STRANGE ARK
The investigation of natural mysteries with a biological emphasis.
BioFortean Review: 2008
The Scott Norman "Pterosaur" Sighting: His Own Words
Scott Norman (edited by Chad Arment)
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(March 2008, No. 16)
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(July 22, 2007)
Got back from Fresno and have a very productive and interesting research trip!
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The reports of Ropens, possible pterosaurs out of PNG, is that they glow at night and can look like falling stars, and I believe one of the names of the animal means falling star in PNG. The SCI Fi channel was down in PNG and on their recent program, Destination Truth, http://www.scifi.com/destinationtruth/, they have on video a picture of glowing object in the sky; I was given a copy of it on DVD, if anybody would like a copy please let me know. On http://www.ropens.com/report/pg-01/ has a picture and analysis of a video taken of the glowing lights on one of the PNG research trips.
Our contact in the area has seen these type of lights and we have also seen them now too. I don't now how to explain them, but they really do look like falling stars, but the difference is that they go in many different directions, even up and down. Within a one minute period I saw two separate streaks moving vertically down towards the earth. From what Garth has told me, he talked with I believe somebody at JPL, that meteors always fall in one direction and down towards earth. Between myself, Garth, and David, we've seen about 30 of these streaks, if not more. I've been skeptical and am still somewhat skeptical, I still need to research if there is any natural phenomenon that should account for this. We also were told by our contact that the animal screeches, and we have heard it and have got the screech on tape, but we really need to get it analyzed and make sure it's not an owl or something else.
On the second night, I didn't participate into the research until much later that evening because my cousin lives in the area and went to go have dinner with her and we ended up talking for a long time, which was really great, and I told her about the research and how skeptical I was, because she knows about research in Mokele-mbembe and other animals. Part of the reason I've been skeptical is that our contact had a video of an animal that was supposed to be a pterosaur and Garth, David, and some others believed it to be, to me it was just a bird and I had some other people look at the video and they thought it was a bird also. The problem with the video is it was shot early morning, so picture is grainy and hard to tell exactly what type of animal it is, so can't prove anything. So between the video and though seeing the glowing lights, still very skeptical and didn't think we would see anything.
Both Garth and David were tired and went to sleep and I stayed up till 4AM. Here's the kicker, the skeptic between 1:30-2:30AM, probably closer to 2AM, has a sighting! On the property is a house and a shed, we had chairs and equipment set outside of the shed facing a pasture. I was sitting in a chair, sideways towards the shed looking up at the starry skies, when this animal came gliding just over the shed and into the field and then I lost it. I did not tell them about the sighting until later that morning, I had to sleep on and think about what I saw.
The animal I saw had an 8-10 foot wing span, the wings were bat-like in shape, the inside had that wavy type of look. The body was about 5-6 feet in length, the neck about 1-2 feet in length, the head was about four feet in length, and the head was key for me: it has a crest that was about 2 feet in length, fit that of a pteranodon, don't know how else to describe it. Our contact had a similar type of sighting three years ago in daylight. In his sighting he saw a long tail, I did not see one, and all of the pteranodon pictures I've seen show a real short stubby one. The animal I saw was stockier compared to some of the drawings of pterosaurs I've seen. The animal in the video that's supposed to be a pterosaur and the animal I saw are two different animals.
I only saw the silhouette of the animal against the a stars in the sky and saw no real details, the animal was black, could not see any color to it. The animal was only 20 feet from me, our contact told us his shed is 18 ft high, and the animal was about two feet above that and probably it was a little closer as it flew by me and down into the pasture. The animal was gliding, it did not flap its wing and it did not make any sounds, so if I had not been looking where I was I would probably have not seen it. I shone my small flashlight into the field and did not see the animal so it must have kept flying. Though I didn't walk into the field and should have known that, I think about it. My sighting lasted 15 to 20 seconds, so I had a good look at the animal. My first impression of the animal was, this thing is big. Have no video or stills of it, I didn't have my equipment out because I didn't think I would see anything and even if I did I don't think I would have been able to capture a clear picture of it. Yes, should of been prepared but when you're really skeptical, hard to be prepared, even though I was there to do research. I wish this thing had glowed, that would have been even a better confirmation, but it did not glow.
