ne of the legends around Mokele M’bembe (MM) touted to prove its existence and identity it as a dinosaur goes as follows: “When the local tribes are shown pictures of sauropods, they identify them as Mokele M’bembe.” A quick online search will show you that this is not true, but it continues to be used as “proof” of a living dinosaur. First off, “local people” are not one group. They are from different tribes with vastly different traditions and customs, speak different languages, and have divergent accounts of MM. Some say there are multiple different dinosaur species: sauropod-like, protoceratops-like, ceratopsian-like, all with different local names; sometimes, in one tribe, the name for the protoceratops-like creature will be the same as the sauropod-like creature in another tribe, and the name of a known animal (like an elephant) in a third tribe. This
