Another Example of a Plesiosaurian Taniwha

http://www.worldstampnews.com/2012/06/matariki-2012-maori-rock-art-stamp-issue/#more-7423

Matariki 2012 – Maori Rock Art, Stamp issue

Matariki is celebrated throughout New Zealand, but in the south, Puaka (Rigel, part of the Orion constellation) appears in the sky at the same time as Matariki, and is widely acknowledged.

Māori rock art is visible throughout the country and the stamps in this issue depict examples of rock art documented in Te Waipounamu (the South Island) where more than 500 sites have been recorded to date.
Rock art is applied to a variety of stone types, and while the common perception is that rock art was created using a burnt stick, the majority of the ‘drawings’ in Te Waipounamu appear to have been applied as pigment in solution. The style of Māori rock art is similar to that from wider Polynesia, suggesting that it was a practice brought to New Zealand by its earliest people.
Māori rock art gives a glimpse of New Zealand’s history and culture, and the drawings included on the six self-adhesive stamps in this issue portray animals now long extinct, representations of everyday life and depictions of the supernatural.
The rauru (spiral design) on the stamps pays respect to Rangi and Papa, and the light and knowledge that came about from their separation. The colours used in the rauru reflect the land and environment, and the koru represent growth and life and pay respect to the past, present and future.
Source: New Zealand Post
Matariki 2012 - Maori Rock Art, Stamp issue, 3.7 out of 5 based on 7 ratings

published June 1st, 2012

These include further examples of the "Thunderbird" petroglyph (which looks to have a body the size of a human being) and the Plesiosaurian Taniwha once again. The latter does turn out to have a small head indicated by a loop on the front: once again this is a male with a single penis and limbs indicating the plesiosaurian flippers' bone structure. It is much bigger than the two-man canoe and a guess at its total length could be 40 or 50 feet. The eagle's wingspan would be about the size of the canoe.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

The Devil And Mr. Waddles

BEWARE, BEWARE THE DEMON DUCK OF DOOM! BWEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!!
(Cue Woman screaming in the background. Thank you)

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100602/world/australian-rock-art-find-could-be-40-000-years-old.310182
In this case, I wanted to draw attention to the fact that Australian rock-art does indeed depict the giant birds facetiously called Demon Ducks of Doom, including depictions of their distinctive type of head. The news item supposes the artwork is therefore very old: but on the contrary the big birds could have survived the mass extinction and the paintings could be more recent.
The Demon Ducks (which are of course not related to ducks in the least but are more closely related to the cranes, rails and bustards; it is perhaps better to call them Bigger Bustards) incidentally would have stood between eight and nine feet tall in life, with the females presumably larger than the males.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Burunjor, an Aboriginal Tyrannosaurus?

I just receieved this update in my email from Rex Gilroy through an intermediary:

Out Now
"Burrunjor!The Search For Australia's Living Tyrannosaurus".
by Rex and Heather Gilroy
Copyright © Rex Gilroy 2011.
This book is virtually completed and ready for the printer. Our book comes at a time when, thanks to our pioneering research into this mystery of Aboriginal Australia, Burrunjor is grabbing the attention of Cryptozoologists worldwide.

During March this year the Gilroys, together with Greg Foster our research assistant, carried out an expedition which resulted in the discovery of fresh tracks of Theropod dinosaur type, ancient rock carvings depicting these Tyrannosaurid monsters, and searched regions including the `Red Centre' where these nightmarish monsters have been claimed seen for generations..

It is all there in our new book for all to see, the sightings and terrifying close encounters, not only by Aborigines but also a great many European settlers; the stock `kills' , the `Time-Window' theory evidence; accounts of people who have witnessed the `impossible; people who have by chance
entered `Time-Windows' to encounter the "Age of Dinosaurs".

The book does not only feature information from Australia's far north, for reports of Burrunjor come from South Australia, western Queensland, far western New South Wales and then there are also the eastern Australian encounters, particularly concerning the mysterious `Dinosaur wamplands' of the Wollemi wilderness.

BURRUNJOR! The Search for Australia's Living Tyrannosaurus,
will be released in December 2011 and is certain to create a sensation.

Details Belowhttp://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/books-for-sale.html

With the help of some of "Cryptozoologist's previously-posted illustrations (And don't think for a minute I am ungrateful for them!), I think I can solve this little problem right away. The creature is the same as the giant lizard "Megalania" reported in other parts of Australia, only it occasionally sits up on its hind legs. This behaviour is known in Komodo dragons, for example when an adult dragon is attempting to snatch something out of a tree. And the artwork does not even need to be actually showing the lizards standing upright: this is basically a matter of perspective used in the artwork. Monitor lizards can be frequently depicted from above looking down, oriented with the nose end up and tail end down. This is shown on both bark art paintings and on rock art. And I have known about this since my High School days.

