Live Pterosaur - Part 29

November 26, 2016December 25, 2016

Pterosaur Sighting Reports, USA, 2016

By the modern-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

This is not nearly a complete listing of all reports received in 2016, regarding sightings of apparent living pterosaurs: just a sampling of some of the contents of some reports sent to me in 2016. For a few more accounts of encounters reported in this year, see: “Recent Pterosaur Sighting Reports in the United States of America.”

Keep in mind that these reports were received in 2016, meaning not all of them were of encounters with “pterodactyls” in this year. It’s always been common for some eyewitnesses to report sightings that they had in previous years, some encounters even being many years previous to the time of reporting to me.

Credibility Concepts

When I publish a sighting report on this blog, please don’t assume that I am portraying the individual sighting account as being 100% certain to have been from an encounter with a modern living pterosaur, or even close to 100% certain. I generally publish reported sightings that I feel are over 50% likely to have been from a non-extinct pterosaur (more likely than not).

The critical point about credibility is in the overall picture. By the end of 2012, I had compiled 128 sighting reports, with details that included at least some of the following (a small sampling):

Certain about the lack of feathers (yes or no)
Probably no feathers (as opposed to certain)
Location of sighting
Length of tail
Wingspan
General time of day or night
Number of eyewitnesses
Length of sighting in seconds
Presence or absence of a long neck
Presence or absence of teeth
Presence or absence of a head crest
” ” ” of a structure at end of tail

Please be aware that many of the above points were volunteered by eyewitnesses rather than answers given in response to any detailed questions I may have asked.

The overall point is this: My firm believe in modern living pterosaurs comes from the practical impossibility that none of those 128 sighting reports were from a non-extinct pterosaur. Each report was chosen because I felt it was probably from an encounter with a live pterosaur, therefore it is mathematically impossible, from my perspective, that all of those 128 reports were from non-pterosaurs.

Of course a person can have whatever opinion he or she chooses regarding the possibility that not all species of these wonderful flying creatures are extinct. But to be objective or scientific, in any degree, one needs to rely on more than just pseudo-religious adherence to the old dogma of universal extinctions of general types of animals: One must allow for the possibility that some of these pterosaur sighting reports are valid and come from encounters with modern pterosaurs.

Names Given by Eyewitnesses

A person reporting a sighting to me—that person may use one of the following expressions:

pterodactyl
featherless bird
primitive flying creature
dinosaur bird
dragon
prehistoric bird
featherless flying creature
flying dinosaur

It seems to me that the choice of words used by an eyewitness has little if any relevance to the report. Critical details, however, are in the descriptions of the flying creature observed.

A Few Particular Reports of Pterosaur Sightings

Here are a few of the reports I received in 2016, with only partial quoting:

Eastern Kansas, about twenty miles south of Kansas City

My name is _____ and I wanted to share a sighting of what appeared to be a freaking pterodactyl.

It happened [two] years ago, but it has really bothered me since then. I had to share it with someone.

It was just after 8 a.m. on a weekday morning, 2 years ago.

It had a long head, huge leathery wings…I mean huge…huge wings. and a tail. Seemed to be greyish/green. No feathers.

Highway 84, Oregon, September 13, 2016

I was driving in the early afternoon and saw a large “bird” flying across the freeway from the left. I yelled out to my husband that was the biggest “bird” I had ever seen! I said it must be a crane, but it looks like a pterodactyl! It was matte dark grey/black with a crest on its head and a triangular shape on its tail. I believe it was at least 5 feet long.

. . . [On getting home] I began to look up “black cranes” on the Internet. I did not see a single bird that looked like what I saw. . . . I looked up Pelicans, and they are in that area of Oregon, however, none of the pictures are anywhere close to what I saw. It was much bigger and darker. No feathers.

Bethany, Oklahoma

. . . on two occasions have seen a huge winged creature that had no feathers, gray leathery skin. It looked like the pictures I have seen of pteradactyls. About one year ago and then two weeks ago (my daughter was with me that time) both times driving down route 66 between El Reno and Yukon. Both times were around 2 am.

