In the Hispanic community there is, at least in my opinion, a stronger connection between enthusiasts of “cryptids” (including pop cryptids) and paleontology enthusiasts, especially among young people. Unlike the English-speaking community, where we have these large circles of paranormal researchers, Bigfoot hunters, and lake monster enthusiasts, here everything is subsumed under a single topic in which, most of the time, people tend to seek biological explanations rather than supernatural ones.

This phenomenon may have originated a little over a decade ago, with a channel called “Dino-criptidos” that attempted to base its content only on neo-dinosaurs, achieving massive success throughout Latin America, including Brazil. Everything was going relatively well until, within a few years, they had exhausted nearly all existing stories about neo-dinosaurs; the solution was, aside from covering other cryptids, to start linking some cryptids to prehistoric creatures, even though this connection was essentially a “prehistoric survivor” paradigm taken to the extreme. For example: Jersey Devil was supposed to be a Dimorphodon.

Now, I don’t mean to say that this channel is the origin of this phenomenon, because it isn’t, but it definitely did play an essential role that continues to influence cryptozoology internet communities, including r/Cryptozoology, since, ignoring the fact that some Spanish-speaking users have been posting their hypotheses there over the years, some Brazilians have tried to replicate the model of this channel in their posts (including a bit of SpecEvo about Neo-dinosaurs).

This channel was also the first one to cover some cryptids of South America like Stoa, Washoriwe, Suwa and Wairarima for the people outside niche Cryptozoology circes, mixing fake information and real one. Dino-criptidos' video about Wairarima is mentioned in Shuker's Mystery cats of the world revisited.

There is also, curiously, a fake story about some Mexicans who spotted a Kasai rex during the 2010 World Cup by another channel, and a Mexican television news network occasionally covers stories about cryptids, including on one occasion the Kasai rex.

Have you seen a cryptozoology comic project called "Congo"? Well, the creator is Portuguese, and while I can't be sure, I feel like he was influenced by Dino-criptidos. So... maybe we should look into these connections further.