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Head Crest and a Rhamphorhynchoid Tail

Pterosaurs seen by Eskin Kuhn

By Jonathan Whitcomb, author of nonfiction cryptozoology books

I recently came across a series of comments in the cryptozoology section of Reddit. Here’s part of what one skeptic said about eyewitness reports from North Carolina:

“nonsensical ‘head-crest and long tail with a diamond fin’ description”

It is a strange description, to be sure, that combination of a head crest and a Rhamphorhynchoid-like tail that has a structure at tail-end. It appears almost as strange as a description of a platypus, to someone who knows about mammals and ducks but who has been ignorant of that strange animal that now lives in Australia.

I suggest the countless sightings of ropens around the world—that demonstrates that this animal now lives worldwide. The critic who threw up that comment on Reddit was surely ignorant of just how many persons have reported a living ropen. And eyewitnesses live in many countries of the world, not just in North Carolina.

Pterosaurs seen by Eskin Kuhn
Two pterosaurs observed in Cuba in 1971

Eskin Kuhn, a U.S. Marine at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1971, is a talented artist. He witnessed two “pterodactyls” flying at “close range” and not high above the ground. He concentrated on their appearance so that he could sketch out details later. He drew the above sketch within minutes of his sighting, which encounter was on a clear day.

Notice the combination of a long tail with a tail-end structure and that horn-like head crest. Mr. Kuhn had no idea that during World War II, in the Pacific, an American soldier had a close encounter with a “huge” flying creature that brought to mind the word “pterodactyl.” That one also had a long tail (“at least ten or fifteen feet” in length) and a horn-like head crest.

Sightings in New Guinea, decades ago

The late World War II veteran Duane Hodgkinson freely described the long-tailed flying creature he and his army buddy observed in a jungle clearing west of Finschhafen, New Guinea, in 1944. He did not focus, at the time, on the end of the tail of the “pterodactyl,” for he was concentrating much more on the head. He made it clear, however, that the long tail was separate from the legs, for he clearly saw the legs when the creature was running to get up off the ground while it was taking off.

But Hodgkinson saw the head crest and approved the sketch that was made according to his guidance. Brian Hennessy also saw a large flying creature with a long tail, and that was on Bougainville Island, New Guinea, in 1971, the same year as the sighting by Eskin Kuhn, on the other side of the world.

two similar sketches of the ropen head

Ropen-pterosaur: 1971 (top) and 1944 (bottom)

Notice the similarities in the two sketches above. The top head-sketch was chosen by Brian Hennessy; the bottom, by Duane Hodgkinson. Although the sightings were in different decades, the proximity (eastern mainland of New Guinea and Bougainville Island) and the similarities in the choices made by those two men—those point to the large flying creatures being either the same species or a closely related species.

More on a Head Crest and a Rhamphorhynchoid Tail

So we have two Western eyewitnesses of apparent ropens in New Guinea and one American soldier in Cuba, with sketches corresponding to those three sightings. We actually have more than that: Take the report by the American Patty Carson. She saw a flying “dinosaur” at Guantanamo Bay but several years before the sighting by Eskin Kuhn.

Gitmo Pterosaur of Cuba - eyewitness and artist Patty Carson

Sketch by the eyewitness Patty Carson

This eyewitness drew her sketch long after the sighting she had in Cuba, but she has something in common with Mr. Kuhn, aside from encountering a ropen: She is a talented artist who can draw realistically from memory. Notice the horn-like head crest on the above sketch.

You may respond with something like this: Carson’s sketch does not have any long tail. Yes, that is true. But she remembers seeing a long tail on that “dinosaur” and she remembers the flange that she saw on the end of that tail.

The combination of a head crest and a long Rhamphorhynchoid tail, with a “diamond” or “spade” or “triangle” at tail end—that may be relatively rare in a pterosaur fossil, but it’s common in sighting reports of modern ropens. Despite remarks from critics, this is a real animal and described in similar ways, if not in the exact same words, by eyewitnesses in different areas of the planet and from different human cultures.

