I would like now to look at an account of Kongamato, in Africa, in context with accounts of similar flying creatures in Cuba and in Papua New Guinea, far to the west and east of Africa respectively, and then I would like to look at the hoax possibility. It seems reasonable to me that if a modern pterosaur could live in one of those areas, it could live in the other two as well, even though there may be some variation in species, coinciding with differences in opportunities for finding food, etc.
Sudan Pterosaur – interview by Whitcomb
One night . . . the boy noticed something on the roof of a nearby hut . . . the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head . . . The eyewitness was sure about the head crest and the long tail.
The eyewitness in Sudan saw something in the tail of the creature that reminded him of the tail of a lion. This could have been from observing a pterosaur, in particular a Rhamphorhynchoid tail vane that had some fur; of course that is speculative, but it does make sense.
Gitmo Pterosaur in Cuba – and using other sources
Patty verified that the sketch drawn by Kuhn is very similar to what she had seen in 1965 . . .
“It was as tall as a man when it stood up on it haunches.”
Patty explained to me that . . . the wings were like bat wings, in a way, but not at all transparent.
She is sure of the structure at the end of the tail . . . and estimates the “diamond” was about five inches long and about three inches wide.
This eyewitness of the “Gitmo Pterosaur,” Patty Carson, made it clear in her interview with Whitcomb that she did not see the head crest at first, for the creature’s head was facing her and her brother. But that perspective soon changed as the creature prepared to fly away, and Carson was then able to see the head crest. In addition, she verified that the sketch drawn by Kuhn was very similar to what she had seen, so we can take it as the same type of flying creature, seen in the same area of Cuba, a few years apart.
Ropen in Papua New Guinea
Much has been written about the ropen, so I will not quote much here. I will say that much of what is available is through the writings of Jonathan Whitcomb, which may bring up the possibility that one person, Whitcomb, may be involved in some elaborate hoax. After all, he is the source of both the Carson report and the Sudan report. I would like to look at that hoax potential now.
Hoax Possibility
To find out if Whitcomb has been carrying out a hoax, we need to go back to when he first became involved. His 2004 expedition in Papua New Guinea has much written about it, by him or course. If he were carrying on a long hoax he would probably have invented a trip to Papua New Guinea as well. But Garth Guessman and David Woetzel had their expedition to the same island of Umboi, and it was only a few weeks after Whitcomb’s supposed explorations there. The difficulty with proving Whitcomb has been carrying on a hoax, including a false expedition on Umboi Island, seems to be insurmountable when we consider that the other two Americans talked with natives who had remembered Whitcomb’s recent visit. In addition, Whitcomb videotaped many interviews on Umboi, with his own voice in the audio track of those videos. He later spent about twelve months writing his first book, much of which was about that expedition. It seems he must have actually gone to that island in Papua New Guinea.
What about the Gitmo Pterosaur? Could Whitcomb have invented this eyewitness Patty Carson? The problem with that possibility is this: Patricia Carson is now an RN living in Riverside, California, a fact that is easily available through a simple online search. She apparently has nothing to hide about her encounter with the strange flying creature at Gitmo many years ago. She is open to being interviewed by other interviewers.
It seems obvious that Whitcomb has not been carrying on an elaborate hoax for years. Perhaps he is not in a position to be the most objective person to evaluate reports of modern pterosaurs, but bias on one side or the other is a human frailty, not limited to those who believe that “extinction” has been overblown for those animals.
More on Kongamato
Wikipedia says, “Eyewitness accounts say the creature has teeth, leathery wings, a beak.” Patty Carson noticed many teeth on the Gitmo Pterosaur. She also noticed the lack of feathers. She also said that “the skin was a leathery, brownish reddish color.” Wikipedia says that some reports indicate the kongamato is “either red or black in color.” These are too many description similarities to throw out reports without consideration. The pterosaurs observed in Cuba are probably related to at least some of those observed in Africa.
It seems to me that the skeptics who dismiss reports of modern pterosaurs do so from ignorance of a number of critical eyewitness accounts and how those accounts relate to each other. Spitting out “hoax” or “misidentification” proves nothing except that some skeptics are experts at spitting.
