Two Pterosaurs in San Diego
Two men saw two large flying creatures, at about 8:00 p.m. on November 4, 2011, in San Diego, California. One of the eyewitnesses, with no sign of any hoax involvement, reported his sighting to the cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb.
The men first noticed just one long-tailed creature, as it came gliding in from the direction of the ocean, but it was soon met by another one. The wingspan was estimated at twenty to thirty feet. Although the moon helped light up the creatures, it was not possible to be sure whether or not they had feathers. The color was like golden brown, where color was discernable.
Pterodactyl in San Diego, California
“I was at my friend’s house. The sky was super clear. We were standing on the street. I was watching the stars when from the west came this large dark object overhead. As it got closer, we noticed its huge wingspan . . . It was gliding right above us . . . we had never seen anything like it. Then it suddenly stopped and turned around. . . . we saw another one above us. . . . then they both left [towards the] east.”
Sightings of “pterodactyls” from Texas to Southern California confirm that these flying dinosaurs, technically “pterosaurs,” are far from extinct. Most of the creatures, not all, have long tails, suggesting Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs, even though modern ones seem to be more like giants than the ones we know from fossils, which suggest more of a bird-size.
Who has seen a live pterosaur in Northern California? First let’s get the Trinity National Forest (California) sighting out of the way, for the countless online reports seem to have no reference to anything: no name of any eyewitness, no name of any interviewer, no name of any book, no name of any newspaper that has anything published about this sighting. So what do we know about the couple that was driving through Trinity National Forest in the early 1960′s? They “reported seeing the silhouette of a giant ‘bird’ that they estimated to have a wingspan of fourteen feet. They later described it as resembling a pterodactyl.” In what way did it resemble a pterodactyl? Who knows?
In the summer of 2011, just days ago, a vague report came in about flying lights south-by-southwest of Shasta-Trinity National Forest*, much closer to the coast. But the eyewitness gave an account more of his feelings than of what he had actually seen. If this eyewitness, in this recent sighting, is correct, the nocturnal flying creatures get close enough to react to his camera zoom; perhaps they can hear the mechanical sound of the video camera. (*In 1954, two National forests were combined with the resulting one called “Shasta-Trinity National Forest.”)
So what would cause anyone to suspect that the unnamed couple driving through a forest in Northern California actually saw a “pterodactyl?” Strange flying lights have been witnessed in other parts of California and large pterosaur-like flying creatures have been witnessed in other parts of California. But there is something else: Even further north, some eyewitnesses have reported a Washington state pterosaur. These two reports, weak as they may be in themselves, need to be taken in the context of many other sightings of apparent pterosaurs in the western United States.
“The wing span (again an estimate) seemed to be about 30 (if not more) feet across. It was light brown in color with canvas like skin and absolutely no feathers. . . . When it passed across to the right of me I then realized it was a living creature because it began to flap its wings and continued to flap its wings several times at about a two second interval between flaps.”
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From the Title Page of the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America:
Reports of huge flying “pterodactyls” in American skies have floated around the internet for years; but before about 2005, details were scarce. When an eyewitness was named, the interviewer was often anonymous; even when an eyewitness was credible, and the account published in a newspaper, the story was ridiculed, discouraging others who had also seen strange flying creatures. Where could eyewitnesses go? What a predicament for them! Who would believe their reports?
Since the two ropen expeditions of 2004, in Papua New Guinea, more Americans have learned of the living-pterosaur investigations and the many resulting eyewitness interviews. Many web pages have sprung up, many of them by explorers themselves. . . . The author, one of those American explorers who interviewed natives in Papua New Guinea, has been interviewing American eyewitnesses since 2004.
How are sightings in the United States related to those in the southwest Pacific? How do some apparent nocturnal pterosaurs pertain to bats, and how are bats irrelevant? How could modern living pterosaurs have escaped scientific notice? These mysteries have slept in the dark, beyond the knowledge of almost all Americans, even beyond our wildest dreams (although the reality of some pterosaurs is a living nightmare to some bats). These mysteries have slept . . . until now.
Sightings of “pterodactyls” from Texas to Southern California confirm that these flying dinosaurs, technically “pterosaurs,” are far from extinct. Most of the creatures, not all, have long tails, suggesting Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs, even though modern ones seem to be more like giants than the ones we know from fossils, which suggest more of a bird-size.
