Jonathan D. Whitcomb – Page 46

May 26, 2010February 11, 2011

Sighting in Cuba, 1971

Eskin Kuhn was a United States Marine at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba, in 1971. One hot day, with clear visibility, he was taking a break when he saw an amazing sight. He described the experience in his own words.

I saw 2 Pterosaurs (or Pterodactyls . . . what’s in a name?) flying together at low altitude, perhaps 100 feet, very close in range from where I was standing . . . I had a perfectly clear view . . . The rhythm of their large wings was very graceful, slow . . . The Pterosaurs I saw had the short hind legs attached to the rearward-most part of the wing, and they had a long tail trailing behind with a tuft of hair at the end. . . . The head [had] a long crest at the back, long bill, long neck with a crook in it. The chest of the creatures was similarly prominent, protruding forward like the prow of an old ship . . . their wingspan [was] roughly 10 feet.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pterosaurs (quoted below)

The two obvious pterosaurs observed by Eskin Kuhn during his military duty at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1971, were sketched by him soon after the sighting. I have encountered no contradiction in anything that he has said during the past four decades, nothing to discredit his account . . .

Are Reports of Living Pterosaurs Anecdotes? (quoted below)

That critic labeled the eyewitness report of Eskin Kuhn “an unlikely anecdote.” But the link that he gives in his original posting is to a site with at least twenty-nine short paragraphs about the sighting; that alone makes the word “anecdote” questionable. And all of those paragraphs were quotations of the eyewitness, Eskin Kuhn; that shoots down the word “anecdote.”

Read about the cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America

May 19, 2010May 19, 2010

Sighting at Umboi Island, 2009

Bunsil Station, southern coast of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea On the southern coast of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, a bay shelters Opai Beach, the same beach where Paul Nation and Jonathan Whitcomb disembarked from banana boats in their respective 2002 and 2004 expeditions. Near the southeast edge of the bay is a government station called “Bunsil.”

From about 1993 through late 2004, at least five living-pterosaur expeditions, on Umboi Island, were led by Americans. In this part of Papua New Guinea, many natives call the giant nocturnal flying creature “ropen.” There is no mistaking it for the nocturnal flying fox fruit bat, for the ropen glows, for several seconds at a time, with what some researchers believe is intrinsic bioluminescence.

Rex Yapi is an accounting student at the University of Technology in Lae, Papua New Guinea. Around July of 2009, he was on a banana boat in Bunsil Bay, Umboi. Those on the boat became alarmed at a large creature that was mostly under water but approaching them. They stopped the boat as the creature passed, for apparently it was catching fish or something. Only the tail of the creature was above water, but what a tail! Rex estimated the length at six or seven meters, with a “diamond shape,” which may refer to a Rhamphorhynchoid tail flange.

It was obvious to the university student that they had observed the ropen. When Rex was able to obtain the use of a computer, he emailed the American researcher Jonathan Whitcomb and reported the incident, including his feelings about it. He said, “it was a frightening scene.”

May 11, 2010May 12, 2010

Sighting in Marion County, Texas

Here is an eyewitness account of what is described like a large Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. The eyewitness was only eight years old when he had this close encounter, which would make this sighting around 1995 (northeast Texas). I edited his words only a little (for English punctuation, cutting out what was unnecessary, etc).

I saw a featherless flying animal with a wingspan of about 4 1/2 to 5 feet and a long tail with a diamond-type shape at the tip of it. No hair or feathers anywhere, just leathery reptile-type skin. I have a well established knowledge of animals, especially reptiles, so I can easily tell what animal something is and what it isn’t. The animal had bumps down its back, feet with longish toes, and long black claws, like an Oprey has for grasping fish. It had a long mouth/beak full of long sharp teeth that somewhat protruded from the mouth like a crocodile’s do when closed. I can’t fully remember the eyes well . . . Its color was bright orange with black “tiger stripes,” . . . I didn’t see the animal glow but it wasn’t night so that may be why, most likely. [eyewitness=Aaron Tullock, who drew the above sketch]

Boy Sees Pterosaur in Texas (additional information on this sighting)

Apparent-pterosaur sketches compared (Cuba pterosaurs and the Texas pterosaur)