U.S.A. Sightings | Live Pterosaur

January 16, 2017November 6, 2018

Old Photo of a Pterosaur Declared Genuine

More credible of the two apparent Civil War photos of a large pterosaur and some soldiers

By modern-pterosaur expert Jonathan David Whitcomb

Update on November 6, 2018: IMPORTANT

I have withdrawn my support for the Ptp photograph. It now seems obvious that one of the wings in that image is very close to what is seen on an animated pterosaur in one of the episodes of Walking with Dinosaurs.

I will let the origin post (below) stand as it is, for readers to learn whatever they can about how I may have fallen into such a big blunder. I now take full responsibility for my original decision to support this image before learning about its provenance.

I have ordered the halting of printing for one of my books, Modern Pterosaurs, because much of the content was about the Ptp image. Other books I still recommend for readers, however, for I still support the many eyewitness testimonies that are in those other publications.

Official Announcement of a Joint Declaration

On Saturday, January 14, 2017, the missile defense physicist Clifford Paiva and I communicated by phone and mutually agreed that the image herein labeled “Pteranodon Photograph” contains a genuine image of a modern pterosaur, regardless of the specific species or type of pterosaur that it may have been. This photo is not to be confused with the hoax-image said to have been created by an American film and television production company named “Haxan” (possibly a “Freaky Links” episode for Fox TV in 2001). The Haxan-photograph is indeed a hoax, probably influenced in its fabrication by the earlier photo that is now declared authentic.

Figure 1, below, is now offered as evidence for modern pterosaurs.

Genuine Image Called “Pteranodon Photograph”

Figure 1: photograph declared genuine by Paiva and Whitcomb (click on it for full size)

Contrast the above image with the one that is known to be a hoax, below:

Figure 2: Haxan hoax-photo, probably made in imitation of the other one

The Problem of Confusing the Two Photos

One of the problems I have seen in online discussions is this: People confuse the above two images. They are completely different pictures, although careless glances or poor memory can make people assume only one photograph is involved. Let’s look at one example:

One person on an online discussion group said that he (or she) showed “this picture” to his (or her) father, who is apparently a photography expert. The result was laughter and then the following review:

The soldiers are all older and somewhat overweight, they’re most likely re-enactors
Photographic prints did not have borders on them during the civil war. The damage
should go all the way to the edges

So what’s the problem with that criticism? The top of the discussion page gives a link to the image that is now labeled the “Pteranodon Photograph.” Yet a little further down is a comment that includes links related to the Haxan hoax. For a long time, the discussion appears to go on without hardly any person being aware: Two completely different photos are being discussed. The two criticisms mentioned, about soldiers being overweight and the print borders, apply to the hoax photo much better than to the “Pteranodon Photograph.” In fact, I see little doubt: The photography expert saw the Haxan photo, NOT the genuine one.

Declaration of Universal Pterosaur Extinction

We’ll call this “DUPE.” It’s not only assuming that all species of pterosaurs must have become extinct long ago; it’s declaring that idea as if it were a fact. The person who declares that all of them must have died out millions of years ago—that person then becomes part of the force that indoctrinates others into believing it. Here’s one example:

“. . . since they [dinosaurs] have not been seen in the past 65 million year or so, we are skeptical.”

Strange to tell, but for many years skeptics have criticized the living-pterosaur investigations, ridiculing me and my associates for not having any photographic evidence for extant pterosaurs, yet many skeptics have dismissed the Civil War photograph, mostly because the image obviously has, clearly in the middle, an apparent pterosaur.

Credit to Clifford Paiva

It has taken me (Jonathan Whitcomb) a number of years to come to the firm conclusion that the “Pteranodon Photograph” has a genuine image of a modern pterosaur. Yet this missile defense physicist has been declaring this case for years. Thank you, Cliff, for your wonderful work in this investigation. I hope that all of my friends can always be so patient with me and that I will be quicker to know the truth in the future and will not always require so much patience from others. We are indebted to Clifford Paiva.

