaches the god. He would have killed us all." He also provided some pictures, which are too blurry to be identifiable.

1985-1986: Operation Congo

Operation Congo took place between December 1985 and early 1986 by "four enthusiastic but naïve young Englishmen," led by Young Earth Creationist William Gibbons, They hired Agnagna to take them to Lake Tele, but did not report any Mokele-mbembe sightings. The British men did, however, assert that Agnagna did "little more than lie, cheat and steal (our film and supplies) and turn the porters against us." After criminal charges were filed against him, a Congolese court ordered Agnagna to return the items he had taken from the expedition.

Although the party found no evidence of the Mokele-mbembe, they discovered a new subspecies of monkey, which was later classified as the Crested mangabey monkey (Cerocebus galeritus), as well as fish and insect specimens.

1986: Botterweg

In 1986 another expedition was mounted, consisting of four Dutchmen, organized and led by Dutch biologist Ronald Botterweg, who already had experience with tropical rainforest research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and who later visited, lived, and worked in several African countries. This expedition entered the Congo down the Ubangi River from Bangui in the Central African Republic, and managed, with considerable organizational challenges, to reach Lake Tele, with a group of guides from the village of Boha, some of which had also accompanied Regusters. Since they had only managed to obtain permission from the local authorities (not having passed by Brazzaville) for a very limited period in the area, they only spent about three days at the lake before returning to Boha. During their stay at the lake they spent as much time as possible observing the lake and its surroundings through from their provisional camp on the north-eastern shore, and navigating part of it by dug-out canoe. No signs of any large unknown animal were found.

On the way back, arriving at the town of Impfondo, they were detained by Congolese biologist Agnagna and his team, who had just arrived there for an expedition with the British team of Operation Congo, allegedly for not possessing the proper documents. They were detained for a short while, and the largest part of their film and color slides were confiscated, before being released and leaving the country (again by the Ubangui river and Bangui).

No signs, tracks or anything tangible or visible of the alleged animals was seen or shown whatsoever. Tracks, droppings, and other signs of forest elephants and gorillas were commonly seen, as well as crocodiles in the lake. Despite the fact that the African guides were extremely capable and experienced hunters, guides and experts of the African rainforest, they were not able to show any track or sign of the Mokele-mbembe and none of the several interviewed guides even claimed ever to have seen one personally, nor its tracks. Remarkable is the fact that the guides that were interviewed by the Dutch expedition and that also accompanied Regusters, stated that they never saw a Mokele-mbembe during that expedition, although Regusters himself claims to have seen one.

This expedition received some attention in the Dutch media (radio, TV, and newspapers) from 1985 to 1987, and again in a nostalgic radio show by Dutch radio station KRO on channel Radio 2, on 7 March 2011. Furthermore, this expedition features in a slightly romanticized form as a short story by Dutch novelist author Margriet de Moor ('Hij Bestaat', meaning It exists, in the novel 'Op de Rug Gezien', meaning Seen from behind).

1988 Japanese expedition

In 1988 a Japanese expedition explored the Lake Tele area in search of the Mokele-mbembe. It was led by Hideyuki Takano, then undergraduate at Waseda University, and the group was accompanied by Agnagna.

In 1992, the Japanese film crew seeking to film Mokele-mbembe captured a blurry 15 second aerial shot video of an object moving in Lake Tele and creating a wake. If not an animal, it has been suggested the footage may only been that of people paddling a canoe.

1989 O'Hanlon

British writer Redmond O'Hanlon traveled to the region in 1989 and not only failed to discover any evidence of Mokele-mbembe but found out that many local people believe the creature to be a spirit rather than a physical being, and that claims for its authentic existence have been fabricated. His experience is chronicled in Granta no. 39 (1992) and in his book Congo Journey (UK, 1996), published as No Mercy in the USA (1997).

1992 Operation Congo 2

William Gibbons launched a second expedition in 1992 which he dubbed "Operation Congo 2". Along with Rory Nugent, Gibbons searched almost two thirds of the Bai River along with two poorly charted lakes: Lake Fouloukuo and Lake Tibeke, both of which local folklore held to be sites of Mokele-mbembe activity. The expedition failed to provide any conclusive evidence of the Mokele-mbembe, though they did further document local legends and Nugent took two photographs of unidentified objects in the water, one of which he claimed was the creature's head. [1]

2000: Extreme Expeditions

In January 2000, the Congo Millennium Expedition (aka. DINO2000) took place, the second one by Extreme Expeditions, consisting of Andrew Sanderson, Adam Davies, Keith Townley, Swedish explorer Jan-Ove Sundberg, and five others. (Adam Davies has spoken of the Mokele-mbembe on a 2011 BBC video.)