Issues with my sighting, really hard to give exact measurements in the night, so could be smaller, though a possibility that it could be larger, though I'm confident about saying it has an 8 to 10 foot wing span. I didn't see any legs and I'm not sure why, they are pretty promenent on the images I've seen; the only thing, (maybe) they have the ability to tuck them up to their body, even though I haven't seen an image that shows it, or have their legs are coming out the back of them, they were just too black to see, or I didn't see them because I was more concentrated on the head crest. I also did not see any claws on the wings and not sure why, maybe not enough of it to show against the sky, not sure. Did not see the eyes either.
So that's what I saw, something that I've never seen before, is it a pteranodon, I can't say 100% until more research is done, or is something else, a bird that I just mistook, possibly, but not sure what to do about the head crest. Whatever this animal is, it was big, and that was my first thought, and it's possible its wing span may have been even bigger, I need to get some more measurements of the shed to do comparison of size. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what I saw. I stayed up until 4AM hoping to see the creature again, but didn't happen.
The third night saw some more flashes but no close sightings of the animals. Actually is possible on the same night I had my sighting that I may have seen this animal or another fly over the canal behind the house and shed, not really sure because it was just a shape, but could have been seeing the weeds at the top of the canal look like something moving. Was really hoping to see this animal again, maybe on the next trip.
Give me your comments, critiques, questions, etc.
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Scott T. Norman
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In response to some questions and comments:
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1) I'm still not seeing a specific connection between the glowing spots and living bioluminescent animals. The ropen report certainly indicates a non-fire origin, but there appears to be no place where they compared the lights' spectral characteristics to that emitted by known bioluminescent species. That would be a necessary supporting factor in making the case for bioluminescent pterosaurs.
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- The reports from the locals in PNG is that these animals are nocturnal, though there are some daytime sightings, they attribute the lights to being Ropens. Our contact said he was close enough to one of the flashes and was able to see a wing shape. Not sure if he saw it with night scope or his eyes, but I believe he saw it with his eyes. I haven't studied this enough to have any answers, just what's come from what natives, our contact, and what Garth, David, and others believe.
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2) If you are going out in search of the lights again, any chance you can pick up or borrow a good telescope? These blurry light balls are not helping the case—if you can examine the lights in progress through the sky, you should be able to detect an outline of an animal in the light itself (as opposed to those blurry round light balls in the ropen report).
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- G. had a good telescope, the problem is that you only see the streaks for a couple of 1 to 2 seconds so very hard to get a fix on those. Our contact said he saw one glow for like 5 minutes and saw it only through a night vision scope. Actually night scopes might be better then a telescope.
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3) I think you're right—you'll need to check to see if the lights are produced by atmospheric effects, etc. (High altitude ball lightning?) Did you ever see one of the lights change course or act in a manner suggesting volition?
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- I don't recall seeing one change in a different direction, David say he say a light come over his head then it banked. So seems to indicate that is moved on its own.
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4) Screeches—yeah, there are a lot of night birds that can do screeches; you might be able to find a western birds vocalization cd somewhere... also lots of mammals at night make odd sounds. Contact a few local naturalists to see if they can interpret the sound (without telling them what your contact thinks they are, of course).
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- I need to get copies and get them analyzed.
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5) Can you sketch the outline of the animal you saw and scan it for the photos file? You say you actually did note a head crest? What did that look like?
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- I will sketch what I saw and will post it. Yes, I saw a head crest; that's what stood out to me, like what you see in pteranodon images, though a little different, smoother, longer, you'll see in the drawing when I post it.
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6) What kind of habitat is this area? Where would a large animal hide in this region? What is the human population like?
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- The area has a lot of orchards, main ones around the research area were oranges. There was the house we were at, then one next to it and a canal behind it. An orchard behind the house, then foothills. We searched the foothills behind the orchard to see if they live there, but came up with nothing. We believe that they would have to live deeper in the foothills and mountains and that they come into the valley to hunt. Our contact believes at times they may sleep in the orchards at times and as seen a least one fly from the orchard when disturbed by a vehicle. There is a road in front of the house that can have a lot of traffic. So population-wise, the people who live in the house and then those who work in the fields.
