This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy. |
 | This article may present fringe theories, without giving appropriate weight to the mainstream view, and explaining the responses to the fringe theories.(July 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline .(June 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
| Grouping | Local legend |
|---|---|
| Sub grouping | lake monster |
| Country | Republic of Congo |
| Region | Lake Likouala |
| Habitat | Water |
Mahamba is a giant (up to 15 m (50 ft)) crocodile claimed to exist in the Republic of the Congo, around the Lake Likouala swamp region. Cryptozoologist Roy Mackal suggested that it is a relic population of Deinosuchus , a giant Cretaceous crocodilian. Others have suggested that it is a freshwater relic of the mosasaurs; huge, sea-dwelling lizards which were presumed extinct by the end of the Cretaceous period.
Crocodiles or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Crocodylinae, all of whose members are considered true crocodiles, is classified as a biological subfamily. A broader sense of the term crocodile, Crocodylidae that includes Tomistoma, is not used in this article. The term crocodile here applies to only the species within the subfamily of Crocodylinae. The term is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans, the gharial and false gharial, and all other living and fossil Crocodylomorpha.
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic, ROC or simply the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa. It is bordered by five countries: Gabon to its west; Cameroon to its northwest and the Central African Republic to its northeast; the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southeast and the Angolan exclave of Cabinda to its south; and the Atlantic Ocean to its southwest.
Deinosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodilian related to the modern alligator that lived 80 to 73 million years ago (Ma), during the late Cretaceous period. The name translates as "terrible crocodile" and is derived from the Greek deinos (δεινός), "terrible", and soukhos (σοῦχος), "crocodile". The first remains were discovered in North Carolina in the 1850s; the genus was named and described in 1909. Additional fragments were discovered in the 1940s and were later incorporated into an influential, though inaccurate, skull reconstruction at the American Museum of Natural History. Knowledge of Deinosuchus remains incomplete, but better cranial material found in recent years has expanded scientific understanding of this massive predator.
The Bobangi aboriginals have proclaimed this animal to be unlike any other they have seen, and have only compared it to other creatures, such as a Nkoli (the Bobangi word for crocodile) or the legendary Nguma-monene for the sake of comparison. It is also reported to attack and devour rafts and canoes.
