List of miscellaneous cryptids

In the 19th century, a handful of accounts of giant horned crocodiles known as railalomena were claimed to inhabit the swamps of Madagascar. The earliest report of this cryptid was in 1802, by Pierre Denys de Montfort who mentioned “new and trustworthy accounts” of crocodiles up to 59 ft long. Although likely highly exaggerated, Karl Shuker speculates they may be distorted reports of late surviving Voay robustus, a 25 to 30-foot-long crocodilian that died out only 2000 years ago. Similar to the horns described on the railalomena, Voay robustus had bony horns protruding from the skull.

In Raymond Decary’s 1950 book La Faune Malgache, he wrote about a mysterious giant tortoise known as ranta that inhabited various lakes and caves in the southwest of Madagascar. Cryptozoologists George Eberhart and Karl Shuker speculate the ranta may be a small population of late surviving Aldabrachelys grandidieri, a species of giant tortoise that inhabited Madagascar until 2000 years ago.

In Allison Jolly’s 1980 book A World Like Our Own: Man and Nature in Madagascar, she described seeing a large lemur that’s the same size and body shape as a chimpanzee, with black and white hair and a flat face. Possibly a surviving Archaeolemur or Hadropithecus. This may be the same cryptid as the kidoky.

An unknown species of cat-sized aquatic tenrec known as the kavay was featured in Bernard Huevelman’s 1955 book On the Track of Unknown Animals. The only known aquatic tenrec species is the web-footed tenrec, but they rarely reach past about one foot in length.

In Bernard Huevelman’s 1955 book On the Track of Unknown Animals, he mentions, in passing, reports of “long-eared lizards” and giant monitor lizards in Madagascar.