Have I talked too much about Marfa Lights? Maybe, but not recently. I would like to extrapolate on the blog post “Marfa Lights Explanation.” Regarding intelligence, why would people dismiss it and search through the scuffy landscape of southwest Texas, figuratively speaking, for an explanation devoid of any intelligent creature? It’s because of hesitancy to suggest a creature that is unclassified in science, at least not yet classified.

Intelligent ghost lights, even when we use “ghost lights” loosely, can put us out on a limb. Almost nobody wants to jump onto that bandwagon or jump onto the back of a giant pterodactyl that might bite off ones head. College professors, in particular, feel vulnerable should they suggest intelligent modern pterosaurs are glowing at night in southwest Texas. Those professors could not easily take an accusation that they had taken something that makes them feel that they themselves are glowing, as well as imagining glowing pterosaurs.

But what other zoological species have intelligence enough to hunt as a group? Lions are not the best examples, especially when a younger lion messes up the pride’s hunt. But some whales display wonderful techniques, including blowing patterns of bubbles that trap fish, allowing the prey to be caught much more efficiently.

The nocturnal predators that create some of the Marfa Lights in Texas might not be closely related to anything that left us pterosaur fossils. That means that we cannot disprove or even discredit the bioluminescent-predator explanation of Marfa Lights by examining pterosaur fossils. Perhaps those modern flying creatures, pterosaurs or not, are more intelligent than the ones that have left us fossils. Not much do we know for sure except that some of those flying lights around Marfa certainly appear to suggest intelligent direction. Nocturnal flying predators is one obvious explanation.

Do Pterosaurs Eat Bats?

I do know of a large bat in Europe, a species that catches some birds in flight, at night. But a pterosaur catching a bat is still highly likely, based upon a number of indirect evidences.

Explaining Marfa Lights

“Why are ML-III not usually seen for many nights in a row? Why are they absent for so many nights in a row? Why do they keep coming back after a few weeks of absence? This is exactly what we would expect of large predators that cover large areas.”

An Explanation for Marfa Lights

. . . On May 7th and 8th, 2003, extraordinary events were photographed [by James Bunnell). On the first night, lights appeared between 9:00 and 10:40. The first light was too brief for Bunnell to photograph, but two more appeared at about the same location. I was intrigued at Bunnell’s description of how those two lights behaved, for it seemed consistent with my hypothesis that Marfa Lights are made by flying predators with extreme bioluminescence, like the ropen of the southwest Pacific but used for a different purpose: to attract insects that attract the Big Brown Bat.

To begin, I’ll back track: I believe that a species of modern pterosaur could be diurnal but it would be likely a rare species living in a remote area. It would be an exception.

The general rule points to nocturnal pterosaurs, with daylight sightings being quite likely the exceptions. We might review the two daylight sightings in Georgia a few years ago. The eyewitness saw two apparent pterosaurs flying early in the morning, but after sunrise, the first sighting being very soon after a major storm passed through that part of the United States. It seems likely that the storm had disturbed two nocturnal pterosaurs enough that they made themselves known in daylight, by flying over a highway.

More on Two Pterosaurs in Georgia

To review what these sightings entailed, the lady saw two different flying creatures, two weeks apart, late in the summer of 2008. They were obviously of the same species but different sizes. The tail was long, with a “heart” shape at tail-end. Even the smaller one was larger than any ordinary bird. The wing flapping especially caught her attention, for it was different than anything she had ever seen in the flapping of bird wings: “The wings ‘pumped’ in a ‘scooping’ manner, as the motion rippled along the body and through the tail.

Perhaps the most significant evidence for the general rule that modern pterosaurs are nocturnal is the connection with bioluminescence. Many of the repeated-sighting areas are where flying lights are observed, for example, in Papua New Guinea. But strange flying lights at night are also seen in North America, including Texas.

Are Marfa Lights Nocturnal Scavengers?

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 . . . 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.

Pterosaur Flying at Night in Spain

One night, whilst sitting on the ground by the tents . . . I saw what I at first assumed was an owl gliding over the campsite (I assumed that because it was night time, and obviously no other birds would be out-bar things like nightjars-which this was not!) – it passed right over us, probably about 30-40ft high, and as I watched it, I realised it was definitely no owl I’d ever seen before. It was the colour of suede/sand, looked like the same sort of texture as suede (i.e no feathers), had a long thin tail, and didn’t flap once.

Of course the precise concept of “glowing pterosaurs” for Marfa Lights seems speculative, at least until an eyewitness comes forward in that area of Texas and the sighting ties together flying balls of light and pterosaurs. That said, eyewitnesses in other parts of Texas, and in surrounding states, testify of flying pterosaurs.

I would like to now give my opinions on recent writings on this subject of Marfa Lights.

Caribbean Flying Creatures

Actually, the title is “Marfa Lights and Glowing Pterosaurs,” but the section on a sighting in the Caribbean Sea is what I will now examine. I found it interesting that their inquiry with the cruise ship company was unanswered. I see nothing suspicious in this eyewitness account, at least nothing suggesting any hoax. This particular brief account of this report leaves out the fact that this lady had not been drinking.

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 flourescent (sic) birds  flying behind each other. They  looked like the flying dinosauers (sic).

I know a bit more about this sighting report. The eyewitnesses mentioned that she knew that “dinosaur” was not the correct word, but she had forgotten the correct word.

Mysterious Marfa Lights

Circumstantial evidence has accumulated for the hypothesis that the more-mysterious of the flying lights around Marfa, Texas, are caused by the bioluminescence of a group of flying predators, unclassified by science, that hunts as an intelligent unit, perhaps somewhat similar to the group-hunting behavior or large predators such as some whales and seals.

I like the comparison with whales and seals rather than predatory birds, for those denizons of the deep sometimes will hunt in coordinated ways. Marfa Lights sometimes seem to do the same, of course in the air rather than underwater.

Marfa Lights Chasing Cars

Why would large flying predators always avoid moving automobiles at night? I like this open-minded approach to eyewitness reports of this behavior that James Bunnell believes is very strange.

Linda Armstrong was driving to Marfa, Texas, on the night of October 8, 2008, when she was startled to see a bright white light in her rear-view mirror; it seemed to be gaining on her car. Two aspects of her encounter each discredit the Fata Morgana mirage explanation: The light passed her and followed the curvature of the highway ahead of her. If the light had been a Fata Morgana mirage, it would have remained in the rear-view mirror, and it would not have followed the curvature of the road.