Pterosaurs » Cryptid Eyewitness

Cryptozoology, science, and pterosaurs

Sep 042010

On another blog, I replied to several comments by a critic of modern living-pterosaur investigations. But something else mentioned by Paul Pursglove caught my attention: “Basic science would suggest that these sightings are misguided.” That deserves attention. (The link to that original criticism by Pursglove is found on that Modern Pterosaurs Blogspot post: “Pterosaurs and Cryptozoology.”)

“Basic science” involves observations by humans, and human experience should be respected, even above a dogmatic tradition; that is the normal application of science. The professors who opposed Galileo’s support of a sun-centered system—those professors were trying to protect their traditions of earth-centeredness. Now many eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs tell us of their experiences; they are now opposed by critics who are trying to protect the traditions of universal dinosaur-pterosaur extinction. The point? Mr. Pursglove has taken a position similar to that taken by the professors who opposed Galileo.

What!? Cryptozoologists who search for flying creatures resembling living pterosaurs—those fringe-investigators are on the same side as Galileo? But that early Italian scientist had a telescope to show professors that Jupiter was circled by four moons, so he was using repeatable observations to convince those professors, right? Not exactly. For one thing, those moons of Jupiter do not really prove that the earth revolves around the sun (it only opens up thinking in that direction); in addition, professors cannot be forced to look into a telescope, even if they were open-minded about what they would see.

But cryptozoology, including sightings of living pterosaurs, is not repeatable science, it is unpredictable, right? Not exactly. Certain aspects of sightings in Papua New Guinea seem to be repeatable. A few months after Paul Nation videotaped two indava lights (late 2006), the television production crew for Destination Truth (with Joshua Gates) videotaped a similar light to the east (early 2007). Both sightings were on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. So why not support a major expedition, one with the expensive video equipment that might reveal the living pterosaurs that produce that incredible bioluminescence?

But science tells us that all pterosaurs became extinct many millions of years ago, right? NOT AT ALL! Not even one species can be determined to be extinct by examining fossils. Extinction is not something that fossils can tell us. It has been assumed that pterosaurs became extinct; the key word is “assumed.” Even if hundreds of species did become extinct long ago, there is nothing in “basic science” that tells us no pterosaur species could be presently living.

The truth is that the discoveries of fossils of new species of pterosaurs, discoveries over the decades, make an extant pterosaur species MORE likely. The more species that lived in the past, the more likely one or two species have survived into the present, right? RIGHT!

Human experience should not be swept away to protect old dogmas, and two of those old dogmas are earth-centeredness and universal pterosaur extinction.

Bulverism and living pterosaurs

Pterosaurs No Responses »

Aug 242010

C. S. Lewis invented the word “bulverism,” referring to the common practice of avoiding reasoning on a topic by explaining how an opponent is silly in a mistake. It relates to reports of some cryptids, in particular the ropen of Papua New Guinea (or reports of living pterosaurs in various parts of the world). According to Pterosaur Eyewitness (blog), “Bulverism and Pterosaur Sightings,” the popularity of this shifty device was popular in the mid-twentieth century but continues into the present:

Indeed, Loren, where does insanity lie? When many eyewitnesses testify of things coorelating, and those persons show that they are mentally healthy, where is there any insanity? Setting aside bulverism, what case can be made for pterosaur extinction when so many eyewitnesses testify that pterosaurs still live? If there is any insanity, it must be in those who insist on imagining ancient extinctions. Dogmatic adherence to universal pterosaur extinction may be the only place left where insanity might be relevant. Note, I don’t insist that my opponents must be insane; that would be bulverism. I only ask, “Where is there any insanity?”

Worthy of note is the testimony of eyewitness Brian Hennessy, who saw a large flying creature with a long tail and a head crest, in daylight. Mr. Hennessy is not insane; he is a psychologist.

"Prehistoric" creature witnessed alive by psychologist

Pterosaurs, Southwest Pacific No Responses »

Jul 212010

Brian Hennessy is employed as a psychologist for the Chongqing University of Medical Sciences in China. In 1971, he saw a “prehistoric-looking” flying creature in New Guinea (now the nation of Papua New Guinea), on the island of Bougainville. The serious nature of his profession makes this sighting report highly unlikely to have been a hoax.

Early in the morning, but in plain daylight, on a dirt road leading down to the coast, Hennessy heard the “slow flapping” and looked up to see a “very big” creature with a pointed ”horn” on the back of its head. Describing this flying creature in an interview with a cryptozoologist, years later, he mentioned that there was ”not a feather in sight.”

