Most reports of what seem to be living pterosaurs are not hoaxes; but a few are, and even just one hoax can cause problems for the overall credibility of valid sightings by honest eyewitnesses.
Flathead Lake, Montana, “Pterodactyl”
The first image shows us that the camera is just above the surface of a lake, perhaps as high as ten feet or more above the lake but unlikely over a hundred feet . . . The ninth image gives me the impression that I am looking slightly down at the flying creature; I notice one of the hind legs (kept straight back behind the rear of its body) now is seen above its right wing, and the main part of the head is below the left wing. I have tried to imagine some way that I could be looking up at this flying creature, in this image; my mind rebels against the thought. Of course it could be in a steep dive, but this seems inconsistent with the other images. It looks more like this photo, if it really is a photo, was taken far higher, way up in the air; but how did the camera get so high up in the air?
There never was such a “project” and there never was any plan for a “Fellowship Creation Science Museum . . .” A number of people had begun to catch on to the hoax by around 2005, and I (cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb) became suspicious when my email inquiry was not answered. Years passed without any apparent progress in the planned “project” of “Objective Ministries.” It was suggested by one person that the photograph of “Dr. Richard Paley” is a doctored photo, perhaps modified using Photoshop.
No Hoax With Overall Reports of Pterosaurs
Most of the 98 sighting reports, from which the 57 with wingspan estimates were taken, suggest flying creatures that have long tails like Rhamphorhynchoids. That is where the idea comes from for the possibility that hoaxers may have tried to conjure up that type of pterosaur in their hoaxes. But the data shows something far different from what is commonly believed about Rhamphorhynchoids, for the size-estimates do not fall sharply at around five-to-seven-feet, but gradually decline at huge wingspans, far larger than what is standard-size for even the largest flying birds of modern times.