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Living pterosaur in Arkansas

Encounters with strange flying creatures

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Another Living Pterosaur in North Carolina

It was so big I could easily make out the features. . . . I estimate wingspan was like 10 to 15 feet.

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The reports of living pterosaurs are not birds

I know of three cases in which a person has seen a frigatebird, or a photo or video of that kind of oceanic bird, and thought it was a living pterosaur (or at least he put forward the idea that it was a non-extinct pterosaur). Take that in context: Over the past thirteen years, I’ve looked at hundreds of eyewitness sighting reports of possible living pterosaurs.

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Ropen — a Myth or a Living Reality?

Why do critics of these investigations proclaim so ardently the religious beliefs of cryptozoologists who interview eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs?

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A living Rhamphorhynchoid

The pterosaur suborder of Rhamphorhynchoidea, those long-tailed featherless flying creatures—they’re also called basal pterosaurs. For generations, many scientists have assumed that they became extinct, at least for most of their species, before the last of the Pterodactyloid pterosaurs dominated the skies, many millions of years ago. At least that has been the assumption.

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Books on Large Flying Creatures

"Searching for Ropens and Finding God" back and front covers

The following nonfiction cryptozoology books were found, on Amazon, to each have at least one chapter on large flying creatures that have appeared to eyewitnesses in modern times. These paperbacks are ranked according to Amazon popularity, with smaller numbers indicating more sales recently. (As in golf, authors want the lowest number-rankings possible on Amazon.)

Rankings and price offers were noted on April 15, 2015, between 7:20 a.m. and 7:38 a.m., U.S. Mountain time. Keep in mind that many millions of books are sold on Amazon, so a ranking of a million means that a book is selling better than most books.

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front cover of the fourth edition of this nonfiction book

 

On tax day, this is the best-selling Amazon nonfiction on modern pterosaurs: Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition, by Jonathan David Whitcomb. It has been called “the Bible of modern pterosaurs.”

  • Amazon rank: #102,171
  • Published in 2014
  • 360 pages
  • $16.19

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Thunderbirds - America's Living Legends of Giant Birds

 

The second best-ranked book is Thunderbirds – America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds, by Mark A. Hall. One thing sets this one apart from the others: the apparent general perspective that large flying creatures are giant birds. In fact, from what little I have read (using the Amazon “Look Inside” feature), the author appears to be hiding the identity of one flying creature, at least inadvertently. It was the one reported by Allison Jornlin about a man who witnessed something huge flying outside a window of the Elmbrook Memorial Hospital in Brookfield, Wisconsin. In that sighting, the witness could not make out any feathers and reported that it looked bat-like. Mr. Hall says nothing about that detail, at least in that part of his book about “giant birds.”

  • Amazon rank: #112,461
  • Published in 2004
  • 208 pages
  • $16.99

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"Missionaries and Monsters" by William Gibbons

 

The Amazon page for Missionaries and Monsters (nonfiction by William J. Gibbons) says, “Clues to undiscovered species have been left by missionaries and pastors throughout the world, and explorer Bill Gibbons is hot on their trail.”

  • Amazon rank: #179,127
  • Published in 2006
  • 104 pages
  • $9.95

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cover of nonfiction cryptozoology book "Live Pterosaurs in America"

 

The cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition, by Whitcomb, sometimes is the Amazon best-selling nonfiction in this narrow genre, but not on this particular day. It is not written primarily to convince readers that pterosaurs fly over the USA, but mostly documents eyewitness accounts. Unlike Searching for Ropens and Finding God, this is in pure cryptozoology genre.

  • Amazon rank: #407,839
  • Published in 2011
  • 154 pages
  • $10.92

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Ken Gerhard's nonfiction "Big Bird"

 

Big Bird, by Ken Gerhard, is subtitled “Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters.” This is mostly about the author’s personal experiences in tracking down eyewitnesses in Texas and what those witnesses told him about their encounters.

