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Shocking Pterodactyl Sighting in Nevada

By Jonathan David Whitcomb, executive director of Animal Discovery

I was delighted to receive a long email early in October of 2021 from a man in a rural area of Nevada. His close encounter with a huge ropen one night apparently relates to missing and killed animals on nearby farms.

desert in Nevada, snow on mountains in background

(generic desert photo in Nevada)

Here is part of his first email to me:

“I found you after something amazing [happened] tonight . . . somewhere in … Nevada … These creatures are big enough and defensive enough to pose a genuine and serious threat to life …”

“Approximately 9:20 pm Saturday, 02 October, 2021 (tonight) … While studying … on the computer in the garage, I heard something very heavy land on the tin roof … Quickly, I turned off the lights. And, quietly, and very carefully I opened the door and went outside. . . .”

“The garage’s roofline measures 26 ft wide. This creature’s wingspan spread wider by about 2 feet on each side and its wingtip flapped within about 4 feet of my head as I opened the door. . . . its wing appeared nearly light/tan/brown/sandy on the topside, but more the color of the night sky underneath. . . .”

“The wingtip didn’t look like feathers, but it looked very much like a gigantic bat’s wing. . . . It makes an audible whooh whooh whooh sound of much air moved as its mighty wings power it at takeoff and climbing, then starting to flap slower as it gets about 50 or 60 yards above the terrain (or at least this big one did). . . .”

“Over the past few weeks, many of my neighbor’s barn cats disappeared (neighbor to the north). Something at night has been eating her cats. Every few nights I hear a cat screaming its last breath trying to fend off something, which kills it very quickly.”

At first, I thought it might be coyotes or a ranch dog loose at night. But, when I realized I haven’t heard or seen coyotes for quite a while now (very unusual). And, when she asked me to look around for tracks, I found no coyote tracks or dog tracks, or tracks of any kind. Only tracks of her barn cat tracks and some chickadee and quail tracks. And, while eagles and owls often land on their prey while leaving no tracks, you see wing tracks/markings when they get a jackrabbit (we saw only 1 this year, which is very unusual). . . .”

by Jonathan Whitcomb "Searching for Ropens and Finding God"

The most complete nonfiction book on sightings of modern pterosaurs: Searching for Ropens and Finding God (fourth edition)

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Pterodactyl Kills Chickens and House Cats in Nevada

A particular modern pterosaur has now been tied to chicken loses in both central Utah and in Nevada. Earlier in October of 2021 I gave it the name “Draper Ropen”, and it was last seen in a rural neighborhood of Nevada on October 2, 2021. It has also been killing barn cats in that same farming community.

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Best Youtube playlist for newcomers to pterodactyl sightings

For those who have not yet been introduced to the videos of the channel “Protect Animal Life”, this is the best playlist: some of the finest and most popular modern-pterosaur videos.

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Modern pterodactyls promoted by a nonprofit organization

Jonathan Whitcomb now leads “Animal Discovery” as its first executive director, and ropens will be an important part.

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Popular ropen video on Youtube

See why this living-pterosaur video is among the most popular on the channel “Protect Animal Life” (interviewing J. Archer).

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Attack in the Dead of Winter

Does a pterodactyl pack hunt bats at night in southern Texas?

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Dinosaur book for children and teens

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur is a nonfiction book, but it’s not technically about dinosaurs: It’s a short cryptozoology book about apparent living pterosaurs. Let’s begin with a list of some of the benefits available to young readers . . .

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Pterodactyl Attacks

. . . many human deaths may have been caused by attacks from what some Native Americans in British Columbia call the “devil bird.”

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How many people see living pterodactyls?

"Were dragons real?" short video mini-documentary

By Jonathan Whitcomb, investigative journalist

The point is this: pterosaurs still living.

I’ve been investigating sightings of these flying creatures for sixteen years now, reported encounters with apparent living pterosaurs. Most of them have been in the United States. The estimated number of sightings suggests that ancient legends of dragons, seen around the world, may not have been based entirely on fictional accounts.

Various labels have been put onto these flying creatures:

  • dragon, a term used anciently but also in modern times
  • flying dinosaur, more common in recent generations
  • pterodactyl, used from the 19th century to the present
  • dinosaur bird, maybe more common in recent decades
  • ropen, more common after two expeditions in 2004
  • prehistoric bird, maybe more common in recent decades

I’ve received reports from a number of countries on five continents, yet most of the eyewitness reports have been from the USA, and they’re enough to now make an estimate that I believe is more accurate than my estimates in earlier years: how many Americans have seen a living pterosaur.

two pterosaurs sketched by Eskin Kuhn

Sketch by the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn

Introduction to the work in cryptozoology by Jonathan Whitcomb

My associates and I have helped each other a great deal over the years, although much of our work has been independent to a great deal. We each draw our own conclusions about these amazing flying creatures, yet we agree on many things.

I’ve spent well over 10,000 hours on my own investigation, probably more time than any other person now living. I know that some skeptics may not accept the following estimates, yet I disclose them now with confidence that they’re not very far off.

Estimated Number of Sightings of Pterosaurs in the United States

How many Americans now living have seen a modern pterosaur? The persons who had significant sightings in the USA probably number at least 150,000, although only 25% of those involved good-enough views of the animals to make it reasonable for the persons to tell one or more persons about it.

In other words, 37,500 Americans have told somebody something to the effect that they saw a flying creature that appeared more like a pterosaur than a bird or a bat, and 112,500 have not told anyone about seeing something that gave them the impression that it was a pterosaur. The combinations of those two types makes 150,000 Americans with significant sightings.

Those numbers fit well with the following three factors:

If many more persons had significant sightings, like many millions of Americans, these flying creatures would have been discovered before now and I would be swamped by eyewitness reports.

If only a few thousands of Americans had encounters, I would not have so many persons sending me sighting reports.

If only a few thousands of Americans had encounters, I we would not see so many reports that included references to other eyewitnesses who also had sightings. Consider Cynthia Lee, an eyewitness in Raleigh, North Carolina; she reported her own sighting and later reported that her mother and uncle also had a sighting many years earlier.

"Were dragons real?" short video mini-documentary

Youtube video “Were Dragons Real?”

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41 reported sightings of living pterosaurs in California

This video is mostly about seven reported sightings of huge featherless flying creatures, most of the encounters being in Southern California. Take it in context: forty-one reported encounters in California.

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American Dragon-Pterodactyl

In the summer of 1891, southeast of Fresno, several eyewitnesses reported two featherless flying creatures with wingspans of fifteen feet . . . two “dragons”

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How many persons have seen a living pterosaur?

As of early December of 2017, it seems that no scientist has a body of a recently-deceased pterosaur to examine, or at least I have no knowledge of such a discovery and examination. That’s why my associates and I continue to work in the realm of cryptozoology, using whatever knowledge is available.

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Dragon-pterodactyl in Los Angeles County

“Apparent relationship to a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur”

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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.