Crypto zoological, or hidden, creatures, come in three categories, new species, animals far outside their normal geographical range, and animals thought long extinct. The Iguanodon is an animal in the last group.

Iguanodons were herbivorous dinosaurs, which lived during the early cretaceous period in prehistory, between 125 and 126 million years ago. The Iguanodon died out long before the dinosaurs’ great extinction and indeed had dinosaur descendents, the hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs.

The Iguanodon lived in Europe and belonged to the iguanodontia dinosaur group. Paleontologists began discovering Iguanodon fossils during the nineteenth century. Mary Ann Mantell, (not her husband) found several Iguanodon teeth in Kent, England, in 1825; these teeth looked like large iguana teeth, although the Iguanodon is only distantly related to modern iguanas. Paleontologists have made use of ever advancing scientific techniques to gain much knowledge about how to make informed hypotheses about the living animal’s life and habits. Paleontologists reclassified many dinosaurs, formerly classed as Iguanodon, as saurapods and other dinosaur genera. 

The Iguanodon was 33 feet (10 metres) long. It was an ornithopod walking mainly on its thickly built back legs. It had blunt hooves similar to today’s horses on both back and front feet, these “hooves” mean that the Iguanodon could and did spend time on all fours too. It is likely that older and heavier Iguanodon spent more time on four feet than juveniles did. The Iguanodon had a small grasping thumb-like finger on the outer edge of the front feet, with a large spike on its end. The Iguanodon may have used this spiky thumb in mating, or territory fights or as a defensive weapon against carnivorous dinosaurs. 

A large heavy tail balanced the Iguanodon’s bipedal habit, this tail was made of tendons, which turned into bone during the animal’s growing years, as was  the Iguanodon’s spine.

The Iguanodon, contrary to film depictions, had scaly plates, rather than true teeth, suitable for rasping and grinding green food and possibly had cheek pouches for storing food, similar to modern day hamsters. New scaly plates replaced old as they individually wore down. Paleontologists believe that the Iguanodon had a beak made from keratin, (the material that forms human hair and nails) for cropping twigs, leaves, and shoots. The Iguanodon’s little flexible finger could manipulate food.

Although the Iguanodon has been extinct for millennia, people claim to have seen living Iguanodon in Papua New Guinea, a nation composed of many islands lying between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The most famous sighting in March 2004 was on the Island of New Britain. People saw a three-metre tall, grey, creature with a dog-like head and a crocodile-like tail. The creature ate three dogs witnesses reported. News agencies worldwide noticed the story and the wires were buzzing. Police officers and expert shooters hunted the creature but did not find it. However, this is just one sighting others have been made in various areas in Papua New Guinea and on other islands. A large animal was apparently wading in water near Boboa in December 11 1999. The following day a Pastor and a church elder said they saw an animal not far from the previous sighting.

All witnesses described a very large animal. One witness described it as being “as long as a dump truck” and 7 feet wide, with a long neck and a long slender tail. Walking on its hind legs, which were as thick as coconut palm trees, the creature had two small front legs. Its head was a similar shape to a cow, with large eyes, and sharp finger-length teeth. The witness said that the creature’s skin resembled a crocodile’s skin and said that the animal had large triangular scoop-shapes down its back.

Another witness described the creature’s head as being dog-shaped. However, there are similarities in all the witnesses’ testimonies. Papua New Guinea was never properly explored. Its islands are volcanic and covered in forests providing many places where even large animals can hide. Scientists constantly discover new animals in Papua New Guinea.

The sightings could all be the same animal or species or they could be different dinosaurs. Some witnesses described tiny arms, and the dinosaur eating three dogs, which would not describe the herbivorous Iguanodon. Whether dinosaurs could possibly have survived and bred in Papua New Guinea’s volcanic atmosphere is debatable. The Earth’s air during the times, when dinosaurs ruled the earth was very much richer in oxygen. Indeed, it was because the atmosphere was oxygen rich that dinosaurs and other creatures, including insects grew so huge. What is not in doubt is that witnesses saw a very large animal, possibly reptilian in nature. Monitor lizards can be three metres long and an Australasian Giant Monitor Lizard once roamed Australia and possibly other countries in the region, could it be that they still exist in Papua New Guinea. However, most sightings describe the creature as grey. Could it be an undiscovered mammal? No one really knows what the creature might be. However, it is likely that there are large animals living in Papua New Guinea, whether they are Iguanodon or not, we shall no doubt discover in time.