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.”

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)

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.’”

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.

Critics of this [car headlights] explanation quickly point out that the Marfa Lights have been reported for hundreds of years, since long before there were any car headlights around. Well, apparently, the Marfa Lights have not been around all that long, after all.

How did Dunning come to that conclusion? His brief post gives no hint that he has done years of research looking for old records of Marfa Lights; that I seriously doubt. Even if he had searched for years, how could he be sure that he had not missed some nineteenth-century journal that described those mysterious lights? Yet that statement, “apparently, the Marfa Lights have not been around all that long” goes beyond a conclusion that no old written record exists referencing those mysterious lights: It is a dogmatic proclamation that those lights never appeared long ago, and that contradicts what old residents of southwest Texas have said about Marfa Lights.

I was born in Pasadena, California, and lived there through all my teenage years and many of my young adult years. Yet I probably have never mentioned any Rose Parade in any of my journal entries; to those who have lived many years in Pasadena, what is so special about the Rose Parade? It quickly becomes common. Of all the hundreds of thousands of citizens who have live at least part of their life in Pasadena, at least many hundreds have, at some time, kept a personal journal of life; yet many journals of life in this old city are probably devoid of any mention of any Rose Parade. And what of those journals that do mention it? How few readers have sifted through those personal journals, noting references to the Rose Parade! And of those researchers who have found those references, how many of them would have written about it in a way to easily be found by anyone interested? Search the internet if you like. Many online pages will be second-hand at best. The point? It takes serious research to dig into a subject far enough to get first-hand accounts of events. I seriously doubt that Mr. Dunning has done enough research to even come close to credibly declaring that Marfa Lights “have not been around all that long.”

Mr. Dunning does go into one detail about written histories in this part of Texas. He mentions the memoirs of Robert Ellison, whose descendants declare that he told them about the lights appearing in old times; but Dunning says that the memoirs mention nothing about those lights. Dunning says, “Curious that he would leave that out.” Why should that be curious? To those who have lived many years around Marfa, in old times (before Marfa Lights became famous), what is so special about those lights? Why should any of the old timers have written anything about those lights long ago, before any outsiders took notice? Those lights rarely had more than a gram’s weight of importance to old timers.

So why did Ellison tell his descendants about those strange lights? Look at the obvious. They probably asked him about the lights. So why doubt what those descendants remember about Ellison’s recounting old sightings? (Remember, it’s not the details that are important here, only that there were old sightings.) Second hand accounts may be far from perfect, in gathering scientific or legal evidence, but their evidential value far exceeds that of speculations about non-experiences in the nineteenth century. When lost in a vaste desert, what is the better choice? Dream about eating in a restaurant or roast a rabbit on a campfire? (Remember, if we are to live long enough to ever see another resaurant, we need strength to get through another day.) When starvation is the alternative, I’ll take the rabbit.

See also “Did Satire Backfire?” regarding Marfa Lights.

At the risk of self-approbation, please excuse these examples; I have written more about living pterosaurs than any other writer, so examples are easier to find with my own writings. Consider these and decide for yourself about whether or not I have a special problem with being objective, in particular if my desire to promote the idea of living pterosaurs overshadows reasonable thinking.

Frigate Bird

When one or two Youtube videos of a Frigate Bird became popular (as if evidence for a living pterosaur), I was in the front of objecting to the error. I commented on Youtube and wrote blog pages about those videos. When what looks like a Frigate Bird is seen soaring near a beach in daylight, well, that’s a Frigate Bird.

Strange Thing in a Landscape Photograph

When a new young investigator showed me a photo with something in the sky, I pointed out to the young man that the person taking the photo had noticed nothing unusual when the photo was taken. I felt no hesitancy in deflating that idea of a pterosaur photo, for the image itself does not look like what should be expected of a flying pterosaur.

Sleeping at the Wheel

In the first edition of my book Live Pterosaurs in America (repeated in the second edition, which should be published within the next few weeks), I brought up actual examples of dreams that two persons had after they fell asleep while driving: a giant bat about to collide with the car, in one dream; a herd of dinosaurs crossing the road, in another dream. I know both dreamers; each told me, from their own mouths, of their dreams.