Please be aware that Jonathan Whitcomb no longer supports this image

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Civil War pterosaur photograph

Let’s begin with what we know, practically for sure. The following image is from a television production, a staged performance that has been said to be an imitation of another, possibly much older, photograph.

Why Pterosaur Extinction may be Wrong

. . . Ropen lights (or indava lights) are not caused by fire, airplane lights, or meteors.”Analysis, by the physicist Clifford Paiva, regarding Paul Nation’s video footage . . .

Clifford Paiva Investigates Modern Pterosaurs

Many images from the research by this missile defense physicist—wonderful evidence!

Evidence of Modern Pterosaurs

Please join us: Investigate reports of modern living pterosaurs.

Modern Pterosaurs – verified by two scientists to have a genuine image of a real animal

From the final chapter of the book:

Making a simple hoax . . . needs no insertion of any soldier onto the background. Critics of Ptp, however, appear to be completely ignorant of that fact. They seem to assume that anything that gives any feeling of soldier-insertion destroys all confidence in the possibility that the animal is real. Nonsense!

January 11, 2017

Another Ropen Sighting in Ohio

By the living-pterosaur expert and cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

Over the past thirteen years, I have received many reports from eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs in the United States, including states of the Midwest, although more commonly they use one of the following words or phrases:

Dragon
Pterodactyl
Prehistoric bird
Flying dinosaur
Big bat with a long tail
Big bird with no feathers

I’m not as interested in what an eyewitness calls the flying creature as I am in how it’s described. Recently I got an email from an eyewitness in Ohio.

Ropen Sighting in Gahanna, Ohio

A man (who has two college degrees in biology) and his son together had a sighting in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. The following is part of the man’s email report to me, with minor spelling and punctuation corrections:

I just want to report a sighting of a pterodactyl-looking animal. My sighting took place last night, 12/19/2016. . . . I would think of myself as someone who knows a little something of the animal kingdom. However, as of last night I realize I don’t know anything. I saw what appeared to be a gray-skinned pterodactyl [clearly] . . . [It] dive bombed my car. My son and I were in the car and we both saw the same thing . . .

It almost hit my front windshield…..so we got an amazing and privileged look at this…whatever it is…we couldn’t have been more that 6 or 7 feet from it. . . . As far as the tail goes, I did not see a tail but my son said he did as the creature whipped it around…he said it had sharp projections on the tip…but it was moving so fast he said he just got a glimpse of it . . .

I will just keep writing as this was just so amazing that I just want to talk and talk about it….at least to someone that might believe us. . . . Just looked up Ropen…yes some of the encounters relate [to] the very triangular nature of the wings [also] we never saw it move the wings at all…just glide…like all of the encounters…I am not going to look anything more up as I don’t want to be biased in any way when we talk.

We were able to talk for some time by phone. I learned that the sighting was at 6:45 p.m., and the car had its headlight high beams on. The man, who is a biologist, noticed that the skin was grayish, with a texture that reminded him, to some extent, of elephant skin: thick and rough. He believes that if the creature had not been flying, the skin could have been seen as wrinkled, although the act of flying may have kept the skin tighter.

Pterosaur Sighting in Context With Others

This encounter with an apparent ropen near Columbus, Ohio, needs to be taken in context of many other reported sightings in the Midwest, as well as those in the states of Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.

In addition, we need to consider the possibility that what was seen by this biologist and his teenaged son, late in 2016, may be related to the “Gitmo Pterosaur” of eastern Cuba. Perhaps it is the same species.

Sketch of the two “pterodactyls” seen by Eskin Kuhn at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

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Ropen Sighting in Ohio in Late 2016

Last month I got an email from a man who lives in Gahanna, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. He and his teenaged son were driving near their home at 6:45 p.m. on December 19, 2016, when a large creature flew over their car . . .

