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The Girl who saw a Pterodactyl

Sketches by Eskin Kuhn and Patty Carson

By the investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

I’m writing a nonfiction book for children, which should be in print in November of 2018: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur. [Addendum: This cryptozoology book was published on Nov 8th] It covers far more than just the true story of Patty Carson. It compares her sighting to the one by the US Marine Eskin Kuhn, who encountered two “pterodactyls” at that same area in Cuba but six years later.

Two Important Sightings at Guantanamo Bay

One critic might dismiss the report by Patty Carson, saying it was just the imagination of a small girl. But why would that US Marine see two flying creatures that were so similar to the one seen by that child? Keep in mind that both reports come from Guantanamo Bay, and the sightings were only six years apart.

A critic might dismiss the sketch by Patty Carson, saying it was drawn decades after the event. But look at the sketch by Eskin Kuhn: It was drawn within minutes of his sighting of two large pterosaurs that he originally called “pterodactyls.” Compare those two drawing and notice important similarities:

Sketches by Eskin Kuhn and Patty Carson

Drawn by Eskin Kuhn (left) and by Patty Carson (right)

A critic might dismiss Kuhn’s sighting as just a misidentification of two birds flying together. But be aware that Patty saw many small teeth in the beak of the flying creature she saw. Birds do not have teeth.

A critic might dismiss the US Marines sighting, for those two things were flying by him, leaving him limited opportunity to look closely. But Patty Carson was staring at that flying creature for some time, as it stood there for some time. She had ample opportunity to examine details in its appearance.

Why did Kuhn not report seeing any teeth in the two “pterodactyls” he saw? They were flying with their mouths shut. Why did Carson not report any hair on the tail flange of the flying creature she saw? Kuhn noticed that hair. The girl probably paid less attention to the end of the tail, or perhaps the tail was moving a bit too much to notice that detail. She did see the tail clearly enough to see that the tail end had a flange that she described as “diamond” shaped.

Why do not more people report seeing these living pterosaurs, if they exist? I, Jonathan Whitcomb, have received hundreds of eyewitness reports, over the past 15 years, reports from five continents. From examining those accounts and comparing them to each other, I have concluded the following: The total number of persons now living, worldwide, who have had some kind of encounter with a living pterosaur—those persons number at least in the range of between 7 million and 128 million, although we need to keep in mind that this estimate includes encounters that were brief and many were at night, when few, if any, details could have been seen.

Check out the book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur, available soon on Amazon and other online retail book sellers. Give a copy as a gift to a child.

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The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

What a wonderful world we live in, a world filled with an astonishing variety of life! If all those varied forms known to Western science are not enough, we now have worldwide confirmations, from many eyewitnesses, that a long-tailed pterosaur species is still living among us . . .

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Pterodactyl Sighting

How big are modern pterosaurs? Choose almost any wingspan; we’ve got it. Here are the eyewitness estimates for wingspan, in feet, from smallest to largest . . .

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I saw a Flying Dinosaur

Although it’s more common, in the United States, for an eyewitness of an apparent living pterosaur to use the word pterodactyl, I sometimes come across the phrase “flying dinosaur.”

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The girl who saw a modern pterosaur

[what a girl saw in Texas] . . .  I was about 11-12 yrs old I went outside around late morning . . . In the open backyard next door was what looked like a 9 or 10 ft tall man . . . then the man turned and I realized that this man didn’t have a face like a man . . .

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“Dinosaur birds” are still flying

We have been taught that giant flying creatures soared overhead long ago. We could call them “dinosaur birds,” but that would be technically incorrect: They were pterosaurs . . .

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The true story of Patty Carson and others

Patty Carson, of Southern California, said, “It did have a tail and it had a diamond shaped tip . . . The skin was a leathery, brownish reddish color. It had little teeth, a LOT of them.

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They are not extinct – “dinosaur birds”

Who could organize any expedition to search for living pterosaurs? Only an official discovery could awaken Western scientists so they could search for extant pterosaurs, but discovery normally comes after searching, not before. Looking back at this problem, from the time of Darwin until 1990 it appears to have been an almost hopeless atmosphere for a discovery. But a solution eventually appeared . . . from an unexpected source.

Un pterosaurio en Cuba

sketch, by eyewitness, of the Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur of eastern Cuba

Por Jonathan Whitcomb, un experto en pterosaurios vivos

Gracias a Gladys Whitcomb por verificar la traducción

Introducción

¿Alguna vez viste un pterosaurio? Muchas personas han visto estas criaturas voladoras. Sobre todo vuelan de noche, y viven en muchos lugares del mundo. Algunos de esos lugares están en los siguientes países:

  • Canadá
  • Los Estados Unidos
  • Méjico
  • Cuba

Dos estadounidenses han visto un pterosaurio vivo en Cuba: Patty Carson y Eskin Kuhn.