 An aboriginal bark painting showing a monitor lizard from just such a view. The illustration is from the Encyclopedia Britannica Online. The illustration seems to show a lizard standing up on its hind legs, but really it is on all fours on the ground as seen from above.Different versions of the design can show the mouth open or both forelegs on one side. This one is done in the "X-Ray" style.

Incidentally, the "Plesiosaur-Bunyip" rock art is also basically a variation of the same design, only with the neck very much longer and the limbs looking more like flappers. There is nothing unusual about the purported Plesiosaurs from an ARTISTIC point of view-it is a variation on the common lizard design. The difference is in the specific anatomy. Incidentally, while researchin this blog, I found a shortnecked Plesiosaur variation of the design on a site which wants me to pay to use the illustration. It looks very much like Tyler Stone's version of Gambo. Perhaps I shall be able to run it in a future blog.

Here is another piece from "Cryptozoologist's" page showing a reptillian "Bunyip" standing on its hind legs. This looks very much like a large lizard and nothing like a Tyrannosaurus.

"Cryptozoologist" also illustrates a reconstruction of similar "Dinosaur" reports from Northern Chile in South America. I had made mention of similar reports from Peru (Other side of the Andes) in regards to the Chupacabras discussion earlier, and I believe there was also a description from Chile that specified there was a sawtoothed ridge down the back. This would be an unusual iguana lizard of large size but little doubt that it IS an iguana lizard: size range estimates of this range from two to four meters long, pretty consistently throughout South America wherever it is reported. That is the exact size of the Komodo Dragon (Eberhart lists the type as "Venezuelan Monitor Lizards")

I just add this at the end as independant confirmation of the information that I have been sharing on the subject.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Korean Rock-Art "Bunyips" (?Plesiosaurs)

 
While I was doing research towards the recent postings at the Frontiers of Zoology and more specifically into the Early Neolithic of East Asia, I came across this curious scene depictyed on a rock face in Korea. The scene depicts some whales apparantly beached or hauled ashore and being flensed. Among them are several depictions of longnecked creatures similar to some of the Long-Necked "Bunyips" depicted in Australian Rock Art, and some of these depictions resemble supposedly-extinct Plesiosaurs.

In this section to the upper left of the original are several creatures which look to be perhaps very large turtles. In sea turtles however the foreflippers are very large and the rear ones small: in these the flippers all look to be the same length. Moreover the one in the rear of their line, the fourth one  in the cluster and overlapping the figure in lighter green, is facing down the other direction with a longer neck and a  more distinctive head. It seema like a perspective shot with the forequarters well defined and the rear end indistinct: there is a faint indiucations of rear flippers but not the tail (which would be hidden by the body if this were a natural view). Because that one looks more distinctly like a Plesiosaur, I am willing to say that the others in that cluster are likewise.

In this section toward the middle of the whole, there are a couple of longnecked creatures at the topo, a human figure directly in front of the creature on top, and a ship further off to the right. The tail is not shown on the creature at the top, but its arched neck is thicker and it seems to have a horselike head and a mane. I am willing to say this is a "Merhorse" and the pair is meant to be a "Caddy and Amy" couple. There are two large creatures (?"Wasco" Sea Wolves) below them and off to the right of these two, another depiction of what could be a more distinctively Plesiosaur-shaped creature facing the other way. At the bottom there are also, interestingly, a kneeling anthropomorphic bear and a "Plucked chicken" Thunderbird to the right of a whale To the right again of the "Pluckled Chicken" is another version of the Plesiosauian creature as a "Waterhorse" with a bulky ovoid body and four flippers: it is not certain if it is meant to have a tail because there is another (smaller) whale directly behind it where its tail would be, lying crosswise to the body axis of the other creature.

To the far left at the top of the rock face is this other section which also seems to indicate a very long-necked "Waterhorse" only this one more definitely has little or no tail. Directly above it is a long, low-slung creature which may be intended to show a "Waterhorse" swimming at length and showing a row of humps at the surface. This is more problematic. Below them there seem to be some more "Sea-Wolves" and one creature with an exceptionally long tail.

And finally we come to this section at the far left, lower row, which seems to show a crocodile or alligator-like creature (in blue) and several large "Sea Snakes (Some of which are possibly eels) In this section, the most distinctively Plesiosaurian-looking creature is circled in red and it has its neck curled around so that its head faces back, the head end closest to where two whales almost meet nose-to-nose (at right angles to one another) There are some more possible human figures in this section as well.

Best Wishes, Dale D.