Iguanodon (meaning iguana-tooth), a herbivorous dinosaur of the mid-Jurassic to Cretaceous period, has been extinct for millions of years. Or has it? In the remote rainforests of Papua, New Guinea, a dinosaur-like creature has been spotted. This possible living link to a long extinct creature has been dubbed the PNG Iguanodon.

In 2004, The PNG Iguanodon was spotted living in a thick marsh of green plants near the ruined town of Rabaul. The town had been destroyed in a volcanic eruption some ten years prior. Villagers seeing the creature ran from it, terrified. They reported it to be about three meters tall, gray, and having a head like a dog and a tail like a crocodile.

Though Iguanodon is thought to have been a strict herbivore, this creature spotted in Papua, New Guinea is reported to have eaten three dogs. Could it be the creature has evolved to become carnivorous in the millions of years it has been thought to be extinct? Or does this mean it is some other animal entirely?

Either way, the mayor of nearby capital town Kokopo hopes the creature is found because it would make a great tourist attraction for the area.

An earlier group of sightings, though somewhat less well-documented, took place in 1999. A large creature was seen wading in Lake Murray. The next day, a Seventh Day Adventist minister reported seeing a creature with a body as long as a dump truck, standing on two legs. He reported that it had a cow-like head, and a crocodile tail, with a scaly crocodile-like appearance overall.

The SyFy show Destination Truth investigated the PNG Iguanodon in their first season episode entitled Igunodon and Ri. In the episode, the team is shown bones thought to be from an Iquanodon at a Papua, New Guinea university. They also conducted some first-hand investigation in the swamp. Upon their return to the US, they consult zoology experts and showed them the evidence they examined. The experts state that the bones are likely from a sperm whale, and the footage caught on tape is likely a saltwater crocodile hunting.

What is known about Iguanodon dinosaurs, and how does it relate to this strange creature spotted on this isolated island? Iquanodon fossils and bones have shown that they can grow to a height of 9 ft (2.7 m), so this is consistent with what sightings report. Iguanodon’s teeth are made for plant-eating, meaning that the herbivorous dinosaur wouldn’t have eaten three dogs – unless it evolved to be meat-eating, or just killed the dogs and didn’t eat them. Examining the leg bones of Iguanadon, scientists have concluded it could walk on four legs, but also run on two. This is consistent with the sightings.

If an Iguanodon were to still exist today, the isolated island of New Guinea seems like the perfect location for such a creature to have remained undiscovered until modern times. It is not beyond the realm of possibility for it to belong to a never before documented species – between the years of 2000-2009, over 19,000 new species were discovered. Of course, the majority of these were insects, plants, and fungi. It is also quite possible for a creature to have been thought extinct to turn up alive and well many years later – see the story of the coelacanth fish which was discovered in 1938 after having been thought to be exinct for 65 million years.

For now though, the PNG Iguanodon remains a bit of intriguing cryptozoology, just beyond the reach of modern science and fact.