By the investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb
I recently looked at the first few minutes of a Youtube video criticizing ideas about modern living pterosaurs. I’ll not here mention the name of the video or the pen name of the person responsible, for a number of reasons. I will reply to one of the weaknesses in that video.
Quoting Carl Sagan regarding “extraordinary proof” required
The skeptic applies the following in just one sense, trying to shore up one old tradition about pterosaur extinctions. The critic quotes Carl Sagan: “Extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof” and at least implies that anyone suggesting any living pterosaur exists must supply extraordinary evidence. That critic appears to assume that it would be extraordinary for just one species of that kind of animal to be non-extinct. That by itself is a complicated issue, one that would require at least one blog post of its own.
I believe that a huge number of pterosaur species became extinct long ago. I don’t have any proof of that, but the point is this: Countless thousands of eyewitnesses, in recent years and recent decades and recent centuries, have seen apparently featherless flying creatures that seem to be unlike any kind of bat known in Western science.
To insist that all of those eyewitnesses must have been mistaken in the same way—that requires extraordinary proof. Of course we need something like a living ropen being captured and put into a zoo, before scientifically classifying the animal, yet all scientific progress involves, at some point, somebody observing something and reporting what was observed.
The case for the ropen being a real animal that is descended from a species of living pterosaur in the past—that has not yet been scientifically proven but the case is clearly open for future discoveries, when the cryptozoological research has been completed and examining a living animal, or a recently deceased one, begins.
Better videos about living pterosaurs
I suggest you watch at least one of the following Youtube videos on these flying creatures:
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Living Pterosaurs (Part 1 – introduction)
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Youtube video “Giant Pterodactyl in California”
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Youtube video “Do Pterodactyls Live in Hawaii?“
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This morning I uploaded what I think is the best-yet video on my Youtube channel Protect Animal Life : “Living Pterosaurs — Part 1”
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Pterosaur sightings in California
To be technically correct, we should use the word pterosaur, yet most persons in English-speaking cultures are more familiar with the word pterodactyl. Of the 41 sightings reported in California, 7 are featured in the new Youtube video “Giant Pterodactyl in California.”
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Living Pterosaurs in North Carolina
Look not to a biology professor at a university, if you should be one of the lucky ones who has seen an apparent living pterosaur in states like South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, or North Carolina (or any other state or country). Contact me [Jonathan Whitcomb] to report the flying creature you encountered.
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Videos about living pterosaurs
- Pterodactyl sightings in Los Angeles
- Living pterosaurs in England
- Do pterodactyls live in Hawaii?
- Flying dinosaurs in America
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Dinosaur book for a ten-year-old
This nonfiction cryptozoology book for young readers helps in this way:
Encourages the young reader to consider the potential value of eyewitness testimonies from persons of different cultures, from different areas of the world . . . [and more]
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Critics of living pterosaur investigations
Earlier in July of 2018, I noticed a long critical comment on the Youtube video “Ropen pterodactyl American eyewitness.” . . .
I have examined hundreds of eyewitness reports over the past fifteen years, interviewing eyewitnesses from around the world and receiving first-hand accounts from five continents. Perhaps few persons, if any, have been given more first-hand reports of sightings of apparent pterosaurs than I have. I believe I’ve written more books on this subject than any other nonfiction author in history. . . .
The point is this: Of those hundreds of eyewitness reports, I doubt that even one of them has all three of the points made by this critic. Perhaps there may be one that has (my memory is not perfect), but where did the critic get those ideas? Did they just pop into his imagination or did he read some criticism that another person published online?
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A reply to a living-pterosaur critic and loss aversion
Two decades ago, a man started writing a web page criticizing the idea that not all species of pterosaurs are extinct. He often added to that page and mentioned my name many times. He expanded it so often, over the years, that the word count, as of earlier this week, was 40,676. How gigantic at 40 thousand words on that one online post! And how unique, mentioning my name (“Whitcomb”) 493 times!
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