Flying Reptiles Of Today.
John F. Winston
About 15 years ago I took a little trip down to sounthern Calif.
and went on a tuur of the ruins of a 40,000 year old city. The trip
was guided by a friend of mine called Robert Stanley. This trip
was paid for with money from myself to him. Robert is a great story
teller and as smart as a whip. One story was about another person
who had come into this area called Kalamo which is about 20 miles
NW of Malibu, Calif. It seems that while coming into the place
where the ruins were he looked up and saw what he thought was a man,
about 5 or 6 feet tall standing on a ledge about a quarter of a mile
away. When he got closer what he thought was a man flew away. It
of course was a Pterosaurs.
Ever since that time I've been interested in stories about the
flying serpants which I call Pterodactyls. Here is a report on them.
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From: B
Subject: Did Pterosaurs Survive Extinction?
Go to the site to view pictures.
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa061702a.htm
Did Pterosaurs Survive Extinction? Dozens of eyewitness accounts
and a few intriguing photographs suggest that this flying monster,
thought to have died with the dinosaurs, might still exist.
They were the largest creatures to ever attain flight. With
wingspans reaching nearly 40 feet, pterosaurs ruled the prehistoric
skies for over 100 million years, until they died out with the
dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
Or did they?
There have been many modern-day sightings of creatures that by
eyewitness description sound like pterosaurs. There are also
intriguing rock carvings and even photographs that suggest that
this species of amazing flying monsters could have survived
extinction, could have soared through the skies of the southwestern
United States until very recently, and might still exist in small
numbers in remote parts of the world.
Pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, but a family of large flying
reptiles ("pterosaur" means "winged lizard") that includes the
pterodactyl and pteranodon. The pterosaur stood on two rather
spindly legs and had wings composed of a leathery membrane that
stretched from the animal's extremely long fourth finger to its
body. Despite their appearance, they were not related to birds
(as dinosaurs are theorized to be), and were highly successful
flyers that might have dined on fish and insects.
Modern Sightings
Although there seems to be no hard evidence that pterosaurs did not
die out millions of years ago - no pterosaurs have ever been captured
and no bodies have ever been found - sightings have persisted.
Stories of flying reptiles have been recorded for many hundreds of
years. Some think that tales of the "mythical" dragons in the lore of
many cultures around the would could be attributed to the sighting of
pterosaurs. Here are some more modern accounts:
May, 1961, New York State - A businessman flying his private plane
over the Hudson River Valley claimed that he was "buzzed" by a large
flying creature that he said "looked more like a pterodactyl out of
the prehistoric ages."
Early 1960s, California - A couple driving through Trinity National
Forest reported seeing the silhouette of a giant "bird" that they
estimated to have a wingspan of 14 feet. They later described it as
resembling a pterodactyl.
January, 1976, Harlingen, Texas - Jackie Davis (14) and Tracey
Lawson (11) reported seeing a "bird" on the ground that stood five
feet tall, was dark in color with a bald head and a face like a
gorilla's with a sharp, six-inch-long beak. A subsequent
investigation by their parents uncovered tracks that had three toes
and were eight inches across.
February, 1976, San Antonio, Texas - Three elementary school
teachers saw what they described as a pterodactyl swooping low over
their cars as they drove. They said its wingspan was between 15 and
20 feet. One of the teachers commented that it glided through the
air on huge, bony wings - like a bat's.
September, 1982, Los Fresnos, Texas - An ambulance driver named
James Thompson was stopped while driving on Highway 100 by his
sighting of a "large birdlike object" flying low over the area. He
described it as black or grayish with a rough texture, but no
feathers. It had a five- to six-foot wingspan, a hump on the back
of its head, and almost no neck at all. After consulting some books
to identify the creature, he decided it most looked like a pterosaur.
Africa's Kongamato
While other reports of pterosaur-like creatures have come out of
Arizona, Mexico and Crete, it is out of central Africa that some of
the most interesting anecdotes have come. While traveling though
Zambia in 1923, Frank H. Melland collected reports from natives of
an aggressive flying reptile they called kongamoto, which means
"overwhelmer of boats." The natives, who were occasionally
tormented by these creatures, described them as being featherless
with smooth skin, having a beak full of teeth and a wingspan of
between four and seven feet. When shown illustrations of pterosaurs,
Melland reported, "every native present immediately and
unhesitatingly picked out and identified it as a kongamato."