In 2006, Hennessy was interviewed by Jonathan Whitcomb; before that interview he had been unaware of cryptozoological expeditions in Papua New Guinea. He had no idea that Americans had been investigating creatures described like living pterosaurs. Hennessy was also unaware that many natives have names for giant flying creatures: indava, seklo-bali, wawanar, and ropen.

The UFO sighting in China may have no relationship to Hennessy except that one sighting was in Chongqing.

Glowing creature of the night

North America, Pterosaurs, Southwest Pacific 1 Response »

Jul 152010

Flying Creature of the Night

“Remember your worst nightmare? Were you glad to wake up? Be grateful. In the early morning hours of February 23, 2010, a few miles or so southwest of Marfa, Texas, the victims were terrified by what awakened them. I am not the eyewitness, but a few days after this event, I interviewed my friend James, who had been driving through Southern Texas; he had stopped at the Marfa Lights viewing platform to see whatever he could.”

Flying Creature in San Fernando Valley

A report of a large flying creature in Sherman Oaks, California, suggests similarities to the [glowing] ropen of Papua New Guinea. A man reported the creature after he and his girlfriend observed it while taking a walk at about 10:30 p.m., on September 21, 2009. He reported, “It was a very large, winged creature that was gliding maybe 100 yards above us. . . . it beat its wings, once, before going out of view.” . . . The man estimated the wingspan: ten to fifteen feet; the girlfriend estimated twenty feet. The wings appeared more like those of bats than birds . . .

Entomologist Observed Strange Lights in New Guinea

. . . a British entomologist . . . in the 1930′s, was puzzled by strange lights . . . [on the] mainland of New Guinea. She later wrote a book . . . in which she described the flash . . . It would be decades later that a few American cryptozoologists would explore several areas of Papua New Guinea, searching for bioluminescent Rhamphorhynchoid (long-tailed) pterosaurs. . . .

Biology professor sees possible pterosaur

North America, Pterosaurs 1 Response »

Apr 062010

In my nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America, I mentioned the sighting by Professor Peter Beach, in the summer of 2007, near the Yakima River in the state of Washington. Consider part of what he wrote about it:

. . . 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. . . . there were many fish . . . Prime hunting grounds for fish-eating birds. Only these things fish at night with bioluminescence. At first I thought I was just seeing shooting stars, but they were all parallel to the river and close to the horizon. Next I noticed that when the cloud cover came in, I could still see the flashes. They were under the cloud cover. Whatever they are, I suggest that they are at least unknown to science, night flying, bioluminescent, flying creatures . . .

About a year later (perhaps in the same area) the professor led another expedition, observing the flight of the bioluminescent flying creatures for three hours:

. . . there were two light [flashes] . . . about 50-100 ft., above the river. . . . followed by screeches from about a dozen or so agitated nighthawks in the general area. I think the Rhamphorhynchoids, if that is what they were, were feeding on the nighthawks as the nighthawks were feeding on the flying insects. Bats were also common, but they were fast, made sharp turns, and were relatively small . . .

I know of others who encountered strange flying lights over rivers in the United States, flights that were only just above the water. Even where fireflies live, these flying things are much larger and faster.

See “Pterosaurs Alive in America”

See also “Cryptozoology, science, and pterosaurs”

Marfa Lights and Min Mins

North America, Pterosaurs, Southwest Pacific 2 Responses »

Mar 112010

I’ve never been to Marfa, Texas, where dancing ghost lights have intrigued residents and visitors on countless nights for countless years; what causes the strange lights has defied logical explanation. But I have spoken with an eyewitnesses, Ed Hendricks, who for years has carefully investigated the lights. I appreciate his intense struggle to unravel a mystery that seems to defy unraveling; I respect his skill, talent, and educational qualifications; I acknowledge his careful observations, recorded in detail and shared. Nevertheless, I suggest something rarely, if ever, mentioned to explain Marfa Lights, perhaps as shocking as ball lightning or as eerie as dancing demons: a species of large flying creatures, intrinsically bioluminescent.

The puzzle cries for a solution; Mr. Hendricks and I agree. I respectfully disagree with his general assumption (something like an atmostpheric phenomenon, non-living). I credit him for his work, but credit the Marfa Lights to the flights of cryptids, notwithstanding they differ from flights of birds and bats. Why do they seem, at times, to dance? Why do two lights fly apart, then turn and fly back together? The dance sometimes appears complex but the purpose is simple. It’s just their technique: a way to catch bats.

Whatever the bioluminescent creatures are that make those lights, they may be the only ones who have worked harder in this area than Mr. Hendricks, with one possible exception. And just as this human researcher spends much time (pondering and writing) away from those fields just south of Marfa, the cryptid spends much time (searching for bats) away from those fields. Hendricks and others have tried to find what causes those lights, but bats flying just south of Marfa (and elsewhere) may try even harder to not be found by those lights.

