The Madidi Monster - hydra dinosaur or deformed crocodile?
“Sir,—The
‘Anglo-Brazilian Times,’ March 24th, 1883, says that the Brazilian
Minister at La Paz, Bolivia, has remitted to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs in Rio photographs of drawings of an extraordinary Saurian
killed on the Beni after receiving thirty-six balls. By order of the
President of Bolivia the dried body, which had been preserved at Asuncion, was sent to La Paz. It is 12 metres long(39 feet) from snout to point of the tail, which latter is flattened. Besides the anterior head, it has, 4 metres(13 feet)
behind, two small but completely formed heads rising from the back. All
three have much resemblance to the head of a dog. The legs are short,
and end in formidable claws. The legs, belly, and lower part of the
throat appear defended by a kind of scale armour, and all the back is
protected by a still thicker and double cuirass, starting from behind
the ears of the anterior head, and continuing to the tail. The neck is
long, and the belly large and almost dragging on the ground. Professor
Gilveti, who examined the beast, thinks it is not a monster, but a
member of a rare or almost lost species, as the Indians in some parts of
Bolivia use small earthen vases of identical shape, and probably copied from Nature.”
."( "A Bolivian Saurian," Scientific American, 49:3, 1883.)
The corpse of the so called Madidi Monster was allegedly moved to La Paz at the President’s request and subsequently disappeared.
Now this was regarded as a hoax especially in view of the “photographs of drawings”
(made me think of the Goon Show “here is a photograph of a cheque” lol)
. If they had photographs why weren’t they of the original corpse not
of the drawings? Then I came across this fossil find:
Scientists 
have
found what is thought to be the first example of a two-headed reptile
in the fossil record. The abnormal animal, belonging to a group of
aquatic reptiles, was unearthed in north-eastern China
and dates to the time of the dinosaurs. The specimen reveals that it
must have been very young when it died and became fossilised, says lead
researcher Eric Buffetaut. "Living animals like this are known. But if
you compare the number of reptiles born with two heads with the total
number of reptiles born, it is very small. "So the chances of finding a
fossil like this are extremely low." The abnormality is known to occur
with some frequency in modern reptiles; about 400 cases of two-headed
snakes have been recorded in historic times.
have
found what is thought to be the first example of a two-headed reptile
in the fossil record. The abnormal animal, belonging to a group of
aquatic reptiles, was unearthed in north-eastern China
and dates to the time of the dinosaurs. The specimen reveals that it
must have been very young when it died and became fossilised, says lead
researcher Eric Buffetaut. "Living animals like this are known. But if
you compare the number of reptiles born with two heads with the total
number of reptiles born, it is very small. "So the chances of finding a
fossil like this are extremely low." The abnormality is known to occur
with some frequency in modern reptiles; about 400 cases of two-headed
snakes have been recorded in historic times.
Full article here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6195345.stm
It could be that the monster was a deformed crocodile or reptile of some
sort that had survived for a few years until adulthood. It certainly
makes more sense than a hydra dinosaur. As it is a rare event for an
animal to be born like this , it is unlikely that local people had seen
anything like it before .
The story of the Madidi Monster is here:
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