When you are walking in the wild and a dinosaur suddenly passes in front of you, what will you do? Many people may dismiss it as just a dinosaur model. However, from the jungles of Africa to the rainforests of South America to the wilderness of the American Southwest, stories of seeing dinosaurs in some isolated and inaccessible places occur from time to time, especially in the American Southwest.
Pterosaur reborn?
On April 26, 1890, two ranchers in Tombstone, Arizona, USA discovered a winged creature in the desert area near the town. People in the town had heard of this animal for a long time, and the local indigenous residents called them "Thunderbirds". The animal's head looks a bit like a crocodile, dragging a slender tail and flying in the air with a pair of huge wings. The animal seemed to be exhausted at the time and could not fly high or fast. The two men chased and shot on horseback before finally knocking the animal down. When they looked closer, they found that the animal was really big. Its head was about 2.5 meters long, its body was nearly 30 meters long, its wingspan was about 50 meters, and its eyes were "as big as dinner plates." This animal has sharp teeth. Although it can fly, it does not have feathers or hair like ordinary birds. Its skin is almost transparent, and its wings are covered with wing membranes. The incident was published in the town's newspapers at the time.
It is said that the rancher also cut off part of the wing of the ptarmigan and asked scientists to study it to see what kind of animal it was. But there were no subsequent reports, so no one knows what results the scientists came up with.
This is not the first time people have sighted a ptarmigan. Some people have reported seeing this animal decades before this incident. Until recent years, there have been occasional reports of sightings of this animal. Based on the characteristics described by eyewitnesses, people now believe that the so-called Thunderbird is actually a pterosaur!
Tyrannosaurus rex appears?
Pterosaurs weren't the only ancient behemoths to roam the American Southwest; sightings of bipedal dinosaurs were also numerous.
In the 1930s, a Colorado family reported that while they were camping, a strange animal always moved around their campsite. That animal looked like a Tyrannosaurus rex, but a miniature version. It has sharp teeth and sharp claws. The surface of its body is covered with scales. It walks on its two hind legs. When it runs, its body is parallel to the ground, its head stretches forward and its tail stretches back. It runs very fast. They also allegedly captured the animal alive and kept it for some time.
In Texas, locals say a beast lurks in the wilderness and often attacks people or livestock passing by. According to eyewitness descriptions, they are about 2 meters tall, walk on two legs, have long and pointed tails, powerful hind legs, short forelimbs, and sharp claws on the tips of their toes. They look like a Tyrannosaurus rex. The animal also sometimes emits a low, loud howl that sounds like distant thunder.
"Artificial" dinosaurs
In addition to pterosaurs and mini-tyrannosaurs, many people reported seeing dinosaurs that appeared near rivers or swamps, and their appearance was similar to that of Tyrannosaurus rex. Sightings like these occur almost every year, making the American Southwest feel like a real-life Jurassic Park.
Are those animals from the dinosaur age still living on the earth?
Mainstream scientists believe that dinosaurs and pterosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, and it is impossible for these animals to exist in the world now. So, what about the sightings? If you carefully comb through all the sightings, you will find that in all the sightings, except for the descriptions of the witnesses, there is no other evidence to prove the existence of dinosaurs or pterosaurs, such as photos, videos, or the bones left behind after their death. Although some people did take photos of these animals with their cameras, they were all very blurry and it was impossible to tell what kind of animals they were.
In addition, the dinosaurs in many events have some interesting common characteristics, such as the mini-T-Rex that can make a ferocious roar; the dinosaur has a smooth body, no scales, and no feathers.These characteristics all come from people's previous understanding of dinosaurs, or dinosaurs created in movies and TV series. In recent years, scientists' research results have shown that dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex may not have vocal cords. They may, like larger birds today, adopt a closed-mouth vocalization mode to make sounds, that is, close their mouths and let the sounds pass through. The air sacs inflated, so the T. rex might have been able to emit only a purr rather than a mighty roar. So it's safe to assume that a large portion of the sightings are fabricated.
On the other hand, the large concentration of dinosaur sightings in the American Southwest may also be related to people's herd mentality. Herd mentality means that a person is influenced by others and his or her perception, judgment and understanding behave in a way that is consistent with the behavior of the majority. In some sightings, the witness "saw" a dinosaur there because many people said it was there. When witnesses pass by a place where dinosaurs are said to be, they are usually in a state of nervousness, fearing that a dinosaur will suddenly rush out. If by chance they see the trees or grass next to them rustle, or an animal flashes. However, even if they didn't see it clearly, through the imagination of the witnesses, they might mistakenly think they saw the dinosaur that everyone said.
Dinosaur "stand-in"
Of course, scientists also believe that some sightings may have indeed occurred, but what the witnesses saw was not dinosaurs or pterosaurs, but other animals.
In the case of pterosaur sightings, witnesses said that their wings were covered with wing membranes, had no feathers, and could fly. These characteristics were very similar to those of pterosaurs in general impressions, so the witnesses thought of pterosaurs. In fact, what the witnesses saw may be some kind of large bat that has not yet been identified, or some kind of large bird. California condors, which live in the southwestern United States, are very large, with their wingspan reaching 3 meters. One might argue that the pterosaur sightings were larger than the California condors. This is indeed the case, however, this may be due to eyewitness bias. When an animal flies in the sky, if there is no reference around it, witnesses may be more likely to think it is larger or smaller than it actually is. And mini-tyrannosaurs and river dinosaurs may be escaped large lizard pets, or some new large lizard species.
But why did the lizards seen by witnesses walk on two legs? Scientists have found that lizards do crawl on four legs under normal circumstances, but some lizard species can also walk on only two hind legs when suddenly accelerating, such as the ring-necked lizards living in the southwestern United States. In the case of the sighting, the sudden appearance of humans may have frightened the lizards, and their rapid escape was witnessed by the witness.
So, does this prove that dinosaurs do not exist? Perhaps the answer is not so certain yet. And some have suggested that the sheer number of sightings could mean that some kind of magical animal, if not a dinosaur, does exist. It seems that this mystery will continue to haunt us.
