Dinosaurs – Cryptid Eyewitness

September 15, 2017May 3, 2019

Pterosaur Sighting by Scott Norman

By living-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

Ten years ago this summer (2007), the young cryptozoologist Scott T. Norman had a sighting of an apparent Pteranodon in Central California. I will not allow his encounter to evaporate from the memory of cryptozoology enthusiasts. He was a highly respected investigator, having gone on an expedition to Cameroon, Africa, in 2001, in search of the Mokele-mbembe, what some cryptozoologists believe is an extant sauropod dinosaur.

I think it’s time to say more about the sighting location than I have done in the past. It’s been ten years now, long enough, I think, for the explorers to have done their searching in secrecy. I will not reveal the precise location, only that it may be in the Fresno area of California. Scott Norman would probably have agreed for that general revelation to be made, since it’s been ten years since his pterosaur sighting. Chad Arment had already revealed the general location (Fresno area) in early 2008.

Scott Norman talks about his pterosaur sighting (about two days after the encounter)

Overview of Encounter

Sighting was at about 2:00 a.m.
It flew overhead, over a building and into a field
At least 8-10 feet in wingspan
The wings were bat-like
The flying creature had a head crest: at least two feet long
It flew completely silently
Sighting was for 15-20 seconds
Scott was the most skeptical of the observers
It looked like a pterosaur, but he was not 100% sure

Garth Guessman also lectured on living pterosaurs (2007, in California)

From Garth (at the same meeting in 2007)

Big flying creature in that area
Has a big head crest
Long tail has a diamond-shaped flange
Pterosaur-like wings

Missing Persons: Strange Cases in National Parks

One of the American national parks that has been long plagued by strange cases of missing persons is Yosemite, in central California. I doubt that it is only a coincidence that some of the eyewitnesses of pterosaurs in California have reported huge flying creatures.

I do not speculate that the apparent Pteranodon observed by Scott Norman, in the Fresno area of California in 2007, was one of the those that may have attacked people, but some of the apparent pterosaurs seen in this state seem to be even larger than the one seen by Scott.

Youtube Video on Pterosaur Sightings in the USA

Watch the following mini-documentary on these flying creatures:

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Scott Norman and the “Pterodactyl” Photograph

. . . the large sizes of apparent extant pterosaurs, reported by some eyewitnesses in North America, may be connected to some of the more mysterious missing-persons cases that have never been solved.

LDS Author Jonathan Whitcomb

Nonfiction dragons, or “pterodactyls,” as described by eyewitnesses around the world, beginning in Papua New Guinea . . . the “Bible of modern pterosaurs” . . . Searching for Ropens and Finding God [nonfiction book]

Scott Norman, Pterosaur Eyewitness

Scott T. Norman, American cryptozoologist and explorer, passed away on February 29, 2008, at the age of forty-three. He was a passionate investigator of cryptids, even taking part in an expedition in central Africa to search for the Mokele-Mbembe.

Missing persons and modern pterosaurs

Some of the strangest missing-persons cases may relate to a few individual animals of one species of ropen in North America . . . [a theoretical example follows] When a person is alone in a wilderness area in the United States, a large hungry ropen may attack, subduing the human by a mist or vapor that is debilitating when inhaled by prey.

Flying Creatures and Missing Persons

I’ve finished reading the nonfiction [book] Missing 411 Western United States & Canada, by David Paulides, an extraordinary book that brings up many questions.

August 23, 2012August 23, 2012

Mokele Mbembe or an Elephant?

Yesterday, I watched a documentary on television—I think it was by National Geographic—about a young man who explored, at least briefly, in central Africa to investigate reports of the Mokele Mbembe. He admitted that there may be an unknown creature in the dense remote jungle, but I noticed a problem at the end.

sketch of a Diplodocus, a sauropod dinosaur

We all understand the concept of misidentification. How easy to imagine that an eyewitness has seen something commonplace under unusual conditions! What’s the problem when a scientist or non-scientific skeptic suggests a sighting of something strange was just something normal? The skeptic usually just let’s the subject drop, without any attempt to test the misidentification conjecture.

In the documentary I saw, the explorer suggested to the camera that natives had seen elephants that were swimming with little showing except their trunks and the tops of their bodies. We the audience were shown how hiding the bottom part of an elephant photo can appear strange, but wait . . . Why did the explorer not show that trick to the native eyewitnesses? Why did he assume that they knew what an elephant looks like in the forest but not what it looks like in deep water? How careless! (Or how shrewd!) The simple direct testing of that hypothesis would have been so easy, but then it probably would have resulted in the destruction of the agenda of National Geographic in that documentary.

Scott Norman, Pterosaur Eyewitness

The late Scott Norman searched for the Mokele Mbembe in Africa, many years ago; but I remember him best as a kind hearted man who humbly reported his sighting of a large flying creature that he encountered one night in 2007.

Silent, with stars for a background, the dark creature flew twenty feet high, over a shed only twenty feet from Scott . . . there was no mistaking it: . . . a head three to four feet long, and a two-foot-long head-crest that reminded him of a Pteranodon. . . . [Wings] more bat-like than bird-like.

July 27, 2012July 28, 2012

Best Selling Cryptozoology Books

It’s difficult to compile a list of books by sales ranking on Amazon, when “cryptozoology” is the search word used on that book-seller site. Some obvious cryptozoology books do not have that word in their title or subtitle, so they are probably left out of the search results. The following are paperback and hardback, from top to bottom by sales ranking, the apparent top twenty on the evening of July 27, 2012, although it is very possible that important books may have been missed.

