Live Pterosaur - Part 82

May 28, 2011June 11, 2011

Pterosaur Sightings in Australia

Giant pterosaurs in Australia may be related to the ropen of Papua New Guinea, to the north, and to the kongamato of Africa, to the west.

Giant Pterosaur in Queensland

During his farm chores, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., he [a boy of about twelve years old] forgot something and had to backtrack. When he looked back at where he had been, at the door of a shed, he saw a large creature with wings. It was on the roof of the shed, just above the door where he had recently been standing.

Although terrified, the boy had a brief view of the body and wings of the creature. It was larger than an average man six feet tall, with wings that folded to the side and back, reminiscent of bat wings. The boy ran to his house for help, but his parents saw nothing; by the time they had responded, the creature was gone.

High Altitude Pterosaur in Victoria, Australia

Late in 2009, I received an email from a man in Victoria, Australia.

Dear Jonathon,

After many misgivings about going “public” as it were, I have decided to contact you with my experience of sighting what I believe to have been a Pterodactyl.

I live in Australia in the state of Victoria near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 klms east of Melbourne.

I am not a whacko just a normal family man, married with a wife of 40 years and two grown up sons and twin grandchildren. I have held a Real Estate Agent’s Licence . . . and worked as an Agent . . . and then in the Commonwealth Public Service for . . . years until my retirement

I cannot be sure of the year of the sighting now as I put it out of my mind for fear of being labelled a nut but I think it would have been around the late 1990’s.

I was standing outside about nine o’clock one night. It was full moon and very bright with a cloud bank to the south east extending to and over the Ranges. Mt. Dandenong is about 2000 feet high and the clouds were much higher than this.

I glanced to the south and [saw] . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here as Moorabbin Airport is not far away. This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cesna. It was about 5 klms away and was lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. . . . I could see it quite clearly. . . . for about 5 mins whence it disappeared into the cloud bank. I estimate it was flying at a height higher than Mt Dandenong.

Probably the most famous sighting in Australia is of the Perth Pterosaur.

Consider the eyewitness evidence, including this account of a man who was taking a walk with his wife near Perth, Australia, in December, 1997:

“We had been walking in the evening and had just crested a hill and were on the down slope along a major thoroughfare. In the distance I perceived an object in the sky . . . some sort of flying creature, and my first thought was that it must be some very large bird . . .

“At this time it was about a quarter mile north of us and quite high. . . Within a minute or so it had reached our position and was about 250 or 300 feet above us and slightly inland. The area was moderately well lit and I saw that it seemed to be a light reddish-tan color. It did not appear to be covered with feathers but had a leathery texture. Soon after it passed us it flew over a more brightly lit sports area which highlighted even more the leathery appearance also bringing more detail to view . . .

“[I] estimated the size to be in excess of thirty foot, possibly as great as fifty foot. My eyes told me it was nearer the greater of these, my rational mind wants me to believe the lesser, since either of these is astounding for a flying creature . . .”

May 21, 2011November 19, 2011

More Insight on Gitmo Pterosaur

Recently, Eskin Kuhn has provided us with more detail about the long tail of the two pterosaurs he saw at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. (I now call this cryptid the “Gitmo Pterosaur.”) He describes the end of the long tail: “long strands of hair in a tuft . . . a brush, not flesh covered as the rest [of the creature].” This reminds me of the description of the pterosaur seen by a boy in Sudan, for that boy mentioned being reminded of the tail of a lion.

Kuhn also said, “That detail has become muted by the many copies of the drawing, the original newsprint type coarse paper and pencil.” In other words, the original sketch better showed a hairy appearance of the ends of the tails. That certainly counters the objection of a few critics who declare that eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs do not see anything like fur or hair so those sightings cannot be valid.

In addition, he has also recently said, “The fleshy hide would probably be more akin to a bat’s than any other creature.” That statement also discredits the objection of some critics who imply that any modern pterosaur should be covered with fur that would be obviously seen as fur by any eyewitness. It reminds me of the testimony of the scientist in Perth, Australia, who carefully observed a giant flying creature with a long tail and a texture that could have been something like fine fur (he was just too far away to tell for sure about fur).

In a recent letter to me, Kuhn also said the following.

On my way home . . . this morning I turned the corner at the base of my property . . . and saw a relatively familiar sight . . . a Great Blue Heron in flight. . . . The Heron in flight would make many a person wishing to see a pterosaur think they had. It’s great wings, short body, long heavy beak and crooked neck, prow-like chest and very long legs trailing behind with curved toes resembling a tail . . . it puts you in mind of such creatures as pterosaurs . . . unless you have actually seen pterosaurs. Then the differences are dramatic.

That dismisses any potential suggestion that Kuhn saw two herons in flight.

The following old photo shows Kuhn at Gitmo, Cuba, probably in 1971.

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Cryptozoology Book (Live Pterosaurs in America)

Southeast of Fresno, several eyewitnesses reported two featherless flying creatures with wingspans of fifteen feet. Reportedly reputable residents around Reedley described the two “dragons” for the newspaper.

May 16, 2011

Recommended Pterosaur Sites

The following are at least somewhat popular and at least above average in quality. Of course they are all friendly to the concept that some species of pterosaurs may still be living on this planet.

Pterosaur

Is it really meaningless to the credibility of standard models whether or not all species of pterosaurs are extinct?

“Do nothing to refute mainstream geology” are the words of Glen Kuban. This phrase, however, is a clue that he is actually protecting a philosophy, for science, by its nature, is expected to bring about changes in opinion about what we used to think: changes. To consider “mainstream geology” to be a branch of science, it would need to be capable of change, even major change, should that become necessary.

