Modern Pterosaur – Page 39 – Please join us: Investigate reports of modern living pterosaurs.

March 18, 2011February 4, 2012

A Real Pterosaur in Pennsylvania

I refer to the blog post “Pennsylvania Pterosaur”

What caught my attention to this sighting was the obvious rebuttal to the model-pterodactyl-misidentification suggestion that I occasionally read about. There is no mechanical model, of a pterosaur, that catches and eats ducks or rats. Let me explain with reference to this apparent pterosaur in Pennsylvania, quoting from both the Live Pterosaur blog mentioned and the source for that posting on that blog.

In 2006 myself and two of my students were standing outside of my karate school. My school was located on route 119 . . . In Southwest Greensburg PA. This is by no means a rural area.

I noticed a large black bird in the sky. . . . I observed it for about two minutes as it flew towards us very slowly (it seemed slow) until it was maybe another 50 feet away from the tree line . . . Being that far up the “birds” body still appeared to be much larger than my 100 pound dog (wider and longer).

I called my students attention to it and they were both instantly mesmerized. The wing span appeared to be at least six feet . . . you could clearly make out a long “horn” or “cone” type protrusion coming out of the back of its skull, which was at the end of an elongated neck . . .

This “bird” also seemed to have a long tail . . . As it was almost directly over us we all agreed we couldn’t see feathers anywhere and my student Carrie said “It looks like pterodactyl . . . doesn’t it?”

It flew over top us and landed in the water behind the school. It was like city run off or whatever and was in a concrete ravine about 15 feet deep [the water itself is shallow] . . .

We could here it splashing around, and Carrie ran around the building to see it. There are always ducks in that water as well as rats and other things. When she came back . . . she said it had taken off, Carrie said it was in the water splashing and eating or grabbing something in its mouth.

No mechanical model would dive into a pool of water, grab an animal or bird, and fly away with the meal in its mouth. But before setting aside the subject of misidentified models airplanes or model gliders, in the shapes of pterosaurs, I refer to the 1944 “pterodactyl” sighting by Duane Hodgkinson. In that sighting, the flying creature with a wingspan of a Piper Tri-Pacer could not have been a man-made model.

I could go on with other sightings but let this suffice: model pterosaurs have no relevance to many critical sighting reports. Critics needs to be more careful before commenting.

Pterosaur Misidentification in Cuba?

“I saw two pterosaurs . . . flying together . . . perhaps 100 feet [high], very close in range from where I was standing, so that I had a perfectly clear view of them.

Eskin Kuhn, a talented artist, drew a sketch of the two pterosaurs, soon after observing them. Misidentification is unlikely, since he was in close range of them and there was no obstruction, and they were very unlike any bird or bat.

March 10, 2011March 10, 2011

Pterosaurs in British Columbia, Canada

Canada might seem too cold, in winter, for flying pterosaurs, but British Columbia, at least, seems to have them, at least sometimes. Regarding the following two sightings, I don’t know if either one was of a living pterosaur, but I believe it likely enough that they should be examined for that possibility, in light of the many sighting reports from the U.S.A.

From the Blog “Live Pterosaur”

A lady in British Columbia saw what she thinks was a ropen. She told me, ”I don’t know what else it could have been. . . . I understand that the Ropen is nocturnal but I saw this creature during the day about 2:30 pm so maybe i’m wrong . . .”

The creature was larger than any bird the eyewitness had ever before seen. It had a long tail “with something on the end of it just like the Ropen. Then I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the wings and they weren’t feathers, they were like huge bat wings.”

From “abovetopsecret.com”

When the eyewitness was about ten or twelve years old, his (or her) family was taking a camping trip in the Cariboo area of British Columbia.

As we drove along the highway, I saw something fly by, like three cars distance away. . . . Small parrot-like head, same body, but the one I saw had a long tail with a circular tail flap thing on the end.

I know that these two sighting accounts in British Columbia, Canada, are brief accounts. But they do seem to fit into the larger picture of pterosaur sightings in North America.

March 3, 2011

New Zealand Pterosaurs

New Zealand Flying Slasher

A recent post on the blog Pterosaur Eyewitness, titled “Misidentification,” refers to the “New Zealand Flying Slasher.” The post deals with the potential for misidentifying common things as modern pterosaurs, and this sub-category brings up the concept that those flying “reptiles” may live in New Zealand. Whitcomb refutes both the misidentified bat concept and the misidentified eagle concept.

What interests me is the concept that one or more species of pterosaur may live in New Zealand. Even though it is more than a thousand miles from Australia, where many eyewitnesses have seen apparent modern pterosaurs, those creatures would have little difficulty crossing that distance, over a number of centuries. With each deathly failure of a wandering flyer, another wanderer would follow, with some of them eventually succeeding in crossing that stretch of ocean.

Another Report of Pterosaurs in New Zealand

Someone with the pen name “Undeadskeptic” did some research and uncovered several accounts that suggest pterosaurs may live in New Zealand. No references are given for those stories, but I found it interesting that the one doing the research and reporting all those potential sightings is a skeptic. I refer to those stories that interest me the most.

“The bird that bit Catherine” involves a child who was reading while sitting on a fence. “She became aware of a little creature sitting next to her,” but gave it little attention at first. She thought it to be just a small green bird with a long tail. When it became noisy, she tried to shoo it away, whereupon the creature bit her finger, spread its leathery wings, and flew away. She then realized how unusual it was and ran to tell her father that she had seen a “dinosaur.” I think that story deserves looking into.

Another account reported by “Undeadskeptic” involves a man and his wife who, in 1981, witnessed one of their pigs, a large piglet, being attacked by a “bat-like” creature with a “long beak.” The farm animal died and the flying creature flew away.

Report Your Sighting

Should anyone in New Zealand have a pterosaur sighting to report, I would advise that person to report the sighting to Jonathan Whitcomb through the email form of Live Pterosaur. I give the same advice regardless of the country involved.