Honesty in Reports of Modern Pterosaurs

Jonathan Whitcomb on his 2004 expedition in Papua New Guinea
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Introduction

Within the past few weeks, three web sites have caught my attention, each with a page accusing me of dishonesty. Two of them appear to be based on the other: the one first published online, a post by the biology professor P. Z. Myers; at least the other two writers appear to have been influenced by that professor before they wrote their own accusations against me. We’ll look at what dishonesty is and examine the credibility of those three proclamations about my guilt.

Starting with a bit of humor

The web browser I used yesterday had a weakness that amplified a funny result of looking at that post by Professor Myers. That page froze, allowing me to see only a small portion of his page that ridiculed the idea that any pterosaur could still be alive. I could view only the top of the page titled “There are no living pterosaurs, and ‘ropen’ is a stupid fantasy.”

Now see what I saw. Do you notice what’s so funny?

Life is funny: ad for a "live pterosaurs" book on blog post ridiculing living pterosaurs

It’s not so obvious in the above image, so look at the full size of what’s on the left side:

ad for third edition of "Live Pterosaurs in America"

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The site FreeThoughtBlogs appears to be one of the countless online publications that allow advertisers like Amazon to put up ads. As I understand it, the big advertisers have a way to catch pages that have words relevant to what is being sold. “living pterosaurs” caught Amazon’s automatic searcher, resulting in the ad insertion for my book, the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America. I doubt that many of my books will be sold from that brief appearance of the ad on that page, but I thought it was funny. (By the way, I had nothing to do with causing that ad insertion by Amazon.)

What is “dishonest?”

The word dishonest can refer to three improper activities:

  • deceive
  • steal
  • cheat

Let’s confine ourselves, for the moment, with the concept of deceiving; much of what is written against me relates to this concept. The word deceive means to purposefully lead someone away from the truth. A word associated with it is lie: to say or write something deceitful. Now consider the details.

What does it mean to deceive?

A deceiver intends to lead someone away from truth; intention is a critical ingredient of the poison. Nobody can accidentally deceive anyone, as in carelessly typing on a keyboard and hitting “Tr” instead of “R,” resulting in a sentence about “Troy” instead of “Roy.” Someone can be mislead by a mistake like that; one cannot be deceived by that.

That is why I do not accuse those three skeptics of deceit in accusing me of deception. I understand the concept of the word, so I am responsible: I cannot properly accuse someone of telling a lie until I can see into that person’s heart and know of an improper intention there. I can look into my own heart, however, which brings up the key point of all this.

Did Jonathan Whitcomb deceive anyone?

I traveled to Papua New Guinea in 2004 and spent two weeks on Umboi Island. Skeptics who mention my name in the same paragraph where they write something like deceit—those critics don’t usually say much about my expedition in September and October of 2004. Consider what I said after I had returned to my home in Long Beach, California: I saw nothing like a pterosaur in Papua New Guinea.

Consider all the opportunities a liar would have in spending two weeks on a remote tropical island. The ropen is said to glow at night, while it flies from a mountain to a reef surrounding the island (or back again to a mountain). How easy it would be for a liar to later report an encounter of some kind! Yet I admitted that I did not see even a strange light in the sky. The first edition of my first book included, as I recall, the admission that I was asleep while my interpreter and another man saw the brief glow of the flying ropen. Nobody accuses me of lying about that, for obvious reasons.

For the past ten years, I have never gone back on that admission that I had seen nothing pterosaur-like in Papua New Guinea.

I have received many eyewitness reports, in fact from not only the southwest Pacific but from North America, Europe, and Africa. When publishing (online and in my nonfiction books) details about those many reports, I sometimes imply that a particular sighting might not have been a pterosaur encounter. Google “apparent pterosaur” right now, if you like, putting those two words within quote marks. Notice, on the first Google-page listing, that my name “Whitcomb” is found on each of the nine non-image pages. My own posts also dominate on the second Google-page listing. Now look at the third page of the Google listing: six of those posts are written by me.

