Marfa Lights Opinions

Different point of view, on Marfa Lights, deserve attention, probably in varying degrees, but since this blog is about eyewitnesses of living pterosaurs, our preference is obvious: We begin with conjectures about the bioluminescent flying predator possibility.

Marfa Lights of Texas

Driving across the country . . . Mr. Greene decided to stop at the Marfa observation station, having previously read of the strange lights. He watched the sky for hours, grateful that the flying lights were active that night.

Why consider that American “ghost lights” relate to live pterosaurs? Consider the ropen light of Papua New Guinea. From them we can learn that at least some living pterosaurs are bioluminescent, in particular the apparent Rhamphorhynchoids of the Southwest Pacific. Now consider how many strange lights are reported across the United States . . .

Marfa Lights Still in the News

I think that both the original Marfa Lights press release and the Houston Chronicle article [a response to that press release, though hardly mentioning it] need to be read by the reader who would be well informed in this matter. . . . neither the blog post nor the press release nor the newspaper article mentions an important name: Peter Beach, a biologist who has taught biology at the college level. We need to pay attention to his experience with flying lights and a strange flying creature seen over the Yakima River in Washington state.

Flying Predator in Texas

Now a cryptozoologist from California has explained the dancing lights of Marfa. Tales of spooks may hold a spark of truth, for recent research implies intelligence directs the lights: Bioluminescent flying predators may be hunting at night and catching a few unlucky Big Brown Bats: Eptesicus fuscus.

Marfa Lights Research

. . . investigation of unusual luminous phenomena that are sometimes seen near Marfa, Texas in a region known as Mitchell Flat. . . .  It is not often in today’s modern world that one can observe physical phenomena that seem to defy conventional explanations as MLs do. People fortunate enough to experience a good showing described them using terms such as exotic, complex, varied, and wonderful.

Now consider general characteristics and a specific sighting.

Close Encounters with Marfa Lights

“The lights really do defy all attempts at explanation. Attempts to locate their source always fail because they usually vanish when anyone tries to approach them. . . . Searchers have never found campfires, buildings, tire tracks, footprints, or any other evidence that could explain the lights’ sources. Some people even claim that the lights would reappear, after they had abandoned the search . . . They change color, appearing green, yellow, blue, and sometimes orange. One minute they will be bright, then fade and disappear. They have even been reported between Paso Lajitas and San Carlos, Mexico, and the Federales, who patrol the road for smugglers, have been fooled into spotting what they thought were approaching headlights, only to have no vehicle ever appear.”

The Enigma Lights of Marfa (Mar 20, 1973 sighting)

Approximately 9:00 p.m., Wright and Kenney went to the air base gate and observed at least three lights in the direction of the Chinati Mountains. . . . they decided to try to get closer to the lights. . . . [They] turned south on the Nopal Ranch Road. . . . They turned around and headed back toward the highway . . . It was a fairly moonlit night and they could see the road without headlights so they left them off. . . . They stopped at a high place on the road, turned off the engine and waited.  Three horses, about 200 feet west of the car suddenly started running and acting in a wild manner.  At this precise moment, they observed two lights moving rapidly from the southwest to the northeast, almost at right angles to the road.  The first light slowed down near the road, crossed the road less than 1000 feet in front of their car, and continued to the east where it seemed to merge with or meet a third light which was brighter and was between their car and the vicinity of the old air base hanger.  It crossed the road only three or four feet off the ground.