But how could a flying creature glow, and so brightly? Even though the lights are sometimes described with the word “fireflies,” those who have observed the dancing of Marfa Lights (true Marfa Lights, not car headlights; cars never dance) sense a power, a size, a speed that dwarfs any insect. To catch just a tail feather of an answer to that question, let’s leave Texas and fly, first to Australia and then to Tennessee.

Come with me to Victoria, Australia, along Salisbury Road in Mt. Macedon. Notice, as we enter an open window, that Mr. Fred Silcock is sleeping in the easy chair by the fireplace. Now search for a thin brown book on the bookshelf. That’s the one; the spine says “The Min Min Light F.F. Silcock”. Notice the drawing of a glowing barn owl on the cover.

Turn to page 12, under the heading “Min Min Intelligence,” and read the words of two observers of strange flying lights: “It definitely knows you’re there. I found it would not let us any closer than it wanted us . . . They are very playful, like a bunch of puppies chasing one another all over the place, going out and hopping up in another place. They can move pretty fast but most times move slowly, hovering and floating.”

Turn to page 45, under the heading “The Common Denominator,” and read the first paragraph. A Silcock Min Min (my own label, and not to be confused with other light-phenomena labeled “Min Min” in Australia) flies with ease, sometimes against the wind. It appears to fly with intelligence, sometimes interacting with one or more other Min Mins, and this interaction can appear playful. This paragraph makes it clear that these mysterious lights in Australia behave like birds. But what birds fly around at night, glowing?

Reading further we learn that there is nothing unscientific about the possibility of a self-luminous bird, although it’s a study not yet undertaken by universities, examining live or dead birds to test the Silcock hypothesis. But the book quotes many eyewitnesses who report finding the source for the Min Min glow: the “great owl” (called “barn owl” in the United States). It is Tyto Alba, found in many countries worldwide.

The book mentions an observation by William Wharton, of Queensland. One night he saw a bright light on the diving board of his swimming pool. As insects flew around the light, it began to fade until Wharton could see a glowing bird that was picking at insects that had landed on the board. The book mentions many eyewitness reports that make it obvious that some barn owls, sometimes, emit a glow, and that glow can help them catch insects. Of course that would explain why the underside feathers of barn owls are white: to allow light to pass through. Of course that would explain the bobbing, weaving motion of Min Mins; that is how barn owls fly at night while hunting. Mr. Silcock makes many points for a bioluminescent Tyto Alba.

Now let’s fly back to the United States, to Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Notice the railroad tracks, barely visible in the moonlight. Look down those tracks. A faint glow appears bobbing just to the left of the tracks; now it bobs over to the right. It looks like someone is approaching with a lantern, searching back and forth, but searching for what? Could this light be the lantern held by the man who was hit by a train long ago? According to the story, he was decapitated and his ghost still searches for the head.

But the ghost story of a headless man searching for his head sounds like the story of the Bingham Lights of South Carolina and the Maco Lights of North Carolina and the Gurdon Light of Arkansas and . . . well, headless ghosts searching endlessly for their heads, especially down railroad lines—those stories seem endless. But with a little knowledge of the bobbing, weaving Min Min of Australia, only a little brain power can enlighten us: Australians describe the same thing.

Why would a glowing barn owl fly down railroad tracks at night? If it hungered only for insects, it would sit and gobble them up. For a nocturnal rodent, how far is it exposed while crossing railroad tracks? Too far to be comfortable in daylight. But in the dark of night, why worry? Take your time. A midnight snack, for a rat, can be easy to find; humans throw trash near the tracks. Dine where you find it . . . until . . . oops.

Can a nocturnal rat out-think a human? To us, it seems stupid to sit on railroad tracks, eating garbage while a light approaches. But then no rat ever born has screamed and run away from a headless ghost. No, moving lights (in a world with so many humans) should not appear dangerous to a rat, for glowing barn owls appear to be rare, or they rarely glow. And it takes no genius of an owl, glowing or not, to fly down railroad tracks at night. I think that at least a few bioluminescent barn owls live in the United States (glowing for whatever reasons), and they account for many ghost lights. But what about the Marfa Lights?

The dance patterns of Marfa Lights resemble no flock of hunting barn owls. No, our old friend Tyto Alba cannot compete here and it dare not try. But it has illuminated part of the answer to the puzzle. The predators of Southern Texas show greater intelligence than most birds and some of them may be larger than any owl. This cryptid may be related to the ropen of Papua New Guinea (another nocturnal glowing flyer). If so, it will make a story more extraordinary than any headless ghost. Eyewitnesses describe the ropen like a giant long-tailed pterosaur.

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