Bunyips and dinosaurs
Australian Aborigines have long spoken of a frightening legendary creature they
call a bunyip. They say the huge creature inhabits reedy swamps
and creeks in parts of Australia. Its howl at night, and the stories of its abducting
people and killing animals, have been enough to strike terror.
In the early days of settlement in Geelong, Victoria (Australia) in the mid-1800s,
reports of the alleged discovery of bunyip bones sparked panic among the settlers.
The Geelong Advertiser newspaper reported in July 1845 that one of the
bones found was shown to an Aboriginal who immediately claimed it was a bunyip bone.
He was asked to draw the ‘bunyip’. The picture was taken to other Aborigines
who had had no chance to communicate with each other, and each of them claimed independently
that the bone and picture were of a bunyip.
The newspaper reported a number of alleged sightings of the bunyip. The description
was of a creature that somewhat resembled an alligator and a bird. It stood about
four metres (12 or 13 feet) high. The hind legs were said to be thick and strong,
with the forelegs longer. It had long claws. In water it swam like a frog; on land
it walked on its hind legs with its head erect. It was covered with different coloured
scales, and laid pale blue eggs double the size of an emu’s egg. Its snout
was like a duck’s bill.
We do not claim to explain this creature, but a drawing from the newspaper at the
time, which was reprinted in the Geelong Advertiser on April 27, 1991,
bears a strong resemblance to what are today known as duck-billed dinosaurs. And
this news report of last century was 13 years before the first duck-billed dinosaur
fossils were described.
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