Like dinosaurs but flying—those be pterosaurs

July 8, 2023 11:22 AM

"Alive! You have seen a flying creature unlike any bird or bat. It's more like a pterosaur but alive, a "flying dinosaur." What do you do? [...] The problem is not in the eyewitnesses or what they see but in the indoctrination, over generations, that all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs must have become extinct millions of years ago. That's the problem."

Another explanation is possible.

posted by blnkfrnk (35 comments total)

i miss this flavor of seemingly harmless crankery, relatively free of political weaponization
posted by glonous keming at 11:30 AM on July 8, 2023 [16 favorites]

In my cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America, I explain concepts related to the glowing creatures of the night, not fireflies but flying creatures much larger: Apparent bioluminescent owls and pterosaurs. Intrinsic bioluminescence in such creatures is controversial, and some biologists would be surprised to learn that some investigators support and write about such things…

I dunno, I expect that most biologists are unsurprised by what some investigators support and write about.

Additionally, I can’t shake the sense that “Owl, Bat, or Pterosaur?” is the latest iteration of “Marry, Fuck, Kill?”
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:41 AM on July 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

i miss this flavor of seemingly harmless crankery, relatively free of political weaponization

Only a matter of time 'til Qanon hears about it.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:56 AM on July 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

pterosaurs must have become extinct millions of years ago

Pterodactyl, the term most used in my childhood, seemed to me to have become extinct in common usage about 35 years ago. But now, upon further research, it seems a bit more complicated than that.
posted by fairmettle at 12:02 PM on July 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Back in the previous century when I was working at a small publisher in Manhattan (yes, that used to be a thing) we released a book on Spontaneous Human Combustion. It garnered lots of publicity but very few sales. The author’s next proposal was a book about the pterosaurs that live in rural Pennsylvania. He saw them driving a school bus, his day job. We politely passed.
posted by rikschell at 12:41 PM on July 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

This sounds like a great exhibit for the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
posted by not_on_display at 12:51 PM on July 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

The author’s next proposal was a book about the pterosaurs that live in rural Pennsylvania

Ridiculous. A large creature with unfeathered wings seen in daylight in [crack of thunder] Pennsylvania could only be a reverse vampire.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:53 PM on July 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

> He saw them driving a school bus

bigger question is where do the pterosaurs stand on the robotaxi issue
posted by glonous keming at 12:57 PM on July 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

I seriously thought the pterosaurs were driving school buses, but that seems more like a post-COVID “we’re willing to hire anyone” sort of approach.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:00 PM on July 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

I seriously thought the pterosaurs were driving school buses, but that seems more like a post-COVID “we’re willing to hire anyone” sort of approach.

They gave up on hiring just any warm body and had to settle for cold-blooded ones.
posted by Foosnark at 1:03 PM on July 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

> where do the pterosaurs stand on the robotaxi issue

i bring it up because i figured they could just perch on top of the traffic cones but then upon reflection the cones seem like they'd tip over
posted by glonous keming at 1:08 PM on July 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

The author’s next proposal was a book about the pterosaurs that live in rural Pennsylvania. He saw them driving a school bus, his day job.

Did they have beards, and were riding in buggies?
posted by Thorzdad at 1:13 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

From the section on recent dragons and pterosaurs:

Of course we can see opportunities for an eyewitness to make a mistake while observing something with the eyes, but how easy it is for a skeptic to make mistakes while constructing things in the imagination! And why construct in the imagination only those things that would make a sighting of an apparent modern pterosaur invalid?

Eyewitness testimony might be unreliable, but not as unreliable as being skeptical of pterosaur sightings based on the imagined theory of dinosaur extinction.

This is amazing, I am going to be a bioluminescent pterosaur truther now, thank you for finally giving my life meaning.
posted by the primroses were over at 1:14 PM on July 8, 2023 [7 favorites]

i miss this flavor of seemingly harmless crankery, relatively free of political weaponization

You mean how flat earthers used to be?
posted by Thorzdad at 1:31 PM on July 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

I can’t shake the sense that “Owl, Bat, or Pterosaur?” is the latest iteration of “Marry, Fuck, Kill?”