The first time I turned the corner onto route 66 off of Manning Drive and it was right in front of my windshield of my truck and flew up with a big shwoosh. Then the 2nd time it was flying very low to the ground and disappeared into a wooded area off the road in the same area.

Lansing, Illinois, 1968

I was seventeen in 1968. It was late spring and I went outside my residence . . . I noticed there was little or no breeze and everything seemed ‘still’. As I started to my neighbors house I caught a glimpse of something in the eastern sky just behind me. I stopped, looked up and there just above the trees about 100 feet past was this Pterosaur! I couldn’t believe it.

It fanned its bat-like wings moderately as it went by and I didn’t know what to do – so I yelled as loud as I could at it. It turned its head and opened its mouth and when I saw the rows of big teeth, I shuttered and wondered if I’d have to get under a car or something! It traveled straight west as I watched it disappear over the horizon. The thing was greyish blue and had a red nob on its head with the rest of the head being a duller red.

Columbia River (from Oregon side) – many pterosaur sightings in this area

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Pterodactyl Sightings in the United States

I’m not a professor of paleontology. To be brief, I was a forensic videographer in 2003, when I began investigating these eyewitness accounts of “prehistoric” flying creatures or “dragons.” I recognized, while viewing some amateur video footage, the credibility of natives who were interviewed on a tropical island in the southwest Pacific.

Pterosaur Sighting in Kansas

I received a message the other day, through one of my blogs: two eyewitnesses of an apparent “dragon” flying overhead at night. Here is part of the report . . .

Pterosaur Sightings in Oregon and in Oklahoma

Before getting into these recent encounters with “pterodactyls” or “dragons,” as some call them, I’d like to express my gratitude that this blog now has received over 200,000 views worldwide, over the years.

Pterosaur Sightings in Kansas, Illinois, etc.

I recently learned about an investigator who is compiling pterosaur sighting reports, of encounters in the United States. I encourage such research.

Sighting of a pterosaur in Oklahoma

A few days ago I received the following report from an Oklahoma family. The father and his 12-year old daughter, Nu, had a daylight sighting of what they thought looked like a pterosaur.

Dragon Sighting and Modern Pterosaurs

The “dragon” sighting in Switzerland, by Christopher Schorerum, may be related to modern sightings of certain flying lights. I mentioned this in the second edition of Live Pterosaurs in America . . .

August 12, 2016

Ropen Sightings – Importance of Eyewitness Testimony

reef area off the coast of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

How grateful I am for those who bravely step forward and report what they have encountered! Americans and other Westerners have a special challenge, for it’s difficult to say that you’ve seen a living pterosaur, whether you call it pterodactyl, ropen, dinosaur bird, or dragon. It’s difficult to report what you saw because it’s easy for skeptics to carelessly dismiss the account and declare that you are either insane or a liar.

It’s not that all or most scientists consider a modern pterosaur absolutely impossible. I’ve encountered the words of a number of critics of our investigations in cryptozoology, over the past thirteen years, and a common ending to the more-lengthy of their blog posts or online articles is something like this:

Even if one species of pterosaur is found to be still living, it would not disprove our standard models of science, and it would not prove that the earth is young.

In other words, they’re trying to protect something.

Improper Approach to Eyewitness Testimonies

Let’s confine ourselves to reports of modern pterosaurs in general, even though the great majority of sightings are probably of ropens, the featherless flying creatures my associates and I believe are Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs.

Beware of generalizing to protect an old assumption. How easily can a skeptic declare that eyewitnesses see common birds or common bats but imagine pterosaurs! How easily that skeptic may criticize a cryptozoologist for being so gullible as to believe that the eyewitness saw an actual pterosaur! How easily might people be influenced by a skeptic who has a diploma in paleontology and who ridicules a cryptozoologist! The most common form of criticism we have encountered is a very brief rejection notice, sometimes without any reference to any particular sighting. Some persons just want to protect the old dogma of what I call universal extinction, the assumption of the demise of all pterosaurs by many millions of years ago.

