HUGE LIZARD IN PAPUA

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29221, 3 June 1960, Page 11

HUGE LIZARD IN PAPUA

Existence Now Proved

(Rec. 10 p.m.) PORT MORESBY, June 2. Two administration agricultural officers have found a skin and lower jawbone of Papua’s controversial “dragon lizard.” This-is the first concrete evidence that the giant lizard, believed to have been a native myth, does exist. The officers, Messrs Lindsay Green and Fred Kleckhan, found a skin and jawbone in a native village near Kairuku. 70 miles north-west of Port Moresby on the Papuan coast Mr Green said today the natives claimed they had killed and eaten the lizards. He said the skin looked as if it was from a lizard six to eight feet long. “The jawbone is from a smaller lizard but has teeth almost an inch long," he said. Mr Green said the skin was similar to a goanna’s except whereas the goanna’s scales fitted side by side, these overlapped. Natives had told them they lived in constant fear of the lizards, which were extremely fierce. Mr Green said the skin and jawbone would be cent to Australian museum authorities.

Sightings of giant lizards bad previously been reported from scattered areas of Papua. Natives in western Papua claim the lizards have been known to kill men.