Not all pterosaurs are extinct. Considering all the investigations and research done over the past two decades, it is practically impossible for all their species to be extinct, unless hundreds of thousands of persons worldwide have been encountering flying creatures that are not descended from ancient pterosaurs yet have appeared to have inherited a significant number of their obvious characteristics. That seems unlikely.
“Scary Flying Creatures in the Southwest Pacific” (video)
The video above is mostly on a few sightings of apparent living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea, including some of the more frightening encounters.
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Modern Pterosaurs in Australia
From the nonfiction book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (fourth edition), by Jonathan David Whitcomb:
Pages 31-33:
The couple was taking a walk in December of 1997, at 10:30 p.m., (in Southwestern Australia, probably a pleasant evening) between the suburbs of Ocean Reef and Heathridge, on Marion Avenue, when they saw, about half a mile inland, something in the sky. As it drew closer, gliding south, parallel to the coast, it shocked them with a “lizard appearance” and a wingspan of thirty to fifty feet. . . .
[in the words of a scientist (one of the two eyewitnesses)]
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. . . . its progress had brought it closer and while its shape did resemble a bird, I thought by now that from its apparent distance, it must be the largest bird I had ever witnessed.
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 . . .
A modern pterosaur!? How could it be? Extraordinary but true, huge flying creatures, with no feathers yet unlike any bat, live among us, although they mostly fly at night.
. . . if my assessment of each of those 128 reports was anywhere near the mark, it is practically impossible for all of those reports to have come from non-pterosaurs: Not all pterosaurs are extinct.
Eleven sighting reports of ropens, a.k.a. flying dinosaurs, in North Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham, Conover, Wilmington, Guilford County, Kernersville, and Charlotte . . .
“As a self-described ‘modern pterosaur expert,’ the Utah-based author is circulating news and running websites that describe encounters with prehistoric, flying reptiles that scientists classify as thoroughly extinct.” [referring to Jonathan Whitcomb]
The nonfiction author Jonathan Whitcomb, of Murray, Utah, in 2017 and 2018, interviewed four eyewitnesses of an apparent “pterodactyl” in central Utah. He now declares that those reports from Draper, Salt Lake County, help distinguish Utah in a map showing where similar sightings have been reported across the United States.
A nonfiction-cryptozoology author has analyzed eyewitness accounts of apparent non-extinct pterosaurs, commonly called “pterodactyls” or “flying dinosaurs,” and found that several states in the USA stand out, including Utah.
On August 1, 2020, I uploaded to Youtube a video memorial for a native fisherman of the southwest Pacific who was attacked by an apparent living pterosaur. The man died three days later, yet he was able to kill the “kor” before it killed him. At least no other fisherman needs to worry about being attacked by that particular flying creature around the islands of northern Papua New Guinea at night.
Watch this video and see if it’s worth sharing with friends and family.
That attack against this fisherman could have been quite a few decades ago, perhaps in the middle of the 20th century. However that may be, it does seem to relate to other reports that large flying creatures sometimes attack people in other areas of Papua New Guinea.
Here is a still image from this mini-documentary:
The two pilots of this plane later told Whitcomb about the near collision
The following is taken from the description section of this video:
This second-or-third-hand account is not at all typical for videos on this channel, however. The vast majority of accounts of modern living pterosaurs, on “Protect Animal Life”, are first-hand accounts, when anyone is quoted regarding sightings. That’s part of why this encounter was included in this video number 77 rather than in one of the first videos created for this channel. Second-hand accounts are more likely to have become less accurate, in general, compared with first-hand ones.
That does not mean, however, that critically important points must be inaccurate in a second-hand account. Beware of assuming that the old Western dogma of universal extinctions of ALL species of pterosaurs can be adequately propped up by using old string and glue, so to speak: Systematically dismissing all accounts that are not first-hand and then rejecting first-hand accounts through a hodgepodge of unrelated excuses—That is hardly a scientific approach.
The native who reported this to Jonathan Whitcomb is the same man who reported the death of the fisherman from an attack by a “kor” flying creature in northern Papua New Guinea.
Eyewitness accounts in the comments sections of videos on the Youtube channel “Protect Animal Life” (which channel has many videos on these astonishing flying creatures that have been seen worldwide)
The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur introduces young readers (about 8-14 years old) to an exciting new branch of cryptozoology: eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, and most of these flying creatures appear to be ropens.