  • Amazon Rank: #965,331
  • Published in 2007
  • 108 pages
  • $11.51

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"Bird From Hell" by Gerald McIsaac

 

This is the third edition of Bird From Hell, by Gerald McIssac, of Canada. Not all of the book is about this particular cryptid that terrorizes local people in northern British Columbia. It also covers the hairy elephant, rubber-faced bear, dire wolf, and a lake monster.

  • Amazon Rank: #2,792,324
  • Published in 2012
  • 184 pages
  • $13.64

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Fiery Flying Serpent

Searching for  Ropens and Finding God is a nonfiction about pterosaurs  with long tails, apparently real animals that live in our modern  world.

Nonfiction Books That Mention Non-Extinct Pterosaurs

Not all books that include a sighting of an apparent living pterosaur are in the cryptozoology genre. Let’s begin with a translation of an ancient writing by the Jewish historian Josephus . . .

Sense of Truth

This nonfiction paperback should be published before the beginning of summer, 2015, and one chapter is devoted to the concept of modern living pterosaurs.

Religion and Science in the New Ropen Book

How much religion and science are found in the nonfiction Searching for Ropens and Finding God? It depends on what you’re looking for. If it’s quantities of Biblical quotes or complex scientific concepts that prove the Bible is true, this nonfiction would compete poorly with at least two books available on Amazon. But for true-life adventures of Christian explorers who live their faith by getting actively involved, Searching for Ropens and Finding God may be a step above any other book in the religion/science-and-religion genre.

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nonfiction spiritual/cryptozoology paperback by Whitcomb

Cryptozoology/true-life adventure/spiritual quest – Searching for Ropens and Finding God – fourth edition, by Jonathan David Whitcomb, with 360 pages, handles a number of issues regarding worldwide sightings, including questions about misidentification potential. Indeed this nonfiction paperback deserves being called “the Bible of Modern Pterosaurs.”

Subtitled “The quest for discovering modern pterosaurs (‘flying dinosaurs’)”

From the Acknowledgements near the beginning of the book:

What more could we ask of the U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn and the little girl Patty Carson, two eyewitnesses of “pterodactyls” at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the middle of the twentieth century? They carefully observed those flying creatures and later drew detailed sketches that defy any misidentification conjecture that any skeptic might throw at them.

Special thanks to Paul Nation, Garth Guessman, and David Woetzel for research, advice, and the use of photographs and other images. Clifford A. Paiva, of BSM Associates, California City, CA, assisted by Harold S. Slusher, University of Texas at El Paso, Physics Department, wrote “Results of Investigations Concerning Pterosaur Sightings in Papua New Guinea.” We also acknowledge a report by the late Scott Norman, who encounter with an apparent pterosaur encouraged us to continue searching for large bioluminescent flying creatures in North America.

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Live Pterosaurs, Cryptozoology, and the Bible

Reasoning is essential in science and in cryptozoology. But how do live pterosaurs relate to the Bible or to reasonable application of Biblical scriptures? Each individual has special spiritual needs, notwithstanding the critical similarities in need that each of us possesses. Some individuals spiritually need what reports of live pterosaurs provide.

The Old Testament mentions several strange animals, creatures not easily reconciled with modern knowledge of standard classified organisms of zoology. Two of those are named “fiery flying serpent” and “dragon.” Could some of those references relate to the same animal, namely Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs? I believe so. But much about this has been covered elsewhere; I will not be redundant here.

Modern living pterosaurs give credence to Biblical scriptures referring to the fiery flying serpent, and possibly to some references to dragons. They make sense of those Bible scriptures, making it more-easily understandable to hold onto those ancient principles that actually do apply to our modern lives.

Live Pterosaurs: We Aren’t in Kansas Anymore?