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7) If it was a bird, you're looking at one of the large wading birds basically—heron, egret, crane... you can find images of them in flight—what differences do you think the animal had from those?
- The video that our contact shot I compared to a flying egret video I got off the internet, has similarities in flying. So to me it's a bird. What I saw, compared to herons, egrets, cranes, was different. The crest of the animal I saw was about 2 feet in length and thick, nothing compared to any crests a bird might have. The animal I saw had bat like wings, no feathers that I could see.
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8) Just thinking about the long thin tail that some witnesses see—herons will keep their long feet dragging back out behind the short tail, which might confuse a witness.
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- Yes, I agree.
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9) Wonder if you can set up an upward facing camera trap (motion sensitive)—but would be hard, as you can't push a flying animal to go the same place as the camera is pointing . . .
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- Our contact said the animals fly over that area all the time, so yes, we could put upward facing camera, we could also put up IR lights to help illuminate the field. So with cameras with wide angle lenses might capture something.
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Now I'm wondering whether these light balls, whatever they are, might have something in common with the old "witch's lights" reported in the skies early on here in the East.
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- Be interesting to see if there's any correlation between the two.
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[Editor's Note: Unfortunately, Scott does not appear to have added the sketch of the crest to the group's files, but if I locate a usable copy, will add that here.]
Tatra Cave Dogs and Other Cave Dog Myths in Eastern Europe
Tomasz Pietrzak vel Quatl
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(April 2008, no. 17)
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Cave dogs are mythical creatures reported by Polish (and other eastern European) speleologists. Some people suspect that the mysterious Tatra, Poland, cave dogs are feral dogs that run among the peaks at night, and only stay in caves during the day. This may be the reason why few people see them, and how the legend came into being. The myths refer to spirit animals that attack and bite humans who spend time in the caves. Other legendary dogs, called "cave dachshunds," reportedly exist in Polish caves. These small dogs jerk the overalls of speleologists for scraps, especially while they crawl through tight tunnels. These invisible cave dogs supposedly pester people who explore their cave dens. Reports about cave dogs were figured to be the product of human imagination. However in Bulgaria, in Bezdenen Pczelin cave, a group of Polish speleologists found some half-blind feral dogs that showed little reaction to light. These Bulgarian cave dogs were left by bad people in caves, and have adapted to living in dark caves and lost their sight. Zoologists and zootechnicians also detected some negative morphological changes in body and head structure. Sojourning in a cold and moist environment with a monotonous and poor diet brought further degeneracy.
A. Radomski i K. Grotowski (Polish speleologist) also found strange dogs in Kuczeszka Pasztera cave in the 1960s, and dogs are reported to live in other caves in Bulgaria. Some stories are about dogs that lived in caves long ago. The oldest people heard about them from their fathers and grandfathers. People did not see these dogs but sometimes heard them when they threw dead goats, cows, or other animals over a precipice—cave dogs then fed on these animals.
An expedition from Slovakia left for Tatra in 2001 to search for its mythical cave dog. Unfortunately they did not find anything. It is possible there are some feral dogs living there, apart from normal dogs. In the western part of the Tatra Mountains are found many caves and remainders from karsic activities. Nowadays, caves dogs are considered only legends connected with activities of speleologists.
The true cave dogs are not a distinct wild dog, but a feral breed of domestic dog living in Bulgarian caves and fissures and similar places in the world, adapting to life in cold and dark places. Once other forms of cave dogs existed—the Primitive Cave Dog (Canis lupus [Canis spp.]). These animals were characterized by considerable sizes, strong body structure, and with a developed instinct of defense of their hideouts. This behavioral feature clearly separated it from smaller canids that were rather cowardly, along with their aggressive defense of prey from larger predators. These animals were the ancestors of modern domestic dogs and lived with the first people about 10,000 years ago. The first domestic dogs were similar to dingoes and come from wolves.
