When residents of Marfa, Texas, and those in surrounding areas, including those living in ranch houses, have observed the more mysterious flying lights—many observations over the decades—they recognize an intelligence in the “dances.” A light sometimes will split into two lights and the two will slowly separate for quite a distance, eventually turning back as they approach each other, like in a square dance. Variations can appear on that theme, but the basics are commonplace. The point is this: Why do so many outsiders, scientists or not, assume that all those residents must be wrong when those local people ascribe intelligence to some of those lights (the ones Bunnell labels “CE-III”)? How we need common horse sense!

For those who have not read my book, or blog posts on this subject, I’ll summarize. The light splittings probably relate to a specific hunting technique. Bioluminescent flying predators attract insects with their glowing. They separate for a short while, allowing Big Brown Bats to go after those flying insects. The larger predators then reunite to try to catch bats, although they may not both remain glowing all the way back, for that would alert the bats.

How can one flying predator split into two? There were always two (or more), but they were close together when they started their hunting “dance.” From a distance, it appeared to be one light splitting into two.

According to Sherlock Holmes, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I don’t have the omnipotent-like assurance of Sherlock Holmes, but I feel about 75% sure that those special flying lights, the ones labeled (by the scientist James Bunnell) “CE-III,” that appear only a few times a year around Marfa, Texas, are modern living pterosaurs, hunting as a group.

Explaining Marfa Lights

He admitted to me that Marfa Lights last much longer than ball lightning and are seen in all kinds of weather (discounting ball lightning), and he told me what he himself had seen, near the MLVP, unwittingly suggesting a bioluminescent creature. Near the MLVP, Hendricks saw a light come down and move about in the nearby bushes, like an animal would . . . I suspect that Hendricks had witnessed a ropen-like nocturnal flying predator that was chasing a Big Brown Bat.”

Biological Marfa Lights

That reminded me of the light from the ropen of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, and the flying lights seen by the British biologist Evelyn Cheesman, on the mainland, west of Umboi. Those lights are very limited in how long they remain on, only a few seconds.

Flying Under the Radar in Marfa, Texas

But why is that Houston Chronicle newspaper article indirectly instructive? The writer makes no examination of the possibility or impossibility of a biological interpretation. The opinions of two non-biologists (James Bunnell and Karl Stephan) receive most of the attention . . .

More Light on Marfa Lights

After reading the book Hunting Marfa Lights, it becomes obvious that some lights around Marfa are not at all like common lights. Something strange is happening around Marfa, Texas.

Nocturnal Pterosaurs in San Diego

“I was at my friend’s house. . . . We were standing in the street . . . from the west came this dark object in the sky. It was right over us about, I say, 40 yards [high]. As it got closer we both yelled, “What the hell is that?” It looked like a huge bird. It was gliding . . . I was stuck looking at it the entire time. I began yelling at it, then it turned around and it stood still in the air. It was flapping its wings while it was there. Then outta nowhere here came another one. It was waiting for it; as it got close to the other one, they both went east.”

Apparently, the two ropens were flying in the same direction, from the west, but one was following the other. The first one was observed to be gliding but it stopped (with some wing movement or flapping) and waited for the other one to catch up. They then continued together towards the east.

A Joke Earlier in 2011

I am still searching for some strategy for communicating with the news media in the San Diego area, for we have a serious problem with the time of this late-2011 sighting. Just three months earlier, in August, somebody played a practical joke with a model “pterodactyl” being placed onto a statue in the north-coastal area of San Diego County. That “pterodactyl” joke was covered in quite a few news outlets, making any report of a genuine ropen sighting very difficult to market in this part of Southern California.

“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 just 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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Objective Ministries 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.

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.

Author Tracks Pterodactyls Among Us

Matt Coker, in a December, 2010, post on a blog for a California newspaper, mentioned my conjecture about the Marfa Lights of southwest Texas (I’m still not nearly 100% certain about bioluminescent pterosaurs causing some of the Marfa Lights; we need more close-sightings).

Jonathan Whitcomb is actually based in Long Beach, where as a cryptozoology author he offers an explanation of the mystery lights of Marfa, Texas, and Papua New Guinea. Human inhabitants in both places have observed in the sky balls of light that seem to split into two, fly away from each other and then turn around and fly back together.

Such sights have produced legends about dancing devils or ghosts and scientific explanations involving lightning or earthlights. Whitcomb has a far different explanation: bioluminescent predators flying together . . .

Of course the subject of flying predators causing CE-III Marfa Lights is a deep subject, too deep for most news articles.

Live Pterosaur Media Center

This online “media room” or “press room” makes it easier for news writers to gather together the information and images they need regarding sightings and investigations of apparent living pterosaurs.

Contrary to what many paleontologists believe, some cryptozoologists, including Jonathan Whitcomb of Long Beach, California, believe that one or more species of pterosaurs are still living, although most, at least, seem to be nocturnal and uncommon. For eight years, Whitcomb has gathered and analyzed eyewitness reports from around the world, including North America. He has concluded that a number of species of pterosaurs still live on the earth.