How do my critics agree with me? We all seem to know that I passionately write about the concept of living pterosaurs. I sometimes consider the following possibility: Not only have I written more original material about this concept, over the past eleven years, than anyone else in the world; I seem to have written more original-sentences on this than all other writers in the world combined, at least according to a casual investigation with Google. So why does a search, within quote marks, using “apparent pterosaur” result in such a dominance from so many of my blogs? It’s because I so often admit the possibility that an individual sighting may have been of a modern pterosaur, but it could have been something else. Does that sound like I have been trying to deceive people?

Why believe in living pterosaurs?

So why do I so passionately proclaim that pterosaurs are still living? Well, I’ve never proclaimed that any significant numbers of species closely resembling many of those known from the fossils are still living; extinction seems to be an appropriate word for almost all of those species. In addition, I sometimes point out that a standard dictionary definition of pterosaur includes a word like “extinct,” so by the usual meaning no pterosaur can be alive, within that narrow viewpoint. I do proclaim that at least a small number of species of flying creatures are still alive, and they are descended from species related to pterosaurs known from fossils, with basic wing structures closely related to those of the fossils.

In other words, I promote the idea that some species of flying creatures, not yet classified in Western science, at least acknowledged as still living, do indeed still fly, and they deserve to be called pterosaurs. I call those flying creatures modern pterosaurs. Let that suffice for the moment.

Why do I have no doubt that such creatures still fly through the sky? The overall data from 128 sighting reports prove there was no major hoax involvement, and careful comparisons between detailed descriptions make it obvious that it is practically impossible that none of those 128 sightings were from an encounter with a modern pterosaur. Remember: All it takes is for one of those sightings to have been an encounter with a modern pterosaur, to shoot down that universal-extinction dogma.

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Donald Prothero and “Fake” Pterosaurs

Consider this: Not all online accusations of deceit are accurate.

Investigation by Whitcomb

. . . the “pterodactyl” described by the World War II veteran Duane Hodgkinson is a real creature that lives in coastal areas of Papua New Guinea.

“Dinosaur Birds” writings by Jonathan Whitcomb

For the news media

Goodreads books on living pterosaurs

In Papua New Guinea and in the United States

Writings of Jonathan Whitcomb on Modern Pterosaur

Archives of posts by the cryptozoologist

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“No New Evidence” for Living Pterosaurs?

Whitcomb's nonfiction "Searching for Ropens and Finding God" 3rd ed.
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I’ve just been notified of a post on “Doubtful News” in which I am accused of deceiving people and then admitting the deceit. What nonsense! For the moment, set aside the “sock puppet” accusation, reference to the self-publishing of one of my books, and my religious beliefs; just look at what’s in the third sentence of that post:

“… the same stories get recirculated repeatedly to make up for no new evidence …”

I continue to receive eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, as I have for the past eleven years. The following are some of the more recent emails:

West Virginia, October of 2014

Ricky Kearns and family members witnessed a large flying creature at night, and it had wings that were glowing. This was in Point Pleasant, although Ricky mentioned to me that what he saw did not look like what the Mothman is reported to look like. Nevertheless, there may be a relationship with some sightings of what has been labeled “Mothman.”

Notice that this is not a repeated sighting report. The flying creature appeared on a night in October of 2014 and was immediately reported to cryptozoologists who specialize in modern-pterosaur accounts. It has limited resemblance, in the details, with other records in previous sightings, yet the glowing wings suggest a connection with ropen sightings.

Ricky reported, “. . . I’m still bugged by all this [trying to learn what he saw]. . . . having the Mothman and festivals and stuff being the only tourist attraction for my small community, it’s hard to tell. But it was way high up, definitely bioluminescent, a light orange.”

Minnesota, reported in early November of 2014

The sighting itself was about twenty years ago; eyewitnesses sometimes don’t report an encounter until years later. Here’s a bit of the email:

I don’t want to sound crazy, and I know you will keep an open mind about it, but it still seems crazy after 20 years. . . .  In 1995 I had a very close encounter with something similar to a Pterosaur in southern Minnesota. The day started off as a normal summer day for us kids. My older brother went out fishing early in the morning and came home about noon, but for some reason I decided to try to one up him that day.

