Vegetarian Pterosaurs Near Singapore?

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I’ve written many posts, probably more than anyone else, on what modern living pterosaurs may be eating, from the ropen that is said to eat seafood on the reefs around Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, at night, to the pterosaurs that probably eat bats in North America, also at night. But the email I received a few months ago, from a man in Singapore, revealed two apparent pterosaurs, about fifty years ago, that were eating fruit in daylight.

[The two pterosaurs were] circling some tall palm trees (those with small orange coloured fruits) and then helping themselves to the fruits. They were making cries which sounded like squawking in the process. They were large . . .

My sighting occurred probably between the period 1958 – 1960 thereabouts when I was still a little kid. In those days we lived in a small village which was near a densely wooded area. Of course with the general development of Singapore to a metropolitan state it is today, the creatures, if they had propagated, would have [ventured] further south to the wilder regions to avoid civilisation (to ensure their survival).

I cannot recall whether the creatures had any tail. . . . if I would hazard an educated guess given the circumstances, I would think that they probably did not have any tail (or at least long ones) as otherwise such a feature would have caught my attention as well. However, this is only a conjecture and I cannot confirm whether this was the case.

Singapore Flying Creature or Pterosaur

I was wandering some distance from the village; I was staying in Alexandra Road area, and was out on an adventure hunt one hot afternoon in a forested area when I came across a pair of them flying together [as they circled the palm trees] . . . at that time I thought nothing more of them . . . at such a young age, at that time, I never knew they were thought to be extinct. [same sighting as above]

Singapore is a city-state between the southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean. It has very little rain forest left in its territory.

Pterosaurs in Australia and New Zealand

“I glanced to the south and [saw] . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here as Moorabbin Airport is not far away. This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cesna.  It was about 5 klms [kilometers] away and was lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. . . . I could see it quite clearly . . .”

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