Story 2
Scandinavian countries had about as many tales of dragons as anywhere in the world. One old legend describes a reptile-like animal that had a body about the size of a large cow. Its two back legs were long and strong. But its front legs were remarkably short. And its jaws were quite large. One of the unique things about many dinosaurs was their short front legs, compared to their long, strong back legs.2 Many also had large jaws. Examples of dinosaurs which fit are the Edmontosaurus. (ed-MONT-oh-SOR-us), and the Iguanodon (i-GWA-no-DON).
Rebuttal: Iguanodon once lived in Europe, especially in what is now Scandinavia, 120-130 million years ago, but Edmontosaurus lived in North America 70-65 Million Years ago, not in Europe, so the 2 dinosaurs never lived at the same time. The claim shown on page 40 as well as here is a direct fabrication of Lindworms, dragons of Scandinavia with 2 or no limbs. Their bodies are incredibly long and serpentine. Never do they resemble dinosaurs in any form. Lindworms are monstrous snakes. Coiling, hissing, poisonous, evil snakes that live either in the mountains or in the water. They were very dangerous and in many cases hard to kill. Like normal snakes, they occasionally shed their skin like this one told in a well known Scandinavian Legend called "King (or Prince) Lindworm".
A Lindworm in the tale was born alongside his twin human brother from a queen who sought help in having children from a wise old woman, who told her to eat 2 onions after their skins are peeled in order to have children. The queen took her advice and gathered up 2 onions to eat. But in her haste to have children, she ate the first onion without ever peeling it and it gave her a very bad taste. So she peeled the second onion and ate it. Then, she became pregnant and gave birth to twin boys. But the first son she bore was a hideous monstrous Lindworm who was so disgusting by his appearance that the queen threw him out and left him to fend for himself. Her second son, on the other hand, was born a normal human being and grew to be a handsome prince who met his brother years later while going out to find a beautiful woman to make into his wife. The Lindworm also wanted a woman for his bride and demands his brother to send to him all of the young women, doesn't matter what background, before him to chose which woman he will have for his bride. So all of the women of the kingdom was brought before the Lindworm to be inspected, but the Lindworm ate all the women who never fit the Lindworm's perception of what he wants out of her. One of the Lindworm's candidates is a woman who was the only daughter of a shepherd. She went to the same old woman the queen visited years ago and ask how can she escape her fate at the hands of the Lindworm. The old woman told her not to resist the Lindworm, but to give in and tell the Lindworm to shed his skin just as the Lindworm will order her to shed her clothes. She will not die, but be a very happy woman who will accept the LindWorm's hand in marriage. Taking the old woman's advice, she went and presented herself before the Lindworm who told her to take off her piece of clothing. She did, but then told the Lindworm to take off his piece of skin. He did and the process went on about nine times before the last skin was shed to reveal a handsome prince whom she happily married afterwords.
Story 3
The city of Nerluc in France was renamed in honor of the killing of a "dragon" there. This animal was bigger than an ox and had long, sharp, pointed horns on its head. There were a number of different horned dinosaurs. The Triceratops (try-SER-ah-tops) is one example.
Rebuttal: The claim shown on page 40 as well as here is a direct fabrication of the story of a fearsome monster named Tarasque, who terrorized the people of Nerluc for many years. The dragon of Nurluc, whom the people killed in the story, was a female monster who was the child of the legendary serpent, Leviathan, and the Onachus, a hideous, buffalo-like she-monster that burned everything (apparently except for Leviathan and Tarasque) she touched. The monster whose description and her demise clearly states that she was not a Triceratops dinosaur.
Tarasque is described to be a 6 legged sea monster with a turtle like shell, face like an old man, horse-like ears, tail of a scorpion, a fiery breath, and the ability to shed her skin once every 7 years. The monster is killed when St. Martha, who was spreading the Christian faith around the land, tamed the dragon by sprinkling her some holy water while charming her with hymns and prayer offerings to God. Then, she lead the dragon to the town of Nerluc where the people ganged up on the dragon and killed her out of vengeance and fear. Later, feeling sorry over what happened after St. Martha rebuked them for this terrible deed, the people, who converted themselves to Christianity because of her, have decided to rename their town, Tarascon, after the monster whom St. Martha has tamed. The town exists to this very day.
Triceratops was a three-horned dinosaur that lived only in North America 65 million years ago and nowhere else.
Note: There is an Abelisaurid dinosaur named Tarascosaurus who was a large meat-eating dinosaur named after the monster whose fossils were unearthed from France, the country where the story of the Tarasque came from.