2000: Gibbons

In November 2000, William Gibbons did some preliminary research in Cameroon for a future expedition. He was accompanied by David Wetzel, and videographer Elena Dugan. While visiting with a group of pygmies, they were informed about an animal called Ngoubou, a horned creature. The pygmies asserted it was not a regular rhinoceros, as it had more than one horn (six horns on the frill in one eyewitness account), and that the father of one of the senior members of the community had killed one with a spear a number of years ago. The locals have noted a firm dwindle in the population of these animals lately, and that they are hard to find. Gibbons identified the animal with a Styracosaurus, but, in addition to being extinct, these are only known to have inhabited North America.

2001: CryptoSafari/BCSCC

In February 2001, in a joint venture between CryptoSafari and the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club (BCSCC), a research team traveled to Cameroon consisting of William Gibbons, Scott T. Norman, John Kirk and writer Robert A. Mullin. Their local guide was Pierre Sima Noutchegeni. They were also accompanied by a BBC film crew. No evidence of Mokèlé-mbèmbé was found.

2001: BBC Congo

In 2001, BBC broadcast in the TV series Congo a collective interview with a group of BiAka pygmies, who identified the mokele mbembe as the rhinoceros while looking at an illustrated manual of local wildlife. Neither species of African rhinoceros is common in the Congo Basin, and the Mokèlé-mbèmbé may be a mixture of mythology and folk memory from a time when rhinoceros were found in the area.

2006: Marcy

In January 2006, the Milt Marcy Expedition traveled to the Dja river in Cameroon, near the Congolese border. It consisted of Milt Marcy, Peter Beach, Rob Mullin and Pierre Sima. They spoke to witnesses that claimed to have observed a Mokèlé-mbèmbé only two days before, but they did not discover the animal themselves. However, they did return with what they believe to be a plaster cast of a Mokèlé-mbèmbé footprint.

2006: National Geographic

A May 2006 episode called "Super Snake" of the National Geographic series Dangerous Encounters included an expedition headed by Brady Barr to Lake Tele. No unknown animals were found.

2006: Vice Guide to Travel

In 2006, David Choe travelled to the Republic of Congo in search of the creature for Vice in the segment The Last Dinosaur of the Congo. Choe and his companions failed to find the animal and the focus of the documentary turned to the rituals of their Pygmy guides.

2008: Destination Truth

In March 2008, an episode of the SyFy (formerly the SciFi Channel) series Destination Truth involved investigator Joshua Gates and crew searching for the creature. They did not visit the Likouala Region, which includes Lake Tele, but they visited Lake Bangweulu in Zambia instead, which had reports of a similar creature in the early 20th century, called the "'nsanga". The crew of Destination Truth kept calling the animal "Mokèlé-mbèmbé" to the locals, when that name is only used in the Republic of the Congo. The name used in that particular spot is "chipekwe". Their episode featured a videotaped encounter filmed from a great distance. On applying digital video enhancement techniques, the encounter proved to be nothing more than two submerged hippopotami.

2009: MonsterQuest

In March 2009 an episode of the History Channel series MonsterQuest involved William Gibbons, Rob Mullin, local guide Pierre Sima and a two-man film crew from White Wolf Productions. It took place in Cameroon, in the region of Dja River, Boumba River, and Nkogo River, near the border with the Republic of the Congo. The episode aired in the summer of 2009, and also featured an interview with Roy P. Mackal and Peter Beach of the Milt Marcy Expedition, 2006. While no sightings were reported on the expedition, the team claimed that holes found in the riverbank were air vents leading to an underground chamber where the creature lived. The team also received sonar readings of very long, serpentine shapes underwater.

2011: Beast Hunter

A March 2011 episode of Beast Hunter on the National Geographic Channel featured a search for Mokele-mbembe in the Congo Basin.

2012: The Newmac Expedition

In April 2012 Stephen McCullah & Sam Newton launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund an expedition to the Congo region to search for Mokele-mbembe. Despite raising around $29,000 the expedition suffered financial difficulties and is believed to have been abandoned shortly after the party reached the Congo in July 2012.

