Over the years, I’ve gotten several pterosaur sighting reports from the state of Arkansas. I recently got another report from Arkansas, except this is a “hearing” rather than a sighting:
My friends and I have a nice spot on the Mulberry river where we like to go camping. After one camping trip was over and most of us went home, . . . [two] decided to stay and enjoy one more night . . .
They were sleeping in the back of the SUV when they were woke up by what they described as the sound of a pig squealing. . . . then the sound came toward them and went right over the SUV. They discussed it and decided it must have been an owl carrying off a piglet.
I replied with my opinion about what they heard overhead that night and about the possibility the predator was what many Americans call a pterodactyl:
I agree in the possibility that it was a large owl taking away a piglet, but there may be an issue with that interpretation. For those unaware of modern pterosaurs, that idea may appear to be the best explanation. But I daresay piglets are rarely carried off by owls in the middle of the night. Most pigs (wild or domesticated) are too big for any owl to handle. Those are not the usual prey for such birds. A particular ropen, however, may have developed a method for catching pigs in that area. That would seem a better explanation to me. [opinion of Jonathan Whitcomb]
Here’s an even more recent encounter, but this one was a sighting (slightly edited for English):
. . . So for the first time I’ll tell my weird story. In the summer of 2012 my husband was working . . . for *Buffalo River National Park, Arkansas . . .I was living in Georgia with our infant son but was really missing my husband so we arranged a visit getting a two week rental of a mountain cabin near the park in late August. . . . every morning I’d drink my coffee out [on the deck of the cabin] while the baby was next to me in his play pen.
One morning . . . I looked up. Silently flying was a pterodactyl right over us, lowering in circles without flapping; it was featherless, long beaked, crested, and [had] a tail with something on the end of it. It was still very high but I screamed and ran inside. It was hard to judge its size, but I’m guessing 10-15’ in wingspan.
From the window, I watched it fly as it turned to a tiny speck disappearing over the mountains. I had no phone signal, and the nearest houses were five miles down the road. I just sat shaking holding my baby for a long time. . . . I know what I saw, and it scared me into silence for five and a half years. [This was reported, in February of 2018 by the eyewitness, to Jonathan Whitcomb (who concluded that the flying creature was a large ropen).]
*The more common form of the name is Buffalo National River.
###
.
Eyewitnesses Report Living Pterosaurs
“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 . . .”
Seven boys were terrified, in about 1994, as they saw the ropen fly over a crater lake. On the remote island of Umboi, in Papua New Guinea, the boys climbed up to Lake Pung, just north of their village. Within just a few minutes, they saw the giant creature fly over the water. The boys ran home in terror and the memory of that fear lasted for years.
It [the nonfiction book being written] will include a simple explanation of the “Evolutionary Boundary” experiment and an introduction to living-pterosaur investigations.
The following publications have more than just a few comments or just one chapter about reports of apparent extant pterosaurs in our modern day.
.
One Reply to ““Pterodactyl” in Arkansas”
Comments are closed.