Sightings of pterosuars in Ohio include the Antwerp case that was covered in a newspaper story a few months ago:
“He described it like a pterosaur, according to a recently-published book, ‘Live Pterosaurs in America.’” The creature was reported “chasing sparrows as it flew over the Route 49 bridge near Antwerp, Ohio.” The author found credibility in the testimony. . . . Few major newspapers have published eyewitnesses accounts of apparent living-pterosaurs, at least in recent years. As reported in the Antwerp Bee-Argus, they “have been thought by many scientists to have gone extinct many millions of years ago,” that is, the pterosaurs, not yet major newspapers. [quotations from the Ohio newspaper article about the sightings of a living pterosaur]
Of course, this seems to have little relationship to the title of this blog: The Bible and Living Pterosaurs. One eyewitness in Ohio, however, was a minister; the sighting was in 2005:
[in Mount Vernon, Ohio] “I was coming to preach at a church out in the country. . . . I [noticed] a creature in the sky. . . . It appeared to have no feathers . . . [the tail was] longer than most bird tails . . . with a diamond-shaped point at the end.” [from Pterosaurs in the Bible]
The Antwerp, Ohio, sightings are covered in detail in the nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America. But sightings of apparent living pterosaurs in the United States are hardly confined to Ohio; other sightings have been reported in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, New York, Maine, Michigan, Kansas, and other states.
Visitors who stop at the viewing platform, in this remote higher-elevation semi-desert area of southwest Texas, are unlikely to view any truly mysterious light on the particular night they happen to be driving through Marfa. The real Marfa Lights appear on just a few nights a year, although a nearby highway causes car headlights to appear mysterious to some viewers.
How do Marfa Lights relate to the Bible and to modern living pterosaurs? They only relate if those mysterious lights are related to the ropen lights of Papua New Guinea, for there the flying lights are the bioluminescence of large flying creatures described like nothing other than modern Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs.
But must those apparent pterosaurs (in Papua New Guinea, Texas, or elsewhere) be closely related to the fiery flying serpents of the Old Testament? Of course the ropen may differ greatly from the creatures that terrorized the Israelites who were led through the wilderness by Moses. Nevertheless, the potential similarities are striking.
The flying (and sometimes dancing) lights of Marfa, Texas, only show themselves a few times a year, in contrast to the counterfeit “strange” lights caused by headlights of cars on a nearby highway. But if those lights are caused by the same general kind of creature as the ropen of Papua New Guinea (large or giant featherless flying creature with a long tail), how would ancient people describe it? A featherless long-tailed creature that curled up its wings while in repose would surely bring to mind a snake. And the “fiery” part of “fiery flying serpents” could come from the glow, what we now call bioluminescence.
I’ve written elsewhere about this paleontologist, about his extensive criticism of the concept of modern living pterosaurs (“Pterosaurs alive in, like, the modern day”). His lengthy writings, on that one page, about questionable reports—they ring like strawman arguments to me, for the credible accounts are entirely neglected by Darren Naish. I appreciate his worthy contributions to paleontology, especially in regard to pterosaur fossils; but it seems to me that he has gone far afield in wandering into cryptozoology, and he seems unaware of how serious investigations of living pterosaurs are actually progressing.
I now comment on part of a comment (by Cameron, #12) on that blog by Naish. It is dated December 24, 2007.
Mr. Whitcomb, who frequents the cryptozoology.com forum as “jdw”, now claims that there are pterosaurs in…South Carolina. Considering how many bird enthusiasts there are in this country who seem to be able to spot anything slightly unusual or out of range, that would have to be one heckofa stealthy pterosaur.
The South Carolina pterosaur sighting was by Susan Wooten, who has maintained the truthfulness of her testimony for years. The description of that giant flying creature, seen in daylight near a swamp, is hardly unique in North America, but let’s examine Cameron’s statement, to see what he insinuates and if he reasons well. We need clear thinking.
Indeed we have many bird-watchers in the United States; I presume South Carolina is no exception. Watching birds is a popular hobby, but what is entailed? Well . . . watching birds and reporting those birds. So what does that tell us about a potential sighting of a giant Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur? Well . . . nothing.
What would I do, if I were a bird-watcher who saw a giant long-tailed pterosaur? I would certainly not bother trying to look up “pterodactyl” on my report form. But what would a typical bird-watcher do? Cameron seems to have missed something important here, for bird-watchers, every one of them, are quite human. Think about it: Who wants to be called “crazy?” Who wants to be ostracized?
