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Mysterious Dog-Like Lizard Creature

Ringo

Ringo

I like to not get involved in these matters
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Prompted by the thread on Dragons, I saw a very mysterious, huge lizard like creature when I was in Mexico a few weeks ago. I haven't told anybody about it (here or IRL) because, well, I'm always talking about my weird experiences and I worry that people think I'm exaggerating or just making stuff up. I'm not - I just keep my eyes and ears open.

We were just North of Tulum, Quintana Roo. We were staying in an exclusive hotel with a walled complex. There were hundreds of Iguanas in the grounds and all over the local area, much to my and my kids delight. I've looked at some images online and I think they were all mostly Spiny tailed and Brown iguanas - ranging from little 10cm babies to almost 1m long.

Here's a Spiny Tailed Iguana:
38789_medium.jpg


I had a bad stomach on the penultimate night so leaving my wife and kids in the hotel room, I went off on a wander around the grounds for some fresh air. It was dark and about 10.30pm. I was walking down a quiet path when a creature walked out of a little side path on the right hand side, about 20 metres in front of me. I only saw a silhouette as there was a light directly behind it. I stopped and watched it cross over the path and then disappear onto a dark lawn area on the left. I thought it was a cat at first but quickly changed my mind to a dog because of the height/size of it. I continued along the path, thinking "why is there a dog wandering around the complex?" when it dawned on me that it wasn't a dog. It must have been a lizard but the shape and dimensions were all wrong.

The face/neck were as the photo above. There were no ears sticking up at all. The back, however, was incredibly arched (which is why I thought of a cat at first - you know how when a cat really arches its back). It had a short, stubby tail (we had seen alot of lizards regrowing one).

When I got to spot where it was, I could hear it moving around in the bushes beside the lawn but I couldn't see it. It sounded large. I checked my visual memory of it against the surroundings and reckoned it to have been at least 50 cm from ground to the top of it's back and almost 1 m long. The length isn't unusual for an Iguana but the height was.

The stomach cleared the ground completely by a very long way. Lizards stand on their front legs and the hind quarters are much lower, the tail being dragged along the ground. This didn't. It had legs like a dog, as in they moved forwards instead of sweeping out to the sides like a lizard. The hind quarters were so high that the stub of a tail was pointing down at the ground. There was at least 30cm from tip of tail to the ground.

To make things worse, I just googled giant lizards etc and stumbled on this made up animal drawing.
The Green Iguana Dragon.
latest


The above animal doesn't exist but if someone had asked me to draw what I saw, then this would have been extremely close (except that the face/head was pointing down as it walked, arching the back). It was disproportionately stocky and tall for its length.

I circled the grassy lawn bit to see if I could see it again but I kept to the path as I didn't fancy whatever it was jumping out at me. It moved off into the bushes and I didn't see it again. My wife was asleep when I got back to the room so I never mentioned it but I did giggle to myslef thinking maybe it was a chupacabra. I put it to the back of my mind as just another little mystery to be enjoyed and forgotten but then it popped up today so I thought I'd finally share it.
 
Weird. Is there any possibility that it was a dog (or some other mammalian creature) with mange? Animals that we are used to seeing with thick coats look VERY wierd when they are mostly bald, or bald in patches.
 
Ringo said:
(except that the face/head was pointing down as it walked, arching the back)
Click to expand...
Fascinating encounter! Rather creepy meeting a quite large and mysterious animal in the dark.

The above description immediately made me think of some sort of anteater. There are a couple of species that live as far north as Mexico. Is that possible do you think?
 
catseye said:
Weird. Is there any possibility that it was a dog (or some other mammalian creature) with mange? Animals that we are used to seeing with thick coats look VERY wierd when they are mostly bald, or bald in patches.
Click to expand...
As I couldn't identify it, then yes, there is a chance that it was a dog with a very stubby tail although my gut tells me that it wasn't. The head, it's posture and the overall shape was all wrong. During the sighting, it was like my mind went through its best known registry of animals that walk on all fours, about half a metre in height, before it dawned on me that it was a lizard.

Min Bannister said:
Fascinating encounter! Rather creepy meeting a quite large and mysterious animal in the dark.

The above description immediately made me think of some sort of anteater. There are a couple of species that live as far north as Mexico. Is that possible do you think?
Click to expand...

Now that you mention it, the ant eater/aardvark shape is almost exactly right - more so an aardvark actually. Despite my sensational thread title, I'm sure it was just a VERY large lizard. I'm glad that it came out 20 metres in front of me and not just 1 or 2. My bad stomach couldn't have handled it.
 
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Perhaps a big lizard that had lost its tail?
 
Ringo, what you've described doesn't sound like a reptile, I think it sounds much more likely that it was a mammal. And if you're in Mexico you're in really weird mammal country.

The outline of the green iguana dragon makes me think of one of the New World porcupines.
 
Just going back to the armadillo for a moment - they are known to occasionally suffer from Leprosy. Could this be a reason for the stumpy tail?
 
