I will not link to this YouTube video; it has had enough exposure. For those who have hoped that it is a legitimate recording of a modern living pterosaur I am sorry to give out bad news, but problems fly in my face when I examine the credibility of this video. I will not put the credibility figure at zero percent, for I don’t declare myself mentally perfect; but the hoax-like elements are numerous enough and serious enough that the producer of this video really needs to come forward and reveal what it really is.
“Pterodactyl Sighting 2008”
For those unfamiliar with the scene or declared-scene: Flathead Lake, in NW Montana, is the largest freshwater lake in the western United States, in surface area, although Lake Tahoe is almost as large and surely holds more water (at a greater depth than Flathead Lake).
I don’t demand that eveybody must use perfect English (perfect spelling, perfect grammar, perfect punctuation), but when errors multiply with each sentence I suspect it comes from a writer unfamiliar with proper English or from a careless writer, and carelessness is not always confined to language. But let’s set aside this problem and examine the video itself.
When I first saw this video it gave me a feeling like it was a hoax. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it did not look real to me, not organic, not living. When I reviewed it at a much later time, I got the same feeling. But it seems that at least a few viewers have believed it to be a real living pterosaur, so I decided to look closer.
Although this is technically a video, it actually shows a series of still images, seemingly still photos. The third image (the second image in which a flying thing is shown) shows what look like artifacts commonly found on still images taken from actual video footage, bringing up a question: If this comes from a video, why did the one giving us these images not give us the video? Why are we given only a few still images?
The first image shows us that the camera is just above the surface of a lake, perhaps as high as ten feet or more above the lake but unlikely over a hundred feet. The fourth image seems consistent, as it seems like we are looking at a slight angle up at the flying thing, with a ridge under it. The fifth image also seems like we are looking up at the flying creature. The sixth image seem even more like we are looking up at it, as does the seventh. But the eighth appears somewhat different, like we were almost at the same level as the flying creature. The ninth image gives me the impression that I am looking slightly down at the flying creature; I notice one of the hind legs (kept straight back behind the rear of its body) now is seen above its right wing, and the main part of the head is below the left wing. I have tried to imagine some way that I could be looking up at this flying creature, in this image; my mind rebels against the thought. Of course it could be in a steep dive, but this seems inconsistent with the other images. It looks more like this photo, if it really is a photo, was taken far higher, way up in the air; but how did the camera get so high up in the air?
Other issues appear serious. For one, why did the one submitting this YouTube video not respond to many comments from viewers who mentioned reasons that this is a hoax? I read many objections with words like “fake” and “hoax” (especially “fake”) but not one comment in response from the author or recorder of this “video.” One or more commenters mentioned artifacts around the “pterodacty” images, suggesting a paste-on hoax; why no response from the one submitting this to us?
Where is the cryptozoological report? I should have heard or read something about this somewhere, in the past three years, for there may be no person on the face of the planet who spends more time on living-pterosaur investigations than I do. If the eyewitness sent his report to Loren Coleman (instead of to me), why do I not see anything about this 2008 Flathead Lake “pterodactyl” on Cryptomundo?
I have read some of the comments on this YouTube video, comments about remote-controlled mechanical “pterodactyls” at Flathead Lake. Why has the video-submitter not replied to the insinuation that his “photos” are of radio-controlled devices?
This “report” of a modern living pterosaur may not be the lowest in credibility of all the reports that I have received or examined over the past eight years, but it is a runner-up contender for most-likely non-pterosaur.
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I conclude that there is no such educational facility as “Fellowship University,” and there is no such creationist “Richard Paley” affiliated with “objective ministries.” All the supposed plans for an expedition “to locate and bring back to the United States living specimens of pterosaurs or their fertile eggs” are fictional.
No Hoaxes with Pterosaur Wingspan Estimates
According to standard ideas in paleontology (and that is mostly what is mentioned in Western media when it is mentioned at all), only a small percentage of Rhamphorhynchoids attained wingspans over eight feet. But the data on wingspan estimates does not show any sharp decline above six feet, more of a gentle downward slope (fewer eyewitness estimates) into sizes much larger than standard ideas about Rhamphorhynchoid fossil wingspans. If a significant number of hoaxers made some of these fifty-seven estimates, and a significant number of those hoaxers were trying to portray Rhamphorhynchoids, there would have been a steeper decline above seven feet.