It has long been known that some people in Africa and Papua New Guinea have been attacked by flying creatures that have been described like pterosaurs. Many of the eyewitnesses, from around the world, have seen the creatures and some of the wingspan estimates have topped twenty feet. In Canada, Gerald McIsaac has investigated reports of attacks from the nocturnal “devil bird,” and the number of reports makes it questionable that all of them would be hoaxes. If that were not enough, other investigators, in the United States, have spent years searching for living pterosaurs, and eyewitness reports from the 48 contiguous states have continued to accumulate.

Pterodactyl Attacks and Human Deaths

Chapter Eight, “Highway of Tears,” in Bird From Hell [nonfiction book by Gerald McIsaac] reveals, “Amnesty International estimates that since 1969, thirty-two women and girls, most of them Aboriginal, have disappeared along that highway.” [northern British Columbia] Nobody denies that some women and girls in this part of Canada are victims of abuse at home and that some of them hitchhike on this highway, making themselves vulnerable at night. But the general human population, at least the Native Americans, keep indoors at night to avoid the “devil bird,” and some eyewitnesses of that flying creature have been attacked by a flying creature, when those persons have stayed outside after sunset.

For cryptid enthusiasts with a taste for pterosaurs, news is good, with news about sighting reports in New Jersey and Cuba, and a news release that suggests the old Dracula legends may have come from Europeans observing a living pterosaur standing on the ground at night. Perhaps vampires were not completely nonfictional after all. That press release seems to have been timed for the Halloween holiday.

Pterosaur News

While talking with Patty on the phone yesterday, I was impressed with what she told me about what the Gitmo Pterosaur might eat: She remembered how many large rats were in the coconut trees at Gitmo, when she and her family were there. She now believes that the creature may use its long beak to get into the foliage and snatch rats for snacks. Yummy! . . .

“In the summer of 2009, I saw . . . in the pinelands of New Jersey . . . a giant bat-like bird, dark brown without feathers, something prehistoric . . . a long thin head, a long tail, [and a] kind of leathery dark brown skin. The body seemed to be the size of a good-sized man; the wind span, maybe 12-15 feet across.”

Press Releases on Live Pterosaurs

“Hoaxes are disproved,” declares Jonathan Whitcomb . . . After compiling data from reports collected from early-2004 to mid-2009, from eyewitnesses across the United States, he found three kinds of evidence disproving any hoax- explanation.

. . . the mystery lights of Marfa, Texas, have entertained residents with their strange dancing. On some warmer nights, a ball of light [splits] into two, [then separates, flying] away from each other before turning around and flying back together.

Press Release ties Dracula to modern pterosaurs

“The longer we watched, the more spooked we became. It was as though a giant vampire bat (like Dracula-style) was there, but neither of us thought it really looked like a bat, either, even a big one.” . . .

According to most paleontologists, all pterosaurs, often called “pterodactyls” by Americans, became extinct millions of years ago. But Whitcomb disputes the idea that all species became extinct, citing recent eyewitness reports from Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and North America.