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.
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.
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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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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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.
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