A reader writes: "I received this pic of an alleged strange-headed lizard found in Malta,
Europe. Does such a strange-headed creature really exist?"Not any more. According to an article in the Sunday Times of Malta by biologist Patrick J. Schembri, the creature depicted is a Diplocaulus, an early salamander-like amphibian that has been extinct for some 270 million years. The photo (see full-size version here) must therefore be a fake, perhaps created digitally or staged using a toy model. (Also discussed at the Museum of Hoaxes.)
Comments
that is so stupid
why does this have to be fake just because they say it went extinct doesnt mean that it did there have been many animals found that were said to be extinct
ok i hate ppl like this..ok well they say it went extinct a few hundred million years ago right…well whut about the ceolocanths..they said they were extinct for a long time to ,,but they showed up..so whos to say that it must be fake..
i want one
bois vao todos a merdinha
You’ve got a better chance of finding a T-Rex buried in your back yard than finding one of these. They lived in shallow waters, such as streams and ponds, so they WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO remain under-the-radar since mankind has been able to keep records. Give it some thought, before you jump on us skeptics. We know what we’re talking about.
this looks cool and sophisticated and i like iit and i whant one.
We all want it to be real, but a substantial population needs to exist to last this long. If this is the only reported sighting, then where are the rest of them? Obscure deep-sea creatures can go unnoticed but not an amphibian!
I’m not saying this creature is real –I know nothing about this supposed find except what I just read in this article. But as to the impossibility of a creature thought extinct still being alive, may I point out that beside the coelacanth, there is the Wollemi pine that was claimed to be extinct for 150 million years until it was discovered in Australia in 1994. And just last year (2006) a rodent-like creature called a diatonyid and said to be extinct for 11 million years turned up in Southeast Asia.
I don’t know what it is… but I “won’t” one!
I’ts freakin fake
haha I never imagined there would be somethin from malta on this site. I live there:D. I saw that pic on the newspaper and wanted to read the article coz the lizard’s cool. but my dad was reading it lol. there arent any salamanders in malta. i dont think that would be here. i wish it would though its so cool
I think its kida cool
THIS is so cool
it seems tobe a real photo AND just as others before me have said, there has been a good number of animals and plants that have been deemed extinct but have shown up. and assuming that “since these animals have been extinct for some 270 million years…..)is true it chould be a gentic defect
I agree with the non-skeptics here.
The fact that it was BELIEVED to be extinct for all this time, doesn’t mean it really has been.
And you can’t say that an amphibian could not have been undiscovered all this time, that would be like saying the same thing of a plant.
And like N/A said… there have been a good number of animals AND plants to have shown up after being labeled as “gone forever”
All that said… I WANT ONE! That thing is so cute.
i cant believe peopel think it is real,its not real! How can you even believe it is real oh and the guy who said “bois vao todos a merdinha” please tell me what that means i tried spanish to english but nothing came up
I went down the street to a friends and at a camp out I swear I saw two of the, a little after I saw them they dissappeared.
If someone really found a species that was thought to be extinct then the pictures wouldn’t be circulating in emails. It would make national news and everyone would be making documetaries about it. It’s fake. Accept it.
True, the Coelacanth was thought extinct until recently discovered alive, but do you remember what happened when it was found? It was international news the following day. “Coelacanth” became a household word overnight!
Don’t you find it odd that literally nobody had heard of this creature in the media?
HOAX. Sorry to burst you bubble, gullibles. If you believe this is real, you’re a tad pitiful.
While I try to keep an open mind and do believe there are creatures out there that arent’ actually extinct like we think, I have to agree with the skeptics. It would have made national, possibly even international news and this is the first I’ve even seen the little thing. Pretty cool looking little lizard though, wants me one lol.
Well they could keep under the radar even if they lived in streams. Trilobites were said to be extinct and the guy who found them had found them in a brook.
I want one TO EAT. It looks delicious!
hey i got one of those. i wonder where that guy got his. there hard to find.
Um, guys I have this really cool bridge I’m trying to sell …
i have no idea wheather it is true or not but if you look in very recent news there was a bird in that was believed to be extinct that showed up in the phillipines and didnt make national or international news till a couple of years later. things are situationaly dependant. not to mention it did hit their national news right away, blame your own countries news agencies for not following up (also the celocanth was kept not released) this a look what cool thing i caught, released and then later looked up…… yes there is alot to be skepticle about but i would imagine things like this are not impossible….. they are just not likely (which means it could happen once)
There isn’t enough fresh water here in Malta to support a colony of amphibians!
Cool photo though.
It’s a model… here is the link to the artists page
http://www.interq.or.jp/sun/mm-kas/tenji.htm
This was later identified as a hoax, it’s a model animal. they went extinct in the PERMIAN era, 30 millon years before the dinos. They went extinct when there stopped bein wuite as any streams in their habitat in TEXAS, not MALTA.
Look so cool, that creature if is fake or real I have a name for that lizard Cephalo
OK, if it isnt fake .. where are the rest of them. I agree that “believed” extinct is not allways the case but if so then there should be more that would not be too difficult to find.
Might be a fake, might be true either way there’s no supportive data to go with it
this is fake? why do people even go to the extent on making something like this…