The Toothed Wing of the Jiundu

Zambia's Jiundu swamp, 1923. Colonial officer Frank Melland writes down a word the Kaonde people use with real fear: Kongamato — "breaker of boats." Reddish leathery wings, no feathers, a beak full of teeth. When Melland showed them a textbook drawing of a pterosaur, they picked it out instantly and……