Pterosaur Sightings in Ohio, Kansas, and Missouri

Eyewitness accounts of apparent “pterodactyls” in America, including sightings of large ropens . . . Jonathan Whitcomb, before and after writing the first edition of Searching for Ropens, received emails from many witnesses of similar flying creatures in America. Those many eyewitness reports prompted him to write a new nonfiction book: Live Pterosaurs in America.

Ropen Sighting in New Guinea

Hennessy said, “It was black or dark brown. I had never seen anything like it before. . . . I recall seeing this creature with a longish narrow tail . . . the head was disproportionately large compared to the body . . .”

Ropen or Pterodactyl in North America

I am one of six Americans who have traveled to Papua New Guinea, since mid-2004, to search for modern pterosaurs, what many Americans call “pterodactyls.”

November 26, 2016December 25, 2016

Pterosaur Sighting Reports, USA, 2016

By the modern-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

This is not nearly a complete listing of all reports received in 2016, regarding sightings of apparent living pterosaurs: just a sampling of some of the contents of some reports sent to me in 2016. For a few more accounts of encounters reported in this year, see: “Recent Pterosaur Sighting Reports in the United States of America.”

Keep in mind that these reports were received in 2016, meaning not all of them were of encounters with “pterodactyls” in this year. It’s always been common for some eyewitnesses to report sightings that they had in previous years, some encounters even being many years previous to the time of reporting to me.

Credibility Concepts

When I publish a sighting report on this blog, please don’t assume that I am portraying the individual sighting account as being 100% certain to have been from an encounter with a modern living pterosaur, or even close to 100% certain. I generally publish reported sightings that I feel are over 50% likely to have been from a non-extinct pterosaur (more likely than not).

The critical point about credibility is in the overall picture. By the end of 2012, I had compiled 128 sighting reports, with details that included at least some of the following (a small sampling):

Certain about the lack of feathers (yes or no)
Probably no feathers (as opposed to certain)
Location of sighting
Length of tail
Wingspan
General time of day or night
Number of eyewitnesses
Length of sighting in seconds
Presence or absence of a long neck
Presence or absence of teeth
Presence or absence of a head crest
” ” ” of a structure at end of tail

Please be aware that many of the above points were volunteered by eyewitnesses rather than answers given in response to any detailed questions I may have asked.

The overall point is this: My firm believe in modern living pterosaurs comes from the practical impossibility that none of those 128 sighting reports were from a non-extinct pterosaur. Each report was chosen because I felt it was probably from an encounter with a live pterosaur, therefore it is mathematically impossible, from my perspective, that all of those 128 reports were from non-pterosaurs.

Of course a person can have whatever opinion he or she chooses regarding the possibility that not all species of these wonderful flying creatures are extinct. But to be objective or scientific, in any degree, one needs to rely on more than just pseudo-religious adherence to the old dogma of universal extinctions of general types of animals: One must allow for the possibility that some of these pterosaur sighting reports are valid and come from encounters with modern pterosaurs.

Names Given by Eyewitnesses

A person reporting a sighting to me—that person may use one of the following expressions:

pterodactyl
featherless bird
primitive flying creature
dinosaur bird
dragon
prehistoric bird
featherless flying creature
flying dinosaur

It seems to me that the choice of words used by an eyewitness has little if any relevance to the report. Critical details, however, are in the descriptions of the flying creature observed.

A Few Particular Reports of Pterosaur Sightings

Here are a few of the reports I received in 2016, with only partial quoting:

Eastern Kansas, about twenty miles south of Kansas City

My name is _____ and I wanted to share a sighting of what appeared to be a freaking pterodactyl.

It happened [two] years ago, but it has really bothered me since then. I had to share it with someone.

It was just after 8 a.m. on a weekday morning, 2 years ago.

It had a long head, huge leathery wings…I mean huge…huge wings. and a tail. Seemed to be greyish/green. No feathers.