Two sightings of apparent living pterosaurs we now consider, both in Kansas, the first recorded in more detail in my book Live Pterosaurs in America (The third edition of this non-fiction cryptozoology book is now available on Amazon).

Pterosaur Seen Northwest of Wichita, Kansas

(In the nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America, this lady is known as “BEW,” for she is anonymous.)

I had seen an extremely large bird that resembled a pterodactyl some years ago when [I was] driving to town from the family farm between Rush Center and Larned, Kansas. I could not believe my eyes as I immediately thought of a prehistoric bird when I saw it. It must have had a wing-span of 16-20 feet.

I never said too much to anyone about it because, of course, such a claim raises eyebrows. [This is a common concern for eyewitnesses.]

[Two of the questions asked of BEW]

Q: Could you tell if it had feathers?
A: It did not appear to have feathers.

Q: How was this thing different from larger birds you know of?
A: I’ve never seen any bird in Kansas a fraction of that size or with the appearance of this bird. [The wingspan seemed to have been over 15 feet.]

Garden City, Kansas, Pterosaur

An eight-year-old girl was playing outside, in Garden City, Kansas. She looked up and gazed at the flying creature; the size reminded her of a small plane. She had been taught about dinosaurs and recognized it: a “pterodactyl.”

Why Modern Pterosaurs in Kansas?

Why not Kansas? These large or giant flying creatures, with apparent absence of any feathers, are seen across the United States: from California to Florida to New England to Washington state, and many states in between. Kansas has nothing to prevent any flying creatures from flying overhead, even live pterosaurs.

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cover of nonfiction cryptozoology book "Live Pterosaurs in America"

Lack of Pterosaur Evidence?

The living-pterosaur critic Paul Pursglove has said that ” . . . there are some reports that cannot be resolved due to lack of evidence.” He avoids details, preferring brief phrases that seem to destroy confidence in the possibility of extant modern pterosaurs, so we are left to guess which reports he may have considered and what level of evidence he might consider would be adequate.

How rarely critics mention the names “Duane Hodgkinson” and “Brian Hennessy!” Those are two of the most credible eyewitnesses, so why do critics concentrate on hypothetical eyewitnesses or on questionable accounts? Two possibilities pop up: Critics are ignorant of those important eyewitness testimonies or critics want to avoid an objective evaluation. Rather than repeat details about those two reports (many web pages cover that), let’s consider the nature of evidence itself and how it relates to cryptozoology.

Since critics seem to object to eyewitness evidence of living pterosaurs (humans are imperfect), what would be adequate evidence? What evidence would be perfect? If every zoo in the world had living pterosaurs, if every museum in the world had recently-preserved specimens (instead of just fossils), if every biology textbook had many references to modern pterosaurs, would that in itself be perfect evidence for living pterosaurs? No. It would all be worthless without the eyewitness testimonies of imperfect humans. People must watch animals or examine preserved specimens or read textbooks; reporting what we have experienced is important, too, but direct human experience is critical.

Cryptozoology and scientific examinations both involve human observation, so what is the difference? It is in the degrees of repeatability and quality in the observations. I have interviewed a number of eyewitnesses whose testimonies include details that make “pterosaur” obvious; but those high-quality observations have appeared difficult to repeat (in those precise locations), to say the least. I have written about the repeated observations of mysterious flying lights in Papua New Guinea, and there is little difficulty with repeatability; but those numerous observations have mostly been vague forms, rarely revealing themselves as glowing flying creatures. What does all that mean? Living-pterosaur investigations are still within the realm of cryptozoology, not biology; nevertheless, the overall evidence of extant pterosaurs is quite adequate, and it cries out for investigations by professors of science, by universities, by government-funded organizations: Examine the eyewitness testimonies, for no non-pterosaur explanation (for these strange flying creatures) comes close to the reasonableness of the interpretation of “pterosaur.”

Pterosaurs in Ohio

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.