Pterosaur Eyewitness

I don’t know how many cryptozoology blogs have occasional posts on eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, but I know a few that specialize in pterosaurs. Find what may interest you on the following, with excerpts of recents posts.

Live Pterosaur

Kentucky Pterosaur

“Hi, my name is [MR] and I live at . . . Bowling Green, Kentucky. Today I opened my back door around 4:30 p.m. . . . and I noticed a large bird in the sky flying above me. I thought it seemed strange because I [saw] a tail with a spade-like end; also the wingspan was a lot larger than any bird I have ever seen around here. . . . The bird seemed to have a set destination . . . ‘cause it did not waste any time moving through the sky.

Live Pterodactyl

Pterodactyl in Singapore Around 1959

[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 . . .

Modern Pterosaur

Namibia, Africa, Recent Sighting

I paid attention to the wings as it would allow for identification – but this bird did not have any feathers, at least not any spread primary feathers (as eagles often show). It looked more like a large bat with distinctly brightly coloured (yellow-brown, orange?) protrusions, where birds have carpal joints (like some ‘spur-winged birds’). It showed a long, very long, slim neck . . .

 Live Pterosaurs in America

“Monkey-Bird” Pterosaur in Washington State

(Near Tacoma, WA) on many acres of mostly tree covered land . . . We have seen and heard a strange nocturnal, bat-like creature. This thing is huge, light grey, skin with no fur, feathers or scales . . . There were two of them together and they seemed fearless of me when they swooped down at me more than once and returned way up to the top of the highest trees.

The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs

Old Space Shuttles and Modern Pterosaurs

I admit, it is a stretch to connect the Space Shuttle . . . with intestigations of reports of modern living pterosaurs. . . . But there are connections, and this deserves more attention.

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up and was destroyed as . . . killing all astronauts aboard. The tragedy of those losses and the setback for that space program are not the subject here; it is about the survivors aboard the Columbia after it was destroyed. Yes “survivors,” for a scientific experiment involved a container of tiny worms, and those passengers did survive the crash.

It matters not that surviving worms failed to live long enough to encounter the humans who eventually recovered the worm container; the descendants of those worms did survive: Living worms were found therein. . . . more to the point, small simple organisms survive better than large complex ones.

Live Pterosaurs (Blogger)

Live Pterosaurs in New Mexico

“I live in central [New Mexico] Fourteen years ago . . . me and a close friend . . . were hiking [about noon] . . . and something blocked the sun . . . We both looked up to see . . . a large flying animal.

“. . . a 20-30 foot wingspan . . . about the same length long. It had a long tail with [a] seeming spike at the end. Its head was very pterodactyl [shaped] with a fluted back pointy head. It glided at about 700 feet . . . and [it landed] somewhere on the southern expanse of Magdalena Mountains.”

Live Pterosaur (WordPress)

Cryptozoology Books (sub-category: “Sighting in Wisconsin”)

. . . a sighting . . . in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. I grew up on a farm and picked cucumbers . . . one late afternoon, I had just brought out the tractor . . . when I noticed a strange looking bird in the sky. . . . it looked like something straight out of the dinosaurs era. It scared the . . . out of me right away. I knew it was not a sand hill crane, which we have a few hundred migrating thru. What stood out was the long pointed head and the fact that there was a very long tail between the legs and with a ball shaped on the end of it.

Modern Pterosaurs (Blogger)

Modern Pterosaur in Australia

“In the early 1990s [in] . . . South Australia. . . . [I] drove from Perth out to Western Australia . . . set up the tent . . . and wanted to see the sun go down . . . [something] looked like an airplane, far away. . . . maybe a couple hundred feet [high]. . . . it got nearer to me . . . the wings were actually flapping gently. . . . [the creature was] a dark tan. . . . [It made] no sound. [It continued to get] closer . . . had a wingspan [of about] 15 or 20 feet. [even closer] . . . leathery . . . no feathers at all.”

Bigfoot is not the only nocturnal cryptid living in the northwestern United States. Pterosaurs and “weird bat-like” flying creatures (that may be pterosaurs) have been reported by various eyewitnesses and in various areas of the state of Washington. I have recently become aware of other sightings, by eyewitnesses that I have not interviewed, at least not yet interviewed.

Weird Bat-Like Creatures

It silently swoops down at you with giant bat wings. . . . We keep our chickens and goats, small dogs and cats safely housed at night, however two of our cats who sneaked out one night onto the roof disappeared without a trace of fur, blood or any evidence of what exactly happened.

I have additional information from the site We News It (July 4, 2011 entry).

My brother and I saw another weird batlike creature two summers ago that was also quite bizarre yet not like these huge ones. We were riding our bikes at dusk and this black guinea pig sized thing with bat wings with holes all through the wings ran across the dirt road in front of us and under a bush. We don’t know anyone who has seen anything like that either, but we DID see it.

I have previously written about reports of pterosaurs in the state of Washington:

Washington State Pterosaurs

“I was riding my bike home from a friend’s house around 5 pm . . . to my left, and on a wood plank fence were two of the biggest bird-like creatures I could ever imagine! I almost crashed my bike! . . . I stood on the road and watched them for about an hour. . . . I just couldn’t believe it! [Their] heads I would have to say it was maybe 4 ft long with the beak. . . . the wings looked like black rubber. . . . their wing span was about 20 ft tip to tip.”