In 1925, a native man was allegedly attacked by a creature that he
identified as a pterosaur. This occurred near a swamp in Rhodesia
(now Zambia) where the man suffered a large wound in his chest that
he said was caused by the monster's long beak.
In the late 1980s, noted cryptozoologist Roy Mackal led an
expedition into Namibia from which he had heard reports of a
prehistoric-looking creature with a wingspan of up to 30 feet.
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa061702b.htm
Out of Stone
If pterosaurs really died out with the dinosaurs and their fossil
remains were not first discovered until 1784 (in Germany), then a
depiction of one could not possibly exist in an ancient rock
carving. Yet a pictograph found high on a cliff face near Thompson,
Utah seems to show just that. (See photo at right.)
While many experts believe the drawing is of a bird, the beak,
head prominence, wings and legs also look very much like those of a
pterosaur.
Another fascinating tale of a pterosaur literally coming out of
stone dates back to 1856 in France. Workmen were digging through
Jurassic-era limestone for a railway tunnel between the St.-Dizier
and Nancy lines. When a large bolder of limestone was split open,
the workers were astonished to see a large winged creature come
stumbling out. They said it fluttered its wings, let out a croaking
noise and then dropped dead at their feet. The creature had thick
black, leathery skin, a beak full of sharp teeth, long talons for
feet, and membrane-like wings that spanned 10 feet, 7 inches, by
their measure. (JW Call me a skeptic if you like but I doubt if
that story is true.)
The body of the creature was taken to the nearby town of Gray,
according to the story, where it was identified as a pterodactyl
by a student of paleontology. As reported in the Illustrated
London News of February 9,
1856, the rock in which the creature had apparently been entombed
for millions of years, contained a precise mold of its body. (Click
photos for enlargements)
Pterosaur Photos
The April 25, 1890 edition of the Tombstone Epitaph ran a story of
two Arizona ranchers who claimed to have chased on horseback a
flying monster "resembling a huge alligator with an extremely
elongated tail and an immense pair of wings." True to the spirit of
the West, they shot the creature.
Taking measurements, they reported that the monster was 92 feet
long with a 160-foot wingspan and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The
story is not taken seriously by many researchers today, but it
corresponds loosely with a story about a thunderbird that was
allegedly shot in the same area in 1886 and dragged into town to
be photographed. Several paranormal researchers claim to recall seeing
that photo, but don't know where, and the photo has not been seen
since. Then in the late 1990s, the photo at top left surfaced on
the Internet, many wondered if it was related to the long-lost
photo in any way. As it turns out, however, the photo is a hoax,
created by Haxan Productions for their "Freaky Links" television
show.
The photo at center left might also may be a hoax. It was sent to
Art Bell, the late night radio talk show host, by someone named
Ernest Todd. Details about the origin or context of the photo were
not provided. The photo appears to be taken from a newspaper, but
digital manipulations would make such a forgery quite easy.
Finally, the bottom left photo was e-mailed to me by a person
calling himself George. It resembles the top photo somewhat and has
the added effect of torn edges to give the photo an old, used look.
It, too, may very well be a hoax, perhaps also from Hexan. George
did not provide any details about the photo, where he found it, or
where or when it might have been taken, despite repeated attempts
by me to get the information.
Again, it's relatively simple in today's digital world to create
quite convincing fake photographs, and such images should be
considered with a high degree of skepticism.
But what of all the eyewitness accounts of pterosaurs? Are they
merely misidentified birds and bats? Or is it just possible that
this ancient species survived into the 20th century, and perhaps
still exists? An even more bizarre theory is that these sightings
are artifacts of a slip in time - either a look into the distant
past, or that some of these flying monsters have passed through
some time portal to present day. Whatever the answer, these
pterosaur sightings present a fascinating glimpse into the
unexplained.
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