Pterosaur Book

Living pterosaurs? How could they now be living in California, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, New York, and many other states? Did not pterosaurs become extinct millions of years ago? Cryptozoology is the study of reports of creatures (or apparent creatures) whose descriptions suggest something other than creatures classified by standard biology as extant.

Experience makes science possible. The sighting of what seems to be a living pterosaur does not force any professor to either ignore it or find a non-pterosaur explanation. When a number of eyewitnesses report the same kind of apparent pterosaur, reason demands that someone investigates why this is so.

Pterodactyls

Are some pterodactyls still living? That idea is controversial, to be sure, for where is the photograph to prove such a bold idea? But wait a moment. What does photography have to do with it? Where is photographic evidence that every kind of pterodactyl became extinct millions of years ago? The fossils say nothing about extinction. A fossil only shows that one particular organism once lived and died. Photographing and analyzing fossils has nothing to do with extinction, so what is this controversy about living pterodactyls?

Bat or Pterosaur

Many species of Flying Fox fruit bat live in the countries that surround Papua New Guinea: Australia and Indonesia, and those further west: Malaysia and India. But none of the big bats have the amazing pterosaur-like characteristics of the ropen: long head crest and Rhamphorhynchoid-like long tail. In addition, at least one species of ropen has a mouth “like a crocodile” mouth.

Giant Bat

“One of the flashes took off from a big tree overhanging the river and made a kind of flashing coma turn. Many flashes were parallel to the river. . . . there were many fish . . . Prime hunting grounds for fish-eating birds. Only these things fish at night with bioluminescence.”

Almost all of the researchers who have studied these accounts for years believe that these creatures are live pterosaurs. Most of the eyewitness accounts include a description of a long tail; some include a structure they have seen at the end of the tail: like a Rhamphorhynchoid tail flange.

Pterosaur Extinction (Indoctrination)

How has anyone now living come to the conclusion that all species of pterosaurs became extinct? From a scientific test? No. From a mathematical formula? No. From a set of statistics? No. From early childhood, Americans and citizens of other Western countries are indoctrinated into universal extinctions of certain general types of animals, dinosaurs and pterosaurs especially. It has become a deeply ingrained assumption of our cultures.

May 12, 2011August 2, 2011

Kongamato and Ropen Compared

Let’s begin by being precise. I do not insinuate that in Africa all sightings with the label “kongamato” are of the same species of pterosaur or even any kind of pterosaur; the same applies to the label “ropen.” But specific sighting reports have similar details, namely this: a large or giant size, a long tail with a Rhamphorhynchoid-like structure at the end, and a lack of feathers. Sightings involving those details—those I believe to have come from sightings of living pterosaurs.

Before we begin, however, we need to clear up a misunderstanding about an implied association with “science-fiction movies and old cartoons such as The Flintstones.” Dale Drinnon has mentioned this, in commenting on another post, as if it damages the credibility of sightings, notwithstanding he did not mention any particular sighting. But he does not seem to appreciate or realize that specific sightings are by eyewitnesses who have probably never seen any science fiction movie or Flintstones cartoons in their entire lives: The boy who saw the flying creature in Sudan, Africa, for example. And what about all the native eyewitnesses that were interviewed in the two expeditions on Umboi Island, in 2004 (I led the first expedition)? I asked Gideon Koro if he had ever seen a picture of a ropen in any book at his school; he thought about it for a second or two and then replied, “No.” Yet his description of the ropen flying over Lake Pung in daylight corresponds to details in the sighting reports by Westerners such as Duane Hodgkinson and Brian Hennessy.

Let’s examine details in Gideon Koro’s sighting report. I interviewed him in person, on Umboi Island, in 2004. He and his six friends had hiked up to the crater lake, arriving there in the middle of the day. The creature flew over the lake, just meters over the surface, with no reasonable possibility that the boys could have seen a common bird or bat and misidentified it.

No feathers—Gideon was positive about that
Tail seven meters long—He thought about it for a few seconds before giving me his estimate
Mouth “like a crocodile”

Now let’s examine details in the Sudan, Africa, sighting report. By email, this man reported to me his 1988 encounter, which I now summarize (adapted from a post on the blog Live Pterodactyl):

While walking from one mud-brick hut to another, one night, the boy noticed something on the roof of a nearby hut. Lit up by the patio light, perched on the edge of the roof, the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head; its long tail somehow reminded the boy of a tail of a lion (I suspect there was hair at the end of the tail).

The boy froze as the creature stretched its wings and hopped toward another roof, passing a few feet over the boy’s head. He dropped the metal tray of dishes that he had been carrying and the creature flew away. The eyewitness was sure about the head crest and the long tail.

Science Fiction Movies and the Flintstones are Irrelevant

Eyewitnesses who have never seen a movie or television are not influenced by science fiction movies and TV cartoons, but there is more. Those Americans and Australians who have seen movies and cartoons are not necessarily influenced in any way that would cause them to report sighting details that were distorted by those media experiences. How many media experiences do Westerners have that involve people being shot by guns! Yet we do not dismiss eyewitnesses from testifying in court, in a shooting case, just because they had seen gun fights in movies and on television.

Another problem shoots down this science-fiction-movies-and-Flintstones insinuation. Why are no details given? Why not mention details about portrayals of pterosaurs in media? Why not mention details in particular eyewitness reports? Why try to shoot down a large long-tailed pterosaur by blowing smoke at the poor flying creature?

Kongamato Pterodactyl

Namibia, Africa, Pterosaur (sighting in the Spring of 2011)

“The wings span was about double the distance of beak-tip to end-of-tail. I cannot remember details of the tail, but thought that two legs and a strange looking longer tail or appendix were visible, parallel to one another . . . he estimated the flying creature had a wingspan about half of that of the airplanes he sees flying overhead . . .”