Not all paleontologists, professional or amateur, always generalize in criticizing modern sightings of pterosaurs. Sometimes a paleontologist will write a long article that appears to be formed primarily to discredit the idea that any pterosaurs are still living. The lengthy article may give examples of sightings, yet the ones mentioned are hardly the most credible ones. It reminds me of the classic straw-man argument: Quickly construct a man made of straw the then tear him to pieces, proclaiming that you have won an important battle.

I don’t mean that all paleontologists who have written lengthy criticisms of living-pterosaur investigations have always been constructing complete straw-men to knock down. They may give reasonable causes to reject certain accounts or reports but the ones they have chosen appear to be the least credible ones, not the reports most commonly written about by me and my associates. In other words, they go through our gym lockers, or a locker of one of our friends, pulling out the most ugly pieces of clothing, and then proclaiming that we are unworthy to run in the race (regardless of how well we look in the clothing we are now wearing). That is improper.

Web Site by Glen J. Kuban

“Living Pterodactyls” is copyrighted 2004-2013, although much of it seems outdated: To me, in mid-2016, it appears little different from what it was like quite a few years ago, at least in regard to the essentials. This is a very long online article, about thirty paragraphs, highly critical of the possibility that any pterosaur has survived into the present day. Yet look at what Mr. Kuban inserts at the bottom, at the very end of his very lengthy article that was put together to discourage any belief in the possibility of modern pterosaurs, for that ending seems to be playing a different tune:

If living pterosaurs were someday confirmed, it would be a wonderful scientific discovery, but do nothing to undermine mainstream geology.

In other words, he’s trying to protect something.

So with all those thirty paragraphs, how many specific sighting reports or accounts are actually mentioned?

Railway-tunnel account of 1856
Flying light reported by American Carl Baugh (1990’s)
Gideon drawing a sketch in the dirt, Umboi Island (2004)
Flying light reported by David Woetzel (2004)
Female missionary pilot, Umboi Island (mid-1980’s)
Shooting a giant pterodactyl in Arizona (late 1800’s)

He does mention many generalities about sightings, but the above six appear to be the only specific ones by particular eyewitnesses in particular locations.

Be aware that Brian Switek wrote a long *criticism of living-pterosaur investigations, mentioning the following:

“Glen Kuban has also posted a thorough summary . . .”

In other words, Mr. Switek appears to assume that Kuban’s article makes a valid case against living pterosaurs. I have found it to be far from that. “Living Pterodactyls?” avoids the numerous credible eyewitness accounts and is significantly outdated. Switek is correct in the use of the word “thorough” only in the sense that it is very lengthy and keeps to the objective of discouraging people from believing in modern pterosaurs.

After spending over 10,000 hours, over the past thirteen years, on sightings of modern pterosaurs, I have concluded that the number of persons worldwide who have, in their lifetimes, had some kind of encounter with a living pterosaur—that is probably between 7 million and 128 million persons. What about Kuban? Writing one long article to discourage people from believing in those animals, and including only six accounts of such encounters, apparently the least credible—that is far from the best approach to eyewitness testimonies. I am sorry that Mr. Kuban has not deleted that outdated and misleading page.

*The Switek article, “Don’t Get Strung Along by the Ropen Myth,” was published on the Smithsonian site in 2010, and it also has significant weaknesses.