. . . I headed down to “my” fishing spot. After several small fish and a decent sized bass I decided to call it a day. . . . I decided to head back home there was an outcropping or a cave (you could honestly classify it as either it was either a shallow cave or a deep outcropping) on my way back home and as I got near it I heard something . . .

I got within 15 feet of the mouth of the cave I see this beautiful burgundy thing standing near the opening. It was smooth with no feathers, and a large horn out of the back of it’s head. I could see that as it was pulling meat off of a fish it’s beak was making the tapping noise I heard.

Why does that “Doubtful News” bog post say “no new evidence?” I got up early this morning, as usual, and before 6:00 a.m. I had found three separate online sighting evidences: Florida, Illinois, and Minnesota (not the report mentioned above about a boy who had seen a flying creature in something like a cave in Minnesota but another sighting in that state). I had no previous knowledge of any of those three encounters with apparent pterosaurs; each of the three reports was completely new to me.

Dubious “Doubtful News” Post

That post by someone calling herself “idoubtit” quotes Donald Prothero, who wrote the post “Fake Pterosaurs and Sock Puppets.” I found many errors in Prothero’s accusations. He said,  “Whitcomb admitted the deception in July, 2014.” I’m glad he included a link for that sentence; if only every reader would click on that link and read my own words! It’s my explanation for why I was HONEST, not an admission of dishonesty. I explained why I used two pseudonyms in a minority of my online writings. Reading only that skeptic’s post—that can easily lead readers into thinking I tried to deceive people. It was, in reality, the only way I could find to emphasize the eyewitness testimonies, for my name was already becoming a target for mud-slinging in 2005, after my expedition in Papua New Guinea. Perhaps I made a mistake in using two pseudonyms for several years, but then it would be an honest mistake. The point about honesty is leading people to the truth, not in technical definitions of sock puppet and pen name; the point about dishonesty is leading people away from the truth, even when a few accurate statements may be inserted.

In other words, Donald Prothero properly linked to the relevant web page where I explained my use of pseudonyms, yet he proclaimed the opposite of what I thought I had clearly stated. Why become overly focused on the possibility that a person one disagrees with is a liar?

I am not accusing idoubtit or Donald Prothero of intentionally deceiving their readers; it’s quite likely that those two were somehow deceived themselves. Please read the words of the more credible eyewitnesses, for the truth will eventually come to light, regardless of what some skeptics say about my honesty and my religious beliefs.

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Ropen book, non-fiction, by Whitcomb

Cross-genre: cryptozoology, true-life adventure, spiritual, inspirational

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Cover, back and front, of Live Pterosaurs in America - nonfiction book

Pure cryptozoology and more compact than Searching for Ropens and Finding God

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Missing Persons and Flying Creatures

Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur sketch
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This is only a shadow of an introduction; I’m only like a flight attendant demonstrating what you should do in the unlikely event of . . . you know. People go missing for many reasons, including the following:

  • Drowning
  • Getting lost
  • Running away from home
  • Falling asleep in an unusual place
  • Becoming abducted by a criminal
  • Succumbing to a non-human predator

My wife and I found ourselves helping in a neighborhood search for a preschool boy in Altadena, California, decades ago, a few months before we were married. Somebody eventually found him perfectly healthy: He had been sleeping in his house, underneath a bed. I believe that only a small percentage of missing person cases arise from being carried away by a large flying creature; with that said, we now need to consider that unlikely (or rare) event.

Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur sketchMissing 411 Books

I’m only beginning to learn about missing-person mysteries in the United States, having received two books in the mail only yesterday: Missing 411 Western United States & Canada and the more-recently published Missing 411 The Devil’s in the Detail, both by the investigative journalist David Paulides. Do not allow yourself to automatically dismiss him because of his writings on Bigfoot. He was a police officer before becoming an investigator of businesses. Those experiences prepared him for his recent work in cryptozoology and in the investigation of missing persons, especially those who went missing in national parks.

Are Modern Pterosaurs to Blame?

