Kongamato (Africa's "pterodactyl")
Cryptids are creatures people report but science has never confirmed. In each episode Poss Jonah tells where the legend comes from, what people say they saw, and what a sensible explanation might be, then lets you decide.
The story
In 1923, folks near a swamp in Africa were shown a picture of a flying reptile from the dinosaur days and they said, that's it. meet the kongamato, the "overwhelmer of boats," said to live in the Jiundu Swamp in Western Zambia. Now, it's described as featherless with reddish skin, a toothy beak, and wings four to seven feet across.
Legend says it dives into the water and flips canoes from below. One writer has said that no one ever saw it close and lived to tell a tale. In 1957, a man came into a hospital with bad chest wounds. He said a big bird attacked him in the swamp and we ain't talking Sesame Street.
And when doctors asked him to draw it, he reportedly sketched a pterosaur. But skeptics say pterosaurs couldn't fold their wings to dive like that and point to big strange looking birds like the shoebill stork. And others guessed a giant bat. Now you tell me how a bat is going to flip a boat and stab a dude in the chest.
It ain't happening. This is a dinosaur. You hear me? But you decide.