Live Pterosaur - Part 20

November 5, 2018

Support Removed for Ptp Photograph

Ptp photograph - It seems to be six Civil-War soldiers with a dead pterodactyl

By investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

I have made a major shift in my position regarding the Ptp photo, which has what is sometimes called the “Civil War pterodactyl” or the “Civil War Pteranodon.” As of November 5, 2018, the following is my position regarding what appeared on the surface to be a nineteenth century photograph.

New Position on Ptp

After learning about a portion of an animation in one episode of the BBC TV series “Walking With Dinosaurs,” I decided to withdraw my support of the Ptp photograph as any significant evidence for the existence of modern living pterosaurs. I no longer maintain that this photograph is highly likely, at least in its entirety, to be from the nineteenth century.

Arrows show apparent connections of parts of wings in this photo: Ptp

State of the Book Modern Pterosaurs

All my other nonfiction cryptozoology books remain available and for sale from many sources, mostly online book sellers, but Modern Pterosaurs has just been ordered to have printings halted. Much of what it contains is still valid and valuable, eyewitness sightings in particular, yet a significant part of the content of this book is related to the Ptp photograph. That requires that I no longer promote that one book and I have ordered the publisher to stop printing it. Third party book sellers may have limited copies, but I do not recommend Modern Pterosaurs to readers.

From “Walking With Dinosaurs” — note the wing shape on the right

Television Series Produced by BBC

One of the episodes of Walking With Dinosaurs (on the air around 1999) had a dying pterosaur featured. That animation shows an Ornithocheirus that is almost dead. The wing is much too close for comfort regarding Ptp.

Whatever the origin of materials for that animation and the apparent photo shown on a Freaky Links episode at about that time (around 1999 or 2000), I cannot maintain any support for the Ptp photograph.

I am saying nothing about the origin or origins of Ptp at this time. Whatever happened, we need to move on to other books and to support for eyewitnesses of these wonderful MODERN pterosaurs.

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

This nonfiction paperback for children and teenagers is just about to be published. I just need to look at a proof copy of this book before giving final approval for its publication. It will have no reference to Ptp.

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Books on modern pterosaurs

. . . some of the nonfiction books are entirely about these featherless flying creatures and others include cryptids of other types . . .

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

After fifteen years of my investigation of sighting reports of apparent living pterosaurs worldwide, I feel perfectly confident in proclaiming that the flying creature seen by Patty Carson at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was a modern Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur, what some people call a ropen.

Photo of a modern pterosaur (still from a video, actually)

Last week, I found a Youtube documentary on an expedition on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, in which two Americans, Milt Marcy and Peter Beach, were searching for a living pterosaur.

Books on non-extinct pterosaurs

The nonfiction paperback Live Pterosaurs in America

Credibility of pterosaur eyewitnesses

Many natives living on the tropical island of Umboi (Siasi), Papua New Guinea, have seen the flying light, the bioluminescent glow of the ropen.

A book about living pterosaurs (actually several books)

Searching for Ropens and Finding God
Bird From Hell
Live Pterosaurs in America
etc

October 16, 2018November 15, 2018

“The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur”

Patty points to a tourist attraction on the island of St. Croix. Each of these four children saw a living pterosaur earlier, in Cuba.

By the independent investigative journalist Jonathan D. Whitcomb

[Updated: November 15, 2018]

This short non-fiction book, for readers eight to fourteen years old, gives the following benefits:

Allows the reader to believe as she or he chooses about these animals
Does not tell you what to think but encourages deeper thinking: how
Informs you about real persons who saw apparently real animals
Explains benefits of believing someone who may be telling the truth
Demonstrates critical thinking, which is important for future scientists
Informs you about persons from different cultures, comparing them

As with most of my nonfiction books, this one shows readers evidence, albeit mostly cryptozoological, for recent “flying dinosaurs,” which is a popular phrase that means pterosaurs. The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur was written for middle-grade children and teenagers.

The following quotations give a glimpse into this nonfiction:

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all those who told me what they saw. Patty Carson sent me an email in 2011 and told me about the flying creature she had seen in Cuba when she was a little girl. We later talked by phone. One year before I talked with her, I called Eskin Kuhn, and he told me about what he had seen in that same area of Cuba: two flying pterosaurs. Patty and Eskin greatly helped my research. . . .

Chapter One

After about five seconds, the creature jumped up and flew away. It had a leathery brown coloring, with no sign of any feathers. The end of its long tail was diamond shaped.