Proper Approach to Eyewitness Testimonies

Why not listen to the eyewitnesses themselves, especially those who reports are more credible? The following are a few of many who can be found by searching online:

Patty Carson (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
Eskin Kuhn ” ” “
Duane Hodgkinson (near Finschhafen, New Guinea)
Brian Hennessy (Bougainville Island, New Guinea)
Evelyn Cheesman (flying lights in New Guinea)
Steven Cottingham (flying light on Umboi Island)
David Woetzel ” ” ” ” “
Joshua Gates (flying light in Papua New Guinea)
Jonah Jim (native of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea)
Gideon Koro (Umboi Island)
Mesa Agustin ” “
Wesley Koro ” “

Note that some of the above refer to sightings of one or more flying lights, which my associates and I believe are the bioluminescence of living pterosaurs, especially ropens.

Evelyn Cheesman was a British biologist who often explored in New Guinea or other areas of the south Pacific. She witnessed some strange flying lights on the mainland of New Guinea (what is now probably in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea). We believe that these were from flying creatures related to the ropen of Umboi Island, perhaps even the same species. She was convinced that the lights were not from any human agency.

Steven Cottingham was a government official, responsible for Umboi Island around the early 1970’s. He witnessed a flying light at Lab Lab, Umboi Island, a light that we have no doubt was also from a bioluminescent ropen.

The coast of Umboi Island, PNG (photo by Jonathan Whitcomb)

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Cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition

Please support this research by purchasing your own copy of the above nonfiction paperback. The following is only a partial listing, a small fraction of the locations mentioned in this large paperback, places where these featherless flying creatures have been seen and reported (taken from the first part of the index of the book):

Africa (many)
Alabama, USA
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Antwerp, Ohio
Anza Borrego Desert Park, California
Appalachian Mountains (eastern USA)
Arizona
Arkansas
Arot Village, Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea
Asheville, North Carolina
Athens, Georgia, USA
Atlanta, Georgia
Auburn, Maine
Auckland, New Zealand
Austin, Texas
Australia (many)
Bad Axe, Michigan
Benicassim, Spain
Big Island of Hawaii
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, England
Bitoi Village, Papua New Guinea
Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Brisbane, Australia
British Columbia, Canada
Bunsil Station, Umboi Island, PNG
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
. . . . .

You can purchase this cryptozoology book on Amazon.

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Ropen – Featherless Flying Creature

It’s not [so shocking] that one man reported two featherless flying creatures that should not be living within the past 65 million years. The most shocking truth is this: Every day, at least one person somewhere in the world has some kind of encounter with a living pterosaur. After communicating with eyewitnesses from around the world, over the past thirteen years, and spending over 10,000 hours on this investigation, I have come to believe that these encounters happen every day.

Bioluminescent Ropen

American cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb believes the ropen of Umboi is related to the “Gitmo Pterosaur” of Cuba.

Cryptozoology Book – Dinosaur Birds

“He has focused on the accounts of witnesses who saw something, and that adds credibility. The writing is easy to read and he adds comments and analysis to make it all more useful. Mostly, the author lets the sightings speak for themselves, which is good. A worthwhile book.” [book review: Live Pterosaurs in America]

Bioluminescent Pterosaurs

. . . several pages from the book “The Two Roads of Papua,” by Evelyn Cheesman . . . I was delighted that Muirhead found this book, for it gives details of E.C.’s observations and deliberations on the strange lights near the village of Mondo. [probably related to] “ropen light,” similar to the lights seen on Umboi Island.

July 16, 2016

Recent Pterosaur Sighting Reports in the United States of America

Mansfield, Ohio, pterosaur sighting - eyewitness's sketch of the apparent pterodactyl

You don’t need to go on an expedition to Papua New Guinea to see a modern pterosaur including a long-tailed featherless ropen. For generations, Americans have been encountering these shocking flying creatures, and the sightings continue. The following are a few of the recently reported encounters with pterosaurs in the USA. As has been usual, not all of the reports are of recent sightings; they’re just recently reported.

At least some of these sighting reports have been slightly edited for spelling, punctuation, etc., and at least most of them are here given only in part.

