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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.

The scientist Clifford Paiva has pointed out that the wings are folded, AKA inverted, consistent with pterosaur wings

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

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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.

dying pterosaur in an animation

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 . . .

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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.

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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.

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Books on non-extinct pterosaurs

The nonfiction paperback Live Pterosaurs in America

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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.

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A book about living pterosaurs (actually several books)

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

Living Pterosaurs in Nonfiction Books

By cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb

UPDATE: The links on this post (on non-fiction books about modern pterosaurs) have been shown to be safe, with “https” in the URL’s.

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Let’s take a brief glance at a number of publications, each of which could be considered a paranormal book.

Strange & Unexplained Happenings (Volume three)

At the beginning of the book it says about itself:

. . . It picks up where the studies of the occult and parapsychology leave off, telling the rest of the story of the world’s mysteries—those dealing with strange natural and quasi-natural phenomena, things that seem to be a part of our world but are usually disputed or ignored by conventional science.

hard-cover book that has references to pterosaur sightings

In the chapter “Folklore in the Flesh,” the first section gives us the following locations for creatures that some modern cryptozoologists could suspect were living pterosaurs:

  • Sudsexe (Sussex, England): 774 A.D. (serpents in the sky; fiery dragons)
  • Devonshire, England: 1762 (“twisting serpent” lit up the sky)
  • Nebraska, USA: mid-1800’s
  • Missouri River, USA: 1857-1858 (“flying serpent”)
  • Bonham, Texas, USA: 1873 (enormous serpent in a cloud)
  • Kansas, USA: 1873 (huge flying serpent)
  • Maryland, USA: 1883 (monstrous flying dragon)
  • Tanzania, early 20th century (flying dragon)
  • Namibia, early 20th century (large flying snake)
  • South Carolina, 1888 (huge serpent moving through the air)

Some of the above reports come from old newspaper articles.

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Mysteries of the Unexplained

(Readers Digest Association; 1982)

The following potential flying creatures are mentioned on page 165:

  • Fire-breathing dragons
  • Thunderbird (American Indian lore)
  • Jersey Devil
  • Kongamato
  • Mothman

Folk Lore And Folk Stories of Wales

(first published in London in 1909, reprint in 1973)

On page 168, we read:

“. . . the winged were described as very beautiful. They were coiled in repose, and ‘looked as thought they were covered with jewels of all sorts. . . .’ it was ‘no old story’ invented to ‘frighten children,’ but . . . a real fact. His father and uncles had killed some of them, for they were ‘as bad as foxes for poultry.'”

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Books on Living Pterosaurs

. . . some of the nonfiction books are entirely about these featherless flying creatures and others include cryptids of other types or even are mostly about paranormal events in general (with non-extinct “pterodactyls” making up only a small part).

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Strange & Unexplained Happenings

Volume 3: When Nature Breaks the Rules of Science

The first section of the chapter “Folklore in the Flesh” has a number of references to old sightings, at least some of which could have been encounters with non-extinct pterosaurs.

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Living pterosaurs in old newspapers

An 1891 issue of the Los Angeles Herald newspaper had an article from an earlier California news publication, about reports of “dragons” flying over an area south of Fresno, around Selma.

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Not Misidentified Frigate Birds

I know of three cases in which a person has seen a frigatebird, or a photo or video of that kind of oceanic bird, and thought it was a living pterosaur (or at least he put forward the idea that it was a non-extinct pterosaur). Take that in context: Over the past thirteen years, I’ve looked at hundreds of eyewitness sighting reports of possible living pterosaurs.

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Science and Pterosaur Extinction

In science, Occam’s razor has also been called “the law of succinctness,” but the simplicity of that label can be misleading. It does not really mean “the simplest explanation is most likely correct.” A better definition might include “when competing hypotheses are otherwise equal in explaining something, the simpler hypothesis deserves preference, unless and until the less-simple one is someday found to explain things better.”

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North Carolina Pterosaur

I would be delighted if many American newspapers would publish stories like that, for I feel sure that someday, in some town or city in America, some newspaper professional will be struck by the possibility that maybe great blue herons are not playing dress-up. Will that article, whenever and wherever it will be published, fly well enough for a Pulitzer Prize? I’m willing to help that writer make a run for it.

 

Living Pterosaurs in Louisiana

map with Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana

By cryptozoology author Jonathan D. Whitcomb

UPDATE: I feel completely confident that all the links on this post (about encounters people have had with apparent modern pterosaurs) have always been secure. With internet safety in mind, and to support safety online, I have updated links on this post to include “https” in those URL’s. You can feel completely at peace in traveling from “Living Pterosaurs in Louisiana” to other online pages.

Introduction

For those new to this blog, I need to explain why I call myself a “living pterosaur expert,” a strange title. From 2003 to the present (late 2017), I have spent over 10,000 hours on this narrow branch of cryptozoology: investigating eyewitness reports of apparent non-extinct “pterodactyls.” I don’t know of any other person who has spent over 10,000 hours on this subject, so I suggest that I am a living-pterosaur expert if anyone is.