I gave a definition of ropen in the fourth edition of my nonfiction book Searching for Ropens and Finding God:
A modern pterosaur with Rhamphorhynchoid characteristics
Now take a whirlwind tour of many years of investigations in cryptozoology, and prepare for a shock: At least two species of pterosaurs have survived, uncommon, not so much rare as widely, thinly distributed. Nocturnal pterosaurs have always lived among us . . .
Years ago, some skeptics speculated that reports of the ropen of Papua New Guinea came from people misidentifying the common fruit bats found there. Those critics, however, appear to have failed to take into account exactly what people report observing: something much larger and looking much different.
Here are two lists: videos on the Youtube channel Protect Animal Life (in order of uploading first and then alphabetical — active videos on PAL as of early May 13, 2020). All but five of them are primarily about modern pterosaurs:
Last week I uploaded to Youtube a video on the strange flying lights that have long been seen in Papua New Guinea, observed by both PNG natives and Westerners.
You can watch this short video (3 min, 20 sec), so rather than list what’s in it, I’ll go into more details about these flying lights by answering three questions that are based upon comments people have sent me over the years.
Question #1:
Could they be airplane lights?
Answer:
A physicist did a deep analysis of the two lights videotaped in 2006 by the explorer Paul Nation and found that they could not be lights from airplanes; they were a completely different kind of light.
In addition, the respected biologist Evelyn Chessman, early in the 20th century, observed many of the lights from a distance, in the dark of night, and that was long before planes commonly flew over New Guinea, even in daylight. In fact, those lights had a mountain range behind them, meaning they were flying quite low, and they were only slightly above the tops of the trees in that jungle.
Even in modern times, people do not see many airplanes flying, at the same time, at night just above the treetops, where there is no airport.
Question #2:
Could they be fireflies?
Answer:
Evelyn Cheesman was an entomologist (specializing in the study of insects). If there had been any possibility that she had observed fireflies, she would have mentioned it in that part of her book The Two Roads of Papua (published in 1935).
Keep in mind that she took note that the lights were brighter than a common flash light (“electric torch”), after she took into account the distance between her and those flying lights. Also, the flash duration was much longer than firefly flashes: Each light was on for between four and five seconds.
Question #3:
Why believe that the flying lights are the bioluminescence of pterosaurs?
Answer:
From the second ropen expedition of 2004 on Umboi Island, we know many details from interviews with two natives: Jonathan Ragu and Jonah Jim. Garth Guessman took detailed notes and later gave a copy of the interview forms to me, Jonathan Whitcomb.
Two things stand out together in the reports from those two eyewitnesses:
A large flying creature was glowing
The silhouette sketch chosen was for the Sordes pilosus
The above silhouette sketch was one of 34 images (of birds, bats, and pterosaurs) on one page of paper used by the two cryptozoologists David Woetzel and Garth Guessman on Umboi Island in 2004. Both Jonah Jim and Jonathan Ragu chose this one, silhouette #13, for the shape of the large glowing flying creature observed.
Neither man was aware of the choice of the other man when the selections were made. To the best of my knowledge, of the natives interviewed during that expedition, none of the other eyewitnesses had nearly as clear a view as those two had, neither were they able to give nearly so sure an indication for the ropen’s body shape. The large number of images shown to those two natives (34) makes it highly unlikely that they had both independently chosen #13 at random.
By the way, the Sordes pilosus known by paleontologists from fossils is (or was) a Rhamphorhynchoid, a long-tailed pterosaur.
Last night, I uploaded a new video to Youtube, “Living Pterosaurs – in newspapers” and present it as an introduction to such newspaper articles. I believe it makes a good start in answering questions about such news publications, yet I hope to produce one or more additional videos about apparent extant “pterodactyls” in newspapers.
Another report of flying lights has surfaced, this one from a wilderness area of Oregon. It seems that the mysterious lights that have been reported to fly over the Yakima River in the state of Washington—those are also seen to fly over a river in Oregon, reported by two cryptozoologists from the Portland area.
Let’s compare the words of four witnesses: three natives on Umboi Island and one British biologist on the mainland of New Guinea. Each describes flying lights: on two sides of Umboi and on the mainland to the west of Umboi.
