Human Memory and Pterosaur Sightings
The passage of time from an encounter with a “pterodactyl” to the reporting of the sighting has limited relevance
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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.
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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”