Lizard, alligator, turtle or fish?
Do you think the moha - moha is real?
The name moha-moha means dangerous turtle but the moha-moha was also known as the great barrier reef sea serpent or by it's scientific name chelosauria lovelli.
The first recorded sighting of the moha-moha was by a small group lead by Selina Lovell a school teacher and amature naturalist from London who had since moved to Queensland. The group encountered the beast along the shore of great sandy island just off of main land Australia on June 8th 1890. However the moha-moha was already known to the locals who shared stories of the creature attacking their coastal camps.
Lovell in this instance was able to fully describe the creature in detail explaining that the moha-moha looked to be about 30 feet long with a lizard like head accompanied by serrated teeth, a long neck pale green in colour with white spotting it's body covered by a dome shaped carapace smooth in texture grey in colour, 8 feet across and 5 feet high, it's tail was said to be that of a fish 12 feet long with thumbnail sized scales that were silver fading to white and chocolate brown fins, it's feet where said to be that of an alligators although they were not seen by lovell but by a member of her team.
When people heard lovell's description of the moha-moha they laughed and tried to immediately discredit the sighting by accusing her of psychotic behavior and lying. People then turned to rationalization of the sighting by saying the creature the locals had probably been attacked by was a ravenous seal during hunting season while others passed the creature off as a pig-nosed turtle that was native to the nearby fly river.
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