Story #4 (page 41a)
A well-known, old science book, the Historia Animalium, claims that "dragons" were not extinct in the 1500's. But the animals were said to be extremely rare and relatively small by then.
Rebuttal: The dragons found in this so-called science book never looked like dinosaurs at all as you can see here and here. Historia Animalium (The History of Animals) is a 4 volume set written and published by Conrad Gessner (1516-1565), which all that it describes in it is winged dragons and how they are compared to flying snakes (Besides, the dragons illustrated in the book never looked like dinosaurs at all.). It also describes unicorns, basilisk, griffins, sea serpents, and other fantasy creatures which YECs never bother to mentioned. Using old, outdated medieval literature is highly inconsistent, worthless, and proves nothing when it comes to studying dinosaurs and science.
Story #5 (page 41b)
A scientist named Ulysses Aldrovandus carefully described a small "dragon" seen along a farm road in northern Italy. The date was May 13, 1572. The poor, rare creature was so little that the farmer killed it just by knocking it on the head with his walking stick. The animal had done nothing wrong but hiss at the farmer's oxen as they approached it on the road. The scientist obtained the dead body and made measurements and a drawing. He even had the animal mounted for a museum. It had a long neck, a very long tail and a fat body. The skeletons of a number of ancient reptile-like creatures have similarities to this basic description.
Rebuttal: This also seen here is a hoax. As a matter of fact, much of his collections" mounted for a museum" were proven to be forgeries, including the "poor, rare creature" that was only made from what's left of a ray fish. The image drawn by the scientist is found in an old outdated book that's now available online called Mythical Monsters by Charles Gould (see link here; also found in Gessner's book mentioned in Story #4 above). It gives out references to this account and shows the image of a dragon drawn by Aldrovandus that looked absolutely nothing like Tanystropheus at all. In fact, Taylor even got the supposed Tanystropheus wrong in the art— a prime example of YECs taking ancient images of dragons and distort them to fit their beliefs! Unlike this Triassic reptile, the dragon in the picture looked more like a drake or a fat lindorm than the Archosaur. The dragon in the picture had a neck and head that resembles a snake, a curling tail, a pair of bat wings, a big, fat belly, and only 2 short legs. Tanystropheus had a 10 foot long stiffen neck, 4 legs, a skinny body, and a tail that snaps off when attacked by a predator like a modern lizard of today. This lizard is ill equipped for both water life or land life. Yet, scientists are still trying to learn as much as they can about this special Triassic archosaur which probably spends its time on the ocean shores feeding on fish, ammonites, and other forms of sea life.
Thousands of dragon stories and pictures can be found in ancient Chinese books and art. One interesting legend tells about a famous Chinese man named Yu. After the great world flood, Yu surveyed the land of China and divided it into sections. He "built channels to drain the water off to the sea" and helped make the land livable again. Many snakes and "dragons" were driven off from the marshlands when Yu created the new farmlands. Some old Chinese books even tell of a family that kept "dragons" and raised the babies. It is said that in those days, Chinese kings used "dragons" for pulling royal chariots on special occasions. Ancient Chinese books even tell of people using dragon's blood, fat, brains, and saliva for medicine.
Rebuttal: There is no Acanthopholis remains found in China. Acanthopholis in real life was an English dinosaur that lived 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now the UK.
Taylor fabricated this folklore on pages 42-43 by quote-mining a passage from a part of a large set of ancient Buddhist literature known as The Chinese Classics, written long ago by the followers of Confucius just after their master's death and translated to English by James Legge so many centuries later. Taylor deliberately left out the part that tells of 2 dragons that flown from the heavens down to earth and were tamed and gentled by a man named Liu Lei who was taught by a family of dragon tamers and eventually became known as the Dragon Ruler and Feeder for Emperor Kung Jia who entrusted Liu with 4 dragons to take care of and give them water and meat for them to eat and drink. Acanthopholis was in fact a herbivore and never ate meat unlike the 4 dragons in the tale in which one of them sadly became sick and died. Liu, afraid to tell the emperor about the loss of one of his prize dragons, tried to hide what happened from the emperor by only showing off 2 dragons for the emperor to see until the emperor became suspicious of him and Liu had to flee with his family and live elsewhere to avoid being confronted by the emperor.
The dragons that pull the chariot of the Emperors such as Qi of the Xia dynasty, according to <em>Mythical Monsters</em> and The Chinese Classics, actually flew way up in the air pulling the Emperors in their chariots among the clouds and above the sea and are also said to have pulled the chariot for the gods as well. Except birds, no dinosaur ever flew.