Pseudoscience

According to Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero, the conventional image of Mokele Mbembe held by cryptozoologists and Young Earth creationists such as Roy Mackal is based on an outdated image of sauropod dinosaurs from the early twentieth century. More recent discoveries indicate that most sauropods did not live in swampy areas and subsist on aquatic plants (as was long supposed), but instead lived in seasonally dry woodlands and ate tough conifers and cycads. Loxton and Prothero argue that the sauropod image of Mokele Mbembe reflects a confirmation bias which seeks to force ambiguous eyewitness accounts to support wishful thinking. These authors also point out that a surviving population of sauropods would leave behind skeletal remains like other large animals do, and that Africa's rich fossil record would contain sauropod bones younger than 65 million years old if a group of such had survived to the present. The absence of this evidence, despite several centuries of Western contact with the region, numerous expeditions in search of the animal, and periodic aerial and satellite surveillance, all of which have detected elephants and other large animals - but no sauropods - all argue against the existence of Mokele Mbembe.

Some activists have considered cryptozoologists and creationists interpreting the Mokele Mbembe as a sauropod or other physical animals racist as it showcases a disrespect towards indigenous African cultures and religions.

In popular culture

Several popular cultures have used the Mokele-Mbembe:

• The film Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, starring William Katt, was released in 1985 and featured a family of Mokele-mbembe (referred to as Brontosaurs) living in Africa.
• Midwich Entertainment released a series of short, family-oriented dinosaur documentaries in the mid-to-late 1980s, wherein hosts Gary Owens and Eric Boardman alternate scientific lectures with Laurel and Hardy-style comedy routines. One segment is a discussion of Mokele-Mbembe, featuring footage of an interview with Herman Regusters. Behind-the-scenes footage from Baby is also included.
• The Mokele-mbembe was featured in The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs episode "Earnest." It is among the creatures that have been caught by Earnest Anyway.
• The film The Dinosaur Project, starring Richard Dillane, was released in 2012. The film featured the Mokele-mbembe as a Plesiosaurus.
• In May 2013 the Norwegian experimental music outfit Sturle Dagsland released a song entitled "Mokèlé-mbèmbé".
• The Roland Smith novel Cryptid Hunters revolves around a search for the Mokèlé-mbèmbé and successful recovery of two of its eggs (the only known adult specimens having died beforehand) from the jungles of the Congo.
• Mokele-mbembe is one of six cryptids sought by comedian and journalist Dom Joly in his travel book Scary Monsters and Super Creeps.

See also

• Cryptid
• Loch Ness Monster

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Clark, Jerome (1993). Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 0-8103-9436-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Coleman, Loren (2003). The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher. ISBN 1-58542-252-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Gibbons, William J. (2006). Missionaries And Monsters. Coachwhip Publications. ISBN 978-1930585249.
• Ley, Willy (1966). Exotic Zoology. New York: Capricorn Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) (trade paperback edition)
• Mackal, Roy P. (1987). A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe. E.J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-08543-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Loxton, Daniel; Prothero, Donald R. (13 August 2013). Abominable Science: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other Famous Cryptids. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52681-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ndanga, Alfred Jean-Paul (2000) 'Réflexion sur une légende de Bayanga: le Mokele-mbembe', in Zo, 3, 39-45.
• Nugent, Rory (1993). Drums Along the Congo: On the Trail of Mokele-Mbembe, the Last Living Dinosaur. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-58707-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• O'Hanlon, Redmond (1997). No Mercy: A Journey Into the Heart of the Congo. Vintage Books (Random House). ISBN 0-679-73732-4.
• Regusters, H.A. (1982). "Mokele - Mbembe: an investigation into rumors concerning a strange animal in the Republic of the Congo, 1981" (PDF). Munger Africana library notes. 64. Pasadena: California Institute of Technology (CIT). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2011. {{cite journal}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 11 May 2015 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Shuker, Karl P.N. (1995). In Search of Prehistoric Survivors. London: Blandford. ISBN 0-7137-2469-2.
• Sjögren, Bengt (1980). Berömda vidunder. Settern. ISBN 91-7586-023-6.Template:Sv icon

External links

• African Pygmies Culture and mythology of pygmy peoples from the Congo River basin
• Episode 43 - "Crypt O’ Zoology: Dinosaurs in Africa!" of the Monster Talk podcast which features an interview with Donald Prothero about his involvement with the 2009 MonsterQuest expedition to find Mokele-Mbembe.
• Prothero, Donald (22 June 2011). "A Living Dinosaur in the Congo? (Part 1)". Skepticblog.org. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
• Prothero, Donald (29 June 2011). "A Living Dinosaur in the Congo? (Part 2)". Skepticblog.org. Retrieved 1 June 2013.