There are a few recent reports of cave dogs throughout the mountainous regions in Poland. Some accounts came as recently as 2007, in the southern regions of Stary Sącz, in the Dunajec and Poprad range in the Sądecki Beskid mountains, and Żywiec in the Żywiecki Beskid mountains, from Slovak speleologist, Jano Ducár, who before coming back to Lomnice na vlak, saw a dog leaving a wide hole among the rocks in the cavern. He was told that "čierny pes" is not a problem for speleologists because their caves are spacious and large—the dogs living there have many places to hide. This was, perhaps, the mysterious feral cave dog (Canis lupus familiaris)—a descendant of normal domestic dogs.
Published Sources:
- Przemysław Burchard. Na dno świata. Cytelnik 1961. Warszawa. Edition 1. Pages: 78-82
- Praca zbiorowa pod redakcją Władysława Szafera. Tatrzański Park Narodowy. ZOP. Kraków 1955.
The Carraguar, or Night-Tiger, of Colima, Mexico Chad Arment . (May 2008, no. 18) . | |||||||||||
There are quite a few South and Central American ethnoknown felines in the cryptozoological literature categorized as "black panthers." Some are probably based on melanistic jaguars, or smaller species, while others have another (real or not) basis. The following ethnoknown comes from Mexico, and might be the first black mystery feline from that country. A glance through Newton's and Eberhart's respective encyclopedias and Shuker's classic Mystery Cats of the World notes "black panther"-like cryptids from further south and further north, but nothing from Mexico. This account comes from Colima, along the central west Mexican coast (Oswald 1880): . | |||||||||||
The backwoodsmen of Southern Colima believe in the existence of an animal which, according to their accounts, must be a large, black-haired feline, of extraordinary strength and ferocity and of strictly nocturnal habits. The renegrón—blackamoor (carraguar, or night-tiger, the Indians call him)—has broken into adobe cabins and torn their inmates into pieces before a puma could kill a cow; and neither a bear nor a jaguar would follow a fisherman and capsize his boat in the middle of the stream, which feat is ascribed to a renegrón of the lower Balsas. In warm nights the rancheros of the Colima backwoods have often heard a peculiar howl which they could not mistake for that of any known beast of prey, and seen footprints in the river-sand which prove that the jungles harbor a brute whose size far exceeds that of the puma. They have found the mangled carcass of the hormiguero, or large ant-bear, an animal which from its mastership in the use of its long claws is never molested even by the jaguar. The jaguar also visits the tierras frias, the summit regions of the Sierra Madre, while the voice of the night-tiger is only heard in the river jungles. I was told that only a year ago the appearance of a carraguar in the Indian wigwams on the Rio Piñas created a perfect were-wolf panic; and the description of the brute, which was then seen and heard by a number of persons at the same time, though differing in details, agrees in the above-named essentials with the accounts of other forest tribes. But the renegrón sensations are by no means confined to the Indian settlements, and all the farmers of the Balsas Valley remember the tragedy of the Cazador Guëro (the "white hunter"), a sturdy ranchero of Portuguese descent, who had different rencontres with the murderous night-walker, and at last sealed the truth of his accounts with his life. Juan Rivéra was a cattle-herder and trapper of the Val de Mascalo, near San Nicolas, and proprietor of a clumsy but very efficient old trabucco, or Portuguese army-musket, which had freed the valley from so many wolves and panthers that he was generally known as El Cazador, the champion hunter of the Rio Mascalo. Among his trophies was a large shred of black fur torn by his hounds from the hide of a renegrón, which their master had crippled by a shot through the haunches, but which nevertheless effected its escape after disabling two of its would-be captors; and more than once had he seen the sable form of a "night-tiger" when he visited his beaver-traps in the morning twilight. But since the inundation of the Balsas bottoms, in 1869, his ranche had been more frequently harried by other enemies, and when he missed a fine white milch-cow he ascribed the loss to a puma that had carried off one of his goats a month before. The carcass of the cow, minus the entrails and one of the hind-quarters, was found near a salt-lick in the river jungles, and the Cazador resolved to watch the next night and pay the butcher in heavy currency. He loaded his trabucco with two handsful of chopped lead, and started at sundown for the salt-lick, accompanied by his son Miguel, a fearless lad of fifteen or sixteen, who had lately been presented with a shot-gun by the Cazador's father-in-law, and wanted to prove himself worthy of the gift. They watched behind an ambuscade of brushwood till the moon rose above the ridge of the Sierra de Mascalo, when Miguel heard a low rustling in the neighboring thicket and the click of the trabucco of his father, who motioned for him to cock his own piece and keep very quiet. After waiting in dead silence for ten or twelve minutes, during which the rustle was heard at intervals, but without coming any nearer, his father whispered to him to stay in the hiding-place and keep a sharp lookout, while he went to reconnoitre the jungle. He slipped away, trabucco in hand, and Miguel waited nearly a quarter of an hour, when he thought he saw a dark form creep upon the white carcass, which