November 13, 2024

The Legendary Artrellia of Papua New Guinea

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In 1933, Richard Archbold, an American zoologist travelled to New Guinea to lead a scientific expedition into this strange land. The goal of these expeditions was to study the environment, map the area they had travelled and study the plant and animal life in these the jungles. During one of these expeditions, Archbold and his men were warned by locals, warned of giant man-eating dragons that could consume a man whole. It was said if they encountered one, they would never be seen again. The name given to this terrifying creature by the locals was Artrellia. 

Papua New Guinea is Located within the Pacific Ocean north of Australia and known for being one of the least explored places on earth. The majority of the country is covered by dense tropical rainforest that are extremely difficult to navigate.  Due to this, a large portion of the country is only accessible either by foot or by airplane. Many researchers feel this area almost rivals the Amazon, with a large number of undiscovered plants, animals, and uncontacted tribes which may still be hidden within the thick rainforests. 

One of these creatures is thought to be the massive Artrellia. It is described by locals as being a nearly 30ft long with both crocodile and dragon like characteristics. It is said to have grey skin, and the lizard is rumored to be able to climb trees and breath fire. It is very territorial, like an anaconda, and devours anything unlucky enough to step in it. Locals reiterated it eats the entire body of its victim, even the bones. 

Two credible sightings would occur in the 1960’s and the late 1970’s. 

In 1978, a new expedition team landed in Papua New Guinea. Led by Colonel John Bashford Snell, Operation Drake was an international expedition that involved many young researchers between the ages of 17-24 from different countries. 

While in Papa New Guinea, Col. Blashford-Snell became very interested in the stories and sightings about the Artrellia that the locals told him. The team interviewed many tribe members and soon went into the jungle to search for the creature. Since they had local hunters travelling with them, they killed a lizard almost 6ft long. Ecstatic at first, the team the soon realized they had killed Salvadori’s Monitor, which was a known species. It was still a baby and did not have any of the features of the Artrellia like gray skin not able to breath fire. 

As the Drake Expedition was winding down, it seemed that Artrellia was merely just a myth. That was the thought between team members until one team member would have a terrifying encounter with the dragon.  Ian Redmond, an English zoologist, was sitting on the ground resting with his legs in an old dry creek bed when he started to hear breaking twigs and what sounded like large footsteps. He was below ground level and thought the footsteps he heard were one of his team members as they sounded human like. Then, Redmon suddenly realized he was hearing four footsteps and not two.  When he turned around, Redmond saw the giant head and shoulders of a large dragon staring at him. 

He described the dragon-like lizard as having a head almost as large as a full-grown horse, and the shoulders were equal in size. Calmly, Redmond slowly started to reach for his camera, but as he did, the lizard turned away from the edge of the creek bed and disappeared into the jungle. Redmond quickly got out of the creek to get the others, but a search for the Artrellia yielded no results. 

In the 1960’s another sighting of an Artrellia would occur, this time with two witnesses seeing it. 

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In 1961, explorers Robert Grant and David George were exploring the Strachan Island District when they spotted the Artrellia. The two men described the unknown lizard with gray skin, 26 feet in length and standing nearly 4ft tall, with a neck that appeared to be 3ft long. The men kept their distance for safety reasons and after some time the giant lizard disappeared back into the jungle. 

More less famous sightings occurred as well throughout the 20th century. 

One year prior in 1960, David Marsh, district commissioner of Port Mores made official statements regarding sightings of giant lizard-like “dragons” in the jungle when he was stationed as patrol officer in the 1940’s. Also, in 1960 local residents gave the Agricultural Administration a large unknown skin and jawbone of a creature that they could not be identified. 

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In WW2, allied troops took control of the island from the Japanese. There were numerous reports of troops seeing giant lizard-like creatures in the jungles. They were reported as being between 15-20ft in length and very agile. These sightings would continue for the entire time the troops were on the island. 

Today many questions still circulate surrounding this cryptid. Is the Artrellia just a case of mistaken identity with locals seeing the Salvadori’s Monitor Lizard? Or is there a gigantic species of Lizard truly living in the isolated, dense jungles of Papua New Guinea? There’s been numerous credible sightings over decades and good reason to believe this cryptid could be real. Komodo dragons reach up to 12 feet so it’s certainly possible that a dragon 20-30 feet could exist. The creature also lives in one of the toughest environments on the planet and one extremely difficult to explore. 

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To date, we continue to get eyewitness reports of this large dragon like creature, but the fact remains, it’s extremely difficult to explore these rainforests, so finding an answer to this question might just have to wait. 

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