Have I missed something here? Cameron commented on a sighting in South Carolina and seems to have dismissed it because it was of a large pterosaur. If a bird-watcher were brave enough to report that (and who is Cameron to declare that no bird-watcher has ever done so?) why would the general public react much differently? What’s wrong with the eyewitness who actually did report that sighting in South Carolina? Why should she be a bird-watcher?
Cameron seems to have dismissed the South Carolina pterosaur sighting with, “That would have to be one heckofa stealthy pterosaur.” What is really wrong with a living creature being extremely stealthy? If it lived in a country where almost every human believed it was extinct, that creature could fly around near a swamp on rare occasions. If it was a somewhat rare nocturnal creature, it would be much easier to go unclassified except as a cryptid. And how many hunters hunt pterosaurs in any swamp? And in which swamp would they look? And what tree would they climb in that swamp? It would be a challenging hunt, for a flying creature might never leave any footprint in a swamp.
Of course Cameron may not have intended any negative reflection on Susan Wooten, but I am grateful that his comment gave me an opportunity to bring up a kind of assumption that critics don’t seem to realize is an assumption: Lack of news reports of living pterosaurs does not mean that nobody sees apparent living pterosaurs.
I don’t know if that apparent ropen was startled out of a daytime sleep and forced into the air that day in South Carolina; I suspect it was. I don’t know if it is part of a colony in that part of North America or if it happened to have wandered away from tropical Central America. I don’t know if it is extremely stealthy or just somewhat rare and almost always nocturnal. I do know, as a former forensic videographer, experienced in judging the credibility of many eyewitnesses, that Susan Wooten is a credible eyewitness. I believe she saw something at least similar to a ropen. And I believe that the ropen is a modern living pterosaur.
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Let’s consider some recent blogs and other web pages relevant to living pterosaurs research and investigations.
Life, Not Extinction, Is What Fossils Mostly Reveal
The paleontologist Darren Naish commented on the blog posting “Fossils are evidence of life, not extinction.” He supports the standard models that include universal extinctions of general types of organisms, namely pterosaurs. His lengthy web page “Pterosaurs alive in, like, the modern day!” bebunks many questionable older reports, and I believe some of his opinions have merit . . . But critical eyewitness sightings are absent from his blog post, and to those who have closely followed living-pterosaur investigations this neglect is obvious.
Called by some Americans “flying dinosaurs,” pterosaurs, in modern times, appear to be at least somewhat rare, for they are rarely reported by eyewitnesses. . . . the rarity of reports of eyewitnesses is from the ridicule that many of them face after telling people what they saw; it is not generally from insanity or dishonesty. . . . The “flying dinosaur” of Papua New Guinea is often called “ropen.” It seems to be a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur of immense size, far larger than any of the fossils of Rhamphorhynchoids . . .
. . . nobody forces any adult to disbelieve any story of a child. Several things have led me to believe that Aaron Tullock, as a child, saw a living pterosaur, regardless of American indoctrinations into universal extinctions, and I submit this account as credible. . . . “This thing flew over my head, about eight feet off the ground, and stopped and hovered in mid air. . . . flapping its featherless, bat-like wings, which were about four feet in span, maybe five. It had a tail about three feet long, with the . . . flange on the end . . . no head crest and no feathers at all . . .”
“Pterodactyl” Flies Over Military Ship
. . . a sailor on the U.S.S. Jouett (guided missle cruiser), CG-29. He told us about the night when he was surprised by an excited shipmate who summoned him out of his bunk. Many sailors had just witnessed a giant “pterodactyl” that had flown directly over the ship . . . If anyone has information on this, please send me an email . . .
Of course undue attention to the opinion of “tiny minorities” may be inappropriate in the biography of a living person (BLP), in an encyclopedia or similar publication; but with a giant like Wikipedia, there is an unspoken policy that resembles this: The virtual policy of “popular opinion rules.” This unofficial policy comes unavoidably from the nature of Wikipedia: an open platform for writing and editing.
I would not change Wikipedia; I would encourage knowledge and understanding of popular opinions in Western culture. Wikipedia makes many research projects much easier, but we need to remember that it comes mostly from writings of those who comply, at least to some extent, to popular models; concepts not based on standard axioms of developed nations are not portrayed in a positive light, in general, if they are portrayed at all.