began to shake and roll in a way that satisfied him that the long-expected guest had commenced his supper. Bundles of brushwood had been deposited along the ground between the bait and the ambuscade, and Miguel could creep near enough to distinguish the whole outline of the cow-killer, and thought he recognized the broad head and long tail of a puma. His father had warned him not to fire at anything larger than a wolf, for his piece was only loaded with buckshot; but the brute presented a fair broadside,—the left side, too,—not a pellet could miss, and no such opportunity might ever occur again. Miguel raised his shot-gun, and, resting it in the fork of a bush which completely hid him, covered the ribs of the supposed puma a little back of the left shoulder, and pulled the trigger. He remembers that he dropped his piece and ran off, screaming for help, with the tiger at his heels, and that he was awakened from a stunning fall by the crunching of his shoulder-bones and a fierce tugging at his shawl, as if the murderer was trying to get at his throat. But in that moment he heard his father's trabucco go off like a thunder-clap close to his ears, and staggered to his feet. The brute had recoiled, and in the next instant received a blow por tumbar un toro (that would have felled a bull), for it splintered the butt of the heavy musket like a walking-stick. He saw his father swing up the gun-barrel for a second stroke, but before it descended the brute had made a spring at his legs, and in the next second had him prostrate on the ground. "Corre, muchacho! por tu vida! por tu vida!" yelled the hunter between his screams of agony,— "Run, my boy, for your life! It's a renegrón!" Miguel stood stupefied for a minute, and even the death-shriek of his father brought him only half to his senses, for he dashed into the woods at random, and arrived at midnight, not at his mother's ranche, but at an Indian wigwam on the river-shore, where a former vaquero of his father's bandaged his shoulder, and carried him home on a mule the next morning. The boy's excitement and his frightful wounds attested the truth of his statements, and before night the battle-ground was visited by a large party of armed rancheros. The corpse of the hunter had disappeared, but they found his hat and shreds of his clothes, and the two guns. On a spot where the sods were torn up by the rough-and-tumble fight, and on the butt of the broken musket, they discovered tufts of coarse black hair, which could not have belonged either to a jaguar or a cuguar, as the Indians call the yellowish-gray puma or Mexican lion. . | |||||||||||
I have only seen one other reference to this mystery feline, excerpted here from a generic newspaper article on black jaguars, and it may be based on the above account (Anonymous 1893): . | |||||||||||
Black panthers are found in nearly all large zoological gardens, but the Thiergarten of Hamburg boasts of possessing the only captive black jaguar in the world. It is also claimed by the Brazilians that the skins brought in from the provinces vary greatly in colors and spots, but not once in ten years is a hunter heard from who has encountered a jet black jaguar. Since the range of this animal includes to the south all Central and South America, except the cooler districts of Patagonia, and to the north, part of Texas and all of Mexico, it might easily be confounded with the fabulous black karaguar, reported to have been seen in parts of Mexico. The Mexicans tell strange stories of a powerful black beast which they name a night tiger and which they credit with marvelous strength, more to be feared than jaguars and pumas. These tales being rather mythical and differing greatly in descriptive details, it will be necessary to catch one of these betes noires or to procure skin and skeleton, in order to have unexaggerated facts. . | |||||||||||
This news article is correct, in that a specimen is necessary for positive identification, but it's unlikely one will be found if nobody looks for it. If you're in Colima, this would be an interesting subject for investigation. (And keep an eye out for Ivan T. Sanderson's "ruffed cat," as he noted seeing the pelt of one in a Colima market . . .) | |||||||||||
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References:
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An Account of a North American Bipedal Reptile from Wyoming Chad Arment (August 2008, no. 19) | ||||||||||
I've noted before (in earlier issues of the North American BioFortean Review) sightings of large bipedal reptiles (some "dinosaur"-like, some not) from various parts of North America. The most interesting reports have come from the Pagosa Springs, Colorado, area, neatly summarized by Nick Sucik in a chapter in Cryptozoology and the Investigation of Lesser-Known Mystery Animals. More recently, I had opportunity to gather details on another sighting, from Wyoming, which puts me in mind of those Pagosa Springs reports. The witness, Anita R., contacted me for help in soliciting information about a strange animal she and her mother had seen while driving on Route 80, west of Rawlins, Wyoming (the largest town in that area). As there are several likely hoaxes of this kind (again, see Nick's review), the first thing I did was determine that, in fact, the witness was who she said she was. With that determined, (and full contact information on file) I could start piecing together her story and get the pertinent details. What follows is the initial description in her own words (with minimal editing), followed by clarifications based on my questions.