Pterosaur Sighting in Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1996 (reported mid-July, 2016)

When I was about 8 years old, living on a farm in Edgerton, WI, I remember looking up and seeing a large flying creature. Something seemed odd about it and after a second or two I realized it had a long, whippy tail, not at all like a bird. I watched it fly across the sky until it was out of sight and will never forget what I saw. I know it wasn’t any bird I’ve heard of before, that tail was just, wrong. It had a bulb at the end of it . . . [Apparent ropen]

Mansfield, Ohio, area (sighting in late June of 2016)

. . . I was on Stiving Road [probably northwest of Mansfield]. It was [about] 4:10 to 4:20 a.m. The sky was still pretty dark. I saw on the left . . . a creature flying toward the Mansfield Airport area.

Its head shape was like a stick at [approximately] a 45° angle. I could see its body and feet but not its wings because of the side view and to me it looked like a petrasaur [pterosaur].

This was the first time I have ever seen anything like this. . . . Here’s a picture I drew of an [approximation] of what I saw.

Sketch drawn by the eyewitness – note unusual angle of the head/head-crest to the body

I (Jonathan Whitcomb) had a phone conversation with the eyewitness of the above flying creature and found no significant problem with his credibility. He was about 200-250 yards away from the apparent pterosaur. He could say nothing about the presence or absence of a tail.

Near Loganville, Georgia, around mid-June of 2016

Like many sighting reports, this one was sent to Jonathan Whitcomb by email.

[Received early on July 16, 2016] . . . very late about a month ago just outside of Loganville, Georgia. On Centerville/Rosebud Road. . . . we saw this huge bird fly from her side up and away to my side (driver side). It didn’t have any feathers or fur on the wings and you could see the bones in the wings like a bat only this was as large as the hood of my truck. It also appeared to have a tail that was kind of hanging down but slightly curled up as it flew.

. . . My wife said she immediately thought of Jurassic Park. We did not see the head as it was flying away at an angle. Researched a lot of birds on Google but a pterodactyl is the only thing that looks like it. [Possible ropen]

Pterosaur Sighting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in early 1980’s

This report of a daytime sighting comes from a comment on one of my YouTube videos (only slightly edited).

One flew right over our heads and landed in my mom’s field across the creek. . . . He was no more than ten feet directly above us, but I think it was closer to five. [It] feels like I could have jumped and touched him! His wing span was 15-17 feet.

Very distinctive kite point on the end of his cat like tail. No feathers, fur or anything. Skin was like dusty black leather, feet were pulled up, black, long pointed black nails. I didn’t see the top of his head or his back well before he landed. . . . [Very likely a ropen]

Never really publicly posted my encounter before so I thought I should get the info out there so someone can use it.

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Ropen pterosaur sightings

Live Pterosaurs in America and Searching for Ropens and Finding God—those are the two major nonfiction cryptozoology books about non-extinct “pterodactyls” that include the long-tailed ropen.

Eyewitness of a ropen

“Pterodactyl” was the word used for the ropen of Papua New Guinea. The American Duane Hodgkinson, a World War II veteran, gives us the shocking details about the encounter the two soldiers had with the huge flying creature in 1944. This professional-quality YouTube interview was done by the cryptozoology-explorer Garth Guessman and edited by Jonathan Whitcomb.

Frightening Pterosaur Sightings in the USA

California (two)

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Texas (two)

Wisconsin

Fear of the flying creature is only one kind of terror with encounters between human and pterosaur in the United States of America. Sometimes the eyewitness is frightened not during but after the sighting and not for fear of the creature itself: It’s fear of personal insanity.

Pterodactyl Sighting

Peter Beach and Milt Marcy, both of the Portland area of Oregon, led an expedition in Papua New Guinea, in March and April of 2015, searching for a living pterosaur that previous American explorers had failed to see clearly. This time Americans did see, in daylight, the form and features of an apparent pterosaur.

Ropen Sightings

“The Big Picture of Modern Pterosaurs”

“Reply to Misidentification Conjectures”

“Rhamphorhynchoid Pterosaurs and Ropens”

etc.

