Pterosaurs of the Ghostly Kind?
Posted by: Nick Redfern on March 9th, 2015
Is it possible that some of the more baffling reports of weird winged things in our skies involve not living creatures, but the ghosts of animals long extinct? Yep, it’s a hugely controversial question! But, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed. And that’s exactly what I’ve done in my latest Mysterious Universe article, which begins as follows:
“Imagine crossing the moors and hills of England and encountering what looks like nothing less than a living, breathing pterodactyl! Think it couldn’t happen? It already has. From 1982 to 1983, a wave of sightings of such a creature – presumed extinct for tens of millions of years – occurred in an area called the Pennines, better known as the ‘backbone of England.’
“So far as can be determined, thanks to the research of Jenny Randles, the first sighting occurred in September 1982. That was when a man named William Green encountered at Shipley Glen a large, gray colored creature, which possessed a pair of leathery-looking wings. The latter point is notable, since it effectively rules out a significantly sized feathery bird, and does indeed place matters into a pterodactyl category.”
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Oh, hell, it’s Monday and I’m in a “go down the rabbit hole” kind of mood today.
Interesting idea and theory of cryptids. You’ve gone down this avenue before and I usually go off on my rant about the inferiority of humanity in its ability to find things outside the norm. However, let’s look at it. Could sightings be merely energy impressions or “ghosts” of what once was?
Is it possible? I’ve heard stories of pet ghosts showing up–even had that happen to me with a dog we had. Saw him twice after he died. So, yes it is a possibility as an explanation. it’s another theory at least that is as plausible–just have to test it like everything else.
I’ve become a fan of the multiverse theories lately and while not really testable at this point, could there be congruent points if according to another theory, there are parallel universes stacked on top of one another? And perhaps at these congruent points (on our end, places where lots of supernatural and odd things are seen and encountered), people are actually encountering things that more or less bleed through? Again another interesting idea…but how do you even test something like that at this point in the game?
To play devil’s advocate, in the case of Loch Ness (which is always near and dear to my heart), there are many many encounters where a creature is seen and water is displaced by either something submerging, breaking the surface, or just creating a ruckus. If people are just seeing spirits or ghosts, there’s not going to be any interaction with our physical world.
I do think we’re just seeing the proverbial tip of the ice berg when it comes to the physical world (despite what humanity does know and is capable of right now), but I don’t think ghost impressions of animals long gone covers the gambit of sightings.
Great topic. Puzzling evidence. I think it could be something like that. My mother talked about the family’s ghost dog. As I recall, it wasn’t one of theirs that had died. Something else.
There’s no one living to ask about it anymore. So I say good evening.
The kind of “multiverse” discussed in string theory and other highly speculative areas of physics has nothing to do with why you lose socks in the drier or people think they see ghost pterosaurs. Two branes bumping into each other would not allow animals to cross over; it is instead one idea for what might have started the Big Bang. Besides, no pterosaur would have looked like a cross between a bat and a crocodile; they had hair. The description given sounds like what would be expected from a liar who only knew that pterosaurs are described as “flying reptiles”.
sorry folks… until there is real proof, this is all just make believe.
Fhqwhgads makes the most salient point. The description of the “pterodactyls” fits the older conceptions of the animal’s appearance. One would expect the spectral animal to look like the actual animal while it was alive. It would seem that the witness’s descriptions is more of what general convention thought pterosaurs looked like at that time rather than the more recent accurate descriptions that have evolved over the years. Why would a ghost pterodactyl look like an inaccurate and antiquated version of itself?