Giant Mudpuppies?
There seems to exist on the North American
continent an as-of-yet unidentified species of gigantic amphibian. The amphibian
seems to closely resemble the mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus). The mudpuppy is
closely related to two species of salamander native to Asia, the giant salamanders Megalobatrachus
davidianus of China and M. japonicus, native to the islands of Japan.
EARLY 1800S: SCIPPO CREEK, OHIO
The first report of what may be a giant mudpuppy comes from Scippo Creek in Ohio (a
tributary of the Scioto River). In the early 1800s, settlers there saw a number of
animals, measuring between 6 and 7 feet in length, that were pink in color. These
pink, water-dwelling lizards had moose-like horns. Sometime around 1820, a drought
struck the area, drying up numerous streams and creating brush fires which destroyed the
local ecology even further. It is generally believed that the animals, whatever they
were, were wiped out in these two disasters.
1928: GOOSE CREEK LAGOON, SOUTH CAROLINA
In 1928, author Herbert Sass was boating in the Goose Creek Lagoon north of Charleston,
South Carolina. Seeing something moving under the water, he used an oar to fish it
out - and found a thick-bodied creature which was a pinkish-red color, with a smooth tail
and two short legs. The creature dove back into the water.
1960S: ST. JOHNS RIVER, FLORIDA
In a 1968 article in Argosy, Ivan T. Sanderson reported how he
received a letter from a young woman named Mary Lou Richardson, who said that while
hunting with her father she had seen some sort of pinkish animal. The creature had a
flattened head and a small neck.
1970S: PAULINS KILL, NEW JERSEY
A similarly-colored animal was seen in the 1970s by Ivan Sanderson in a swamp near his
home in Warren County, New Jersey. The animal was described as worm-like, and was
some two feet long - even though only a portion of the creature was seen.
1975: ST. JOHNS RIVER, FLORIDA
A strange creature has been seen in this river since the 1950s. Mary Lou Richardson
might have seen the same creature. 1975 gave us the most detailed sighting of the
creature. On May 10, five people set out on a fishing trip. One of the five, Brenda
Langley, saw a strange thing in the water, something with a long neck, horns, a downturned
mouth, and "flaps" hanging from the sides of its head. The creature was also a
pinkish, "boiled shrimp" color. Popular theories held that the creature
was a sturgeon, a manatee, or even a tree stump.
In discussing the animals, Dr. Karl Shuker states that many species of animal have
actually decreased in average size since the advent of man, which hunted certain species;
therefore he suggests that the American giant hellbenders may be scientifically identical
to Cryptobranchus alleganiensis. The hellbender's skin has a high number of
blood vessels; this, combined with the transparent skin of an albinistic specimen, would
create a noticably pink or even reddish skin color. The length traditionally
attributed to the cryptic hellbenders is within the realm of possibility, given the size
of the related Megalobatrachus species.
One attribute that does not tally with the simple hellbender explanation is the
"horns" of some of the animals. Although these horns could be easily
explained as external gill structures, the hellbender has no such structures - it loses
its external gills when it reaches adulthood. Shuker speculates that these animals may
still be identified as hellbenders which are existing in a neotenous state. Probably the
most famous neotene is the Mexican axolotl. Normally, the salamander matures into
the Mexican tiger salamander. However, if it is in a low-iodine environment, its
maturation is halted and the animal retains its gill structures. If these proposed
giant hellbenders exist in low-iodine environments, possibly they could become neotenic,
retaining their gills?
But rather than speculate that these creatures are hellbenders retaining neotenic
characteristics throughout their life, would it not be easier to identify these animals as
extremely large specimens of mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus)? The mudpuppy,
after all, is a full neotene and retains the gill structures throughout its life.
Admittedly, the average mudpuppy is smaller than the average hellbender - an average
specimen measures only about a foot long, as opposed to the two-foot length of the
hellbender.
Certain peculiarities of the animals in question tally more readily with a mudpuppy
explanation, for example the prominent horns of the Scippo Creek animals. In warm,
slow-moving or stagnant water, the gills of the mudpuppy expand and become much more
noticeable. In addition, the largest mudpuppies have been recorded from the southern
United States, specifically North and South Carolina - the same general area which has
given us several reports of these creatures. The possibility of the existence of
such large mudpuppies is an enticing one, although in my opinion, these giant salamanders
will probably turn out to be extremely large specimens of N. maculosus, rather than
a completely new species.
HALL, Mark A.
1991
Natural Mysteries: Monster Lizards, English
Dragons, and Other Puzzling Animals (2nd ed.). Minneapolis: Privately Published.
1992a Pinky, the
Forgotten Dinosaur. Wonders 1:4 (December).
1992b Sobering Sights
of Pink Unknowns. Wonders 1:4 (December).
SHUKER, Dr. Karl P.N.
1995
In Search of Prehistoric Survivors: Do Giant
"Extinct" Creatures Still Exist?. London: Blandford.