June 21, 2016

Pterosaur Sighting In Northern New York

William Lashomb, a retired police officer, sent me an email on June 9, 2016, concerning his sighting of a long-tailed featherless creature that flew (about 10-15 years ago) over the Grass River in Massena. This is near the border with Canada, about fifty miles southeast of Ottawa. Within a few days, we had a long phone conversation, and I found this eyewitness to be highly credible. I believe he witnessed a ropen.

Only more recently has he investigated what he may have observed, and he found some of my web pages.

He has no problem revealing his name (William Lashomb), although he would not have done so when he was still a police officer. He was on duty that day, at around 3:30-4:00 p.m., at the Parker Avenue Bridge, which spans the Grass River.

He had just finished talking with a driver who had parked on or near that bridge. He looked upstream at what he thought, at first, was an approaching bird, but as the creature got closer, flying downstream over the middle of the river, Officer Lashomb realized it was very strange:

gray, bulbous head
no feathers
“with long spade tail”

The head had a short (“fat”) kind of parrot-like front part, NOT long like one or more of the sketches he has recently seen on one or more of my web pages. The flying creature had a light-greenish-gray color, with a wingspan of about five feet. It was nothing like any of the birds that the officer was familiar with in that area.

There was a “spade” at the end of the tail. This description I have found common, and my associates and I believe people are describing a Rhamphorhynchoid tail flange. The following are some of the words eyewitnesses use for it:

diamond
triangle
spade
heart-shape
bulge

Although some skeptics have dismissed the long tails as misidentified long legs, some eyewitnesses make it clear that this is not the case, some of them even going into detail in differentiating legs that were held alongside the long tail.

I see no reason to doubt that it was a ropen that Officer Lashomb had observed on that summer afternoon in Massena, New York, years ago. It flew only about 15-20 feet high and passed him on one side, as he stood on the bridge observing the creature. It then flew down to only a few feet above the surface of the river. The sighting lasted maybe 30-40 seconds, although Lashomb admitted he cannot say exactly how long it was.

The flight was mostly gliding, not very fast but “cruising” at a good pace. It did flap its wings briefly on occasion.

One of the rivers in or near Massena, New York state (photo by Doug Kerr)

How important it is to take this sighting report in context with other sightings in this area of North America, sightings on the continent as a whole, and sightings around the world! And eyewitnesses continue to come forward with reports from many years ago, in recent years, and very recently.

From the fourth edition of my nonfiction book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (page 177):

“I saw something that I almost couldn’t believe and the pictures of pterodactyls are the only thing that comes close to what I saw last week. I live in NYC . . . Me and my cousin both saw it at 6:30 p.m. in the clear bright sky. It came very very close. We were both in shock.”

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Living Pterosaurs in the United States

In the Northeast (east of Buffalo, New York), a “pterodactyl” was seen. I received this email in mid-2007, just weeks after the sighting . . . “a very strange creature that we had both thought to be a prehistoric bird. Immediately, I thought ‘pterodactyl.’”

Long Tail of the Ropen

The Fiery Flying Serpent of the Bible may have been a long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoid, related to the modern-day ropen. Some ancient reports of long-tailed flying dragons may be of similar species of modern pterosaur, in earlier human history. But for now let’s consider the more recent encounters with these apparent pterosaurs.

Pterosaur Sightings in the United States

Each report used in the data compilation was considered more likely than not to have come from an actual encounter with a modern living pterosaur. If a report appeared to have been probably from something other than a sighting of an actual living pterosaur, that report was left out, and the data was never included in the database.

Live Pterodactyls in the USA

I was a forensic videographer in 2003, when I began investigating these eyewitness accounts of “prehistoric” flying creatures or “dragons.” I recognized, while viewing some amateur video footage, the credibility of natives who were interviewed on a tropical island in the southwest Pacific. Since 2003, I have spent well over 10,000 hours researching, interviewing, exploring, and writing—all within this narrow field of cryptozoology.