Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific (C.R.S.Q. Journal)
The Winter, 2009, issue of the Creation Research Society Quarterly contains an interesting scientific paper: "Reports of Living
Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific" (by Jonathan Whitcomb; Vol 45, #3 of CRSQ). The introduction includes:
fossils were first discovered in Germany in 1784. By Darwin’s time, pterosaurs were all assumed to be extinct. Paleontological
expeditions gathered evidence of the deep past, since evolution negated the possibility of extant pterosaurs. That assumption . .
. caused old human records of 'dragons' to be relegated to the status of myth But what if those accounts contained a germ of truth?
In that case, accounts of flying dragons may come from actual sightings of pterosaurs, and some species might have survived into the
Although this scientific paper was about reports of living
pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea and Australia, other accounts
involve sightings in the United States. A biologist (Professor Peter Beach) observed strange flying creatures over the Yakima River
in Washington state, in recent years. Why are the creatures strange? They are bioluminescent.
Yakima River, state of Washington; photo by Scott Butner
The correct name for "flying dinosaur" may be tricky to spell, but it deserves to be used: "pterosaur." The flying creatures without
any feathers are not technically dinosaurs. Although many species of pterosaurs and dinosaurs are surely extinct, not all of the are.
False reports about extinction or death can be humorous; Mark Twain once sid, "The report of my death is an exaggeration." The official
discovery of a living pterosaur (whether or not the initial report calls it a "flying dinosaur") would be astonishing. But some of
the eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs are quite astonishing. Consider one account from the cryptozoology book Live
Pterosaurs in America:
"Neither my brother or I was prone to being scared by anything outside at night. This night was different.
. . . 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 . . ."