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Living Pterosaurs |
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65-million years ago—how often is that phrase connected to the word “pterosaurs,” but how do we know that they are extinct? According to the book Searching for Ropens, the idea that all types of pterosaurs had become extinct by millions of years ago is a “standard model” (popular) assumption; it’s not based on any proof or any objectively-evaluated evidence: It’s not “science.”
But who would have the audacity to question what has been written in countless science textbooks for generations? The author Jonathan Whitcomb, for one. But if some pterodactyls (the commonly-used word for “pterosaurs”) are still living, where are they? According to Whitcomb’s book, many live in Papua New Guinea, that little-explored tropical realm north of Australia, southeast of Southeast Asia, and south of the Philippines.
So what is known about living pterosaurs? Is there photographic evidence? As of early 2007, the only published images are stills taken from video footage of the bioluminescent glow of two of the creatures. Yes, these living pterosaurs have a bioluminescence that turns off and on, as needed, as they fly.
With names like ropen, indava, seklo-bali, and duwas, they seem to be rare and nocturnal. Contrary to earlier assumptions by critics of living-pterosaur investigators, these are not misidentifications of the Flying Fox fruit bat. These giant fruit bats, with almost no tails never glow at night; but the apparent-pterosaurs have tails as long as ten feet to twenty-two feet, according to eyewitnesses. And they fly over the reefs to look for food at night, then sometimes rest upright on tree trunks in daylight: very un-bat-like (and un-bird-like, as well). |
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Who are these eyewitnesses and investigators? Paul Nation, one of the pioneers of living-pterosaur searches, has been actively promoting the latest expeditions in Papua New Guinea. His November, 2006, expedition was the most successful, resulting in about fifteen seconds of video of what he and other investigators believe were two indavas, glowing at the top of a ridge as they were about to take off into the air.
What about these few seconds of video? Do they show any features that could identify the two lights as pterosaurs. They do not. So why believe that they are living pterosaurs? Two natives of Papua New Guinea were working with Mr. Nation: Jacob Kepas and a young man known simply as “Joseph.” They climbed to a remote area above Nation’s camp and saw one of the indavas sleeping on a cliff or shallow cave. Joseph described the creature’s size as similar to that of a small airplane; Kepas said that the creature was hiding its head under a wing. So the evidence that the indava is a pterosaur is sketchy, it seems. Why are the investigators so sure that it is a pterosaur?
The bioluminescent glow is similar to that of the ropen of Umboi Island. This creature seems to have been observed by more eyewitnesses. Natives say that its tail is stiff except where it connects to the body; this seems to relate to the anatomy of those long-tailed pterosaurs known as Rhamphorhynchoids: Their tails would have been stiff except where they connected to the body. Some natives who have seen the ropen identify it with the silhouette of the Sordes Pilosus: a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. The silhouettes of birds and bats were not selected. Whitcomb considers this further evidence for living pterosaurs. |
bravenet.com
