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Frigate Birds Are Not Ropens

How unfortunate for living-pterosaur investigations that some recent web pages display photos of Frigate birds as if they were living pterosaurs! Those daylight-loving feathered soarers look hardly anything like ropens, or long-tailed modern pterosaurs. Let’s consider a photo of a Frigate bird, then compare it with the sketch by the U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn (which he drew soon after his sighting in 1971 in Cuba). This deserves careful attention, please.

Notice the huge size of the ropen head. (I say “ropen” because that is the name becoming common in at least some English-speaking countries.) Notice the ropen’s head crest. Notice the depth of the wings (distance from cutting-edge to trailing-edge of wing). Notice the bone structure visible because of the lack of feathers. How little this creature resembles the common Frigate bird!

Eskin Kuhn's sketch of pterosaur that fly over a military base in Cuba
Sketch by Eskin Kuhn: 1971 sighting in Cuba

Addendum: The sighting of two pterosaurs, in Cuba in 1971, by the marine Eskin Kuhn, deserves a brief summary here. On a hot day, with clear visibility, at the Guantanamo Bay military station, he was looking out towards the sea. He saw two flying creatures–obvious pterosaurs–flying not far away. Being a gifted artist, he soon thereafter sketched what he has seen. He later wrote many details about that day and about what he had seen. He has maintained the truthfulness of his account, despite ridicule and disbelief from skeptics. The combination of long-tail and head-crest have been vindicated, for subsequent years of investigations and interviews, with eywitnesses from a number of countries around the world, verify this otherwise strange combination: a giant Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur with a head crest (“long” and “pointed” and words that might be used for some of the head crests observed).

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Pterosaur Fossils

How incredible those many flocks of pterosaurs must have been! With all the varieties known from fossils, those flying wonders must have been dazzling: short-tailed Pterodactyloids and long-tailed Rhamphornynchoids. Yet how few Americans are aware of the serious investigations that have delved into the reports of live pterosaurs in the United States!

Part of the problem involves assumptions: assuming “science” tells us that all dinosaurs and all pterosaurs became extinct many millions of years ago. I once started to talk with a kindergardner about living pterosaurs. I hardly got started with the word “pterosaur,” when he interupted with, “A comet.” How deeply this universal extinction dogma has been injected into our mentalities!

Have I really spent years of my life in vain, vainly writing about eyewitness accounts of living pterosaurs? My interviews with eyewitnesses—those fill much of the contents of my books. Are they really of no account because fossils tell us that all species of pterosaurs must have become extinct long ago? If there really is evidence in the fossils (and supposed lack of “recent” fossils), then it should hold up under scrutiny: Paleontologists, however, (including Darren Naish and Glen Kuban) seem unable or unwilling to answer the objection about dating those fossils, for the dating includes the assumption that all those fossils must be many millions of years old.

Assumptions, when they are treated as if facts, can get us into trouble and that has happened with standard-model interpretations pterosaur fossils. Too many paleontologists, for too long, have held on dogmatically to the assumption of ancient extinctions of all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. That dogmatism is a big part of the problem.

Standard-model procedures in dating strata include the evaluation of types of fossils contained therein. In other words, should a pterosaur fossil be found in a formation, that layer would be dated in millions of years old, just because it contained a pterosaur fossil. Is that only a recent procedure? If you call the ninteenth century “recent,” then yes. But if all those fossils of pterosaurs are actually comparatively recent themselves, then all of those many datings (at millions of years old) have been in vain, spoiling the soup with methodically-minced cockroaches.

Listen to the experiences of many eyewitnesses, even if it means turning the attention away from the imaginations of many professors. Human experience, in the end, is the foundation of science.

Various Names for “Pterosaur”

Whether reported in the United States of America or elsewhere, “pterosaur” is not the only word that comes to mind when someone sees a strange featherless flying creature that is not a bat; but that is the technically correct word. Let’s consider those other names: “flying dinosaur,” “pterodactyl,” “ropen,” and “dinosaur bird.”

Flying Dinosaur (actually, pterosaurs are not really dinosaurs)

Called by some Americans “flying dinosaurs,” pterosaurs, in modern times, appear to be at least somewhat rare, for they are rarely reported by eyewitnesses.

Pterodactyl

“Pterosaurs,” the technically correct name for what many call “pterodactyls,” are known by Western scientists through their fossils. Textbooks and children’s books declare that they all became extinct many millions of years ago. . . . But where is the evidence for the extinction of all pterosaurs?

