Tag: Marfa Lights

It seems easy for some Americans to imagine a modern pterosaur living in some remote jungle in Papua New Guinea. It’s not so easy to imagine one in the United States. But reports of living pterosaurs here in North America keep coming to my attention, and those strange flying Marfa Lights keep returning. Strange as it may seem to most people in this country, there seem to be a number of scientifically unknown animals in North America, and the ropen, even a long-tailed pterosaur, may be one of them.

A web page called “Marfa Light Miracle” mentions a sighting by James Bunnell, author of Hunting Marfa Lights:

“Soon after dark we saw two strange lights . . . These lights pulsed independently and seemed to follow a randomly timed sequence that, in most cases, went from dark to relatively dim, flared to a higher level of brightness, then dimmed and eventually went out. Sometimes both lights would be on at the same time.”

I know I have written about Marfa Lights before, so I’ll refer to those postings:

Are Marfa Lights Nocturnal Scavengers?

Could Marfa Lights be nocturnal flying scavengers? . . . bats are unlikely to be about during the colder winter nights, and some of the stranger Marfa Lights are seen on some of those nights.

Scientific Skepticism and Marfa Lights

To be fair to Mr. Dunning, we need to remember that some of these sighting reports are quite strange: flying lights that seem to fly in ways related to each other. These flights are too complex–I believe “complex” is the word used by James Bunnell–to be easily explained as an ordinary phenomenon. But the strange reactions some person might have to consuming alcohol does not mean that all strange experiences should be dismissed with “whiskey.” . . . not-yet-explained things may exist.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance or avoiding simplistic evaluations and careless classifying of mysterious lights. Marfa Lights of type CE-III move unlike hunting barn owls and unlike car headlights. Some of the ghost lights in the United States do behave like hunting barn owls. Whether future discoveries reveal a species of bioluminescent pterosaur causes Marfa Lights or some other nocturnal flying predator causes them, we cannot at this time expect those mysterious lights to be caused by Tyto Alba, the barn owl.

Even the term “Min Min” has a vague reference. I look to the writings of the Australian expert Fred Silcock, who has researched, for years, the wandering lights of Australia, the lights that act like hunting barn owls and have been observed to be that bird, called “Great Owl” in that land. The important question to ask and ask again, as long as we evaluate strange lights, is this: How does a particular like act? If it flies like a barn owl might fly while hunting, it is probably a barn owl with intrinsic bioluminescence, according to the research of Mr. Silcock.

Intelligent meaning to the light movements is difficult to calculate. People just have a way of feeling something is behind those Marfa Lights. They sometimes call them “dancing devils” or some other silly thing. But they sense something or someone intelligent is causing those particular flight patterns, the light splitting and light rejoining, in a sort of dance.

Let’s reason this out, this idea that ghost lights are actually ghosts, that Marfa Lights are from spirits of the dead who come to this part of Texas to glow and fly around. Assuming ghosts regularly make bright light, which I do not believe, why would they fly over those empty fields around Marfa, Texas? If there were something about a location that attracted ghosts, would it not be a specific location like a house? Why do CE-III Marfa Lights fly over such a large area?

Along this line of literal ghost lights, why would they be gone for weeks at a time? Why such a long time between brief appearances? CE-III mysery lights only show themselves for about one or two nights at a time, thereafter vanishing for weeks. Does not that better fit the behavior of roaming predators?

I would not place too much confidence in the Whitcomb hypothesis of bat hunting. The Marfa Lights, as predators, may on occasion hunt bats. But their diet probably consists of other things, even carrion. But Marfa Lights, regardless of the idea of ghost lights, act like living intelligent predators, not like dead ghosts.

Vultures scavenge in daylight. Could Marfa Lights be nocturnal flying scavengers? I don’t mean to put down the bat hunting hypothesis, regarding the splittings and rejoinings that may have given rise to the comment from residents about “dancing devils.” That may have a place, during seasons when bats are about around Marfa, Texas; details are available where the press release on Marfa Light Predator is published online. But bats are unlikely to be about during the colder winter nights, and some of the stranger Marfa Lights are seen on some of those nights.

Since the kongamato of Africa and the ropen of Papua New Guinea are known to scavenge at least on some nights, according to some reports, similar modern pterosaurs could do the same in North America. At least this could be used as a working hypothesis.

Marfa Lights and Science

The results of that analysis might appear more like science fiction than science: nocturnal biolumionescent flying predators that might be related to ropens, even if that means a living pterosaur interpretation. Nevertheless, when extinction dogma is set aside, there is nothing unscientific about the hypothesis that Marfa Lights are caused by the bioluminescence of flying predators.

Marfa Light, How Bright!

The distance from start point to end point was, according to Bunnell’s triangulation calculations, eleven miles, and the time of travel was eighteen minutes. That makes the average speed about 37 mph, assuming a straight flight, which it seems to have been. That speed is critical to the reasoning that follows.

Some birds can fly 37 miles per hour, but most do not fly that fast, at least not for long. Barn owls are not known for flying straight for many miles, even if one of them could keep up a pace of 37 mph. But the ropen of Papua New Guinea is said to fly “faster than birds but slower than airplanes.”