The claim about Yu the Great, the First Emperor of the Hia dynasty mentioned in the Classic of the Mountains and Seas and his clearing of the swamps for farming; driving away dragons (possibly Chinese alligators) and snakes in the process, are also referenced in the Mythical Monsters as well. This, along with Chinese Classics, is where creationists got their ideas to fabricate dragon legends from other than the rest of ancient literature from other parts of the world.
The family where Liu Lei came from along with the Emperors may have kept Chinese alligators and/or crocodiles as pets, which has known to be called dragons at that time and were worshiped as gods by the people of China for many centuries. There were once saltwater crocodiles living in China's rivers, but they were exterminated by the Chinese around a thousand years ago. This must have been the inspiration behind the written accounts of 2 families who were known to raise dragons as pets as depicted in the Chinese Classic literature.
There's a claim made by creationists that says that Marco Polo reported in 1271 that Kublai Khan, the great Emperor of China, on occasions rode in a chariot pulled by dragons. That's false. 1271 is the year Marco Polo, who was 17 year old at that time, was just starting off on his journey to see the great emperor in person for the very first time. The dragons Kublai Khan had were only carved, gilded images of dragons hanging all over the walls of the emperor's palace. Except birds, No live dinosaur were around during Kublai Kahn's time, nor in all other people's time, either.
Not one dragon in Chinese folklore ever resembled dinosaurs. Most, if not some, of Marco's writings were entirely all made up as an attempt to entertain the reader, which includes his sightings of dragons over there which are made up of Lindorms or Lindworms as illustrated here in his book The Book of Marvels and Wyverns that swallow elephants, and explains how the Chinese used methods to dragon proof their clothing. No way are they dinosaurs, nor do they look like them. Some people believed that what Marco have saw were actually just snakes, alligators, and crocodiles. The Chinese Dragon actually looked like this. Some parts of his tales, however, were based on his actual adventures of what he saw over there in China and what he heard from the merchants coming from China, speaking of things in China that the Europeans have never heard of such as paper money, express mail, the art of foot-binding, and coal.
Finally, the Chinese actually used only fossilized bones and teeth of dinosaurs and other extinct animals. It seems highly unlikely did ancient Chinese apocatheries get the opportunity to use dragons' blood, saliva, fat, and brains like what it is said in Legge's Chinese literature to make medicine, unless they used those of the alligator's. Instead of just bones and teeth of dinosaurs and other extinct animals, The Chinese also used oyster shells, bear biles, tiger bones, seal penises and rhinoceros horns in making medicine to cure all sorts of ailments from headaches to the common cold. It is said that Confucius remarked, upon reading a recipe for roast dragon (alligators and crocodiles since their flesh is said taste a lot like chicken) that "one should first catch the dragon before one writes a recipe for it." Also, the Chinese are notorious for using "dragon" as a positive label for just about anything (like "dragon fruit," or referring to lobsters as "dragon shrimp").
An Irish writer recorded an encounter with a large beast with "iron" on its tail which pointed backwards. Its head was shaped a little like a horse's. And it had thick legs with strong claws. These details match features of dinosaurs like the Kentrosaurus (KEN-tro-SOR-us) and Stegosaurus (STEG-oh-SOR-us). They had sharp-pointed spines on their tails, thick legs, strong claws and long skulls.
Rebuttal: The claim is all made up out of ignorance of the fact that the Irish or Celtic dragons, which are in forms of winged snakes, usually have no legs, coiling arrow pointed tails, horns on their horse-like heads, deadly venom, and are mostly associated with water. These kinds of dragons became a part of Irish Mythology when Christianity began to be spread throughout the Irish nation and the dragon at that time was regarded as evil, satanic creatures that must be driven out, imprisoned, or destroyed. The most famous of Irish Missionaries is Saint Patrick who went about driving out all the snakes from the land and imprisoned the dragons all throughout the country. When St. Patrick died, Saint Murrough O'Heaney took over and manage to trick a certain dragon named Paiste into bounding himself with 3 rods that, by the Grace of God, coil around and bound the dragon real tight. Murrough then orders him to enter into the waters of Lough Foyle to wait for God's Judgment to fall on him. The dragon is said to still be living in Lough Foyle to this day.
