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Press Releases on Pterodactyl Sightings

Two ropens seen by a U.S. Marine at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

By Jonathan Whitcomb

Not all newspaper articles about one or more sightings of modern pterosaurs come from press releases, but some of them do. Consider the following three news releases:

Flying dinosaurs – Who believes they’re alive?

An author in Utah publishes a book: strange flying creatures.

Belief in “prehistoric” flying creatures in Papua New Guinea relates to culture more than to religion, according to nonfiction author Jonathan Whitcomb, of Murray, Utah.

Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT (1888PressRelease) November 20, 2014 – Do you believe in the possibility that long-tailed featherless flying creatures, much larger than any fruit bat, live in the jungles of Papua New Guinea? Your belief depends a great deal on where you lived your childhood: in a village like Gomlongon on Umboi Island or in a western country like the United States.

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Two ropens seen by a U.S. Marine at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

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Human Memory and Pterosaur Sightings

The passage of time from an encounter with a “pterodactyl” to the reporting of the sighting has limited relevance.

“Encountering a live ‘pterodactyl’ is unforgettable,”according to the cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb, of Long Beach, California. [In recent years he has lived in central Utah.]

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Pterosaurs Alive in Australia

A new nonfiction book discloses why many biologists in Western countries have failed to consider accumulating eyewitness reports of modern living pterosaurs, including those observed in Australia.

LONG BEACH, Calif/KSN/Oct 4, 2012 — According to the American nonfiction cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb, modern pterosaurs live not only in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, but in various parts of Australia.

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Pterodactyl Press Releases

1) Strange Flying Creatures Reported in Utah
2) Murray, Utah, Resident Seeks Eyewitnesses
3) Live Pterosaur in Georgia? (USA)

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Pterosaur eyewitnesses can be reliable and critics, unreliable

A typical remark from a critic, who replies to an account of an apparent extant pterosaur, is like this: “Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable.” . . . one thing that is even less reliable than direct eyewitness testimony . . . The critic is observing something in his or her imagination.

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Living pterodactyls in press releases

Where do these flying creatures appear [in North Carolina]? They have been reported in Raleigh, Durham, Asheville, Wilmington, and in other areas of N.C. . . .

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Evidence of Modern Pterosaurs or Ropens

When an animal dies, it begins to decay, usually soon looking little like its appearance during life. The vast majority of large wild animals in wilderness areas die and decay away before any person discovers the carcass. Ropens, and other modern pterosaurs, live in fewer numbers than many other creatures, leaving far fewer carcasses than common birds and mammals and reptiles.

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Videos about modern pterosaurs

Why do people around the world report seeing a long-tailed pterodactyl? It’s because ropens are nocturnal and rare but spread across the planet, and on occasion some fly in daylight.

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Nonfiction dinosaur book for a young reader

What the eyewitnesses have seen, in many areas of the world, are not literally flying dinosaurs. The correct name for this kind of flying creature is ‘pterosaur.’ How is that possible? All of them are said to have become extinct many millions of years ago. It takes a whole book to answer a question like, “Why do some people believe that some of them are still alive?” This is one of those books.

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Pterodactyl eyewitnesses from five continents

During my expedition on Umboi Island in 2004, I saw that native eyewitnesses sometimes might find it awkward to talk about the ropen, but they apparently had no fear that their neighbors would think them crazy for talking about seeing a ropen. On the other hand, I have noticed, over the years, that persons in Western countries commonly fear that friends and family might think them crazy for saying they had seen a living pterodactyl.

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What Flies Along Storm Channels?

If your backyard borders the San Gabriel River, you might want to put your Chihuahua indoors before the sun sets, if a recent eyewitness report from Lakewood, California, is true. Something predatory may be flying along storm channels in Southern California, and we’re not talking about a hawk or an owl. Strange to tell, but it seems to be a flying cryptid, as in “cryptozoology.”

First, the more recent sighting, on June 19, 2012, was in Lakewood, California, at about noon, in a backyard that borders a storm channel that is about twenty feet wide. A lady was irritated at the constant barking of her dog, and walked out to see the reason. On the phone line near the edge of the channel, about twenty feet from her head, was a strange winged creature that caused the lady to think “dragon pterodactyl.”