Highway 84, Oregon, September 13, 2016

I was driving in the early afternoon and saw a large “bird” flying across the freeway from the left. I yelled out to my husband that was the biggest “bird” I had ever seen! I said it must be a crane, but it looks like a pterodactyl! It was matte dark grey/black with a crest on its head and a triangular shape on its tail. I believe it was at least 5 feet long.

. . . [On getting home] I began to look up “black cranes” on the Internet. I did not see a single bird that looked like what I saw. . . . I looked up Pelicans, and they are in that area of Oregon, however, none of the pictures are anywhere close to what I saw. It was much bigger and darker. No feathers.

Bethany, Oklahoma

. . . on two occasions have seen a huge winged creature that had no feathers, gray leathery skin. It looked like the pictures I have seen of pteradactyls. About one year ago and then two weeks ago (my daughter was with me that time) both times driving down route 66 between El Reno and Yukon. Both times were around 2 am.

The first time I turned the corner onto route 66 off of Manning Drive and it was right in front of my windshield of my truck and flew up with a big shwoosh. Then the 2nd time it was flying very low to the ground and disappeared into a wooded area off the road in the same area.

Lansing, Illinois, 1968

I was seventeen in 1968. It was late spring and I went outside my residence . . . I noticed there was little or no breeze and everything seemed ‘still’. As I started to my neighbors house I caught a glimpse of something in the eastern sky just behind me. I stopped, looked up and there just above the trees about 100 feet past was this Pterosaur! I couldn’t believe it.

It fanned its bat-like wings moderately as it went by and I didn’t know what to do – so I yelled as loud as I could at it. It turned its head and opened its mouth and when I saw the rows of big teeth, I shuttered and wondered if I’d have to get under a car or something! It traveled straight west as I watched it disappear over the horizon. The thing was greyish blue and had a red nob on its head with the rest of the head being a duller red.

Columbia River (from Oregon side) – many pterosaur sightings in this area

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Pterodactyl Sightings in the United States

I’m not a professor of paleontology. To be brief, I was a forensic videographer in 2003, when I began investigating these eyewitness accounts of “prehistoric” flying creatures or “dragons.” I recognized, while viewing some amateur video footage, the credibility of natives who were interviewed on a tropical island in the southwest Pacific.

Pterosaur Sighting in Kansas

I received a message the other day, through one of my blogs: two eyewitnesses of an apparent “dragon” flying overhead at night. Here is part of the report . . .

Pterosaur Sightings in Oregon and in Oklahoma

Before getting into these recent encounters with “pterodactyls” or “dragons,” as some call them, I’d like to express my gratitude that this blog now has received over 200,000 views worldwide, over the years.

Pterosaur Sightings in Kansas, Illinois, etc.

I recently learned about an investigator who is compiling pterosaur sighting reports, of encounters in the United States. I encourage such research.

Sighting of a pterosaur in Oklahoma

A few days ago I received the following report from an Oklahoma family. The father and his 12-year old daughter, Nu, had a daylight sighting of what they thought looked like a pterosaur.

Dragon Sighting and Modern Pterosaurs

The “dragon” sighting in Switzerland, by Christopher Schorerum, may be related to modern sightings of certain flying lights. I mentioned this in the second edition of Live Pterosaurs in America . . .

July 16, 2016

Recent Pterosaur Sighting Reports in the United States of America

Mansfield, Ohio, pterosaur sighting - eyewitness's sketch of the apparent pterodactyl

You don’t need to go on an expedition to Papua New Guinea to see a modern pterosaur including a long-tailed featherless ropen. For generations, Americans have been encountering these shocking flying creatures, and the sightings continue. The following are a few of the recently reported encounters with pterosaurs in the USA. As has been usual, not all of the reports are of recent sightings; they’re just recently reported.

At least some of these sighting reports have been slightly edited for spelling, punctuation, etc., and at least most of them are here given only in part.