Looking for Bigfoot, by Bonnie Worth
Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter, by Josh Gates
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, by Jeff Meldrum
Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures, by Kelly Milner Halls and others
DK Readers: Beastly Tales, by Malcolm Yorke and Lee Davis
Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition), by Jonathan Whitcomb
Biblical Cryptozoology Revealed Cryptids of The Bible, by Dale Stuckwish
Cryptozoology A to Z, by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark
Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, by Loren Coleman and others
Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside, by Brad Steiger
Bigfoot Observer’s Field Manual, by Robert W. Morgan
The Beasts that Hide from Man, by Karl Shuker
Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology, by Loren Coleman
The Michigan Dogman, by Linda S. Godfrey
Bigfoot! – The True Story of Apes in America, by Loren Coleman
Claw, Jaws, and Dinosaurs, by Kent Hovind, William Gibbons, and others
Hunting the American Werewolf, by Linda S. Godfrey
Monsters of Texas, by Ken Gerhard and Nick Redfern
In Search of Sasquatch, by Kelly Milner Halls
Monsters of West Virginia: Mysterious Creatures, by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Books on the Loch Ness creature seem to have less selling depth than they once did. Bigfoot is still strong. The old standard Cryptozoology A to Z is no longer number one in this genre, although it was on the top for years.

Popular Cryptozoology Books

Leaving aside fictions and e-books (including Kindle) here’s a listing of many cryptozoology books that are best selling on Amazon

Three Author “Eyewitnesses”

The three authors, from British Columbia in Canada, Texas, and California, have each written at least one edition of a nonfiction book that primarily deals with sightings of possible pterosaurs in North America.

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Live Pterosaurs in America - front cover of nonfiction book, third edition

Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition), cryptozoology, nonfiction

The second paragraph of the introduction of the book:

This book might discomfort, even offend, a few readers; please consider the feelings of those who have revealed to us their encounters with what seem to be live pterosaurs, for some of them have suffered more than discomfort. I intend to comfort those innocent victims who have been ridiculed or ostracized because of a cultural weakness, for each has seen something unaccepted by their society. Each eyewitness deserves listeners who will open their minds, really listen. Consider their experiences.

From Page 70:

The cryptozoologists were not disappointed, with many sightings of the flying lights and a few sightings of the forms of large flying creatures that were unlike bats. One of them flew close enough that one man almost fell over. The men stayed only a few nights, but the investigation continued into 2008, with a number of visits to this location.

From Page 71 (another expedition in North America):

Late in 2007, I received an email from Peter Beach, a biology professor. He had gone on two expeditions into Africa (searching for the Mokele-mbembe cryptid), before becoming involved in living-pterosaur research.

“I went on a short trip to the Yakima River this summer . . . because there was a [sighting]. We were unable to get a picture but we saw many . . . flashing lights. I would have assumed that [they] were fireflies but we [don’t] have them in Washington. One of the flashes took off from a big tree overhanging the river and made a kind of flashing coma turn. Many flashes were parallel to the river. The river at that point [has] a crook . . . and there were many fish . . . Prime hunting grounds for fish-eating birds. Only these things fish at night with bioluminescence.”

December 4, 2010December 4, 2010

New Blog by a Young Blogger

Dinoplaza, a new blog about reports of dinosaurs alongside humans, has recently been started by Peter Theiss, a child cryptozoologist in the southeast United States. The site deserves a few brief excerpts.

Nessie Lives

Richard Preston, a landscape gardener, has been the latest person to spot a mysterious shape that might be the Loch Ness monster and capture a series of images on camera.

Best Photographic Evidence of Nessie, Ogopogo, and Champ

I think the best photographic evidence of Nessie is the 1975 underwater photo of Nessie, taken by Robert Rines. The photo shows, quite clearly, indeed, a plesiosaur-like creature . . . flippers, a long neck, and a big head . . .

Living Dinosaur Roar

In 1981, American engineer Herman Regusters led his own expedition in search of Mokele-mbembe [Central Africa]. He returned with a sound recording of a “low windy roar [that] increased to a deep throated trumpeting growl”, which Herman Regusters believed to be the Mokele-mbembe’s call.

Please note that this child cryptozoologist is the same Peter Theiss mentioned in the newly published second edition of my nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America. He contributed a valuable eyewitness sighting interview report regarding what we believe was a pterosaur flying over an area of St. Louis.

February 23, 2010July 6, 2010

Dinosaurs seen in Papua New Guinea

According to Brian Irwin, who interviewed native eyewitnesses on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, “One afternoon late in 2005, three people from Awirin Island . . . were on the beach on the south side of the adjacent unpopulated Dililo Island . . . when they observed an amazing creature moving in the water . . . a long neck and a long tail and had a total length of about 20 metres and a width of about 2 metres. The head was described as being ‘like a dinosaur’ with an ‘oval-like face’ . . . The skin of the animal was . . . khaki green in colour. Dermal frills . . . on the creature’s back.” The description strongly suggests a sauropod dinosaur (like an apatosaurus).

Irwin seemed more interested in another sighting (or he had more information), about an apparent Therizinosaurus “sighted occasionally on Umbungi Island in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Umbungi Island is located on the south coast of West New Britain between Kandrian and Gasmata.” That apparent dinosaur had “a long tail and a long neck and was 10–15 metres in length.”