According to one news report, strange featherless flying creatures fly over a valley in the center of New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea.

Ropen

A man who was taking a walk with his wife near Perth, Australia, in December, 1997. . . . “In the distance I perceived an object in the sky. . . . I watched it as it approached. . . . It was some sort of flying creature, and my first thought was that it must be some very large bird . . . Within a minute or so it had reached our position and was about 250 or 300 feet above us . . . 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. The wings were the most definite leathery feature, they were shaped in a triangular arch, similar to a very elongated shark fin . . . [I] estimated the size to be in excess of thirty foot, possibly as great as fifty foot.”

Dinosaur Bird (Google searches were in mid-July, 2010)

How do you spell “pterosaur?” Some eyewitnesses may search on Google with “flying creature” or “dinosaur bird.” That is unfortunate, for those searches, with those words, will bring up many irrelevant pages, not likely pages of the cryptozoology researchers who have specialized in modern living pterosaurs.

Extinction or Near-Extinction: What Distinction?

I have watched many science documentaries. How often does a documentary proclaim the extinction of dinosaurs “65 million years ago,” as if datings were from a verifiable measurement or extinctions were from a verifiable observation! Dinosaurs were not a species. “Dinosaur” is a general word for countless species; likewise for “pterosaur.” Who can dispute the idea that there were dinosaur and pterosaur species for which we have not yet discovered fossils? Perhaps nobody disputes that idea. Yet how rarely is the consequence acknowledged by any scientist! The point is this: There is a world of difference between extinction and near-extinction. It is the difference between death and life.

Consider this obvious conclusion: Fossils, at best, can give us only a limited understanding of what species have lived in the past. I don’t belittle what paleontologists can learn about particular organisms that left fossils; but the subject is extinction, and nothing, absolutely nothing, in all the fossils (in all the laboratories, universities, and museums of the world) can give us any sure knowledge about the extinction of even one species. Since fossils cannot prove even one species extinct, what about the many species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs?

How did we come to believe that they are extinct? I don’t dispute the general concept of dinosaur and pterosaur extinction, for the many species for which we have fossils does suggest those wonderful creatures were once common. But I dispute the dogmatic indoctrination of universal extinctions of general categories, in particular “dinosaur” and “pterosaur.” Why should we believe that all those species are forever gone? Simple it is. We rarely hear or read about human encounters with dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Why? It’s not that nobody ever encounters a dinosaur or a pterosaur. In some remote areas of the earth, people are not astonished by the encounters (although they are often scared by them), for the existence of certain rare creatures is common knowledge. The problem lies in Western society, for we have been indoctrinated into the belief in universal extinctions, so any report of a living dinosaur or pterosaur is met with skepticsm.

It is actually more complicated, however. The rarity of some species (especially nocturnal, seclusive, or remote ones) has made observations rare. But a critical cause has been a combination of partial extinctions and near-extinctions, which has mimicked universal extinction. Many species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs have surely become extinct at some time in the past; those still living are mostly either rare, nocturnal, seclusive, or remote (or some combination). Whether one believes in worldwide destruction 65 million years ago or a few thousand years ago (Noah’s Flood), the possibility of near-extinction, as opposed to absolute extinction, of a species must be taken into account.

My specialty is eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, so let’s push aside the dinosaurs. Fossils cannot give us any indication of extinction, but eyewitnesses can give us testimony evidence of life. The many testimonies, from the mid-twentieth century into the early twenty-first century in particular, suggest apparent Rhamphorhynchoids may be more common than apparent Pterodactyloids. I suggest considering individual eyewitness accounts, comparing them with other accounts of apparent pterosaurs. I have done this for years, and it has been rewarding, thrilling beyond words. I invite you to learn more about these accounts of what  are described as wonderful creatures (though sometimes frightening) that live and fly in the present.

South Carolina flying creature (long-tailed pterosaur)

Cryptozoology Book (nonfiction) about pterosaurs living in North America

Pterosaur Extinction or non-extinction

“Radar Criticism” of Live Pterosaurs

Less common than most objections, the “radar criticism” of modern pterosaurs is easily refuted. Regardless of how often specific airport radars pick up flocks of birds, how would an operator deal with a blip that was made by a live pterosaur? Remember, blips have no labels; they’re interpreted according to common interpretations. Then how could any radar operator report a living pterosaur?