Cryptozoology book on live pterosaurs

Two things, before leaving the Cuban pterosaurs: Patty Carson’s sketch of the flying creature she saw is soon to be on the cover of the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America. She feels the beak is not quite right and not connected to the skull quite right, for how she remembers the creature, but the book publication needed to proceed well before Christmas, and it was waiting only for improvements in that sketch. It will have to do.

While talking with Patty on the phone yesterday, she remembered how many large rats were in the coconut trees at Gitmo, when she and her family was there. She now believes that the creature may use its long beak to get into the foliage and snatch rats for snacks. Yummy!

News Media Page on Live Pterosaurs

In a 2009 press release, Whitcomb declared that at least 1400 Americans have seen a living pterosaur between 1980 and 2008. After a number of cryptozoologists objected to the speculative nature of his estimate, Whitcomb maintained that sightings are far more common than the few news reports, in the late twentieth century, would suggest. He emphasized that many of those Americans are reluctant to tell anyone that they have seen a living “pterodactyl.”

News of Live Pterosaurs in New Jersey and Idaho

“In the summer of 2009, I saw something that I didn’t quite understand, in the pinelands of New Jersey. . . . The following year, on the same stretch of highway, I definately saw something clearly and without doubt. . . . I saw a giant bat-like bird, dark brown without feathers, something prehistoric . . . a long thin head, a long tail, [and a] kind of leathery dark brown skin. The body seemed to be the size of a good-sized man; the wind span, maybe 12-15 feet across.”

Aaron Tullock’s 1995 Sighting in Texas

In Aaron’s own words, “This thing flew over my head, about eight feet off the ground, and stopped and hovered in mid air. . . . the creature flew from east going west . . . it came from our land across the road, which is a nice mix of oak and pine forest and thick swamp. . . . It stopped in mid air and hovered there by flapping its featherless, bat-like wings, which were about four feet in span, maybe five. It had a tail about three feet long, with the . . . flange on the end . . . no head crest and no feathers at all, although there was kind of a longish bump on the back of the head. . . .”

Many reports of living pterosaurs suggest a nocturnal behavior for the flying creatures, but this sighting differs, for not only was it in daylight, but the apparent pterosaur had distinctive markings of orange and black, colors most useful in daylight.

Texas Flying Creature

Recent analysis of eyewitness data (eyewitness testimonies of apparent living pterosaurs in the United States) reveals many interesting things. California and Texas account for many of the sightings. This may be from a combination of large human populations and large areas of land in which the flying creatures can live.

“. . . what [at first] looked like a . . . tall man . . . [He] turned and I realized that this man didn’t have a face like a man at all!  I froze in fear trying to figure out what I was staring at. . . . I watched . . . black leathery . . .  bat-like wings [unwrapped] . . . I was so scared . . . [it] stared right at me with its large black eyes and walked closer to me (it had been about 40 ft away maybe) . . . it turned its head . . . I realized the shape of its head . . . it somehow looked like a pterodactyl.   . . . it turned its head back to me . . . the thing appeared to just lift off the ground . . . gliding . . . I ran into my house and slammed the sliding glass door behind me . . .”

Georgia Pterosaur (from the cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America)

The lady . . . had been trying to find someone who might help her verify the existence of the strange animals that she had seen twice in the past few weeks. . . . Her first sighting was at 7 a.m., the second, 9 a.m., with both mornings overcast. . . .

Fifteen miles of her commute is on a two-lane 55-mph road through woods alternating with pastures . . . on August 27, 2008. She had woken up early and could not get back to sleep, so she left her house at 6:45 a.m., with the sky still overcast from the last remnants of [a] storm. . . . She had driven less than ten miles, just leaving an area of pasture, entering an area of thick woods . . . when an animal suddenly flew from the right, just over the front of her car. Although alone, she yelled, “What the — what — what is that?” She was stunned.

. . . It was the tail; she looked up at a “very long” tail that had a strange shape at the end. . . . a thick almost-heart-shape at the end of the tail . . . “Dive-bombing my car,” is how she described the flight path, as it crossed the highway in front of and slightly above her. “Curved, like a hammer,” is how she described the head, which had a crest that she thought was “solid, not feathery at all.” . . . a smoothly curved head crest.

Obviously what the lady saw near Winder, Georgia, in the summer of 2008, was no Flying Fox fruit bat, even if that species of Megabat lived in Georgia, which it does not. So what about sightings in Papua New Guinea, where those bats live in great numbers?

Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen

The cryptid seen in New Guinea, by Duane Hodgkinson in 1944 and by Brian Hennessy in 1971, I have named “Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen.” Similarities between the descriptions given to me by these two eyewitnesses struck me as too much for coincidence. . . .

. . . these different lengths of head crest I believe fall within the range of eyewitness error. In other words, the creatures observed by these two men could very well have had the same length of head crest (relative to the size of the head) . . .  it seems likely that the species is the same for the 1944 and 1971 sightings.

Both Duane Hodgkinson and Brian Hennessy were struck by the long pterosaur tail . . .  in a manner of speaking, and Hodgkinson was close enough to make an estimate of tail-length: “at least ten or fifteen feet.” It was obviously not any Flying Fox fruit bat.