So what do I suggest about Wikipedia? Use it when popular Western ideas are not a problem; do not use it to research something unorthodox at its roots. Of course, I am thinking about modern living pterosaurs. In particular, consider those Americans who have investigated eyewitness reports that suggest extant pterosaurs. Wikipedia has a somewhat informative page on the ropen; it includes informative reference URL’s as well (mostly quite positive towards researchers and investigators).
But the Wikipedia page itself tells us little about the investigators; it mentions names: “Carl Baugh, Paul Nation, Jonathan Whitcomb, David Woetzel, and Garth Guessman,” mentioning that they are American creationists who seek to “discredit mainstream scientific views on the age of the Earth.” As of July 19, 2010, almost nothing else is said about them, although Baugh has his own Wikipedia page (very negative about him, by standard BLP policies). So let’s now consider those three investigators who do not have their own pages on Wikipedia (Nation, Whitcomb, Woetzel, and Guessman), using CreationWiki:
As a living-pterosaur investigator, Paul Nation, of Granbury, Texas, conducted brief expeditions in Papua New Guinea in 1994 (with Carl Baugh), 2002, 2006, and early 2007 (Nation became involved in living-pterosaur expeditions because of his professional experience handling large ratites–flightless birds like ostriches–and their eggs). The earlier two expeditions were searching for the ropen of Umboi Island; the latter two, for the indava of the mainland interior.
While viewing an expedition video by Paul Nation, he noticed a high level of credibility in the testimonies of eyewitnesses of what is called the ropen of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea. He then became involved in living-pterosaur investigations, exploring part of Umboi Island in 2004. Although he failed to see any ropen, he interviewed native eyewitnesses. In 2006, Whitcomb wrote the book Searching for Ropens. In it he criticizes the standard model of universal and ancient pterosaur extinction and criticizes the General Theory of Evolution.
David Woetzel, a New Hampshire businessman, is an active cryptozoology explorer, having searched for the Mokele Mbembe in Africa and the ropen in Papua New Guinea. His 2004 expedition to Umboi Island, with Garth Guessman and Jacob Kepas, resulted in detailed interviews with villagers. In addition, Woetzel himself saw what investigators believe was a bioluminescent ropen (a living pterosaur) one night as the distant glowing form flew behind a mountain. Like Whitcomb, Woetzel has written a scientific paper about living pterosaurs (both articles being published in the peer-reviewed Creation Research Society Quarterly).
Garth Guessman, of Southern California, explored (with David Woetzel and Jacob Kepas) Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea in 2004, searching for ropens. This resulted in one brief and distant sighting by Woetzel and in many formally conducted interviews with native eyewitnesses.
Guessman’s knowledge of Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur fossils allowed him to notice an important clue about the ropen‘s classification. The two explorers learned that the native traditions describe the ropen‘s tail as being stiff, never moving except near where it connects to the body. Guessman recognized that this relates to the stiffening extension rods of Rhamphorhynchoid vertebrae: all but a few vertebrae are locked into stiffness; the few that are flexible are near where the pterosaur’s tail connects to the body.
Strange Flying Creatures — Lack of fairness from critics
Let’s consider sites dealing with how modern living pterosaurs relate to origin philosophies.
How common for persons to be unconscious of their personal philosophical axioms! How rare, how refreshing for a person to recognize how personal axioms influence conclusions! (The common route, skimming the surface of consciousness and assuming we must think rationally, fails to take into account those axioms.)
With the acceleration of living-pterosaur investigations in recent years, including ropen expeditions in Papua New Guinea, what would the discovery of a live pterosaur do to the General Theory of Evolution? What sounds like a simple question is actually complex. After years of studying the reports of live pterosaur-like creatures, and after years of pondering what extant pterosaurs would mean to science, I have discovered a complex answer.
Questions and Answers: The 2nd Edition of the Book Searching for Ropens
Q: Does a Christian belief cause bias in a scientific investigation?
A: Belief in Jesus Christ did not hinder Isaac Newton or Galileo. Atheists and agnostics have their own core philosophical beliefs which tend to lead to different biases than those who believe in and interpret the Bible.
CREATION
“Creationism is a belief system which postulates that the universe, Earth, and life on Earth were deliberately created by an intelligent being.” [creationwiki.org]
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
The official definition is “the theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process.” [intelligentdesign.org].
NATURALISM
One modern definition of the word “Naturalism” is “all things in the universe can be understood in scientific terms, without spiritual or supernatural explanations.
