cryptozoology topic #5

[penguins]

Pterodacyl sightings were reported here in the 1880s, around the Castaic and Rabbit (Elizabeth today) Lake. Many prominent citizens reportedly witnessed the huge creature with leather-like wings, giant eyes and skunk-like stink to it. It would dive into the lake and come out with fish. Or, fishermen…

 

Another photograph circulating throughout cryptozoology communities was that of a seemingly shot and killed pterodactyl during during the Civil War. On numerous websites will you still find this picture, and some claim that it has yet to be negated or authenticated.

 

Truth is, it's a hoax. Not so much a hoax, but a simple promotional tool. The photograph was created and used by Orlando, Florida's Haxan Production to develop interest in their upcoming fictional program, Freaky Links. First broadcasted on Fox TV in 2000, the series involved the character Derek Barnes, an investigator of the unknown. The 22-foot by 11-foot pterodactyl was a prop created for the two episodes, and is now owned by Loren Coleman and is featured in his museum

 

here is some time line thing. \/

1. In about 1994, Dr. Carl Baugh, of Texas, heard of islanders in Papua New Guinea who reported flying creatures (ropens) that caught fish at night. The descriptions suggested something like pterosaurs or creatures very much like pterosaurs, not fruit bats.
    
   
2. Jim Blume (a missionary in Papua New Guinea), Paul Nation (another Texan), and Carl Baugh explored some of the islands in 1994. They interviewed people who saw the creature called, on Umboi Island, “ropen.†The testimonies confirmed other reports indicating that ropens are at least similar to pterosaurs.
    
   
3. Two more expeditions (1996 and 2002) produced no photo or video, but more eyewitnesses were interviewed.
    
   
4. A forensic videographer (one who works with video for legal cases or attorney firms), Jonathan Whitcomb, examined the video-taped testimonies of the eyewitnesses and concluded that the natives were telling the truth about what they saw. He went to Umboi Island in 2004 and interviewed eye-witnesses of the ropen, though he did not see the creature himself. (But his interpreter did see it one night after the American had gone to bed.) Before leaving the island, Whitcomb gave a one-time-use camera to one of the leaders of Umboi Island (Mark Kau).
    
   
5. Later in 2004, two more Americans, Garth Guessman and David Woetzel, went to Umboi and searched for the ropen. Woetzel, saw the ropen briefly one night. The two investigators inter-viewed villagers who had seen the nocturnal ropen, and more cameras were given out to local people who wanted to photograph it.
   

This brings us to the present: The next step is a return to the islands to collect the still cameras that had been left there. With luck, some photo will show a ropen; nevertheless, we need a long-term, detailed search with adequate personnel, equipment, and time. This is where things presently stand.