As far as I know, I am the first writer to bring up this possible criticism of literal interpretations of eyewitness encounters with living pterosaurs. I believe it to be potentially one of the stongest possible objections to eyewitness accounts. Yet few of my critics, as far as I am aware (as of late October, 2010) have mentioned this possibility to explain sightings.

So why do I continue to proclaim the validity of eyewitness sightings of living pterosaurs, in the face of this apparent severe criticism? That requires an aside; I’ll be brief. Shocking dreams of strange things like giant bats or dinosaurs, dreams that wake the dreamer—those dreams seem to be contrived especially to awaken the dreamer who is driving (self-preservation through the intelligence of the unconscious mind). The real shock is in awakening to realize one is driving. But those sightings in which a large flying creature, without feathers, flys in front of the windshield of someone’s car (and the drivers later report to me)—those sightings have a notable absence of awakening. And when two eyewitnesses have seen a living pterosaur, it is not because both of the have dreamed the same thing at the same time. Enough said on that.

The point is this: Am I devoid of objectiveness, when I have written like that on those subjects? I don’t think so.

I am concerned when I see a video of that bird and read comments like these:

“This looks like a ropen, its a type of dinosaur . . . thats sposed to exist still, i dont think this is fake, and its quite the discovery, well done ”

I hate to spoil a happy face but the appearance of that bird on that video differs significantly from the appearance of a ropen of Papua New Guinea.

” . . . you guys obviousely this video is real he can not paste or animate this its imposible because when he zooms back . . .”

The person making that comment is also unfamiliar with the appearance of Frigate Birds.

Enough said.

The web site objectiveministries.org, I have concluded, is an elaborate hoax. 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. Although there are a few references to real persons in other associations, most of this site is a huge joke, apparently created to ridicule Christians of a particular kind of beliefs. I have found no reasonable way that the person or persons who created this hoax would themselves believe in what is portrayed on the site.

This should not reflect negatively on my “objectiveness” site (see Objective Ministries NOT), but the name similarity is unfortunate, for some of my pages promote research or investigations into reports of living pterosaurs. Those who look only deep enough to note that outward similarity may assume they are the same or from the same source; they are not. I do not hold a grudge against the person or persons who manufactured this hoax, but it was surely wrong to do that.

How sad that somebody would spend so much time to ridicule those of a particular belief system! And how sad that somebody would create such an elaborate hoax! In places, some statements resemble (at least somewhat) statements on sites that portray the actual beliefs of the writers. If there is a problem with those actual beliefs, why not openly bring up the subject? Why not simply question those statements?

I first noticed the objective ministries site around 2004, and assumed that things like the “Pterosaur Rookery“ and “Project Pterosaur” expedition to Africa were simply naive goals by a serious but unprepared minister. Since looking deeper into this, I conclude that there is no creationist minister named Richard Paley; others have come to the same conclusion.

It has been estimated that at least 1400 Americans have observed a living pterosaur in the United States within the past thirty years. The great majority of them have not reported their encounters with any cryptozoologist, but those who have done so may not all have been received with enthusiam, for not all cryptozoologists believe in modern living pterosaurs. I am an exception, specializing in interviewing eyewitnesses of these marvelous featherless flying creatures. If you have seen a “dinosaur bird” (by whatever name you choose to call it), please call me or send me an email. Thank you.

Forget about the World Cup, for the moment: Spain defeating Netherlands 1-0 in the international soccer finals. These two countries tied 1-1 in something completely different: modern sightings of apparent pterosaurs. Near Amsterdam (Netherlands), the flying creature, seen in daylight, was an elephant-grey color; in Spain, the flying creature, seen at night, was a suede color, with a long tail. Neither creature had any feathers.

Philippines Sighting Around 1994

“. . . 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. I even saw their claws between their wings. They don’t have any feathers . . .”

Pterodactyl Near Indonesia