Adventurer hopes to find and capture a living dinosaur and dog-sized tarantula on expedition in the Congo

From the Daily Mail Online: Adventurer hopes to find and capture a living dinosaur and dog-sized tarantula on expedition in the Congo
An American explorer is hoping to find dog-sized tarantulas, man0eating fish, and a living dinosaur.

Stephen McCullah, a young zoology enthusiast based in Beaumont, Texas, is raising money for a multi-month expedition to the far-off parts of the Republic of Congo.

Mr McCullah hopes to head to Africa in order to find and capture a living sauropod, or water-dwelling dinosaur similar to the myth-like Mokèlé-mbèmbé.

The legend of the so-called Mokèlé-mbèmbé is a long one, which alleges that the animal has a long neck like an elephant's trunk, that is a brown-gray color, and has some uncertain similarities to a rhinoceros.

The creature, which is often likened to the Loch Ness monster, has been the prize of adventure seekers who have travelled to Lake Tele in the Congo repeatedly over the past two centuries but none have ever produced any true evidence of its existence.

Mr McCullah hopes to break that pattern. Prize: The team hopes to find the legendary Mokèlé-mbèmbé, an animal thought to have a long neck like an elephant's trunk

Having studied biology at Missouri State University and having been passionate about zoology since his teens, the adventurer has grand plans for the trip.

'Our hope is to discover a wide variety of new species along the way. The Congo Basin is a region of Central Africa larger than the state of Florida,' he writes on the Kickstarter page for the project.

All told, he is hoping to crowd source $26,700 to fund the project within the next 18 days and, to date, he has raised under half that amount.

The trip, which will be dubbed The Newmac Expedition, is planned to 'be a preliminary three month (or as long as our health allows) four man venture'.

Undeterred by failed attempts that date back as far as 1776 and as recently as 2011, he writes: 'We'll launch on June 26th and we anticipate discovering hundreds of new insect, plant, and fish species during the course of our research and work in the area.'

There is also the legitimate hope of discovering many reptile and mammalian species as well.'

In addition to potentially capturing the Mokèlé-mbèmbé once they find it- with the help of a tranquillizer gun according to Life's Little Mysteries- the group will also be filming a documentary about their search.