Two eyewitnesses of living pterosaurs

Los niños vieron un animal extraño en 1965

Unos pocos niños vieron un pterosaurio vivo en la Bahía de Guantánamo, Cuba. La cabeza del “dinosaurio” surgió de la hierba alta. El animal miró a su alrededor y se fue volando. Patty Carson, en 1965, fue una de los niños que vieron volar al pterosaurio.

Aquí está parte de lo que ella informó muchos años después:

Estábamos caminando cerca de los astilleros, yendo a casa. Vivíamos al final de la calle, en la última casa, junto a la torre de radio. stábamos caminando . . . donde era arenoso . . . [había] vegetación de matorral escasa alrededor de cuatro pies de altura.

De repente se sentó, como si hubiera estado comiendo algo o descansando. [Su cabeza podría ser vista.] Era . . . a unos nueve metros de distancia. Todos nosotros [niños] no nos movimos durante unos cinco segundos, luego el animal se inclinó hacia la izquierda y se fue volando, con mucha prisa.

Tenía una cola y tenía un extremo en forma de diamante [de la cola]. La piel era coriácea, un color rojo marrón. Tenía dientes pequeños, MUCHOS de ellos.

Nos fuimos a casa y estaba emocionado de decirle a mi familia que había visto un dinosaurio. [No me creyeron] y comenzaron a decirme que era un pelícano o ave Fragata. [Pero estaba pensando] ¡NINGUNA MANERA! Era tan alto como un hombre cuando estaba parado. . . . Sabía que era un pterodáctilo.

En los últimos años, Patty dibujó un boceto del pterodáctilo:

sketch, by eyewitness, of the Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur of eastern Cuba

El pterosaurio Patty Carson vio cuando era niña

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Un soldado vio dos pterodáctilos en 1971

Eskin Kuhn era un infante de marina de los Estados Unidos en la Bahía de Guantánamo, Cuba, cuando vio dos pterosaurios a plena luz del día. Unos minutos después de su avistamiento, dibujó un boceto de las dos criaturas voladoras.

sketch of the two pterosaurs observed by Eskin Kuhn in Cuba

Dos pterodáctilos en Cuba

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Comunicarse con Whitcomb

Street address of Whitcomb in the USA

Gracias por su atención.

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Eyewitnesses of Living Pterosaurs

Evelyn Cheesman (1882-1969), as an educated British biologist, explored on islands in the southwest Pacific early in the 20th century. Thanks to the British cryptozoology researcher Richard Muirhead, we know about how some of Cheesman’s observations relate to reports of possible living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea.

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Pterosaur sighting in California

[In 2007]  the young cryptozoologist Scott T. Norman had a sighting of an apparent Pteranodon in Central California. . . . At least 8-10 feet in wingspan.

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Ark of the Bible and modern pterosaurs

Late on the night of January 16, 2018, (9:00-11:45 p.m. Pacific time) I, Jonathan Whitcomb, was interviewed by Dave Scott on Spaced Out Radio (online radio broadcasting from British Columbia, Canada).

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Pterodactyls in North Carolina (pterodáctilo)

This answers some of what is found in two newspaper articles published online, both of which reported, in mid-January of 2018, sightings of apparent living pterosaurs . . .

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Whitcomb y pterosaurios

En las palabras de Jonathan Whitcomb: . . . En 2004, viajé de los Estados Unidos a Papúa Nueva Guinea. Encontré a un intérprete en la ciudad de Lae. Mí y mi intérprete viajó, por buque, a la Isla de Umboi. . . .

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Photographie d’un ptérosaure moderne

Deux photos sont similaires. Un seul est une blague.

Pterosaur News

Another eyewitness has given his name to the world; for an American to admit observing an apparent living pterosaur, that is news. Tom Carson, brother to the “Gitmo Pterosaur” eyewitness Patty Carson, had no knowledge of his sister’s 1965 sighting until he spoke with Patty a few weeks ago (the flying creature seen by her was an apparent Rhamphorhynchoid). His three-second encounter was about a year later, in 1966, but in the same area of Cuba: Guantanamo Bay. I’m very grateful for his report and his willingness to allow his real name to be used. The flying creature he saw seems to have been the same species as the one his sister had seen and the one Eskin Kuhn would see in 1971. Tom told me it appeared to have no feathers and was bigger than a pelican. The tail was odd, like one would expect of the shaved tail of a dog. That was how Tom described it.

front cover for nonfiction cryptozoology book, 3rd edition

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.”