A living Dragon or a lizard?

 

Artrellia ,a dragon ?

 

Papua New Guinea is the area of  the eastern half of the island of New Guinea .It is north of Australia and still has unexplored areas being largely tropical jungle .It is thought there may be undiscovered tribes living there .There is a huge diversity of wildlife.

 Artrellia is a creature ,dragon-like  in appearance that is said to be found on the island.Described as a lizard up to 40 feet long (13 metres),a carnivore which would eat human flesh.It climbs trees and some say breathes fire. More likely is it spits venom.

In 1933, Richard Archbold ,an American zoologist ,led a scientific expedition into Papua New Guinea. They were there to  map the environment, and study the  plants and animal life. The locals warned them about the dragon and said they would not survive an encounter with it.

During World War 2 allied soldiers stationed on the island  began reporting that they were seeing giant lizard-like creatures in the jungle. They were described as being up to 20 feet long( over 6 metres) and very agile.

In  1960, the last district commissioner of Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, David Marsh made an  official  report  about his sightings of giant lizard-like dragons  within the jungle during the 1940’s while stationed as a patrol officer

In 1961, two men,Robert Grant and David George were exploring the Strachan Island District when they saw an Artrellia.. They described it as having grey skin, a 3foot (1metre) long neck and an estimated  26 feet  ( over 8  metres)long.The men were understandingly afraid and did not follow it when it went back into the jungle.

In 1970s an expedition team  known as the Operation Drake Expedition arrived . Operation Drake was an international, round-the-world scientific journey  that included  young researchers between the ages of 17-24 years from different countries. The leader of this part of the  expedition was Colonel John Blashford-Snell.

While in Papua New Guinea, Col. Blashford-Snell became interested in the Artrellia. After interviewing a variety of witnesses, the team went into the the jungle searching for nearly two months. Eventually they trapped what they thought was a baby Artrellia but it turned out to be a monitor lizard known in the area.

Then a team member, Ian Redmond ,was sitting on the ground and resting in an old creek bed when he began to hear large footsteps breaking twigs and crushing underbrush in the jungle up and behind him. He assumed it was one of his fellow  team members walking along the top edge, but then he  turned around to see what was making it. He saw the giant head and shoulders of a large lizard looking down at him. He later described the dragon-like lizard head as being almost as large as a full grown horse head, and the shoulders were equal in size. Redmond tried to reach for his camera but the lizard turned and was gone before he could reach it. A search was conducted but no sign was found of the creature.

There are still occasional reported sightings but still no proof.  It is quite possible there are unknown creatures in the dense rain forests/jungles still waiting to be discovered or could it be a sort of Kimono dragon that people are seeing ? Further expeditions may yet bring back proof of this living dragon.