Human Memory and Pterosaur Sightings The passage of time from an encounter with a “pterodactyl” to the reporting of the sighting has limited relevance Contact:                                                       KSN News Release Jonathan Whitcomb 5347 South New Hampton Drive Murray, UT 84123                     Press Room on Live Pterosaurs PHONE: 801 590-9692 EMAIL Questions and Answers About Pterosaur Sightings  Blog: Live Pterosaur Twitter - Jonathan Whitcomb For Immediate Release LONG BEACH, Calif/KSN/Feb 20, 2013 --- “Encountering a live ‘pterodactyl’ is unforgettable,”according to the cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb, of Long Beach, California. For the past nine years, he has collected eyewitness sighting reports from around the world, accounts of creatures that most biologists believe have been extinct for millions of years. Although many eyewitnesses say something like “pterodactyl” or “dinosaur bird,” the correct scientific word is “pterosaur.” The problem facing Whitcomb and his associates, however, is this: Half the biology professors who responded to a recent survey gave a probability estimate of zero, for a species of living pterosaur. On February 20, Whitcomb announced his findings on his analysis of sighting reports that he deems more credible. He concluded, “Memory of key description details is affected only to a limited extent by the passage of time.” In particular, memory of a long tail on a featherless flying creature seen more than six years before reporting it---that’s probably a memory similar to what the eyewitness had soon after the sighting. In other words, long tails fail to grow in ones imagination. Memory of a head crest, on the other hand, may have suffered from some memory degradation, in some eyewitnesses, with sightings that were reported more than six years after the encounter. But a critical exception, says Whitcomb, is a sighting in 1971, at the U. S. naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the eyewitness sketched the two flying creatures just minutes after the encounter. Memory of the absence of feathers on the flying creature was divided into two categories, with different results: 1. Eyewitness was absolutely sure about no feathers 2. Eyewitness indicated probably no feathers The first group, those who insisted on absence of feathers, were much more common in older sightings than in sightings reported in the same year as the encounter: 29% to 5%. It suggests some eyewitnesses may have increased their belief in featherlessness over the years, meaning some of them could have been less sure soon after their sightings. The second category, those who were not certain but believed that the flying creature probably had no feathers, was different. The passage of time between sighting and report made no difference: 26% reported probably no feathers, in both major categories of timing comparisons. Whitcomb acknowledges extinctions of many species of pterosaurs, at some time in the past, but insists that many of the sighting reports come from encounters with a species descended from a long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur, probably similar to the Sordes Pilosus, in some ways. He proclaims that one species is very much alive. ### KSN News Release Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition, will take you on a journey across the USA, with astonishing eyewitness encounters with flying creatures unlike any birds or bats known to science: modern pterosaurs U.S. Marine Eskin C. Kuhn drew a sketch within minutes of his 1971 sighting of the two “pterodactyls” that he reportedly encountered at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The head crest is clearly visible here. Although Jonathan Whitcomb prefers to interview eyewitness by emails and phone calls, in 2004 he explored Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, interviewing  native eyewitnesses of a flying creature called, in the Kovai language, “ropen”