Pterosaur Eyewitness

Pterosaur misidentification—I mean a non-pterosaur being mistaken for a living pterosaur—is possible, even when the apparent “pterodactyl” has a long tail (or seems to have one). What modern bat or bird is known to have a long featherless tail? Probably not even one, but there is another possibility that we need to watch out for: Some birds have long legs that they hold behind them during flight. But first let’s consider actual tails on birds.

The black Hornbill bird, Anthracoceros malayanus, lives in Southeast Asia, in particular in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The following photo, taken in Malaysia, may be that species; at least it appears to be some type of Hornbill. 

It seems highly unlikely, however, that the above bird could be mistaken for dark-colored featherless flying creature with a long tail. It is a dark-colored feathered bird with a wedge-shaped tail. But other birds actually have long tails, including the oceanic Frigate Bird.

Five species of Frigatebirds fly over the warmer areas of oceans. Some of them have been mistaken, by Westerners, for the ropen of Papua New Guinea, which is reported to have a long tail. But the tiny head of the Frigatebird is close to the body, making its silhouette quite different. Notice the one on the right, with hardly any of the head visible. Now compare it to a sketch of the Gitmo Pterosaur.

Eskin Kuhn, in 1971, at the Guantanamo Bay military installation in Cuba, sketched the two pterosaurs he had personally observed one clear day.

Notice the enormous head of the Gitmo Pterosaur. Also, notice the shape of the wing and the structure at the end of the tail and the obvious featherless appearance. This flying creature is obviously not a Hornbill bird and obviously not a Frigatebird.

This sketch was drawn, by the eyewitness, within hours of the sighting. In addition, Kuhn provided us with many paragraphs describing the overall experience, including many details about the appearance and the flight of the two creatures, which were seen at close range. He has stood by his testimony for decades, in spite of criticisms from skeptics. In 2011, his account was supported by a new eyewitness who had observed the same kind of flying creature at the Guantanamo Bay station; that new eyewitness recently learned about Kuhn’s sighting and has now come forward with her account of a sighting just a few years before Kuhn’s.

 But what about those birds that have long legs and hold their legs behind them in flight?

The American Flamingos on the right have long legs, making it possible for some eyewitnesses to mistake those legs for a long tail. Indeed, the end of the legs even looks like the tail-end of a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. But what about that extremely long neck? And what about the shape of the head and the shape of the wings? Even if the Gitmo Pterosaur were pink, a flamingo it is not.

Long tails (or apparent tails) alone do not necessarily mean what you have seen is a pterosaur; but a pterosaur head crest with a Rhamphorhynchoid tail and an obvious lack of feathers—that means you have probably seen a living pterosaur.

Over many years, sighting reports involving a ship or a boat have accumulated. Consider some of the accounts, although they may have little in common except that one or more eyewitnesses on a boat or ship saw one or more apparent pterosaurs.

Sighting From U.S.S. Jouett

From the post “‘Pterodactyl’ Flies Over Military Ship”

With a fellow cryptozoologist, some time ago, I interviewed a man who had been a sailor on the U.S.S. Jouett (guided missile cruiser), CG-29. He told us about the night when he was surprised by an excited shipmate who summoned him out of his bunk. Many sailors had just witnessed a giant “pterodactyl” that had flown directly over the ship.

I was one of the two cryptozoologists who interviewed, by telephone, the former sailor. The man we interviewed, however, was not himself an eyewitness, for he got up topside right after the creature had flown away. His shipmates, however, told him about the giant “pterodactyl.” The captain told everybody to keep quiet about that word, and to only mention it was something unidentified.

Boat Attacked by Pterodactyls near Samoa

This comes from “Dudlow,” who comments on July 21, 2006:

. . . back in the early 1960s off the Samoan Islands. Hairless and featherless . . . a ‘flock’ of these 20-foot+ wingspanned ‘birds’ came in high over their sailing vessel around the same time each evening for several days . . . These screaming furies would circle lower and lower and then make strafing runs low over the hull of their vessel. My friends had to retreat with their children into the cabin for protection . . . They called them pterodactyls, for lack of any better term. And they really didn’t like talking about or retelling this truly weird experience.

Two Glowing Pterosaurs in the Caribbean

A lady who . . . had taken a cruise on the Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas. On about the second day of their cruise, between about 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., her daughter called her to come out to the balcony to “see something weird.”

 ”The minute I stepped onto the balcony, I knew exactly what she wanted me to see. Off in the distance were two very, very large, pink/orange flourescent birds flying behind each other. They looked like the flying dinosaurs, I forget what they are called. They would fly towards the ship, then back out to sea, then fly together in tandum then make a sharp right, away from the ship and disappear into the night. Then they would return.”

Japanese World War II Ship Shelled Pterosaur Caves

“. . . it was the japs [Japanese miliary] on the island who were attacked by the kor.  They [Japanese soldiers] apparently shot several wounding them then followed them to cves [caves] and blew [blew up] the entrances. They called ships fire on the hills and pounded them for several hours.”

The kongamato of Africa has been compared with the ropen of Papua New Guinea, in that similarly-described flying creatures have been associated with grave robbery. But what’s in a name? Apparent pterosaurs have various names in various countries of the world; in the United States, we sometimes hear “pterodactyl” and “dinosaur bird.” Regardless of the label an eyewitness attaches to a flying creature, let’s examine some of those encounters, worldwide, especially the kongamato and the ropen.