“In [Socorro, New Mexico], me and a close friend . . . were hiking during the midday . . . and something blocked the sun . . . We both looked up to see . . . a large flying animal . . . It had a 20-30 foot wingspan . . . It had a long tail with [a] seeming spike at the end. Its head was very pterodactyl shape with a fluted back pointy head. It glided at about 700 feet [high]“
“Neither my brother or I was prone to being scared by anything outside at night. This night was different . . . We noticed something flying around across the road . . . the creature was flying just above the phone lines. It would go one direction, turn, and swoop back. The shape was wrong for any large bird of the area, and the size was much too large to be any bat . . . The wingspan was huge, anywhere from 6-10 feet across. We watched the thing for maybe twenty minutes or so . . . I get little chills just writing about it now.”
California Pterosaur in Irvine
A huge pterosaur-like creature, in daylight, in August of 2007, flew into the wildlife refuge, crossing the road going north from the university campus (road on the west side of the sanctuary), and according to the anonymous eyewitness, the length of the flying creature was close to the width of the road (30 feet), for it flew right over the road, at low elevation. There were no feathers.
How have these modern living pterosaurs avoided being officially discovered by the many biologists and nature photographers? It’s the dogmatic extinction assumption, the assumption that all species of pterosaurs became extinct long ago.
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Live Pterosaurs in America, second edition, by Jonathan David Whitcomb (published late in 2010) is the undisputed authoritative cryptozoology book on reports of living pterosaurs in the United States of America.
Thrill to the amazing encounters eyewitesses have had over many years, in the United States. Some of these sightings have been in recent years. Many of the reports coorelate with each other, giving evidence for a nocturnal long-tailed pterosaur species living in America. Some sightings are at a close enough distance to eliminate any bird or bat misidentification.
From one of the readers of the first edition of this nonfiction cryptozoology book:
“This seems to be the author’s second book on the subject, and this one is worth the effort. He has focused on the accounts of witnesses who saw something, and that adds credibility. The writing is easy to read and he adds comments and analysis to make it all more useful. Mostly, the author lets the sightings speak for themselves, which is good. A worthwhile book.” (Red Rabbit, Cleveland, Ohio; Amazon.com book review for the first edition of Live Pterosaurs in America)
Much as been written, lately, about Marfa Lights in Texas, about the living-pterosaur conjecture. But what about other flying lights in the United States? Could ropen-like bioluminescent flying creatures of the night live in many areas of North America? It’s looking more and more like they do live in the United States, for more reports keep coming in. A recent comment came from someone named “Josh,” who reports strange gliding lights in Florida. The comment was on an older post on this blog: Cryptozoology Book: Live Pterosaurs in America. Here is part of that comment:
I live in Miami, FL. I’m fairly close to the water, so I’m not inland. . . . I know what airplane
lights look like and can always hear an engine. . . . have seen some unexplained lights… very faint in the air. They looked to be gliding in a very easy manner. . . . after reading some accounts, I think what I saw was a ropen letting off its bioluminescence . . .
San Fernando Valley, California, Sighting
It was . . . almost dark . . . What caught my eye was the bright radiation like light coming from the belly of this Pterodactyl looking animal. I seen it fly right above us maybe 150 -200 feet and this thing wasn’t no bat it was bigger with large wing span and when it flapped its wings it was kind of a slow lazy flap . . .
My associates and I have a unique perspective, having studied the ropen light of Papua New Guinea. We know, from many eyewitness testimonies, that those nocturnal lights correlate with sightings of glowing flying creatures described like giant Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs. We suspect that some American “ghost lights” are from living pterosaurs . . .
“Near the MLVP [near Marfa, Texas], Hendricks saw a light come down and move about in the nearby bushes, like an animal would. In the morning, he searched those bushes but found nothing. I suspect that Hendricks had witnessed a ropen-like nocturnal flying predator that was chasing a Big Brown Bat.”
Sun Valley, California, sighting
In the evening, before it was completely dark, a couple in Sun Valley noticed something in the sky. The woman said that it was a bat, but the man saw a “bright radiation like light coming from the belly of this Pterodactyl looking animal.” As the creature flew right over the couple, the man was convinced that it was no bat. He reported, “ it was bigger with large wing span and when it flapped its wings it was kind of a slow lazy flap kind of gliding through the air.” He estimated the wingspan at 15-20 feet but realized that he could not be sure because it was not close to anything as it flew through the sky.
This sighting resembles that of another couple in Sherman Oaks (Sep 2009) who saw a large flying creature that was glowing. Sun Valley is less than ten miles from Sherman Oaks, and these communities are in the San Fernando Valley (Southern California).