Stegosaurus
The Atami Stegosaurus is a cryptid reported from Atami City, Shizuoka, Japan.
Sightings and Reports[]
Japanese cryptid researcher Takeshi Nakazawa received a report of a cryptid sighting from Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. According to the report, in the early morning of October 24, 2022, a person walking along a road near a mountain saw a Stegosaurus-like creature walking from the mountain. The creature surprisingly uttered the word "Ohayo" (meaning good morning in Japanese) and walked away.
Nakazawa conducted a field survey in January 2023.
Explanations[]
He naturally thought that just the fact that a stegosaurus appeared in the modern world was suspicious, but that it spoke human language was even more suspicious. On the other hand, he analyzed that it is unlikely that someone trying to hoax would invent such a story, since it would be immediately obvious that combining suspicious features with suspicious features is a lie.
Nakazawa has a relatively positive attitude toward dinosaur cryptids. He noted that dinosaurs and birds are phylogenetically related, and wondered if this Stegosaurus-like creature might be able to mimic simple speech sounds like a parrot.
He also offered a more practical perspective. He suggested that there may have been some phenomenon that led the witness to believe that he had seen a "talking stegosaurus”. He thought that since the sighting occurred early in the morning, the witness might have been half asleep. Nakazawa also noted that a monster movie event had been held at Atami the day before, including a stuffed animal exhibit. Based on this, he thought that what the witness saw was a staff member carrying out the stuffed monster, and that he might have mistaken the staff member's greeting for a stegosaurus-like monster speaking.