How's this for using the Internet in an unusual way? Stephen McCullah needs funds to finance an expedition to remote areas of the African Congo in search of unknown species of animals -- including a possible living dinosaur.
McCullah, 21, is reaching out to potential sponsors on Kickstarter, the Internet's funding site for creative projects.
"I'll be launching one of the first expeditions in this century with the goal of categorizing plant and animal species in the vastly unexplored Republic of the Congo," Missouri native McCullah wrote on Kickstarter.
"Our hope is to discover a wide variety of new species along the way," he explained. "I have a strong passion for exploring and researching the few 'impregnable' locations on Earth. The places that make people shudder are the ones I'm most drawn towards."
Dubbed "The Newmac Expedition," McCullah plans a preliminary three-month, five-man venture.
While some detractors may think that McCullah is too young and lacks a formal background to be able to pull off such an undertaking, he disagrees.
"I am well educated in the necessary procedures, it's the reason I went to school to study biology," he wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.
"I've worked for similar projects for three months at a time in the Brazilian and Bolivian Amazon. Granted, this will be my first time leading a project, but I'm confident I have the experience necessary to properly oversee categorization of plant and animal species."
With a June 26 expedition launch date, McCullah has so far raised nearly $11,000 from 17 backers, including one $10,000 pledge. And he needs the rest of the money by Friday, May 11 in order for the journey to move forward.
Among the targets on McCullah's list to search for are reported dog-sized tarantulas and small prehistoric sauropods, or long-necked four-legged dinosaurs, as illustrated at right.
These brontosaurus-type animals, known locally as mokele-mbembe, are reportedly water-dwelling creatures, and could be the African continent's version of the legendary Loch Ness Monster, also believed by many to be a survivor of prehistoric times.
If McCullah raises the money he needs to search for new creepy species, it won't be the first time anyone has tried.
Numerous expeditions, over several decades, have ventured into the swampy, remote Likouala region of Congo where the climate today is similar to when dinosaurs thrived millions of years ago. Numerous eyewitnesses from tribes that have little contact with each other have reported encounters with sauropod-type animals.
In 1976, crocodile expert James Powell Jr. traveled through Gabon and questioned natives who lived in fear of a mokele-mbembe-like animal which they called n'yamala.
When Powell showed natives a sketch of a long-necked brontosaurus dinosaur, they identified it as their dreaded n'yamala.
[Huffington Post]
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