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What Attracts Pterosaurs To Texas?

Why are there so many reported sightings of modern pterosaurs in Texas? Perhaps it’s just the large land area, giving the flying creatures more places to hunt and hide.

I’m interested in a report of a 1982 sighting in Los Fresnos, Texas. An ambulance driver or technician, James Thompson, of Harlingen, Texas, was reported to have seen a “large birdlike object” flying about 150 feet above Highway 100 at about 4:00 a.m., in September of that year. At first, he presumed it was a model glider, but he then saw it flap its wings to remain in the air. He described it as dark, with a rough texture, something like a “hide—type covering.” It had no feathers. The wingspan he estimated at five to six feet. It had no neck but something like a hump on the back of its head. He eventually labeled the flying creature: “pterosaur.”

If my information is correct, this story was printed in the Valley Morning Star, the local Rio Grande newspaper. It merits looking into.

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New Book Nearly Published

The second edition of Live Pterosaurs in America is about to be published. The front cover and a few excerpts are now available online, althought the book itself may not appear on Amazon until December [A later-added note: the book came up on Amazon late Nov 23, 2010]. I here include an eyewitness sighting not found in the first edition of the book, an encounter by a boy who, now as a man, has allowed his name to be included: Aaron Tullock.

“I saw a featherless flying animal with a wingspan of about 4 1/2 to 5 feet and a long tail with a diamond type shape at the tip of it. No hair or feathers anywhere, just leathery reptile type skin. . . . The animal had bumps down its back, feet with longish toes, and long black claws like an osprey has for grasping fish . . .”

One thing strange about this sightings is the manner of flight for the creature. It was hovering just a few feet above the ground, and this lasted for some time. This was in Texas.

Regarding the front cover of the book, take note that the image of that pterosaur is part of the sketch by Eskin Kuhn, the eyewitness of two pterosaurs at the Guantanamo military base in Cuba, in 1971. We in the cryptozoology world are indebted to Mr. Kuhn for this detailed rendition of what he encountered, and thank goodness for this man’s artistic expertise, for we don’t yet have any clear photograph of a modern pterosaur.

front cover of the non-fiction book Live Pterosaurs in America

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Pterosaurs in Arkansas and Texas

No precise publication date is yet available for the second edition of Jonathan Whitcomb’s nonfiction “Live Pterosaurs in America,” but the book will have at least one eyewitness account of a sighting in Arkansas, and several in Texas. The latest guess is that the book will be on sale around late November or early December, 2010, at least available on Amazon.com.

Arkansas Pterosaur

. . . probably 1982 when me and my older brother were sitting in our carport at Union Village Apartments, in Texarkana, AR. . . . we saw what we believe to be a [pterodactyl]. The wingspan seemed to be about 25’ to 30’ ft wide. . . . I do believe eventually one of these creatures will be captured or found right here in the USA.

*We were very used to the normal nightly activities of the area. We knew what the local birds and bats looked like . . . My dad and I had, on several occasions, noticed bats flying right near our heads . . . the creature was flying just above the phone lines. It would go one direction, turn, and swoop back. The shape was wrong for any large bird of the area, and the size was much too large to be any bat.
This was frightening. I get little chills just writing about it now. . . . we have debated and discussed all sorts of possibilities about what we saw that night.

(*From the nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America)

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