Cuba – Page 3 – Modern Pterosaur

May 19, 2011May 19, 2011

Gitmo Pterosaur Revisited

Getting back to pterosaurs in Cuba, I noticed something interesting in Patty Carson’s testimony. She said, “It had little teeth, a LOT of them.” Well, Rhamphorhynchoids had teeth and long tails, generally, and the Gitmo pterosaur does as well, even though Eskin Kuhn did not see any teeth in the mouths of the two that he saw. That does make sense. Carson saw a winged creature on the ground, and she thought it had been eating or resting just before it stood up to look at her and her brother; she saw teeth in a mouth that was slightly open. Kuhn saw two winged creatures flying with their mouths closed; he saw no teeth. This difference in what was observed makes perfect sense in context with each sighting, for each saw a very different pterosaur activity.

For those coming upon this subject for the first time, modern pterosaurs in Cuba, I refer to two previous posts I wrote on this subject:

Two Pterosaur Sightings in Cuba

Patty Carson, has kindly agreed to having her real name used to substantiate her sighting and to support the Marine’s account of his sighting.

Gitmo Rhamphorhynchoid

The Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay military base) had modern Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs, at least a few decades ago, so the Caribbean may still host such a “flying dinosaur.” I use that non-technical phrase in this post, for those flying creatures, because Patty Carson probably used that phrase or one like it.

I think it timely to display the original sketch by Kuhn.

I notice something strange or at least unusual in the way the legs relate to the wing-structure. It has been suggested by one skeptic that this unorthodox feature should caste doubt on the validity of Kuhn’s sighting, that no pterosaur had that kind of feature. In a similar way, we could reject all future discoveries of fossils of pterosaurs, if all of those discoveries included new features or aspects that had not been observed on the fossils previously discovered. In other words, has paleontology really progressed to the stage where there are no longer any new discoveries to be made? I think not. If that strange structure with wing membranes connecting to legs were found in a newly discovered fossil, it would be exciting to paleontologists, not causing any of them to automatically dismiss the fossil as a fraud or hoax.

I also noticed what Carson wrote after looking at Kuhn’s sketch: “The proportions of the head are very good, and the body and the hind legs are exactly as I remember.” It seems to me that this supports Kuhn’s depiction of the way the wings attach to the legs.

Kongamato of Africa

The pterosaurs seen by U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn, in 1971, in Cuba, may be related to the kongamato of Africa.

May 13, 2011March 1, 2012

Kongamato Pterosaur and Hoax Possibility

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.

May 4, 2011June 27, 2011

Two Pterosaur Sightings in Cuba

I know that I have previously written about Eskin Kuhn’s sighting of two pterosaurs in Cuba, in 1971, but very recently another eyewitness, a lady living in California, has come forward, supporting the U.S. Marine’s testimony with her own sighting report. Patty Carson observed a single pterosaur, about six years before the sighting by Kuhn, but was disbelieved for decades and unaware that anyone else, other than the ones with her at the Guantanamo Bay installation in around 1965, had seen anything similar.

She, Patty Carson, has kindly agreed to having her real name used to substantiate her sighting and to support the Marine’s account of his sighting.

Pterosaur Sightings in Cuba

We were walking through [a] scrub area, and suddenly it [the “pterodactyl”] sat up, as if it had been eating something or resting. . . . right in front of us about thirty feet away. . . . I looked at his [Eskin Kuhn’s] drawing, and if I had to make any changes I would make the tail maybe six inches shorter and the wings maybe 10% longer, maybe even 15%, but the proportions of the head are very good, and the body and the hind legs are exactly as I remember.

I have additional information, more than is found on the above KSN News report:

Words of Patty Carson

“All of us froze for about five seconds, then it leaned to its left and took off with a fwap fwap fwap sound, in a big hurry, more of a scramble, and flew to its left and disappeared behind trees and terrain. It seemed to get some of its takeoff power from jumping with its hind legs. It did have a tail and it had a diamond shaped tip, (didn’t get to see if it had hairs on it) The skin was a leathery, brownish reddish color. It had little teeth, a LOT of them.”

Caribbean Flying Creatures

We were somewhere between Cuba and Haiti. . . . around 2:00 A.M. . . . my daughter and I returned to our cabin. She went out on the balcony and called me out about 15 minutes later to see something wierd. . . . I stepped onto the balcony . . . Off in the distance were two, very, very large . . . pink/orange [luminescent] like the flying dinosaurs.

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Live Pterosaurs in America, by Jonathan Whitcomb, second edition

Reports of huge flying “pterodactyls” in American skies have floated around the internet for years; but before about 2005, details were scarce. When an eyewitness was named, the interviewer was often anonymous; even when an eyewitness was credible, and the account published in a newspaper, the story was ridiculed, discouraging others who had also seen strange flying creatures. Where could eyewitnesses go? What a predicament for them! Who would believe their reports?

Learn the truth for yourself, the truth about modern living pterosaurs in the United States of America.