This really is only a shadow of things to come, for I’ve only just begun to read the first of those two books. Both “pterosaur” and “pterodactyl” are absent from the indexes of those books, as are “bird” and “dragon.” These are obviously not books on flying dinosaurs kidnapping people, and I’m not suggesting that most of the cases involve modern pterosaurs. Paulides does seem to have investigated the cases objectively, with no obvious sign he intended to point a finger in any particular direction. Countless persons go missing from national parks in mysterious circumstances.

From reading only a few dozen pages, I noticed the possibility a rogue ropen may have attacked some persons, although this is still speculative, based upon a small percentage of the living-pterosaur sighting reports that I have received over the past eleven years. A few modern pterosaurs do seem to have gone bad, and an apparent ropen has been known to approach a human through a suspicious dive. But that’s from my own research; Paulides may have no idea that a few modern pterosaurs may prey upon humans in North America.

Overview of Ropen-Attack Possibilities

Before going on, understand that many apparent pterosaurs in the United States have no interest in attacking people. In fact, the Marfa Lights in Texas as said to be friendly with humans, when they give any sign that they acknowledge us. Attacks against humans are exceptional, probably uncommon. But just as a few humans can turn bad, so can a few wild animals.

Why do tracking dogs so often fail to long follow the trails of missing persons in national parks? That in itself may tell us little, but why do tracking dogs that specialize in bears fail to find a bear scent when it appears a missing person was devoured by a wild animal? And why is a human head found but not any other large bones, and the head itself is mostly undamaged by any tooth mark? In many cases, the victim was on or near the shore of a lake or other large body of water. In some cases, there is no drag mark on the ground, as would be expected if a ground predator had removed the body from the attack scene.

One mother in Washington state, apparently unaware of the pterosaur possibility, said, “It’s as if Bobby climbed to the top of a tree and then kept going.” That four-year-old had been left on a dirt road for only two minutes while the rest of the family went ten feet into the nearby brush, to look at a small waterfall. There was no sound of a car during those two minutes and no sign that a bear or other ground predator had been there. Dogs that could have tracked a bear later failed, and some of the rescuers suggested a giant eagle may have carried away the boy. Other experts rejected that idea, but I’m afraid that this case is one of those unpleasant rare events that my associates and I can connect with natives who live in remote tropical rain forests in Papua New Guinea: a rogue ropen.

Perosaur Sketch by Eskin Kuhn
Kuhn saw two pterosaurs in Cuba, in 1971

Sketch by the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn, a U.S. Marine at Gitmo, Cuba

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Ropen Attack

I suspect that most of the real attacks have been from rogue ropens, a few creatures that were suffering from something that prevented them from obtaining normal prey.

Deadly Pterosaurs

On rare occasions, a ropen, or kor, or indava (or by whatever name) will attack somebody, and the results are sometimes tragic . . .

Do Marfa Lights Attack Bats?

Strange flying lights in Texas may be from nocturnal predators that hunt bats.

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Ropen book, non-fiction, by Whitcomb

Nonfiction 360-page paperback book by Jonathan D. Whitcomb: Searching for Ropens and Finding God

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Ropen Lights in Southern California?

train bridge in a desert in California
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Ghost Lights of Anza Borrego State Park—that video appears to be no longer available online except for the first few minutes of the documentary, which introduction enlightens us on how the mysterious flying lights terrified railway workers in the nineteenth century, in a desert in Southern California. The video calls the flying lights “a large number of unexplained floating orbs of light.” I believe those luminous nocturnal entities may be a species of ropen, a bioluminescent long-tailed pterosaur.

Called “ghost lights,” they’ve been explained as everything from “ball lightning” to “spirits of Native Americans long since dead.” The ghost lights first came to the public attention in the “early” 1900’s, when John D. Spreckels [born in 1853] began construction on the impossible San Diego and Arizona Railways, through the treacherous Carrizo Gorge. Working conditions were both uncomfortable and terrifying . . . and on moonless nights the camps were plagued by mysterious hovering balls of colored light. At least one worker was driven mad by fear.

