Pterosaur Eyewitness

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.’”

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.”

For years I have maintained the possibility of multiple species of long-tailed pterosaurs still living in various countries of the world. It now seems obvious that at least one species lives in Australia and probably also in New Zealand, for eyewitness accounts have accumulated; it seems unlikely that these giant long-tailed pterosaurs are all stragglers from Papua New Guinea or Indonesia.

Pterosaur Sightings in Australia

“I live in Australia in the state of Victoria near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 klms east of Melbourne . . . I cannot be sure of the year of the sighting . . . but I think it would have been around the late 1990′s.

“. . . about nine o’clock one night . . . full moon and very bright with a cloud bank to the southeast extending to and over the Ranges. Mt. Dandenong is about 2000 feet high and the clouds were much higher than this.

“I glanced to the south and [saw] . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here as Moorabbin Airport is not far away. This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cesna.  It was about 5 klms away and was lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. . . . I could see it quite clearly. . . . for about 5 mins whence it disappeared into the cloud bank. I estimate it was flying at a height higher than Mt Dandenong.”

Modern Pterosaur in Australia

“In the early 1990s . . . [I] drove from Perth out to Western Australia . . .  [to] see the outback . . . 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, I noticed that the wings were actually flapping gently. . . . color was a dark tan. . . . no sound. It was getting closer . . . had a wingspan [of about] 15 or 20 feet. It got close . . . leathery . . . no feathers at all.”

Giant Pterosaurs in Australia

East Coast of Australia

During his farm chores, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., he [a boy of about twelve years old] . . . saw a large creature with wings. It was on the roof of the shed, just above the door where he had recently been standing.

Although terrified, the boy had a brief view of the body and wings of the creature. It was larger than an average man six feet tall, with wings that folded to the side and back, reminiscent of bat wings.

New Zealand Flying Slasher Pterosaur

Across New Zealand, North Islands farmland and countryside, there have been for almost a century tales from farmers and hunters, of a horrid winged beast, with long sharp fangs lining its narrow, beak-like jaws. Its eyes gleam in the night, where it can be seen flying overhead, shillouted in the moon. Farmers despise it because it tears chunks from their cattle in the nightime. It is called “The Flying Slasher.”

East Coast sightings of a “pterodactyl” or flying dinosaur (meaning a pterosaur) have ranged from New England down to Florida, with no indication of any geographic restriction. Perhaps the best publicized has been the sighting by Susan Wooten in South Carolina, but there have been others equaling amazing.

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.