In several Bantu mythologies, mokele-mbembe is a mythical water-dwelling entity that is believed to exist in the Congo River Basin. Variously described as a living creature or a spirit, mokele-mbembe's descriptions vary widely based on conflicting purported eyewitness reports, but it is often described as a large quadrupedal herbivore with smooth skin, a long neck, and a single tooth or horn, much like the extinct species sauropods.

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or the Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor of folklore studies. It was originally founded in the 1950s by zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson.