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All About Marfa Lights and Pterosaurs

Throughout history and across the planet, come reports of featherless flying creatures that glow at night. They have been called dragons, fiery flying serpents, ropens, and pterosaurs. What about Marfa Lights? Those that fit into what Bunnell calls “CE-III” mystery lights characteristics—those lights behave like they were intelligent. Perhaps the old legends of crafty dragons are not 100% fictional.

Consider some things written about Marfa Lights within the past year or so. It seems that the circumstantial evidences supporting this flying-predator (even pterosaur) idea continue to mount. If there were nothing to it, why would new circumstantial evidence accumulate?

Marfa Lights to Monstrous Heights

How do mysterious lights flying in southwest Texas relate to the concept of modern pterosaurs living in North America? To be brief, the coorelation is indirect and questionable; it would be better to say “unclassified bioluminescent flying predator,” possibly similar to the ropen of Papua New Guinea. But observations around Marfa, over many years, indicate some of the strange lights flying in this area of Texas seem to fly together in complex ways, in ways that suggest the lights are directed by intelligence or intelligences. In addition, the one-or-two-night limitations of those particular lights, and their returning about once a month, suggest the roaming habits of a group of predators.

Marfa Lights and Barn Owls

Much of this post on Cryptid Eyewitness relates to barn owls, explaining a bit about the research done by Fred Silcock of Australia. Some barn owls, at least sometimes, seem to have an intrinsic bioluminescence.

The ghost story of a headless man searching for his head sounds like the story of the Bingham Lights of South Carolina and the Maco Lights of North Carolina and the Gurdon Light of Arkansas and . . . well, headless ghosts searching endlessly for their heads, especially down railroad lines—those stories seem endless. But with a little knowledge of the bobbing, weaving Min Min of Australia, only a little brain power can enlighten us: Australians describe the same thing.

For a nocturnal rodent, how far is it exposed while crossing railroad tracks? Too far to be comfortable in daylight. But in the dark of night, why worry? Take your time. A midnight snack, for a rat, can be easy to find; humans throw trash near the tracks. Dine where you find it . . . until . . . oops.

. . . The dance patterns of Marfa Lights resemble no flock of hunting barn owls. No, our old friend Tyto Alba cannot compete here and it dare not try. But it has illuminated part of the answer to the puzzle. The predators of Southern Texas show greater intelligence than most birds and some of them may be larger than any owl. This cryptid may be related to the ropen of Papua New Guinea . . .

That post explains that the Marfa Lights behave like a group of flying predators that are more intelligent than a flock of barn owls. The point about the barn owls (Min Mins) is that there is a species known to science that has an apparently intrinsic bioluminescence that may not have yet been documented in a scientific journal.

Skepticism and Marfa Lights

What an extraordinary idea! Marfa Lights come from glowing pterodactyls? How could such a wild idea have any merit? Consider what critics have written about that idea; you may be surprised. When the sarcasm is brushed aside, as we eventually must do to all sarcasm, the arguments against the bioluminescent-pterosaur idea appear weak, once they have been examined.

What a far cry from scientific skepticism! How convenient, when “hundreds” of witnesses experience something contradicting ones idea, to say it came from drinking whiskey!

To be fair to Mr. Dunning, we need to remember that some of these sighting reports are quite strange: flying lights that seem to fly in ways related to each other. These flights are too complex–I believe “complex” is the word used by James Bunnell–to be easily explained as an ordinary phenomenon. But the strange reactions some person might have to consuming alcohol does not mean that all strange experiences should be dismissed with “whiskey.” We can admit that not-yet-explained things may exist.

Indeed, and it would have been poor reasoning, on the part of physicists of the early twentieth century, if they had dismissed Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity as something coming from drinking whiskey.

Indava of Papua New Guinea and Marfa Lights

This post compares the strange flying lights deep in the mainland of Papua New Guinea with the strange flying lights in southwest Texas. Those similarities should be noted. It also mentions that critics of living-pterosaur investigations rarely, if ever, have mentioned the sighting of Pastor Jacob Kepas, during the Paul Nation expedition of late-2006. Kepas saw an indava in daylight, a large winged creature sleeping high on a cliff (that was confirmed by a native man who climbed higher up to get a better view).

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.

Jacob Kepas, minister, explorer, and living-pterosaur eyewitness

Jacob Kepas of Papua New Guinea, Baptist minister, explorer, and cryptozoologistLate in 2006, Pastor Jacob Kepas (a Baptist minister) was interviewed by Paul Nation, in a hut in Tawa Village, deep in the mountainous interior of the mainland of Papua New Guinea. Kepas had recently climbed up a hill adjacent to a cliff where some of the nocturnal flying creatures sleep during the day. He was accompanied by a local villager who confirmed that what was on that cliff was indeed an indava, the creature that glows at night.

During the videotaped interview, Kepas and his guide described how they had observed the sleeping winged creature. They had tried to videotape it from the hill they had climbed, but the resulting footage was poor, perhaps from a combination of inexperience of the camera operators and the distance involved (Kepas was observing it through binoculars). But even with binoculars, Kepas had been uncertain that it was the creature that they sought until his guide climbed up higher for a better view, confirming that it was an indava.

But that was not the first time that Kepas had observed a strange flying creature. When he was a boy, in another area of the mainland of Papua New Guinea, he had seen a seklo-bali as the glowing creature had flown overhead. Researchers believe that the seklo-bali, ropen, and indava may be closely related or even the same species of bioluminescent flying creature, apparently living pterosaurs.

Regarding the objectiveness of Kepas, in his 2006 sighting of what was identified as an indava, consider this: Kepas himself voiced his uncertainty that what he was observing was the creature that they had sought; the distance and viewing angle made identification difficult. After the other man had climbed higher, obtaining a better viewing angle, it was confirmed to be an indava. This confirms that Kepas is capable of objectiveness in his observations, for he did not force a conclusion when the conditions were inadequate for certainty.

In this 2006 expedition, Nation and Kepas were flown into the remote mountainous area by missionary pilot Jim Blume, who has been a great help, for many years, in living-pterosaur investigations.

See also “Fight With a Kor in Northern Papua New Guinea”

This Baptist minister has worked with the Baptist missionary James Blume, in assisting American ropen searchers and in helping the living-pterosaur investigations in general.