Unknown lizards and crocodilians
The animals in this section are lizards, or crocodilians, which remain unclassified by mainstream science. Some of them may not be real lizards or crocodiles, but animals which resemble them enough to be counted here.
Trimble County giant lizard (Trimble County in Kentucky, and in Ohio NA): A giant lizard-like animal was reported by several witnesses from trimble County in Kentucky, but even more amzing is that a very similar animal was sen almost 100 years earlier across the Ohio River from Trimble. This creature wa said to run bipedally away from it's pursuers; some witnesses claimed to have seen the Trimble lizard on it's hind legs. Both creatures were said to be black and white with quarter-sized orange spots all over. If these exist, I'd say they're some kind of lizard which, like many small American lizards, can run bipedally. Except this one isn't small.
Virginia giant lizard (Merrifield Virginia NA): A giant lizard that was seen near Merrifield, Virginia, sometime in the 1990's. I would appreciate any information on this creature.
"Gowrow" (Arkansas NA): In the Ozark Mountains in the Northern third of Arkansas there is a mythological giant lizard called the gowrow. Modern research has shown that this "lizard" was in fact the alligator. However, it is not known if alligators once lived in the Ozarks (they do not now), or if even maybe they still do.
Unknown 7-foot monitor (Former French Cameroons AFRICA): Reported by an early exporer to the region while it was still the French Cameroons, now the Congo, this was a sand coloured monitor which the explorer could not identify. Most probably an undescribed species.
Cenaprugwirion (Northern Wales EUROPE): A strange, largish lizard-like creature seen Abersoch in Wales. Karl Shuker has proposed that these could be an introduced popultion of tuataras, but that depends on whether or not the cenaprugwirion has been seen way back into historical times or not. It could just be an undescribed species of lizard.
Australian dragon reptile (Eastern Australia AUSTRALIA): A giant lizard-like reptile, reaching up to 30 feet long. Many locals have seen the beasts, and one farmer found a trackway leading across his freshly plowed field. Rex Gilroy has a plaster cast of one of these tracks. There are two major suspects here: Megalania prisca, the giant monitor lizard which roamed Australia only a couple thousand years ago; or Quinkana, the giant land crocodile which was around at the same time as Megalania. Who knows, really. The only factor which would've pushed these two reptiles to extinction is the Aborigines hunting them, and I highly doubt they could've completely accomplished that.
Artrellia (Papua New Guinea INDONESIA): A large, tree-living reptilke said to be both bigger and more agressive than Salvadori's monitor. Salvadori's monitor is the largest lizard in the world, averaging 12 feet in length, but the artrellia is said to be around 20 feet in length. It may be a tree monitor related to the Salvadori monitor, or perhaps just an abberantly large race or sub-species of it.
Giant amphibious monitor (Eastern New Guinea INDONESIA): A giant monitor species which is semi-aquatic. Most probably independantly derived from the other giant monitors, and since there is already a water monitor in Africa this idea isn't unfounded at all.
Giant gecko (New Zealand OCEANA): A giant gecko species has been seen around Otago in New Zealand. It was given the name Hoplodactylus delcourti by Bauer and Russell, but it has never been officially recognised as existing. A specimen is needed until it can be catalogued officially.
Large furry lizards (New Guinea INDONESIA): Large lizards - or lizard-like animals - have been seen near the Aikora River which were covered in a coat of fur. These could be mammals which look reptilian in basic body shape, thus giving the impression of being "lizards". However, fossil evidence has shown us that hair is not exclusively a mammalian trait. It evolved twice independantly; once in early paramammals, and also in pterosaurs. If "fur" could evolve twice in two completely unrelated lines of animals, don't tell it couldnt've happened again.
Migo (Bismark Archipeligo INDONESIA): A crocodile-like animal that has been seen in Lake Dakataua on New Britain. It is possibly a true crocodile, or more like a second species of gavail.
Celebes crocodile (Celebes INDONESIA): An unknown crocodile species reported from Celebes (Sulawesi). Probably an undescribed species, rather than a new race of a known one.
New Britain crocodile (New Britain INDONESIA): An unknown species of crocodile that has been reported from New Britian. I doubt this is the same as the migo, but rather just a new kind of crocodile.
Buru (Apu Tanis valley and nearby areas of India ASIA): The buru was a large, aquatic lizard which featured in the mythology of the Apu Tanis tribe. when explorers first discovered the valley, the Apu Tanis claimed that the burus used to live in the deeper water of the flooded valley floor, but that they were all gone now. The tribe continued by saying that burus still survived in some nearby remote valleys. That has yet to be proven. If the buru exists, then it is most probably an aquatic monitor of some sort.
Giant Malayan monitors (Malayan penninsula ASIA): A giant monitor of some kind reported from Maylaysa. It is likely a species akin to the Komodo dragon.
Oceanic "crocodile" (Tropical oceans of the world): A commonly sighted sea "monster" these are said to be large lizard- or crocodile-like animals which live out in the middle of the ocean. Crocodiles, lizards, and other groups of diapsid reptile have taken to the oceans before; the salt-water crocodile seems to be on the way towards achieving this. In my opinion, we've got ourselves a new line of marine reptiles here. Super-salties, perhaps?
Cipactli (Gulf of Mexico, near the southern Mexican shores): A monster from Aztec mythology, it was said to be a crocodile-like creature which lived in the sea. It seems almost painfully obvious to point out that this is most definitely a historic reference to the "super-salties".