Pterosaur Sighting in Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1996 (reported mid-July, 2016)

When I was about 8 years old, living on a farm in Edgerton, WI, I remember looking up and seeing a large flying creature. Something seemed odd about it and after a second or two I realized it had a long, whippy tail, not at all like a bird. I watched it fly across the sky until it was out of sight and will never forget what I saw. I know it wasn’t any bird I’ve heard of before, that tail was just, wrong. It had a bulb at the end of it . . . [Apparent ropen]

Mansfield, Ohio, area (sighting in late June of 2016)

. . . I was on Stiving Road [probably northwest of Mansfield]. It was [about] 4:10 to 4:20 a.m. The sky was still pretty dark. I saw on the left . . . a creature flying toward the Mansfield Airport area.

Its head shape was like a stick at [approximately] a 45° angle. I could see its body and feet but not its wings because of the side view and to me it looked like a petrasaur [pterosaur].

This was the first time I have ever seen anything like this. . . . Here’s a picture I drew of an [approximation] of what I saw.

Sketch drawn by the eyewitness – note unusual angle of the head/head-crest to the body

I (Jonathan Whitcomb) had a phone conversation with the eyewitness of the above flying creature and found no significant problem with his credibility. He was about 200-250 yards away from the apparent pterosaur. He could say nothing about the presence or absence of a tail.

Near Loganville, Georgia, around mid-June of 2016

Like many sighting reports, this one was sent to Jonathan Whitcomb by email.

[Received early on July 16, 2016] . . . very late about a month ago just outside of Loganville, Georgia. On Centerville/Rosebud Road. . . . we saw this huge bird fly from her side up and away to my side (driver side). It didn’t have any feathers or fur on the wings and you could see the bones in the wings like a bat only this was as large as the hood of my truck. It also appeared to have a tail that was kind of hanging down but slightly curled up as it flew.

. . . My wife said she immediately thought of Jurassic Park. We did not see the head as it was flying away at an angle. Researched a lot of birds on Google but a pterodactyl is the only thing that looks like it. [Possible ropen]

Pterosaur Sighting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in early 1980’s

This report of a daytime sighting comes from a comment on one of my YouTube videos (only slightly edited).

One flew right over our heads and landed in my mom’s field across the creek. . . . He was no more than ten feet directly above us, but I think it was closer to five. [It] feels like I could have jumped and touched him! His wing span was 15-17 feet.

Very distinctive kite point on the end of his cat like tail. No feathers, fur or anything. Skin was like dusty black leather, feet were pulled up, black, long pointed black nails. I didn’t see the top of his head or his back well before he landed. . . . [Very likely a ropen]

Never really publicly posted my encounter before so I thought I should get the info out there so someone can use it.

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Ropen pterosaur sightings

Live Pterosaurs in America and Searching for Ropens and Finding God—those are the two major nonfiction cryptozoology books about non-extinct “pterodactyls” that include the long-tailed ropen.

Eyewitness of a ropen

“Pterodactyl” was the word used for the ropen of Papua New Guinea. The American Duane Hodgkinson, a World War II veteran, gives us the shocking details about the encounter the two soldiers had with the huge flying creature in 1944. This professional-quality YouTube interview was done by the cryptozoology-explorer Garth Guessman and edited by Jonathan Whitcomb.

Frightening Pterosaur Sightings in the USA

California (two)

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Texas (two)

Wisconsin

Fear of the flying creature is only one kind of terror with encounters between human and pterosaur in the United States of America. Sometimes the eyewitness is frightened not during but after the sighting and not for fear of the creature itself: It’s fear of personal insanity.

Pterodactyl Sighting

Peter Beach and Milt Marcy, both of the Portland area of Oregon, led an expedition in Papua New Guinea, in March and April of 2015, searching for a living pterosaur that previous American explorers had failed to see clearly. This time Americans did see, in daylight, the form and features of an apparent pterosaur.

Ropen Sightings

“The Big Picture of Modern Pterosaurs”

“Reply to Misidentification Conjectures”

“Rhamphorhynchoid Pterosaurs and Ropens”

etc.