Sightings – Page 38 – Modern Pterosaur

August 25, 2010August 25, 2010

Bulverism and Pterosaurs

I’ve touched on the subject of bulverism previously, but I feel it deserves more attention. Since other blog pages contain more about this I’ll focus on one of them.

Bulverism and Extant Pterosaurs

C. S. Lewis, in the mid-20th Century, noticed an unfortunate trend becoming popular: Avoid reasoning, on whatever subject, by talking about how your opponent is silly in a mistake. . . . Lewis gave this habit a name: “bulverism.”

Some critics of the idea of extant pterosaurs have stooped to the lowest form of bulverism. . . . the remark by a commentor that information about the Kor of Papua New Guinea ”comes from a creationist blog (though they hide it quite well) so we need to take everything on it with a truck load of salt. Creaionists [read Creationists] will fabricate all kinds of rubbish to back up their fairy tales.”

How many ropen expeditions have creationists (by whatever definition of that label) led in Papua New Guinea over the past 17 years! How often has a creationist trudged along a jungle trail, hoping to learn about (or even see) a living pterosaur! Yet when did one of us report observing the clear form of a living pterosaur in Papua New Guinea during those 17 years? Never. We had too little time, too little money, and too few resources to mount any major expedition. The point? If even just one of us had any desire to deceive, how easy it would have been to lie about observing a living pterosaur!

Accusing ones opponents of fabricating “all kinds of rubbish to back up their fairy tales” appears to me to be the worst form of bulverism, for it insinuates that a whole group of investigators lie. Perhaps an evidence against that accusation becomes obvious when the accuser has ample opportunity to give specifics and then gives . . . nothing.

Truly it is sad when blog commenters reject everything from persons they disagree with, then label those with whom they disagree “liar.” What a sad state of human affairs!

July 21, 2010July 21, 2010

Two Modern Pterosaurs in State of Washington

The eyewitness described a pair of long-tailed “ropens” in Southwest Washington state, in a rural area that he desires to keep secret. Here is part of his testimony, and more is expected in the upcoming second-edition of the book Live Pterosaurs in America.

I was riding my bike home from a friends house around 5 pm . . . I heard a strange noise . . . looked to my left, and on a wood plank fence were two of the biggest bird like creatures I could ever imagine! . . . the first thing I noticed was their heads . . . could they be dinasours? . . . They were Huge! There ft wrapped around a 2″x6″ plank . . . they’re heads I would have to say it was maybe 4ft long with the beak.

Additional information is available from a source of whom I have complete confidence (I don’t refer to the eyewitness himself, although he seems OK). What follows, I believe, is a secondary sighting of the same two flying creatures, in the same general area, by the same eyewitness, some time later.

When they took flight they both still kept an eye back onto me. They only flew far enough to where I wouldn’t see them. They have slow head movements, as if they were rotating there heads with the heads in the downwards position.

Dinosaur bird (by name) or “flying creature”

July 15, 2010August 9, 2010

Flying Creature Like a Dinosaur Bird

It seems that some eyewitnesses of modern pterosaurs have another problem besides risking their reputations by telling others about what they saw: How do you spell “pterosaur?” Some eyewitnesses may search on Google with “flying creature” or “dinosaur bird.” That is unfortunate, for those searches, with those words, will bring up many irrelevant pages, not likely pages of the cryptozoology researchers who have specialized in modern living pterosaurs.

[Please note: I tried “Dinosaur Bird” with Google early in the morning of August 9, 2010; other than the page you are now reading, nothing else came up, on the first 10 pages of Google, relevant to living pterosaur cryptozoological investigations.]

I would like to suggest some pages that are most informative and interesting and relevant to the research that has been going on for the past 6-12 years.

Are Reports of Living Pterosaurs Anecdotes?

“A short account of a particular incident”—that is one definition of “anecdote.” But the connotation includes more than “short,” for “anecdote” is the word more appropriate when an event is witnessed by only one or a few and the report is second hand at best. Regarding eyewitness accounts of living pterosaurs, I have found that ”anecdote” has been eliminated as a valid word for some of the reports.

American Ghost Lights

. . . Some of these owls can turn on a glow on their underside. In fact, the whiteness of some of their feathers is explained by this intrinsic glowing capability: White feathers allow light to pass through.

So how do glowing owls relate to reports of live pterodactyls? In Papua New Guinea, the ropen is seen usually from a distance at night. How is it seen? It glows, sometimes brightly, as it flies. How can anyone conclude that it is a pterosaur? When it is seen up close, it is seen to be one.

Monsterquest “Flying Monsters” Television Episode

. . . the MonsterQuest expedition on New Britain Island, in early 2009, was not itself a serious living-pterosaur investigation . . . video footage from previous expeditions was shown with little mention of those expeditions. Nevertheless, this episode introduced many Americans to the possibility of extant pterosaurs. In that sense, it was a success.

For those using a search engine like Google, I suggest using “modern pterosaur” or something similar (like “living pterosaur”) rather than “dinosaur bird.”