Kongamato of Africa

According to Wikipedia:

The Kongamato has been seen by African natives and European explorers for some time, and almost all of the accounts say it is a reddish blackish creature resembling a pterosaur. Some other people have come back with large, deep wounds that they claim to be from the Kongamato. Eyewitness accounts say the creature has teeth, leathery wings, a beak, and claws. Some British scientists and explorers have shown natives drawings of pterosaurs, and the natives were said to have a terrified reaction.

According to an account in Sudan, Africa, (I communicated with the eyewitness by email):

Walking from one mud-brick hut to another [carrying a tray of food], early one night in 1988, the boy noticed something on the roof of a nearby hut. . . .  perched on the edge of the roof, the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head, and its long tail somehow resembled that of a lion. . . . the creature stretched its wings and hopped toward another roof, passing a few feet over the boy’s head. He dropped the metal tray with dishes and the creature flew away.

Living Pterosaurs in Africa: Similar to the Ropen?

What about the “flying snake” of Namibia? According to research done by the British cryptozoologist Richard Muirhead, one of these creatures “swooped down” from a cave near Kirris West . . . It left a trace of something on the ground and a burning smell.

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

In 2004 . . . Jonathan Whitcomb, a U.S. forensic videographer, interviewed Gideon on the remote island of Umboi in Papua New Guinea. He confirmed the reliability of the young man’s testimony that he saw a giant pterosaur-like creature when he was with several other boys years ago. There is nothing in the recent interview that would suggest any dishonesty or gross errors in what this young man reported to Whitcomb.

Living Pterosaurs in the Philippines

“. . . what he called a “pterodactyl,” in fact two flying together, when he was a boy in the city of Pagbilao, Quezon Province (not to be confused with Quezon City). . . . they have long tails about 3 to 4 meters long . . .it is not a bird: They don’t have any feathers. . . . “I saw them clearly: the SHAPE, their BAT-LIKE WINGS, a LONG NECK and . . . I dunno if it is a horn behind their heads. They have a long beak. . . . They don’t have any feathers . . .”

Pterodactyl in Ontario

by Kevin Meixner

In Brampton, Ontario, Canada, while driving to work [in the morning] . . . my mother and I saw a strange bird-like creature flying low and close to the car about 20 feet away from us. . . .  it didn’t look like any kind of bird I have ever seen before. . . . to my astonishment as it turned it looked exactly like a miniature pterodactyl like you see in the movies like Jurassic Park or on The Flintstones cartoons. The only difference is that it was much smaller, having a wingspan of about four feet. It was gray and did not appear to have any feathers. . . . It had a long, skinny, pointed tail extended straight behind it that had sort of a diamond shape at the tip.

Perhaps the best evidence (against generations of indoctrination into universal extinctions of all species of pterosaurs) is the accumulation of credible eyewitness accounts of living pterosaurs. Consider some of these pages and posts:

Pterosaur Eyewitnesses on Umboi Island

Gideon Koro related how he was terrified at the sight of the giant ropen that flew over Lake Pung (around 1994). He and his friends were only children when they had climbed up to the crater lake on Siassi (Umboi) Island.

Three American explorers; Jonathan Whitcomb, Garth Guessman, and David Woetzel; interviewed Jonah Jim regarding his ropen sighting. He saw more than the glow: He saw the pterosaur-shape and long tail.

This is a page of the Pterosaurs Still Living site. Also mentioned are sightings by a government official, David Woetzel, Leonard of Opai Village, and David Moke (a local clan leader and also from Opai). Most of those sightings are of the flying ropen light, but Gideon Koro’s is an exception: a clear view of a giant ropen in daylight.

Pterosaurs in Kansas and Arkansas

“My friend and I were talking and I mentioned that I had seen an extremely large bird that resembled a pterodactyl some years ago . . . I could not believe my eyes as I immediately thought of a prehistoric bird when I saw it. . . . a wing-span of 16-20 feet.”

“It was probably 1982 when me and my older brother were sitting in our carport [in Texarkana, Arkansas] It was getting dark but there was plenty of light in the sky when we saw what we believe to be a pterodactyle [pterosaur]. The wingspan seemed to be about 25’ to 30’ ft wide. . . . an awesome sight to see.”

Leaving sighting details, and examining non-extinction directly:

Pterosaur Extinction Indoctrination

How has anyone now living come to the conclusion that all species of pterosaurs became extinct? From a scientific test? No. From a mathematical formula? No. From a set of statistics? No. From early childhood, Americans and citizens of other Western countries are indoctrinated into universal extinctions of certain general types of animals, dinosaurs and pterosaurs especially. It has become a deeply ingrained assumption of our cultures.

Mesozoic Objection, Pterosaurs, and non-Extinction

Many living-pterosaur critics make the same oversight as Darren Naish, for this typical response appears, on the surface, to be scientific: “No pterosaur fossil has been found above the Mesozoic.” The problem lies in the unstated assumption that fossils can be used to determine what kinds of organisms can be presently living. Whatever strengths and weaknesses may lie in layers of reasoning in the world of standard-model geology, that geology was never constructed to explain what organisms can or cannot live presently.