(KSN) One of the largest newspapers in the United States, the Houston Chronicle, printed an article dismissive of dinosaurs flying over southwest Texas (mid-December, 2010, by Claudia Feldman). It did admit that something strange causes Marfa Lights. But a cryptozoologist from California answered that dismissal with a bit of philosophy:

“Major newspapers rarely take any position directly opposing a basic cultural tradition of their society. It comes as no surprise that a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle would avoid giving credence to the idea that “dinosaurs” are flying in the respectable state of Texas.”

That cryptozoologist, Jonathan Whitcomb, wrote a book that included the suggestion that the mysterious Marfa Lights are caused by bioluminescent flying animals that may be extant pterosaurs. The Houston Chronicle prefers extinction.

(KSN) This remote semi-desert area in southwest Texas has become famous for the Marfa Lights, strange flying and dancing lights that return several times each year. Edson Hendricks, a scientist living in California, is reported to have related the following about a sighting he had in February, 1991:

“I was puzzled by this light, but I had not yet been able to decide whether I might be seeing another automobile headlight.  And then, as I stared with great surprise, the light divided into two separate lights which continued to move southward and gradually drew apart. . . . As I continued to watch what was now a pair of lights, the leftmost one (to the south) flickered a bit, quickly increased brightness, and divided again.  At the same moment, the rightmost light of the original pair (to the north) abruptly changed direction, began to move away to the north accelerating to a speed much greater than any automobile headlights I’d observed earlier . . .”

Another scientist in California, Jonathan Whitcomb, has suggested the possibility that Marfa Lights are caused by large bioluminescent flying predators.

(KSN) Texas pterosaurs, or “pterodactyls,” not fossils but apparently still living, are still in the news. Recent news, however, involves Marfa Lights, not direct sightings of apparent living pterosaurs. Those ghost lights of southwest Texas have mystified residents for generations. The live-pterosaur interpretation seems speculative, at best, but no non-living explanation seems to satisfy the strange dancing behavior of those mystery lights.

(PRNewswire) . . . In southwest Texas, local residents have speculated about dancing devils or ghosts. Scientists have preferred something along the lines of ball lightning or earthlights, but all their scientific explanations have tripped over the resemblances to line dancing. If atmospheric energies or tectonic stresses cause the displays, why do two lights horizontally separate for a long distance before coming back together?

Now a cryptozoologist from California has explained the dancing lights of Marfa. Tales of spooks may hold a spark of truth, for recent research implies intelligence directs the lights: Bioluminescent flying predators may be hunting at night and catching a few unlucky Big Brown Bats: Eptesicus fuscus.

. . . Although Whitcomb admits that Marfa Lights may come from an unknown bioluminescent bird or bat, he says, “It is more likely than not from a creature similar to the ropen of Papua New Guinea, and my associates and I are sure about the ropen: It is a pterosaur.”

(KSN) According to the cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb, on November 20, 2010, two eyewitnesses in the Dallas, Texas, area observed “a ropen or pterosaur” flying overhead. One witness said:

“. . . just happened to look up at the full moon to see what we at first thought
was a huge bird. However it was soo high in the sky there is no way it could
have been a bird of that size. It was extremely large, with a tail and a wing
span of around 20 feet.”

That was not the first reported sighting of a living pterosaur in Texas.

Brownsville, Texas, Sighting of 1995 (Texas pterosaur)

“[The flying creature] looked like a . . . tall man . . . [He] turned and I realized that this man didn’t have a face like a man at all!  I froze in fear trying to figure out what I was staring at . . . I was so scared . . . [it] stared right at me with its large black eyes and walked closer to me . . .  [The creature] somehow looked like a pterodactyl . . .  I ran into my house and slammed the sliding glass door behind me . . .”

(In a Nutshell) Common barn owls  may be responsible for many of the reported “ghost lights” in the United States. According to the nonfiction book author Jonathan Whitcomb, of Long Beach, California, the Gurdon Light of Arkansas, the Ghost Light of Masters Knob (Tennessee), and the Hornet Light of Missouri are all strange flying lights whose behaviors resemble those of Tyto Alba, the barn owl.

The idea that some barn owls have intrinsic bioluminescence is not original with Whitcomb; the Australian Fred Silcock has done extensive research on certain sightings of Min Min lights in Australia. . . .  Whitcomb is an author of cryptozoology books about living pterosaurs, not owls. He has explained that a minority of the reports of American ghost lights do not suggest owls but something far stranger. In Marfa, Texas, . . .  nocturnal flying creature is said to be a living pterosaur . . .