SHOCKING:- Dinosaur Alive found!

Dinosaur Found Alive in Africa

Jeff Poling

AFRICA (4/1/96) -- Scientists revealed today that a live dinosaur was captured and later lost in sub-Saharan Africa.

Two weeks ago, a film crew for the television show Nova was following a family of wild African dogs for a documentary on social pack structure. While setting up cameras in a stand of trees, a large, bipedal creature rushed the crew. Fortunately for the crew, their African guides were well armed with tranquilizer guns and were able to bring the beast down. It was then transported by helicopter to a local nature preserve and veterinary hospital with an enclosure large enough to hold the beast. Paleontologists and biologists from around the world were summoned to examine the creature.

The creature is bipedal, approximately six feet tall at the hips, and approximately 22 feet long. Scientists have classified it as an allosaurid, a large theropod (carnivorous) dinosaur thought to have become extinct at the end of the Jurassic period over 140 million years ago.

Dr. Thom Hutz of the University of Montana, and noted paleontologist, stated that "...the three fingered manus [hand] and lacrimal horns clearly show this is a type of allosaurid. This particular allosaur is one never before seen even in the fossil record, and therefore represents a new species. Finding this dinosaur...any dinosaur...alive, today, is incredible. I was skeptical at first, but this is clearly a dinosaur."

George Olsen, author, disagrees. "This is clearly a bird. The current paradigm of birds evolving from dinosaurs simply doesn't make any sense from an anatomical standpoint. Birds came first, and dinosaurs evolved from them. Theropods are offshoots off the bird family tree. However, modern birds have evolved far enough that they are now completely something else. Therefore dinosaurs aren't birds, and birds aren't dinosaurs, so this [animal] is clearly a dinosaur...although it's really a bird."

Complicating the long standing argument over bird ancestry is the fact that, as Dr. Hutz puts it, "...this creature is covered by a buttload of feathers." The feathers are small and colored in dull browns and greens typical of African camouflage patterns. The dinosaur also exhibits other bird like characteristics, such as moving its arms in an up-and-down pattern akin to flapping, and making a cry similar to the caw of a crow. Ronald Holstein of the Pan-national Wildlife Federation, and an ornithologist, likened the behavior to "... a chicken running around a barnyard squawking its fool head off."

Other ornithologists dispute whether the presence of feathers and its bird-like behavior prove the dinosaurian ancestry of birds. Dr. Alan Fudd, a noted ornithologist who is opposed to the idea that birds descended from dinosaurs, stated that "this animal makes no sense" and challenged the way Dr. Hutz and his colleagues have linked their find to the development of birds. "I have no faith in their conclusions whatsoever," he said. "It is a stretch of credulity. There are numerous animals with bizarre anatomical features. Maybe it is a nuclear-age mutant or the result of alien experimentation. That would make more sense."

Unfortunately, the animal is no longer available for study by the world's scientists. Soon after learning of the animal's capture, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent 150 of its members to Africa to protect and free the animal. Upon arrival, the PETA members forced their way into the enclosure in which the dinosaur was kept. To prevent scientists from tranquilizing the animal and subjecting it to further tests, most of the individuals formed a circle around the animal, singing Born Free, while others attempted to open the enclosure gate. Unfortunately, since the dinosaur had not yet been tranquilized, several PETA members were eaten before the gate was opened and the animal escaped. The dinosaur has not yet been recaptured.

Plans are currently underway to return to the area where the animal was captured. Scientists are uncertain whether they will recapture the animal or observe it in its natural habitat. They refuse to speculate on whether other individuals of this species will be found, or if other species of dinosaurs will be found. However, scientists are optimistic that they will at least find other individuals of the captured dinosaur's species. "It didn't just spring from the dust like a dinosaurian Adam," a biologist, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "no matter what Duane Gish may believe."