Fighting the urge to run away into her house, the terrified woman was just curious enough to stare at the long-tailed featherless flying creature. The “dragon-pterodactyl” was more frightened than curious from the encounter and flew away into the canopy of a nearby tree. The woman and her husband immediately jumped into their car and drove around looking for the featherless flier, but with no success. They did succeed to finding information online: The creature is called “ropen.”

The woman estimated the wingspan at about six feet, perhaps more, and the tail length at about four feet. The end of the tail had a “triangle” that suggests a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur flange, but the woman simply related it to a “dragon” tail-end.

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storm canal south of where an eyewitness in Lakewood, California, saw a ropen

Storm channel that runs through a park in Long Beach and is connected to the storm drain over which an apparent ropen was seen perching on a phone line, on  June 19, 2012

This storm channel empties into a bay in southeast Long Beach, seventeen miles from where another storm channel empties. That other one runs very near where a giant ropen was reported flying in daylight, in 2007, near the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, in Orange County. That ropen was much larger, with an estimated length of thirty feet. In that part of California, perhaps you should put your Great Dane indoors at night. Ropens are said to be nocturnal predators.

Lakewood, California, has a Flying Predator

The lady’s husband told me that he had noticed an absence of possums in the past twelve months; they used to run along the phone lines often, but they seem to have almost disappeared. The only he has seen in recent months was not on the phone line but on a fence. The eyewitness saw the flying creature sitting on the phone line, so it seems likely to be a predator that eats possums and probably rats.

How did a Dragon get to Lakewood?

The eyewitness in Lakewood estimated its wingspan at about six feet (perhaps more) and it flew away from her when she used a loud voice. But there have been fewer possums in that neighborhood, at least the ones that used to run along the phone lines at night, far fewer.

Texas Marfa Lights

A strange phenomena has been gaining attention in this remote high desert of southwest Texas. Marfa Lights, at least the ones classified scientifically as “CE-III,” have defied scientific explanation for many years. A new study reveals interesting similarities with other flying lights observed around the world, resulting in a hypothesis that the “dancing” lights of Marfa come from the bioluminescence of a group of flying predators that may not yet be classified by science.

The new hypothesis, outlined in the news release “Unmasking a Flying Predator in Texas,” has received little support from most scientists who have recently become aware of the idea. It involves a group of intelligent flying creatures that glow brightly with intrinsic bioluminescence, while they hunt the Big Brown Bat, that lives in caves in this part of Texas. The idea is that the glow from the predators attracts insects which attract bats, making it easier for the larger flying predators to catch and eat the bats. The bioluminescent creatures themselves are not thought to eat insects.

To quote from that press release:

In southwest Texas, local residents have speculated about dancing devils or ghosts. Scientists have preferred something along the lines of ball lightning or earthlights, but all their scientific explanations have tripped over the resemblances to line dancing. If atmospheric energies or tectonic stresses cause the displays, why do two lights horizontally separate for a long distance before coming back together?

Now a cryptozoologist from California has explained the dancing lights of Marfa. Tales of spooks may hold a spark of truth, for recent research implies intelligence directs the lights: Bioluminescent flying predators may be hunting at night and catching a few unlucky Big Brown Bats: Eptesicus fuscus.

Other web sites have sprung up:

Marfa Lights Are Not All Car Headlights

Sometimes a ball of light seems to split into two, with a separation and eventual reunion. Some of the local residents refer to that kind of activity as “dancing.” . . . A few American cryptozoologists, including the Californians Jonathan Whitcomb and Garth Guessman, and the Texan Paul Nation, have researched and searched for bioluminescent flying creatures described like Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs. For years, one or two Americans at a time would travel to Papua New Guinea to search for the elusive nocturnal ropen . . . with limited success in remote jungles. Only recently has it been considered that this creature (or one like it) seems to also live in North America, including Texas.

Marfa Ghost Lights

The flying Marfa Lights of southwest Texas have been compared with the ropen of Papua New Guinea. There the lights have been correlated with appearances of large and giant long-tailed flying creatures, featherless and resembling Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs (long-tailed “pterdactyls”).