Cryptozoology Book

Amazon book reviews:

This seems to be the author’s second book on the subject [the first was “Searching for Ropens”], and this one is worth the effort. He  has focused on the accounts of witnesses who saw something, and that adds credibility. The writing is easy to read and he adds comments and analysis to make it all more useful. Mostly, the author lets the sightings speak for themselves, which is good. A worthwhile book.” (“Red Rabbit” – on the first edition of Live Pterosaurs in America)

“Your new book arrived today!  THANK YOU!!! and I must say you really did a wonderful job!!! You not only gave everyone more sightings than they can dispute (21 states!!!), but you also wove a descriptive and engaging ongoing investigation . . .” (on the second edition of that cryptozoology book)

At least a few eyewitnesses in the Philippines have reported pterosaur sightings to at least one cryptozoologist; I (Jonathan Whitcomb) have received a few reports myself.

Las Pinas, Philippines (reported on cryptozoology.com years ago)

. . . It has been quite some time already, about 12 years ago, and I was just about 11 or 12 then when I saw it. I saw the flying creature here in Las Pinas, Philippines near our house . . . I can clearly remember that there had already been a lot of stories going on, people claiming to see the “Tiktik” or a legendary large bat-like creature which sucks the juices out of men at night. So that night as I walking on the streets, this large creature flew about 5 storeys somewhere above me. It was slightly lit up by the street lamps and, as I recall, it looked a like a really large bat, as I can see the shape of the wings which were flapping in intervals with skin a little lighter that that of a bat’s. The wingspan is about 4-6 meters tip to tip and [it] really scared me . . .

Pterosaur in the Philippines (Two flying creatures seen in about 1994)

According to the eyewitness, “I think we’re not the only ones who saw it, because my classmate told me that there are sightings of this thing in Atimonan, Quezon [Province], just one-half hr travel from Pagbilao, and I was told by the local fisherman there that he saw it several times, flying above the sea.”
 
 I (interviewer was Jonathan Whitcomb) asked the young man some questions:
 
 Q: Did the two creatures have tails?
 A: YES! they have long tails about 3 to 4 meters long . . . it is  not a bird: They don’t have any feathers.

Various Worldwide Sighting of Pterosaurs (More details on the above sighting)

Philippines Sighting

“. . . 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 . . . “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. I even saw their claws between their wings . . .”

Flying Creature in San Fernando Valley, California

(Sherman Oaks, California)

[It] suggests similarities to the ropen of Papua New Guinea. A man reported the creature after he and his girlfriend observed it while taking a walk at about 10:30 p.m. [in 2009]. He reported, “It was a very large, winged creature that was gliding maybe 100 yards above us. . . . it beat its wings, once, before going out of view.” His girlfriend had a better view (she has better vision) and saw a glow or reflection on the wings.

Pterosaur Cryptozoology Book

Live Pterosaurs in America takes you into the lives of those who report encounters with living pterosaurs. The eyewitnesses themselves tell you of their shocking, sometimes frightening, sightings of strange flying creatures our culture teaches us should not be there: modern pterosaurs.

“. . . two featherless flying creatures with wingspans of fifteen feet. . . . the two ‘dragons’ . . . broad heads, long bills, and large eyes. . . . the ‘monsters’ were held responsible for attacking chickens, with ‘many of the hens being bitten in two and left partly devoured.’”

I don’t deny that any species of pterosaur has become extinct. Eyewitnesses, however, demonstrate that not all species have become victims of extinction, at least not yet. What we as humans do now—that may influence the life or death of one or more species of pterosaur, however.

Human Experience

This morning, while gazing out my back window, I saw a crow flying through the neighborhood. It flew about 30-40 feet high, about 300 feet from my position, line-of-sight, with many tree branches and leaves obstructing much of my view. Still, I noticed what appeared to be evidence of primary feathers on that crow. All right, I was looking for that spaced-out look at the end of large primary feathers, so that may not have been a perfectly objective observation. The point? My perception of that evidence for primary feathers cannot be legitimately dismissed just because my objectiveness might be questioned.

In that same light, the human experience of observing an apparent living pterosaur cannot be legitimately dismissed just because a skeptic questions the objectiveness of that eyewitness. In particular, the observation of a long tail and an apparent lack of feathers on a flying creature—that cannot reasonably be given a “zero” in credibility just because textbooks declare all species of pterosaurs are long extinct. Indeed, where is objective reasoning if a textbook is used to evaluate the validity of human experiences?

Add up a multitude of zeros and what do you get? Zero. It seems that at least some critics of living pterosaur investigations try to make it appear that a particular sighting has zero credibility and that all other similar sightings should therefore be given a credibility of zero. How shallow! They mention “bias” in those with whom they disagree on the subject of religion, sometimes using that idea by itself to try to dismiss a sighting. Really!

Examine the Western textbooks in detail. Where do you find any reference to any human experience regarding the extinction of even one species of pterosaur? Such a human experience is completely lacking, and the objection that it is impossible for humans to have witnessed any extinction of any pterosaur—that objection is irrelevant: The assumption of universal pterosaur extinctions comes not from any human experience. The point? How foolish to dismiss all human experiences, from around the world, that contradict a dogma of Western textbooks!

Pterosaur Extinction

Open almost any textbook that refers to the creatures. Most likely you’ll find their extinction (many millions of years ago) is treated as if it were indisputable. Why is this idea so prevalent? Is this a scientific “fact” that has been proven? If so, when was it proven?

Cryptozoology and Pterosaur Extinction

How could living pterosaurs escape the notice of scientists for centuries? Two words: “nocturnal,” “rare.” But something else has prevented the discovery of these amazing animals: dogmatism of standard biology.

Marfa Lights or Ghost Lights

Why have a few critics dismissed the living pterosaur interpretation of Marfa Lights, dismissed it outright? Extinction dogma. The indoctrination has been so widespread, for generations, that some skeptics simply use that cultural bias to reject any competing idea, reject it without any reasoning.

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.