Patty and her brother ran home, a house at the military base at Guantanamo Bay. She was excited to tell the rest of her family about the “dinosaur,” but they did not believe her. Thy said she had seen a pelican or a frigate bird. She told them, “no way” and explained that when it stood up it was as tall as a man. Then she used the word ‘pterodactyl.’

Eskin Kuhn’s sketch (left) compared with Patty Carson’s (right)

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur (nonfiction, paperback)

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Dinosaur book for children and teens

Why would the new book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur be the best Christmas or birthday gift for many kids and teenagers? It invites them into a new world of adventure in cryptozoology: true stories of encounters with modern living pterosaurs.

Living pterosaurs in the Philippines

. . . about 12 years ago, and I was just about 11 or 12 then when I saw it. I saw the flying creature here in Las Pinas, Philippines near our house . . . it looked a like a really large bat . . . The wingspan is about 4-6 meters tip to tip . . .

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

. . . One day in 1965, a few children were walking near some tall grass in eastern Cuba. Patty was about six years old and was with her little brother. Suddenly an animal stuck its head up above the grass, about thirty feet away from Patty.

Pterodactyl in Sudan, Africa

. . . the boy noticed something on the roof of a nearby hut. . . . the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall . . . and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head . . .

Brother and sister see live pterosaur in Texas

. . . 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 . . .

Patty Carson sees live pterosaur in Cuba

At least within the realm of cryptozoology, the 1971 sighting by Eskin Kuhn, of two long-tailed pterosaurs, has been . . . supported by another sighting around 1965, by Patty Carson of California . . .

Recent flying dinosaurs

Live Pterosaurs in America: Not extinct, flying creatures of cryptozoology that some call pterodactyls or flying dinosaurs or prehistoric birds

Book about live pterosaurs

Learn about these amazing encounters in many states of the U.S.A.: Buy yourself a copy of this incredible cryptozoology book about modern extant pterosaurs in the United States of America

Dinosaur Bird

How have these modern living pterosaurs avoided being officially discovered by the many biologists and nature photographers? It’s the dogmatic extinction assumption, the assumption that all species of pterosaurs became extinct long ago.

October 2, 2018October 2, 2018

Two Types of Pterosaurs Still Living

Two types of modern pterosaurs - long tailed from Cuba and one in Papua New Guinea without any long tail

By modern-pterosaur investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

Modern pterosaurs come in two flavors, apparently similar to what scientists have found in fossils of those featherless flying creatures from the past:

Long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoid-like
Short-tailed Pterodactyloid-like

Contrary to the surface appearance from looking at a statistic in my compilation of data early in the year 2013, extant pterosaurs in modern times do not likely actually involve a 20-to-1 ratio of long-tails to short-tails. The long tails catch the attention of the eyewitness, riveting that feature in the memory of the person who sees it. It could be a ratio of 5-to-1 or even 3-to-1, but long tails unquestionably dominate sightings, compared with short tails.

With 41% of the 128 sightings including descriptions of a long tail, the Rhamphorhynchoid-like ones surely outnumber the Pterodactyloid-like ones. Shocking as the existence of a species of modern pterosaur may be to peoples of Western cultures, this statistical fact gives a whole new level of shock, for it strongly suggests that evolution has not taken place in these featherless flying creatures in anything remotely like what’s been portrayed.

In the image shown below, the left side is the sketch drawn by the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn in 1971 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; the right side is a still image from a video recorded by the biologist Peter Beach, during an expedition on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, in 2015. Both sightings appeared to have been of modern pterosaurs.

The left side shows an obvious similarity to end-of-tail flanges of Rhamphorhynchoids; the right side shows the absence of any long tail on the huge featherless flying creature that was seen clearly in daylight by two American explorers.

Rhamphorhynchoid-like in 1971 (left) and Pterodactyloid-like in 2015

We need to keep an open mind to the possibility that we should set aside old ideas about the origins of pterosaurs known from fossils, including popular concepts from previous centuries. This field of cryptozoology needs to graduate into a new field of investigation in biology.

About Jonathan Whitcomb

I’m an independent investigative journalist, having spent more hours in this narrow field of cryptozoology, during the past fifteen years, than any other person in the world, to the best of my knowledge: well over 10,000 hours.