19th-century railway workers, probably in a desert in California

Railroad workers, 19th century, possibly in Southern California

To interject, I am impressed with the documentary, notwithstanding it’s less than nine minutes long. Regarding that one man who was thought to have been driven mad, I’m not so sure. From my eleven years of investigating eyewitness accounts of apparent living pterosaurs, I have seen the insanity accusation thrown at anybody who reports such flying creatures. Did the man report seeing a dragon? That would do it. I’m aware that a limited number of barn owls have been reported, at least under some conditions, to glow. I learned about that apparent bioluminescence from the Australian researcher and nonfiction author Fred Silcock. But I doubt that any barn owls would congregate enough, while glowing, to give railway workers an impression of “a large number” of lights; perhaps the video exaggerates the quantity. But the many sighting reports of apparent pterosaurs flying in Southern California—that suggests those flying lights of the Anza Borrego desert may be creatures related to the ropen of Papua New Guinea or the bioluminescent flying predators called Marfa Lights in Texas.

 train bridge in a desert in CaliforniaPeople thought it impossible, until railroad workers finished that line to San Diego

Half way through the Ghost Lights of Anza Borrego State Park documentary, the mud caves of the Badlands are exposed. Some of the caves, according to the video, are “more than a mile” long. Yet even if that length is exaggerated, many openings, including ceiling holes, would make the caves ideal for a family of nocturnal flying predators or scavengers, an ideal bedroom to hide in the daylight. ### . Arroyo Tapiado Carrizo Badlands Mud Caves

One of the most fascinating points of interest in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the system of caves known as the Arroyo Tapiado Mud Caves. . . . The mud caves are found along the walls of this wash canyon. One of the most extensive mud cave systems in the world, they contain approximately 22 known caves and 9 slot canyons.

Marfa Lights

I communicated with Mr. Bunnell early in 2010, by emails, telling him about my ideas about nocturnal bioluminescent flying predators that intelligently hunt bats in southwest Texas.

Ropen Lights

David Woetzel saw the ropen-light briefly in 2004 [in Papua New Guinea]. He saw no shape to the glowing object, but it was heading towards the Lake Pung area [on Umboi Island], where several eyewitnesses had previously seen a giant featherless flying creature.

. Ropen book, non-fiction, by Whitcomb Quoting from this nonfiction live-pterosaur book:

Grave robbery in both Africa and Papua New Guinea—it looked like too much for a coincidence. Both ropens and kongamatos appeared to be real creatures. The authenticity of an old photograph in a library book became irrelevant. Those flying creatures, more than legends, might be pterosaurs. [from page 17] In one of the interviews, Eunice, a school teacher’s wife, described to Carl Baugh an attempted grave robbery. One night, in April of 1993, near the northwest coast of Umboi Island, after a large funeral procession arrived at the burial location, from the sea approached a flying creature with a tail that glowed red like burning embers glow. About two hundred mourners were awake when it flew overhead. The islanders banged pots and yelled, whereupon the intruder flew into a nearby swamp and the light disappeared. [from page 19] Let’s be clear: No flying fox can terrify a group of islanders by flying over a lake. Furthermore, fruit bats never grow long tails, never eat fish, never glow at night, and never dig up the grave of a recently-deceased human to carry away the body. What do fruit bats eat? Fruit. Think of a miracle of science fiction: If a fruit bat grew to become longer than a village hut, it might devour the garden—but not the gardener. Now think of reality: A fruit bat never impersonates a giant long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. [from page 24] Other villagers saw the ropen light fly to or from Mount Bel. John Anton, of Gomlongon, on September 19, 2004, at 8:00 p.m., saw what he described as rainbow colors flying from Mount Talnok (near Bel) toward the south beach. Dianne Aisi, of Opai, in 2001, between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., saw the light flying from the Tarawe Village area toward Mount Bel. Jefron Ambalis, of Opai, saw it four years earlier, at about 9:00 p.m., flying from Bel toward Lake Pung. A few days after these interviews, three eyewitnesses would describe to me a ropen that had flown, in clear daylight, over that crater lake. [from page 60]

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