A recent post on this blog, (“Strange Flying Creature – Bioluminescence in Pennsylvania . . .”) received a critical comment that deserves attention in more detail than I feel is appropriate through my own reply-comments on that post. The comment was by S. Hill.
“An investigation of what she may have seen should come first”
It seems that Hill thinks that I should have evaluated non-pterosaur explanations before publishing this brief report on a blog post. I suspect that Hill may not be familiar with this blog and its purposes, or was simply trying to discredit this account. Most critics I have encountered during the past eight years have actually tried to discredit the general idea that modern pterosaurs still fly, that they are not extinct; I will not get into that here, for Hill does not explicitly state that. This appears a good time for explaining some of the purposes of this blog.
Some eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs may never send me an email or give me a phone call. I can understand that. But some of them may be comforted in reading about other eyewitness accounts, for it eases their minds: They are not crazy for seeing something that Western indoctrination proclaims cannot exist. I feel that is a worthy purpose. But there is more.
Eyewitnesses who have sent me an email or given me a phone call usually had read something online, often something I had written about reports of apparent live pterosaurs; in other words, publishing reports of living pterosaurs results in more eyewitnesses coming forward. I suspect that some of the eyewitnesses might never report their sightings to any cryptozoologist if they had not learned of someone (me) who specializes in listening and taking such reports seriously. Part of the purpose of this Live Pterosaur blog is to encourage more eyewitnesses to come forward.
What if another eyewitness in Pennsylvania has had a close encounter with a ropen-like flying creature: a glowing pterosaur? How could that person find the courage to report such a weird experience? The December 15, 2011, post “Strange Flying Creature” (mentioned above) gives few details, mostly because the eyewitness has not yet given me much more than that. But what an impact it could make on another eyewitness! This short report, imperfect as it is, might result in a much more detailed sighting account, a report that will be much more useful, for it could give another eyewitness the courage to come forward.
“To assume that it is a ropen or pterosaur is ridiculous”
The glowing pterosaur or bioluminescent ropen is not necessarily the only explanation for the Pennsylvania sighting, of course. But Hill needs to understand that the eyewitness gave her sighting report to me because she thinks it could have been a ropen. Nothing in that blog post suggests that it must have been a bioluminescent pterosaur; in fact, I mentioned, “it is sufficient to consider that it was a possible American ropen.”
We need to keep in mind that the eyewitness said, “I have found that a pterosaur is identical to what we saw.” That deserves some consideration, at least, unless and until a better explanation is found for her experience.
We also need to keep in mind the subtitle of this blog: “Investigating Reports of Living Pterosaurs.” The point is the continuing nature of the investigation of each sighting report. Although some reports have many sighting-details given, and may have been analyzed in detail, I do not wait for all that before writing a post about a sighting. The key is “investigating,” not “investigated.”
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Press Room for News Releases on Live Pterosaurs
Pterodactyl Reported in Papua New Guinea
Glowing Creatures Videotaped in Papua New Guinea
Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the U.S.A. not Hoaxes
Unmasking a Flying Predator in Texas
etc
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“How are sightings in the United States related to those in the southwest Pacific? How do some apparent nocturnal pterosaurs pertain to bats, and how are bats irrelevant? How could modern living pterosaurs have escaped scientific notice? These mysteries have slept in the dark, beyond the knowledge of almost all Americans, even beyond our wildest dreams (although the reality of some pterosaurs is a living nightmare to some bats). These mysteries have slept . . . until now.”
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