Eskin Kuhn Pterosaur Sighting

Her sighting [Patty Carson] confirms the credibility of the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn, who long ago reported his 1971 encounter. But Patty saw a similar creature in 1965 . . .

Kuhn sketched what he had seen, soon after his sighting (obviously no fruit bat):

My associates and I do not dispute the obvious cases of limited evolution, for example the outward changes that have resulted in many breeds of domesticated animals or the different shapes or sizes of beaks of finches. We do dispute molecules-to-man evolution.

Evolution, Religion, and Extinction of Pterosaurs

“An Evolutionary Boundary” involves simple math, for a biologically saturated environment . . . the population calculations are simple. . . . After about six months of calculations, using computer programs I wrote myself, the original population of organisms of 10e29 (the number having “1″ followed by twenty-nine zeros), after only a few generations, had only a minute fraction of viable candidates for macro-evolutionary change.

Extinguishing Pterosaur Extinction

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!

Live Pterosaurs in New Mexico

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

Pterosaur in Arkansas

“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.”

Kongamato Cryptid

The boy was walking from one mud-brick hut to another, one night in 1988, carrying a tray of food for family members. As he walked between the huts, he noticed something on the roof of his uncle’s hut. A creature was perched on the edge of the roof, lit up by the nearby porth light. The winged creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery with no feathers. A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head . . .

Lack of Evidence for Extinction

Nothing in any scientific study or in any organized research of science has uncovered any evidence for the universal extinction of all species of pterosaurs. That idea is only a working assumption, regardless of fossils. On the other hand, the many eyewitnesses, from around the world, give evidence for several species of modern living pterosaurs, although most clear sightings involve a long tail like that of a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur.

A common misunderstanding, even among paleontologists, is that fossils of pterosaurs can be taken as if evidence for universal extinction. In fact, fossils are evidence of life in the past, not extinctions. And no combination of fossils, however they have been dated and however reliable that dating, can ever prove the universal extinction of a group of unlimited numbers of species, such as pterosaurs. That is unscientific dogma.

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From readers of first edition of non-fiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America (note this is now in the second edition, published late in 2010):

“[The] new book arrived today! . . . a wonderful job!!! . . . more sightings than they can dispute (21 states!!!) . . . a descriptive and engaging ongoing investigation . . .” Susan Wooten, who lives in South Carolina.

“This seems to be the author’s second book on the subject, 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 . . . more useful.” Red Rabbit, Cleveland, Ohio. [Five stars for the first edition]

“The problem with science is that we think we know it all and that is far from reality. This book shows courage to continue the search. If you have an interest in cryptozoology you should read this.” Dale Reeder, PA.

“This book is a great book! This book contains a lot of sightings and information on living pterosaurs. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in living pterosaurs.” [from Amazon-anonymous child] A Kid’s Review [Five stars for the first edition]

Pterosaurs in the East U.S.A.

It flew directly over us, about twenty yards above us . . . it perched on a tree about fifty yards past us. . . . This [pterosaur] had a pterodactyl protruded head and a rhamphorhynchoid diamond-tipped tail . . . wing-tip to wing-tip, about 12+ feet? I don’t even know if I’m close. And the length, I’d estimate about 10 feet?”

Nocturnal Pterosaur in Florida

According to the nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America, a man in Florida saw, in 2008, at about 2:30 a.m., two small pterosaurs flying over houses in the neighborhood. The man’s friend also saw the creatures that had no feathers, a pointed beak, and a “long pointed thing protruding from the back of its head.”

New York State Pterosaur

I recently interviewed a man who was informed of a sighting of a live pterosaur on Long Island, New York . . . The creature was referred to in terms like “dinosaur-flying-reptile.” The sighting was at a long stretch of beach, perhaps Lido Beach, on Long Island. A number of eyewitnesses saw it soaring above the beach, and one or more observers tried to take photos of it.  People thought, at first, that it might be a kite, but it soon became apparent that it was not moving like a kite, and it had no string attached. The creature’s wingspan, tip-to-tip, was around seven to ten feet. The head had a long beak and something “pointy” at the back of the head.

South Carolina Pterosaur (not the Wooten sighting)

In this newly reported account, there were many eyewitness, at least four or five; it was at a soccer camp in Clinton, South Carolina, around 1994.

It was huge, as big as a plane, and looked very similar to the sketch created by Susan Wooten on your website. . . . I saw a huge pterodactyl looking creature, flying very high in the sky. The strangest thing about the sighting was how slow the wings were flapping and how high it was flying. Several parents who were watching the scrimmages and some of the other players on the sidelines saw the creature too. . . . I remember shouting “that was a pterodactyl!”, but everyone else [around me] that saw it, seemed to shrug it off in disbelief.

Flying Dinosaur

The “flying dinosaur” of Papua New Guinea is often called “ropen.” It seems to be a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur of immense size, far larger than any of the fossils of Rhamphorhynchoids known, at least into the early 21st century. The wingspan can be as big as 25+ feet; the tail length can be 12+ feet.

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.