Uncategorized – Page 2 – Pterosaur Eyewitness

July 26, 2012July 26, 2012

Popular Cryptozoology Books

Leaving aside fictions and e-books (including Kindle) here’s a listing of many cryptozoology books that are best selling on Amazon, at least early this afternoon (July 26, 2012). The ranking estimates how many total books are selling better, among the millions offered on Amazon. For example, for the top book listed below, it is estimated that over 17,000 books, of all subjects and genres, are selling better.

There are probably at least several books missing from the following list, for Amazon’s tracking by key-word-by-ranking is flawed.

#17,216   Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter
#56,929   Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents . . .
#62,847   Looking for Bigfoot
#86,724   Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside
#87,170   Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
#109,058   Claw, Jaws, and Dinosaurs
#112,571   Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition)
#126,528   Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures . . .
#138,762   Cryptozoology A to Z
#191,485   The Michigan Dogman
#217,735   Hunting the American Werewolf
#256,714   Monsters of Texas
#279,244   In Search of Sasquatch
#284,297   Bigfoot! – The True Story of Apes in America
#330,533   Monsters of West Virginia: Mysterious Creatures
#338,493   Monsters of New Jersey
#391,860   Big Bird
#415,823   Monsters of Wisconsin
#503,215   Monster Hunt: The Guide to Cryptozoology
#538,971   The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology
#579,074   Monster Spotter’s Guide to North America
#582,746   Monsters of Illinois
#590,608   (first edition) LPA
#598,622   Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation
#612,581   Cryptozoology (by 10 authors)
#714,718   Searching for Ropens (second edition)
#745,709   Monsters Caught on Film
#791,541   The Beasts that Hide from Man . . .
#793,042   Dinosaurs – Dead or Alive
#865,610   Missionaries and Monsters
#971,962   Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals . . .

(Books with rankings over a million are not included in the above list.)

For years, Cryptozoology A to Z, by Loren Coleman, was almost always the best selling book of this genre on Amazon. The publication of Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter, by Josh Gates (a television star of the true-adventure genre), put an end to that reign. For the past few years, the best my book could do (Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition), was to be the best seller among books about modern living pterosaurs.

I have often found it difficult to determine why my LPA sometimes has a surge in sales. Perhaps a small-town newspaper somewhere published something about eyewitness accounts of living pterosuars. Perhaps a blog writer mentioned my book. Who knows?

Pterosaur Tail Vane

An eyewitness recently made it clear that the flying creature she had recently observed had a long tail and a horizontal tail vane at tail’s end.

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front and back covers of "Live Pterosaurs in America" nonfiction book

From page 86 of the nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition):

Without sightings of apparent living pterosaurs in Texas, and without reports of brilliantly glowing ropens in the southwest Pacific, I would hesitate speculating about bioluminescent flying predators near Marfa. I understand how difficult it must be for scientists who have never been exposed to those human experiences, how hard to consider the revolutionary idea I suggest. Yet how easy it is to underestimate the magnificent potential of life! And how wonderful it will be to discover a revolutionary new living species!

April 18, 2012April 18, 2012

Scientific Conspiracy or not?

Is the opposition to reports of living pterosaurs from a scientific conspiracy? To the best of my experience and knowledge, no. I am unaware of any evidence for any coordinated attempt to cover up valid evidence for living pterosaurs. But virtual conspiracy is another story. The cumulative effect of countless Westerners placing 100% of their faith in a pile of dependent assumptions—that blind faith in universal extinctions of pterosaurs has caused a very similar result: road-blocking investigations of reports of living pterosaurs.

“Don’t Get Strung Along by the Ropen Myth”

It’s not that the writer, Brian Switek, is technically wrong in all his proclamations in his blog post. Indeed he was correct in pointing out the error of a newspaper reporter who used a photo of a Frigate Bird as if evidence for modern living pterosaurs. But Switek ridiculed in general: any potential report, anywhere, of any possible sighting of any living pterosaur, and he ridiculed that general concept while failing to mention even one of the key sightings. Taking a shuttle van to an airport does not prove that the Space Shuttle was just a science fiction myth.