Some of my work has been interviewing eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs, sometimes by phone but usually by emails. On occasion I visit the location of a sighting, and I sometimes travel to interview eyewitnesses face-to-face. Most of my time, however, has been with analyzing, comparing, and writing about the sightings. I’ve had direct contact with eyewitnesses from five continents (not counting second-hand and third-hand accounts).

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Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs

Those interviews in Papua New Guinea in 2004 do not scientifically prove the ropen is very closely related to the Sordes pilosus, but it gives strong cryptozoological evidence that it may be related to that pterosaur known from fossils.

Pterosaurs Still Living

About twelve cryptozoologists who have played a major role in this field of cryptozoology: modern non-extinct pterosaurs

Unicornorism and Living Pterosaurs

Protecting old ideas by appealing to how long they have been popular or to how popular they are. This is the main enemy to objective living-pterosaur investigations, this dogmatic position of many Westerners.

Pterodactyloid

Late in 2006, Garth Guessman, a living-pterosaur investigator, interviewed three Americans who had worked in or visited a medical mission in Central New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. The three had separate sightings, in daylight, of what may be extant (non-extinct) Pterodactyloids. (short-tailed pterosaurs, a.k.a. “pterodactyls”)

No tail on flying creature – expedition in 2015

. . . two Americans, Milt Marcy and Peter Beach, were searching for a living pterosaur. They spent quite a few weeks on that remote tropical island [New Britain, Papua New Guinea] in 2015, but they were rewarded with a sighting of a flying creature that others had previously seen in that area: a non-extinct pterosaur.

Modern long-tailed pterosaurs

How common is a long tail on a modern pterosaur! Of the 128 more-credible sighting reports compiled at the end of 2012, 41% reported a long tail.

Pterodactyl sightings

Many years ago, I tried (without success) to get in touch with Allison Jornlin, the writer of an article on a pterosaur sighting in Wisconsin: “PTERODACTYLS OVER WISCONSIN — STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN THE SKY!”

September 24, 2018

Significant Living-Pterosaur Blogs

lagoon near buildings in Southern California - screen shot of a modern-pterosaur blog

By the modern-pterosaur cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb

The following is not a complete list of blogs for this narrow branch of cryptozoology, but it probably includes most of the more important ones in the English language. Many of the posts are about ropens.

The main list gives totals for posts and pages; these are approximate, but probably close. The example-posts are not listed in their entirely but are some of them, as of September 24, 2018, mostly the more recent ones. These are generally only a tiny fraction of all the post titles included in these blogs.

The second list names blogs that are more general in their subjects yet which have a significant number of posts related to living pterosaurs. The third list is brief: other blogs about modern pterosaurs but without totals for their number of posts; other than that, they are similar to the blogs on the first list.

The main list (the first one) does not include the blog you’re now on, which has about 334 posts on the featherless flying creatures, for you’ve already found this one. After adding those posts to the totals on the first list (“Important Blogs About Modern Pterosaurs”), we get 1238 posts on non-extinct pterosaurs, and that’s not counting posts on the other two lists.

Purposes of These Lists

Say you want to learn about a serious investigation of reports of apparent non-extinct pterosaurs in the state of North Carolina. You might eventually discover that a Google search gives a first page that includes two newspaper stories from North Carolina, neither of which involved any deep investigation and one of which was very dismissive. Chose one or more of the blogs listed below, however, and you’ll probably find deeper analysis. Just go to a blog and type in a search box “North Carolina” and go from there.

You can also look at the post titles below each of the following blogs. You may find something interesting that you never would have thought of doing a Google search on. Who would have thought that research had been done, albeit not too deeply researched perhaps, on people who see apparent living pterosaurs while driving?

1) Important Blogs About Modern Pterosaurs

Modern Pterosaur — 156

Sightings in North Carolina
Essential Nonfiction Books
Discovery . . . 19th century
New Cryptozoology Book . . .

Pterosaur Eyewitness — 154

Critics of Living Pterosaurs Investigations
“Pterodactyl” in Arkansas
Living Pterosaurs Reported in Ontario, Canada

The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs — 142

Searching for the Ropen of Umboi Island
Head Crest and a Rhamphorhynchoid Tail
Strange Flying Creatures and Bulverism

Live Pterosaur — 99

Dragons and Flying Snakes
Is Jonathan Whitcomb a Paleontologist?
Ropen Dismissed by Smithsonian

Live Pterosaurs in America — 91

Living-Pterosaur Sightings While Driving
Another Living Pterosaur in North Carolina
Skeptical Responses to Civil War Pteranodon Photo
Dr. Prothero [and bulverism]

Cryptid Eyewitness — 87

Pterosaur Sighting by Scott Norman
Civil War Soldiers With a Pteranodon
Are Modern Pterosaurs Paranormal?

Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs Alive — 79

Living Pterosaurs in the USA
“Dragon” or “Big Bird” in Sandy and Draper, Utah
Real Pterodactyl in a Civil War Photo

Pterosaur Eyewitness Group Support – PEGS — 32

American Civil War “Pterodactyl” Photo & Skepticism [long post]
The Ropen and Frigatebirds [also known as frigate birds]
Live Ropens and Dinosaurs With Humans

Flying Creature — 31

Gigantic Featherless Flying Creature
Books on Living Pterosaurs
Credibility of a Pterodactyl Sighting

Dinosaur Birds – for Media — 16

Press Releases on Living Pterosaurs
Confirmation bias with the old Civil War Photograph
North American Dinosaurs Dated With Carbon-14

Pterosaur Fossils — 14

Although the title may suggest this relates entirely to paleontology, the posts are actually mostly about the possibility of modern species of pterosaurs. Some references, however, do relate to fossils of these flying creatures.

Soldier saw a Living Pterosaur in World War II
Young Dinosaur Fossils Carbon-14 Dated
Paleontologist Attacks Pterosaur Publications

Ropen — 3

The Civil War Pterosaur Photo in Context
Ropen Reported to Snopes

2) Blogs That Have Some Posts on Extant Pterosaurs

Clear Thinking — about 17

The Marcy-Beach Pterosaur Expedition of 2015
. . . . Frigatebird Misidentification
Kuban “Living Pterosaurs” — A Reply
Bulverism

Cerritos Families — about 14

Recent Dragons . . .
Dinosaur birds in South Carolina [subject, not title]
Civil War Pterodactyl Photo
Evidence of . . . Ropens

Lakewood Learning — about 10

This blog has posts on a number of subjects, mostly about child care or chess or strange featherless flying creatures, an interesting combination.

Missing Children and Large Unidentified Flying Creatures (LUFC)
Religion and Belief in Modern Pterosaurs
Sightings of four flying creatures near Griffith Park, Los Angeles

Long Beach Child Care — about 3

Rather than list the three posts on non-extinct pterosaurs, here is given the URL for a post about why a baby looks up with the medical condition called Paroxysmal Tonic Upgaze (be aware that some persons may spell the last word “up-gaze”).

Alternative Theories of Geology — 3

Apparent Pteranodon in a Civil War Photo
How do Modern Pterosaurs Relate to Geology?
How Does Cryptozoology Relate to Geology?

KSN News Service — News from around the world

(There’s an unknown total number of posts on this subject, or at least close to this subject, but here are a few)

Living Pterosaurs in the USA?
Was a Pterodactyl Shot During the American Civil War?
Scientific Dating and Young Dinosaurs
Professors Versus Modern Flying Dinosaurs

Infogivmo — Uncommon bits of information

News: Living Pterosaurs on New Britain Island
. . . . in Washington state
Civil-War Soldiers and a Monster-Pterodactyl

In a Nutshell — Science news, brief and simple

Genuine Photograph of an Extant Pterosaur
“Living Pterosaurs of Hollywood”
. . . . Sightings in Georgia, U.S.A.

Knowable News — . . . from far and near

Bioluminescent Pterosaur and Humboldt Squid
Hollywood Pterodactyls, for Real?
Do Jumping Fish Look Like Flying Pterosaurs?

3) Other Blogs on Non-Extinct Pterosaurs

Modern Pterosaurs — Investigations of Sightings . . .

Living Pterosaurs and Skepticism
A Flying Creature Called Ropen
Griffith Park Pterosaur Sightings

Live Pterosaurs — An active cryptozoologist, interviewing eyewitnesses . . .

Long Tails of Rhamphorhynchoid . . .
. . . Ropens in Griffith Park
More on Manta Ray Misidentification
Santa Fe Springs, California, Sightings
Reptilian Flying Creature Near Long Beach
Can Satire Backfire?

The following is a brief quoting from that last post:

On that blog post by Richard Connelly, I replied with two comments, neither of which referred to bulverism or satire. My comments mostly emphasized the error of assuming there are no strange lights around Marfa. (Connelly had assumed car headlights account for all reports of strange lights there).

Part of a screen shot of the blog Live Pterosaurs in America

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