I have published four nonfiction cryptozoology books on these flying creatures, in nine total editions. My scientific paper on these animals was peer-reviewed and published in a journal of science (“Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific”). In addition, I have received reports from persons on every continent except Antarctica, and most of those were from the eyewitnesses themselves rather than from second-hand or third-hand accounts.

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map with Lake Pontchartrain

Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans

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Apparent Pterosaur in Louisiana

Last night, I got a phone call from a Ryan Causey, who had a sighting in 1994 in southern Louisiana. The flying creature was seen late at night as it flew over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway bridge, which is just north of Metairie. At first, the man got the impression that it was a huge evil black bird, but he eventually came to recognize that he had witnessed a living pterosaur. Bryan found me through one or more of my blog posts or web pages.

The apparent long-tailed ropen flew only about 20 feet above the bridge, as Ryan was standing by his car, which had broken down. The flying creature was only about 200 feet away when the man saw the thing. He estimated the size (probably he was referring to wingspan) as at least 15-20 feet.

When he told me that it had a pointy head, I thought of many other reported sightings of pterosaurs: a horn-like or cone-like head crest is often reported. The overall appearance suggested something like shiny leather.

Email from Ryan Causey:

Jonathan, I see that you do research on this subject. I broke down in a van on the bridge to New Orleans in 1994 when I saw and a enormous creature flying not too far away from me but taking up more than half the size of the interstate. I was facing south and it flew from the west to the east over the bridge. I’d like to tell you little bit more about it I really couldn’t believe my eyes but all these years I know it to be true in my heart . . .

Other Pterosaur Sightings in Louisiana

Three other encounters have been reported to me from Louisiana, over the years: one in Slidell (October of 2013) and another in New Llano (western side of the state). I wrote about the encounter in New Llano in my nonfiction cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (fourth edition) on page 215. Another sighting was in Louisiana but the eyewitness said nothing about what part of the state. The person did mention “leathery wings” and a “spade/diamond” shape on the tail.

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Popularity of this “Live Pterosaur” Blog

Since its first post was published online in 2009, this blog has received over 360,000 visits, most of which were from people in the following countries:

  • United States
  • France
  • United Kingdom
  • China
  • Canada
  • Poland
  • Russian Federation
  • Israel
  • Ukraine
  • Germany
  • European Union
  • Netherlands
  • Australia
  • Sweden
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Republic of Korea
  • Norway
  • Brazil
  • Romania
  • Philippines
  • New Zealand

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Pterosaur Sighting in Slidell, Louisiana

Reported directly to the living-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb: “On October 10, 2013, I received a phone call from a lady in Slidell, Louisiana. She had seen a flying creature just two hours earlier, a frightening experience, and had received no help from the police or the Wildlife-Fisheries.”

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Eyewitness Reports of Living Pterosaurs

Some of the countries in which modern pterosaurs have been reported include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • United States of America
  • Kenya
  • Namibia
  • Sudan
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Cuba
  • England
  • Malasia
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • Panama
  • Papua New Guinea

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Flying Creature

Please be aware that a sighting in the day does not mean that what was observed must be a creature normally out in daylight. It may have been frightened out of sleep during the day. It may be a nocturnal creature that was out on that one day.

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Books on living pterosaurs

By the modern pterosaur expert Jonathan David Whitcomb

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Apparent pterosaurs in the USA

Sightings in California, Washington (state), Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas, and Florida

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Books for LDS

These nonfiction cryptozoology books were not written specifically for an LDS audience, but the author is a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: These books can be understood and enjoyed by LDS readers.

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Nocturnal “Pterodactyls”

The type with a long tail are called ropen, the name some of the villagers of Umboi, Papua New Guinea, call the nocturnal flying creature of their island.

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Living pterosaur expert

Since his expedition in Papua New Guinea in 2004, Whitcomb has received many emails and occasional phone calls from ordinary persons who have seen extraordinary animals: apparent pterosaurs.

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Nonfiction Books About Living Pterosaurs

side-by-side front covers of two cryptozoology books by Whitcomb - "Modern Pterosaurs" and "Searching for Ropens and Finding God"

By the living-pterosaur cryptozoologist Jonathan David Whitcomb

Quotations from three nonfiction cryptozoology books

Searching for Ropens and Finding God (4th edition)

. . . avoid ridiculing those labeled creationist. . . . When in human history has one person always been wrong? [Introduction]

Albert Schweitzer inspired me, earlier in my teenage years, when I read of his unselfish missionary labors: He gave natives medical treatment in Africa; he also treated injured animals. I imagined myself as a missionary, helping natives in a jungle. Only later did Sanderson’s books steer my imagination into jungle explorations in search of undiscovered animals. [page 14]

