Row (cryptozoology)

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Row

Creature

Name:	Row
Classification
Grouping:	Cryptid
Data
Country:	New Guinea
Status:	Hoax

The Row (named after its cry) is dinosaur-like cryptid reported to lie in the Interior of New Guinea. The only treatment of it is in Bernard Heuvelmans' book On the Track of Unknown Animals. There is but a single report of even any native stories about the Row. The Western observer making the report claimed to have seen the animal himself and taken color movie footage of it (Heuvelmans does not reproduce a still), which did not turn out. The fellow's reliability came into question (even the native tribe whose area the Row supposedly lived in had never even been heard of, and could not be found by later, more reputable authorities) and Heuvelmans determined it to be a hoax.

[edit] Description

The Row is described as a large (20-25 feet long) dinosaur-like animal with a long neck and tail. It has a small head with a collar or crest on the neck and large plates along its back. At the end of the tail is a horn-like spine which the natives used as weapons or tools. (It is not clear if the horn is obtained through killing the animal or if it is shed.) It lives in a swampy area and is colored a brownish-green, which serves as camouflage. The report stresses that it is herbivorous and its only danger to humans is its size and strength when hunted.

Heuvelmans used the description as one of his arguments against it, calling it a hodge-podge ('chimera' in this sense had not come into usage, so he doesn't use the term but this is clearly what he means) with the body of a sauropod, the head and neck frill of a ceratopsian, and the back plates of a stegosaur. However, other animals when first described by European explorers were considered chimeras, for example the platypus. It is described as having a 'duck's bill', but the bill only superficially resembles that of a duck, and it is not indicative of evolutionary relationships.