Except I wouldn't want to do any of those to any of them.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:40 PM on July 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

…but you must.
posted by hototogisu at 2:15 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Except I wouldn't want to do any of those to any of them.

No, no. You get the names of three celebrities, and you decide which one you think is a bat, which an owl, and which a pterosaur. Makes perfect sense.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:15 PM on July 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

He saw them driving a school bus

I saw a pterosaur with a Chinese menu in his hand
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:17 PM on July 8, 2023 [20 favorites]

Biology Pedant to the rescue: A bird is a "flying dinosaur". Pterosaurs were not dinosaurs.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:18 PM on July 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

only those things that would make a sighting of an apparent modern pterosaur invalid

... is there a maximum length for usernames here?
posted by trig at 2:23 PM on July 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

They survived at least until the civil war.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 3:39 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

It would've been more pleasing if they'd followed the lead of helico-pters and called them sauropters.
posted by clawsoon at 3:46 PM on July 8, 2023

I saw a pterosaur with a Chinese menu in his hand

His crest was perfect
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:04 PM on July 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

I saw a pterosaur with a Chinese menu in his hand
His crest was perfect

Pterosaurs of Altoona
posted by Thorzdad at 4:25 PM on July 8, 2023

🎵…and the creature flies in the NIIIGHT!🎶
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:53 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

His site is very enthusiastic about witness testimony but weirdly quiet about bones, droppings, nests, etc.
posted by Scattercat at 5:25 PM on July 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

here's some video of the man himself, from his youtube channel, giving a "brief introduction to living-pterosaur investigations".
posted by glonous keming at 5:56 PM on July 8, 2023

Birds aren’t real. They’re actually flying dinosaurs.

I like the line, “I’ve written three non-fiction books.” You sure about that?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:41 PM on July 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Grumpy old geek: that's one of the earliest cases of fake things being treated as real on the web, it was taken from the website of a TV show called Freakylinks, basically an XFiles for millenials starring Ethan Embry. The photo started spreading virally without context, and because the TV show got canceled pretty quickly the context was lost most immediately so it became popular in crypto zoology crank circles.

I'm actually surprised I didn't find it anywhere in the linked site at the top of this post.
posted by AzraelBrown at 5:44 AM on July 9, 2023

The reddit link has someone who says

No it isn't. That's a different photo from a later date. In the one from the TV show there are a different number of soldiers, wearing incorrect uniforms and it's in a fake yellowed shade rather than genuine sepia. This one is earlier and still debated.

But regardless, we don't need to debate any photo like this is fake...because they are all fake.

It's surprising this guy wasn't showing it though, for sure. I also miss this kind of 90s web crankery.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:51 AM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

he is using it, it's just deeper in his maze of websites. his web design compartmentalizes content and spreads it all over a variety of sites. where a traditional design might have a new page on the same site, he tends to spin up an entire new domain, perhaps to try to impart an air of more widespread, grassroots support for his position. idk.
posted by glonous keming at 6:46 AM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

sorry for commenting again, but this guy really has dug something of a classic rabbit hole. following my own link just above i have found his 2nd youtube account, called ProtectAnimalLife, promoting the same sort of content and using a similar writing style, politely railing against the skeptics and linking back to yet more domains with more of his content.

You deserve to know the truth about what has been discovered about these animals.

posted by glonous keming at 6:58 AM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm perfectly willing to believe that animals exist that were long thought extinct. We discovered coelacanths, after all. Are there pleisiosaurs in Scottish lakes? Are there pterosaurs in Cuba?

It could be possible. But the burden of proof is still in the discovery and demonstration.
posted by explosion at 9:52 AM on July 9, 2023

Birds aren’t real. They’re actually flying dinosaurs.

Birds aren't real. They're actually government surveillance drones.
posted by FatherDagon at 4:05 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ah! Oh!!

I am reminded of the earnestness in Hoagland's analysis of Cydonia
posted by splifingate at 7:59 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]