That Smithsonian blog post might just as well have been orchestrated from a member of a conspiracy group, for it appeared to give solid evidence that no sighting of any pterosaur could have been of that type of flying creature. But after many paragraphs that ridicule the religious beliefs and ideas of men who had explored remote tropical rain forests in Papua New Guinea, Switek says, “Furthermore, even if a long-tailed pterosaur were found it would do nothing to undercut the science of evolution.” It seems that both sides of an origin-philosophy dispute agree on one thing: It is possible that a species of long-tailed pterosaur still lives. Even Mr. Switek admits that possibility.

Giant Bat

Too often have I encountered a generalization that is too convenient, an explanation not for any particular sighting of an apparent pterosaur in Papua New Guinea but for sightings in general: a misidentified Flying Fox fruit bat. The Hodgkinson sighting alone, perhaps the most important pterosaur sighting in history, repudiates the “giant bat” misidentification explanation.

9-11 Conspiracy Theory

Now how could one depraved government official begin to gain help for an enormous attack against Americans? He or she would have had to find somebody else just as depraved. Then more individuals equally depraved would need to find more, and then more. One non-depraved person would have immediately exposed the conspiracy, or (if fear had prevented that) would have leaked out the details, causing the deprived conspirators to be caught. Yes, even before 9-11, planning to murder thousands of people was illegal.

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back and front covers of Live Pterosaurs in America book

Live Pterosaurs in America (sale price on Amazon.com)

From the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America:

Since less-credible reports are of limited relevance in the investigation of the possibility of living pterosaurs, let us ignore [this paleontologist’s] many examples of questionable reports; consider the more-credible reports. They are consistent with the hypothesis that more than one species of pterosaur, rare and mostly nocturnal, live (at least for much of the year) in the United States.

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golden interior of the Smithsonian "Castle"

Inside the Smithsonian “Castle” in Washington, D.C.

The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum complex in the world, with historical buildings lauded as architectural landmarks. But with all of its scientific displays and projects, it is not yet supporting the living pterosaur investigations that have accelerated since the two ropen expeditions of 2004. In fact, one Smithsonian Magazine blog post blasted the very idea that the ropen is more than a myth.

April 12, 2012

Wings of Pterosaurs

After two centuries examining pterosaur fossils, scientists have learned much about their anatomy. Let’s look at those featherless wings, what some eyewitnesses (of apparent pterosaurs) compare with bat wings. We’ll begin with fingers, including the one finger that supports the wing:

fingers of the pterosaur

For pterosaurs, one of the four fingers (digits) supports the wing. The other three are for graspings, similar to digits in other animals. But we need to compare this with the wings and fingers of bats:

Notice the above image and the use of the bat’s five digits: one for a claw and four in support of the wing: far different from the pterosaur’s three-claw/one-support.

sketch of the two pterosaurs observed by Eskin Kuhn in Cuba

Pterodactyl-or-bat? Puzzle

Eskin Kuhn sketched the above two long-tailed flying creatures soon after he observed them in Cuba, in 1971. The drawing does not show the claw finger or fingers clearly, but he described the wing-finger structure as follows:

“The structure and the texture of the wings appeared to be very similar to that of bats: particularly in that the struts of the wings emanated from a “hand” as fingers would; except that a couple of the fingers were short (as for grasping) and the other ran out to the tip of the wing, others back to the trailing edge of the wing to stretch the wing membrane as a kite would.”

One skeptic may have noticed part of this description and concluded it correlated with bat anatomy rather than pterosaur anatomy. Concerning the wings, the eyewitness did say “very similar to bats.” Perhaps that skeptic did not read the whole sentence, however. The sketch itself does not show the bat-hands that seem to be described by “emanated from a ‘hand’ as fingers would.” Did Mr. Kuhn really have a detailed knowledge of bat anatomy? It seems to have been only a generalized knowledge, for the next part of his description is anything but bat-like.

. . . a couple of the fingers were short (as for grasping)

Bats do not have two short fingers for grasping, only one. To be sure, pterosaurs have three, but one of those three could easily be hidden during flight, or close enough to another claw-finger that three looked like two.

Consider what he next describes:

. . . others [fingers] back to the trailing edge of the wing to stretch the wing membrane as a kite would . . .

Neither bats nor pterosaurs have any finger or fingers at the trailing edge of the wing membrane. That does not mean that there is never any appearance of any structure at the trailing edge; but I suspect that Kuhn simply misinterpreted it, assuming it was part of the bone structure.

Pterosaur Wings and Fingers

Even for newcomers to pterosaur fossils, the three claw-fingers are easy to distinguish above. The long wing finger, digit number four, however, dwarfs the other three . . .