I'm liking all of these suggestions because the more I think about it, the more unsure I am as to what I saw. I think my brain jumped to the conclusion of a Giant Iguana because I had seen so many large Iguanas and so I presumed that it was a giant one based on silhouette and size. But I mean, it was huge!

I couldn't see any spines, fur or sticky up bits at all but bear in mind it was a silhouette with a bright light behind it. It walked slowly. It had quite an even gait, the back didn't dip or rise but I did get the impression that it was rocking from side to side, as it were. Thinking back now, the speed and measured movement of it (but not the shape) reminds me of a crocodile moving slowly or a tortoise. It wasn't in any hurry. It kind of glided silently along as oppossed to hopping or jumping. The end of the tail was stumpy, not pointy or tapered.

We were at that hotel for a week and the only animals we saw were lizards. It is very possible that there were large mammals in the grounds also, as there were large areas of trees and decorative lawns that were sort of left alone as there was no reason to go there. But we never saw or heard any.
 
reminds me of a trip to Saudi Arabia when I was 11. We went for a drive into the desert to a ruined temple called "scorpion hil"l by the ex pats. Whilst we were barrelling along this enormous lizard, about the size of a jack Russell in the body with a 3 or 4 foot long tail suddenly dashed across the track ahead, it was running in this weird way and didn't have the splayed legs of a normal lizard but long ones..,.I even shouted, "Look, a Dinosaur".

I have no idea what that thing was but I have never heard of a long legged Kimodo Dragon living in the Saudi desert...has anyone??
 
Nick Smith said:
reminds me of a trip to Saudi Arabia when I was 11. We went for a drive into the desert to a ruined temple called "scorpion hil"l by the ex pats. Whilst we were barrelling along this enormous lizard, about the size of a jack Russell in the body with a 3 or 4 foot long tail suddenly dashed across the track ahead, it was running in this weird way and didn't have the splayed legs of a normal lizard but long ones..,.I even shouted, "Look, a Dinosaur".

I have no idea what that thing was but I have never heard of a long legged Kimodo Dragon living in the Saudi desert...has anyone??
Click to expand...

That is a good description of a Dhub lizard, I would imagine that was what you spotted. Sadly they are considered a delicacy in Saudi and are hunted and killed by the thousands each year.


https://www.thenational.ae/uae/envi...zard-the-mini-dinosaur-of-the-desert-1.412354
 
Nick Smith said:
reminds me of a trip to Saudi Arabia when I was 11. We went for a drive into the desert to a ruined temple called "scorpion hil"l by the ex pats. Whilst we were barrelling along this enormous lizard, about the size of a jack Russell in the body with a 3 or 4 foot long tail suddenly dashed across the track ahead, it was running in this weird way and didn't have the splayed legs of a normal lizard but long ones..,.I even shouted, "Look, a Dinosaur".

I have no idea what that thing was but I have never heard of a long legged Kimodo Dragon living in the Saudi desert...has anyone??
Click to expand...

I'd disagree with Clear Light, I think it was more likely to be a desert monitor which is the same family as the Komodo dragon and does have long legs.
 
oldrover said:
I'd disagree with Clear Light, I think it was more likely to be a desert monitor which is the same family as the Komodo dragon and does have long legs.
Click to expand...

Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a winner!

That critter is the one I saw. A very big one at that.
 
If it was a creature with mange (and I'm liking Maximus Otter's porcupine theory), then the chances are it was feeling 'proper poorly' as we say up North, which may account for slow, deliberate movements.
 
oldrover said:
I'd disagree with Clear Light, I think it was more likely to be a desert monitor which is the same family as the Komodo dragon and does have long legs.
Click to expand...


My first thought was the Desert Monitor, but didn't think it fitted the "dog like" description - of course, I now realise I was conflating two separate posts...

Those Monitor lizards can be vicious things, I saw one kill a large snake by grabbing it by the tail and smashing the head on the rocks in a whipping action. No wonder Komodo Dragons are (were) so feared, although their modus operandi is to bite their prey and letting it escape. The bacteria that the KD carries in it's mouth soon infects the wound and renders the prey animal helpless. The wound then festers and creates an odour that allows the KD to track down it's meal.
 
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Clear Light said:
My first thought was the Desert Monitor, but didn't think it fitted the "dog like" description - of course, I now realise I was conflating two separate posts...

Those Monitor lizards can be vicious things, I saw one kill a large snake by grabbing it by the tail and smashing the head on the rocks in a whipping action. No wonder Komodo Dragons are (were) so feared, although their modus operandi is to bite their prey and letting it escape. The bacteria that the KD carries in it's mouth soon infects the wound and renders the prey animal helpless. The wound then festers and creates an odour that allows the KD to track down it's meal.
Click to expand...

Dont be harsh on yourself. I thought it was a Dinosaur. And I did say it was the size of a jack Russell in the body.

With longer legs obvs.
 
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I've got a Patterdale. Light on the bravery, heavy on the insanity.
 
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