Porowillii

**Habitat** | Jungles and Wetlands

In cryptozoology, the **Porowillii** is a water-dwelling entity that supposedly lives in the Congo River Basin, sometimes described as a living creature, sometimes as a spirit. Those that have allegedly seen the creature describe it as a large quadrupedal herbivore with armored skin, a long clubbed tail, short legs, a short neck neck, and a short head with a beak.

In early to mid 20th century, the entity would become a point of focus among adherents of the pseudoscience of cryptozoology, and young Earth creationism, resulting in numerous expeditions led by cryptozoologists and funded by young Earth creationists and other groups with the objective to find evidence that invalidates or contradicts the scientific consensus regarding evolution. Paleontologist Donald Prothero remarks that "the quest for Porowillii... is part of the effort by creationists to overthrow the theory of evolution and teaching of science by any means possible". Additionally, Prothero observes that "The only people looking for porowillii are creationist ministers, not wildlife biologists."

## History

The first description of the porowillii as an ankylosaur-like beast was in 1909, in Beasts and Men, the autobiography of famed big-game hunter Carl Hagenbeck. He claimed to have heard from two independent sources about a creature living in Gambia, which was described to them by natives as "half tank, half dragon." Naturalist Joseph Menges had also told Hagenbeck about similar stories. Hagenbeck speculated that "it can only be some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the Ankylosaurus." Another of Hagenbeck's sources, Hans Schomburgk, asserted that while at Lake Bangweulu, he noted a lack of rhinos; his native guides informed him of a large rhino-killing creature that lived near Lake Tanganyika; however, as noted below, Schomburgk thought that native testimony was sometimes unreliable.

Tales of entities like porowillii, living saurians walking around the African rain forest, are not rare; there have been multiple tales of rhino-sized, smooth-skinned quadrupeds with short necks, short heads, and long clubbed tails that fed on large prey still living in central Africa. It was only after the description of the porowillii surfaced that the rest of the world started interpreting those legends as possessing a dinosaur-like body structure. A notable example would be the emela-ntouka, an elephant-sized ceratopsian-like creature, and the mokele-mbembe, an elephant-sized sauropod-like creature, that shares a lot of similarities with the porowillii. It is described as having rough armored skin, a strong and muscular tail, and a short neck. Another similar creature, the Ngembo-monene, was described by Alfred Aloysius Smith, who had worked for a British trading company in what is now Gabon in the late 1800s, who briefly mentions it in his 1927 memoir.

   Reports of entities described to be dinosaur-like in Africa caused a minor sensation in the mass media, and newspapers in Europe and North America carried many articles on the subject in the early 1910s; some took the reports at face value, while others were more skeptical. It is notable that Western Europe and the Americas were going through a pop cultural interest in dinosaurs, of which the Ankylosaurus was one of the most popular. This could have contributed to both the reports as well as the tendency for newspapers to claim the reported beast was an ankylosaur.

In 2001, BBC broadcast in the TV series Congo a collective interview with a group of pygmies, who identified the porowillii as a common hippopotamus while looking at an illustrated manual of wildlife. The common hippos are mostly, if not entirely absent from the rainforests of the Congo, and the porowillii may be a mixture of mythology and folk memory from a time when common hippos were found in the area.

In 2016, a travel documentary crew from South Africa made a documentary about searching for porowillii, which they later sold to Discovery Africa. The team spent roughly four weeks in the Lake Bangweulu region visiting various pygmy villages, collecting stories of the creature's existence. They point out the difficulty of differentiating between porowillii's metaphysical and physical existence. While they interviewed people who believed in its presence, others stated it died at least a decade ago.

## Explanations

* The Porowillii may be a living non-avian ankylosaur dinosaur, similar to Ankylosaurus. However, this is considered as a flimsy excuse, since it most closely matches outdated Ankylosaurus reconstructions, not how they really looked in life; real Ankylosaurus had tails held high from the ground, lacked spikes on its sides, and had more flat bodies, while the Porowillii is described as having a dragging tail, spiked flanks, and a more raised back.
* The Porowillii may actually be a spirit being with supernatural powers, but spirits are not considered scientifically plausible to exist in the natural world.
* The entire story may have been hoaxes by Roy Mackal just to get more famous and possibly to try to overthrow the theory of evolution; however, the living ankylosaur would actually strengthen the theory of evolution rather than denying. This explanation as a hoax is further supported by Roy Mackal claiming that the creature is often hunted by Kasai Rex, which was shown as a hoax during the mid to late 20th century.