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1. "[Near] the end of April, 2003, while traveling in Wyoming, my mother and I had quite an experience. A creature of some sort, which looked prehistoric, came down in front of our car. It kept its head in the shadows but it was shaped like a head of a kangaroo. It had big feet and small, short arms. Its tail was like that of an alligator and the top of his tail was as wide as my car. [ed.: refers to length of tail.] There is no explanation why we didn't hit it. We swerved, slammed on brakes, but no matter what we did it stayed about two inches away from my car. After sloshing it's tail back and forth one time, in a single leap it was gone and out of sight. This happened on I-80 about 40 miles west of Sinclair, Wyoming. . . . I did find a woman truck driver who had seen it and said it was a common sighting there, and people called it the big green dinosaur, even though it was more grayish in color. "Thank you for any information. My mother and I have been trying to find out what this is for 5 years now."
2. "Chad, I am no artist and I have no way to scan a picture, but I will try to describe what we saw as best as I can. At first it was in the median and we were in the far right hand lane. It was dark, but we saw the shadow of its head, shaped like the head of a kangaroo. Within two seconds it was landing in front of the car. We did not see it jump and it was just coming down in front of the car. It never touched the ground that we saw, it was rather chaotic! First we saw its feet. They were like huge crocodile or alligator feet. Then we saw his lower body and all of its tail. The tail was scaly, . . . about five feet long, best guess. . . . When it was landing, it came down sideways. Its body was shaped like the pictures you see of dinosaurs. It was huge to us, but not like in movies where they are as tall as buildings. We estimate it was about 7 feet tall. Its head stayed well above the top of our car and judging by as much of it that was inches from us we guess it at 7 feet tall. . . . "Thank you for listening to our story. People don't believe us and it gets frustrating trying to learn what it is. Also, I would like to know how it survives, as it was totally barren land for miles and miles."
3. "It was about 10:30 pm. I was driving a 1995 Chevy Lumina 4-door sedan with my headlights on. There was a semi the equivalent of two blocks ahead of us. I was heading east on I-80 and was approximately 40 miles west of Sinclair, Wyoming. When first noticing it at all, it was crouched down in the median and we had a perfect view of the outline of its head. The closest we can compare the shape of its head to is like a kangaroo. We were driving 80-85 mph. Upon seeing it in the median, I hit my brakes rather hard because I did not want to hit it if it jumped. As I was braking, it had apparently jumped. We didn't see it jump, we only saw it coming down in front of the car. At this point I was probably at 25-30 mph and still slowing. The only distance between it and us was the front end of the car, as it was right up against it. I veered left then right, but it stayed directly in front of us anyway. We could have counted what we call scales had we have had more time, as it was in plain sight. We did see its entire body up close with the exception of its head. The tail came straight off the body, and was covered with rough scales over the entire tail and had the points of scales coming off the edges. The scales were almost inverted triangular-shaped, not quite diamond-shaped. The legs were not scaly, they were 'rough' skin, like elephants have. I don't know another way to describe it. The feet were long, wide, and flat, also rough in appearance. It had toes, though there was not enough time to count them. I would guess from the short amount of time we had to see it all, that it was either four or five toes. On the toes were wide nails, but they weren't very long. "The width of the top of the tail was wider than its upper body. The underside of its body did not have scales. His stomach area was rough, leathery skin, but smoother than it's legs. Its back was not covered with scales like the tail, but there were points sticking up on its back, which was also leathery. "Its forelimbs were short and narrow, not like the legs which were thick and heavy. The forelimbs hung down at the 'elbow' joint. After it 'swiped' its tail back and forth one time, it ascended until it was out of sight. The feet never touched the ground. We estimate it to be around 7 feet tall. It does not have a long neck. "Apparently this was all watched by the truck driver in front of us, as they almost jack-knifed while this was going on. We attempted to catch up with the driver to confer with them about what we saw, but even at high speeds, he couldn't be caught. "While we were terrified, afraid of hitting it, we were so amazed we noticed every detail. It is gray in color, the scales being 2 shades of gray. That's the best way I know how to describe what we saw. Again I want to mention that a female truck driver online that travels that area frequently, when I asked her if she'd seen anything weird there, her comment was, 'You mean the big green dinosaur?... You should try stopping with a fully loaded trailer'... but, it isn't green. It is gray. At least what we saw and when we saw it, it was gray."
