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The Bibliothèque Heuvelmansienne (Heuvelmansian Library) and the Bêtes Ignorées du Monde (Unknown Animals of the World) collection is a series of four books examining the unknown animals of Africa by cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans. The books are Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique (The Last Dragons of Africa,[1] ISBN 978-2259003872, 1978), Les Bêtes Humaines d'Afrique (Beast-Men and Man-Beasts of Africa,[1] ISBN 978-2259005609, 1980), Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique (Still Unknown Cats of Africa,[1] ISBN 978-2914405430, 2007), and Les Ours Insolites d'Afrique (Bears and Bugbears of Africa,[1] ISBN 979-1091506298, 2015), the latter two being published posthumously, edited by Jean-Jacques Barloy. None have yet been translated into English.

Content[]

In Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique, Heuvelmans examines reports of alleged living dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and finds that many descriptions of "living dinosaurs" in fact seem to refer to completely different animals, including misidentified pythons and crocodiles, unknown varieties of sirenians and giant fish, and a putative species of amphibious sabre-toothed cat. He identified "the middle Zambezi River; the west bank affluents of the middle Congo River, spreading mainly over the People's Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, slightly overflowing also the bordering areas of Gabon, Cameroun and Chad; finally, the vast marshes in the interior of Benin" as the only regions in Africa with reliable reports of living sauropods.

Les Bêtes Humaines d'Afrique is a study of the various "hairy hominids" reported from Africa, some of which Heuvelmans speculated are surviving australopithecines.

In Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique, Heuvelmans examines a number of mysterious or apparently unknown cat species, including the mngwa, marozi, king cheetah, and various lesser-known cryptid cats; and greatly expands on his theory regarding water lions and various cryptids collected under the modern name "Ennedi Tiger" as amphibious and mountain-dwelling sabre-toothed cats, which he had originated in Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique.

Les Ours Insolites d'Afrique is an extended study of the Nandi bear of Kenya, and of the controversial bears of North Africa.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Heuvelmans, Bernard (1995) On the Track of Unknown Animals, Routledge, ISBN 978-0710304988
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