After my own expedition in Papua New Guinea, I pondered how I had become involved and how those videos had touched me. What were the early signs that there were living pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific? [pg 22]

With Mary Blume’s help with interpreting, Guessman then interviewed Jacob Kepas [He was a Baptist minister at the time of this interview], who was twelve years old, living in the Wau area of the mainland, when he saw what we believe was a ropen. He heard a “whoosh” of wind, one night, and ran outside to see the seklo-bali that had just flown over his village. [pg 94]

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non-fiction 360-page paperback "Searching for Ropens and Finding God"

The “Bible of modern pterosaurs”

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Live Pterosaurs in America (3rd edition)

Could it have been a giant mechanical model? This mechanical idea breaks down. Why would a model fly from one swamp into another swamp? Why would it be so much bigger than the known mechanical models? How could it dive down to just above the highway and then ascend to fly over trees tops on the other side, without any acceleration of wing flapping and without even any mechanical appearance of wing flapping? And why would a mechanical model closely resemble a giant flying creature that catches fish on reefs in Papua New Guinea? They’re both too much alive. [pg 12]

I found it interesting that she asked if a “society” existed for receiving her report, and that the word “pterodactyl” gave her, at first, embarrassment. In Western society, including the United States, dogmas of extinction cause eyewitnesses of live modern pterosaurs problems: “Who do I tell?” is common; recognizing and verbalizing “embarrassment” is uncommon. I am grateful for the broadcasts of Destination Truth and Monsterquest, for they revealed the possibility of flying creatures like “pterodactyls” (even though pertaining to New Guinea). I hope many American eyewitnesses will thereby come to trust their senses, even without embarrassment. [pg 53]

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Third edition of "Live Pterosaurs in America"

Live Pterosaurs in America (revised, third edition)

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Modern Pterosaurs

I remember the experiences of a boy in Irving, Texas, in the 1970’s. A “very scary looking” flying creature had a big beak like those of fishing birds, but this thing had no feathers. It did have “claw hands” on top of its wings. Later, the boy’s teacher told him to be quiet. [pg 14]

Sometimes a sporting event brings many people out for a potential sighting. In 2010, I got an email from a man who was a teenager at a soccer camp at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, in the mid-1990’s. He told me that the flying creature “was huge, as big as a plane.” At least five parents and students watched it fly into a cloud. The teenager shouted, “That was a pterodactyl!” but the adults decided to keep quiet. [pg 15]

One stumbling block is this: Paleontologists, whether professional or amateur, have a habit of mentioning the supposed religious beliefs of those who promote the possibility of extant pterosaurs. In fact, in at least one or two posts, an expert on fossils ridicules a religious belief without even mentioning the word fossil. How easy it is for some readers to see only one of those posts and conclude that religious fanatics have been carried away by religious bias! [pg 66]

Small nonfiction paperback about modern pterosaurs

Modern Pterosaurs (published in the spring of 2017)

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Living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea

Three Americans explored a tropical rain forest in Papua New Guinea, within the past few weeks, and two of them succeeded in observing an apparent living pterosaur.

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Living pterosaurs for LDS readers

In a broad perspective, the reality of modern non-extinct pterosaurs is more in harmony with a belief in the Flood of Noah, with preservation of species on the Ark, than it is with the origin philosophy of Charles Darwin.

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Book about modern pterosaurs

For countless years, an old photograph has been seen on the internet, and some persons report they had seen it in a book decades before there was an internet.

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Book about the ropen

The fourth edition of another nonfiction book “Searching for Ropens and Finding God” can be classified in cryptozoology, yet it’s also a spiritual book, not much about any particular religion but asking for religious tolerance.

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Non-extinct pterodactyls

Are they still alive? Can reports of flying dragons be more than legends? . . . Pterosaurs, the technically correct name for what many call “pterodactyls,” are known by Western scientists through their fossils.

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Baptist minister searches for a living pterosaur

Late in 2006, Pastor Jacob Kepas (a Baptist minister) was interviewed by Paul Nation, in a hut in Tawa Village, deep in the mountainous interior of the mainland of Papua New Guinea. Kepas had recently climbed up a hill adjacent to a cliff where some of the nocturnal flying creatures sleep during the day.

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LDS Author Jonathan Whitcomb

Nonfiction dragons, or “pterodactyls,” as described by eyewitnesses around the world, beginning in Papua New Guinea

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A long review of Live Pterosaurs in America

. . . as I [was] browsing I spotted a book “Live Pterosaurs in America” by Jonathan David Whitcomb, a nonfiction analysis of actual sightings in the USA. This I had to own, so I immediately ordered it from Amazon, and a few days later it was mine! And you know what — I’m glad I bought it, and have enjoyed reading it.

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Nonfiction books on living pterosaurs

I have written four nonfiction books about living pterosaurs, in a total of nine editions.

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