4. "I know the lady truck driver I spoke to online said she had to stop for it before with a fully loaded semi. She also stated that every time an alternative route was available, she took it because everyone knew how that would jump in front of your vehicle. ????? She's the only person I've ever talked with that had seen it or heard about it. Keep in mind, I didn't tell her what we saw, I only asked if she had ever been on that stretch of I-80 and had she ever seen anything strange. Her reply was, 'you mean the big green dinosaur?' It's not green though. It is gray. So that was confirmation and corroboration."
5. "The nails didn't extend out like long claws. We saw its right foot up close and personal. The closest in that movie [ed.: Jurassic Park] to compare it to is something they called raptors, but the feet were different. In the movie, their toes were more separated, spread apart, than what we saw. I am sure there is a logical explanation, but I don't know the first thing about 'dinosaurs.' We had only seen them in commercials or on billboards out west. Being from the south, it was new to us. Out west here, it is a tourist attraction. We didn't have any prior exposure to dinosaur phenomena or publicity. It did not look like an iguana or crocodile or anything familiar. It looks like what you see on the billboards here for the exhibits."
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As it currently stands, the incident joins a number of others that seem to suggest the presence of a large bipedal reptile in certain western states. It doesn't immediately suggest a viable conventional explanation, though of course, any skeptic could toss it aside as a loose kangaroo, monitor lizard, or the like. Obviously, all caveats about witnesses and brief anomalous sightings apply. At this point, I don't see any reason to force a specific explanation on it, without a great deal more investigation taking place. Anita and her mother have no idea what it was they saw, but are very curious about it. They have looked at a number of reptile and dinosaur images to see if anything looks similar, but with no exact matches. They do think the general body structure (particularly the feet) matches a reconstruction of Parasaurolophus on the UK NHM site, but that the head was more elongated. At this point, I prefer not to force morphological specifics in absence of a physical specimen, and suggest the following steps need to be taken. First, with regard to what may be local folklore of this animal, if one female trucker in the region is familiar with it, there should be other stories. My initial attempts to solicit information from that area have been unsuccessful, primarily because I'm working from the other side of the country. An on-site regional ethnozoological investigation is necessary to determine to what extent these stories are being spread (from both a geographic and phenological perspective). With more data, assuming that there is a discernible recent pattern in sightings, it should then be possible to set up a project specifically to obtain a specimen or other physical confirmation. (What we don't need are projects set up to acquire circumstantial and non-confirmative evidence.) Admittedly, this means consistent long-term field research in an out-of-the-way spot, on a mystery animal that has very little history in cryptozoological investigations. It might be better to start off seeking further local sighting accounts, then offering a full report to regional media services in hopes that local residents will keep an eye out for the animal and perhaps aid in acquiring a specimen. I will note one geographic 'coincidence' with this sighting. If you look up Rawlins, Montana, on Google maps, you'll find that it is almost directly north of (with most of a state between) Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Without visiting these two areas, I can't immediately correlate habitat or other ecological factors, but that may be worth further investigation. In any case, further sightings of this type would be of great interest to the author, and will be passed along to these witnesses, as they are eager to find a solution to this mystery. | ||||||||||
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