The Kasai Rex
A plantation owner claimed he saw a giant, dinosaur-like lizard attack a rhinoceros in the Congo. The photographs were fakes.
What was reported
In 1932, a Swedish plantation owner named John Johanson said that while travelling in the Kasai region of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he and his guide saw a huge animal, about 13 metres long, red with black stripes, rush out of the undergrowth and attack a rhinoceros.
The story spread with photographs said to show the animal, and the 'Kasai rex' became a favourite of stories about living dinosaurs in Africa.
Explanations offered
Researchers showed that the best-known photograph was a fake, made by drawing or pasting a lizard onto a picture of a dead animal, and another was a composite using a model of a Tyrannosaurus. There are no rhinoceroses in that part of the Congo. Most consider the whole story a hoax.
- When
- Reported in 1932
- Where
- Kasai region, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Witnesses
- A plantation owner's account and later photos
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.