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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.

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

“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.