Bangladesh 'Burus'

 

Bangladesh Burus information (GUST, copy)

Message #476 of 8203 of the Yahoo group Frontiers of Zoology.
Posted By: daledrinnon daledrinnon Tue Feb 6, 2007 5:49 pm

  New animals in Third World countries are kept in the dark:
Scientist's from Bangladesh claim that giant prehistoric lizards has
been found in their country
Unknown lizards found in the swamps of Bangladesh has reportedly
been such a chock to western scientist's, that they have called for a
total blackout of them! The grotesque, highly strange and "almost
unearthly" lizards, as a scientist puts it, seems to be survivors
from the mesozoic era, but this has not been acknowledged either.
They are a unique find, the kind of which is seldom made in a
millennium. They made their debut in Bangladesh and have shocked
the scientific establishment all over the world. They are called the
giant lizards and may be related to a huge ocean-going Cretaceous
lizards, called mosasaurs. They are said to be grotesque, highly
strange and "almost unearthly", and have given our past a face and
especially the mesozoic era. The BBC World Service made a wide
coverage on them repeatedly on 29 May, 2000. The CNN followed suit
on 3 June 2000, but since than it has been very quiet about this
world unique discovery - a discovery which western scientist's has
refused to deal with! Western scientists Why? Well, I would put it
as I always have: Scientists and especially western scientists, who
are those who today control our destiny, has decided how the world
came to be, what is in it and what will be left in the future, and
prehistoric lizard in Bangladesh does not fit into that picture,
therefore they chose to ignore them. How than could such an
exceptionally huge creature escape detection for so long? They are
possibly larger than Chao Yan ([Crocodylus porosis]the largest croc
on Earth), thrice bigger than the iguana, more than seven meters long
and weighing over a ton. They were spotted in a marshy land of rural
Bangladesh. There were reportedly about a hundred of them there. But
about a dozen were found to be scrambling together for food.
Jurassic Park The local villagers were taking delight in feeding them
with the leftovers and entrails of domestic pets. It seemed the
Jurassic Park was being enacted live. The number of giant lizards are
reportedly decreased after the tsunami, but this has not caused any
severe damage either in Bangladesh. Local biologists are as puzzled
as furious, both towards their own government and the world around
them and say's: "Are these giant lizards Cretaceous Mosasaurs or are
they direct descendant of dinosaurs, modified biologically and
genetically to adapt with the changed environment of the world? Are
dinosaurs really extinct or are they not! Or are they being survived
by their biological progeny in the so-called Giant Lizards?". Giant
lizards They are also upset because the Bangladesh government has
not protected the giant lizards, since there's a great possibility
that poachers will be on the prowl for their skin. If the government
can't lend a helping hand, Bangladesh biologists is hoping that their
invaluable prehistoric discovery could be protected by either WWF or
Greenpeace. Source: The Independent July 28, 2004. Feature: Jan
Sundberg, GUST © 2005.

---Heuvelmans mentions these creatures in his checklist but this is
the first independant information that I had seen of them. Heuvelmans
says that these are giant monitors and the same as the Burus, only
downstream as it were, and his description tallies with the
statements made here. Heuvelmans' checklist was made in 1986 and he
refers back to an article by him from 1965 (never translated into
English) so the information has been around a long time. The photo
illustrating the original article was a reconstruction of primitive Coal-
forest reptiles and not really relevant.

Monitor lizards are related to Mosasaurs.

It is interesting that these creatures are said to be 20 feet long
and bigger than C porosis crocodiles, but they are alleged to grow to
enormous lengths in folklore. 20 feet is conservative, and 50 feet
has been quoted, the longer lengths evidently being due to the length
of the wake being counted as the length of the animal. Actually,
although reports of 25 feet long go back to Roman times, the
creatures themselves are more usually said to be the size of Komodo
dragons.
Best Wishes, Dale D.