One critic pointed out that a radar system can “spot a flock of birds, yet no pterosaurs ever.” Where did the critic get that idea? There is no hardware or software that signals “no pterosaur” on the radar screen; there is no radar-procedure for concluding that no blip from a live pterosaur ever appeared on a particular radar screen. Radar systems are not put together to disprove live pterosaurs; it’s not their function.

To illustrate the nonsense of the radar objection, what if an airport radar system picked up the flight of a large pterosaur? How would “pterosaur” ever enter the mind of the radar operator? Even if the operator heard a report that somebody had seen what he only observed as a blip, and they had seen an obvious pterosaur, and they had immediately reported the pterosaur sighting to the airport tower, how could the operator report anything other than an unusual blip?

The idea that radars disprove the existence of living pterosaurs is ludicrous.

Eyewitness Fear

On pages 23 of my non-fiction book Live Pterosaurs in America, the eyewitness DF (anonymous) said, “The threat felt from this thing is what bothers me the most. Once . . . I encountered a cougar . . . That did not scare me. This thing did.” She is not alone.

In late 2004, I interviewed three eyewitnesses in a remote village near Lake Pung (Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea). Gideon Koro, and his brother Wesley, appeared calm during their interviews; they admitted that they were afraid during their sighting (they were with friends, including Mesa Augustin, at Lake Pung). Mesa, however, stood almost petrified as I videotaped and questioned him. I came to realize that he was still frightened, ten years after his encounter with the ropen.

But for most eyewitnesses of pterosaurs (or apparent pterosaurs) in the United States, the fear is not of the creature: People fear ridicule, for observing a living pterosaur, in our culture, is taboo. That makes the investigations challenging for me and my associates who interview eyewitnesses.

“Unlike Pterosaur Fossils” Objection

Eskin Kuhn's sketch of pterosaur that fly over a military base in Cuba
Sketch by Eskin Kuhn: 1971 sighting in Cuba

On occasion, I encounter an objection similar to this: “The eyewitness descriptions are different from fossils.” In other words, pterosaurs thought to have lived millions of years ago (according to standard models) did not have both long tails and head crests; also, long-tailed ones were not giants. But the objection that modern pterosaurs should not look like what is described—that point of view is plagued by a number of problems. It’s now time to put silly objections to rest and bury dogmatic universal-extinction ideas.

First, both the believers in standard models and the believers in Biblical creation accept the kinds of evolution that involve changes in size. Giant Rhamphorhynchoids (long-tailed pterosaurs) in modern times is not refuted by an absence of giant fossils. In addition, the largest ones could have been too rare to have left many fossils.

Second, fossils do not prove that no Rhamphorhynchoids ever had a head crest; in fact, at least one species is known to have had a head crest, at least a small one. A head crest in a modern giant long-tailed pterosaur is not what is revolutionary, for head crests can grow with age, as creatures grow.

But most important is the concept that many species of pterosaurs could have lived in the past, without leaving any fossil that we have yet discovered. The concept that a species that used to be rare somehow managed to survive (while others that left us more fossils, became extinct) and spread over parts of the earth–that concept alone seems reasonable enough to answer this objection.

Shallow thinking seems to be behind this objection, at least sometimes, for the critic’s explanation is that people are making up stories and putting together descriptions from different ideas that they have about pterosaurs in general. But that accusation involves a common knowledge about those characteristics of pterosaurs, and eyewitnesses come from different countries, from different cultures, from different educational backgrounds. Why would natives on Umboi Island describe a long tail on a giant featherless creature? They are not taught about pterosaurs in their tiny schools. And why would Westerners all make the same mistakes about giant size and long tails? These two characteristics are far too common to be a combination of hoaxes among people of different countries.

Circular Reasoning: Example #2

I have encountered criticisms something like this: “If pterosaurs were still living, we would have seen them before now.” Part of the problem with that reasoning is that the critic seems to assume that he personally would have encountered news of living pterosaurs earlier in his life, had there been any truth to it. (If he had read about eyewitness accounts throughout his life, he would not object to it now.) How subjective! It is hardly a scientific objection.

And if the critic meant that there should be older reports to go with recent reports, well . . . pay attention, please. Some of the recent reports are of sightings decades ago; other reports are examinations of apparent sightings centuries ago, with labels that include “dragon.” Accounts of living creatures with features that suggest various species of pterosaurs–those accounts flow through history, up to the first decade of the 21st Century.

Beware of potential circular reasoning in this objection to the possibility of living pterosaurs: “Nobody can see a living pterosaur because they are extinct; pterosaurs are extinct because nobody can see one.”