The respected Greek explorer Herodotus described small flying reptiles in ancient Egypt and Arabia. These animals sound amazingly like the small Ramphorhynchus (RAM-foe-RING-kus). They had the same snake-like body and bat-like wings. Many had been killed near the city of Buto (Arabia). He was shown a canyon with many piles of their back-bones and ribs. Herodotus said that these animals could sometimes be found in the spice groves. They were "small in size and of various colors." Large numbers would sometimes gather in the frankincense trees. When workers wanted to gather the trees' valuable juices, they would use smelly smoke to drive the flying reptiles away. The well-respected Greek, Aristotle, said that in his time it was common knowledge that creatures like this also existed in Ethiopia. Similar animals (three feet long) were also described in India by the geographer Strabo.
Rebuttal: The "flying serpents" these 3 men saw were NOT Pterosaurs but Amphitheres, winged snakes with no limbs, colorful scales, and bat or bird-like wings. All pterosaurs, even Ramphorhynchus, do not have snake-like bodies. They have gorilla shaped bodies, instead and is completely covered with hair. Taylor also has left out the fact that Herodotus mistakenly confused details of growing black pepper, which, at the time, grew only on the islands of what are now Sumatra and Java, and are the homes of flying tree snakes and Draco Volans lizards, with the frankincense trees, which only grow in Arabia.
The winged serpents as told in mythology and folklore are all shown to be Amphitheres of various types. For example, in Egyptian mythology, there is a goddess by the name of Uadjet (aka Wadjyt, Wadjit, Uto, Udjo, Uatchet, Edjo, Buto), who serves as the guardian of pharaoh always ready to strike and kill his enemies who tries to hurt the ruler. She is sometimes portrayed as a cobra with bird wings and a crest on her head and is most often seen adorning the foreheads of the head dresses of pharaoh. You can bet that this winged cobra is an Amphitheres and not a pterosaur.
Paul also refrains from telling the reader how Herodotus explained how the Amphitheres reproduce. The female grabs the male by the neck with her mouth, making the male mate with her before the male dies. Eventually the female dies too, when her offspring devours their mothers' insides just to come out of her (Citations here.).
No Pterosaur has ever done this. In fact, no vertebrate known produces young which devour their mother from the insides out. Pterosaurs are all egg layers. Plus, the ribs and backbones found on the shores of the Nile most likely have came from either the carcasses of some dead snake, draco volans, Spinosaurid fossils from the Cretaceous period that were unearthed and placed into shrines by the Egyptians as told in Adrienne Mayor's The First Fossil Hunters pg. 135-136, or they are bones of modern animals that have been washed ashore out of the rocks every rainy season. So, no live Pterosaurs existed during Herodotus' day.
Nor were they around during Aristotle's day either. Like the Amphitheres of Egypt, the flying serpents of Ethiopia, supposedly seen by Aristotle, are described to have no limbs. Something Taylor have never bothered to mention. Pterosaurs have 4 limbs unlike the Amphitheres in the account. And like Herodotus, Aristotle mistakenly placed flying snakes in Ethopia, as opposed to Southeast Asia, where they are native to. Especially in Arabia and in India, where Strabo the Geographer also actually saw while exploring the country of India about 2,000 years ago. These accounts are all taken from the Mythical Monsters book as well.
Story #9
Flying reptiles were also reported in Europe in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. And an authority reported sighting a flying reptile near Mt. Pilatus, in Switzerland, as late as 1649. The folklore of the Sioux Indian tribe also tells the story of a flying reptile, named the "Thunderbird", that was seen falling from the sky after being struck by lightning. It has appeared in Indian tales ever since.
Rebuttal: The first claim is flat out false. The AD 793 account, where it says the people in an area were forewarned of what was horrible to come and were all terrified by signs in the air of immense sheets of light, whirlwinds and fiery dragons flying across the firmament, is nothing more than a direct fabrication of ancient sightings of shooting stars, comets, meteor showers, UFOs and other forms of lights sighted by the ancient people who regard them as "dragons" streaking across the sky (they had no idea what they really were), giving them a very bad omen of what's to come that could spell doom, destruction, and despair for the people who saw the lights in the sky and live in that area.
Back then, in many cases, it is believed that dragons were the ones responsible for creating storms — something dinosaurs could never do. Nowhere does it say anything at all about the descriptions of dragons fitting dinosaurs because there's none found within there! Creationists have probably never looked at the book. If they did, then they would just take bits and pieces of it out of context, twist them around to fit their beliefs.
Reference: The Legends and Myths of Britain. Note: It's under the title Dragons as Evil Omens.
The second claim is a direct fabrication of a Swiss folkloric tale, inspired by early sightings of dinosaur fossils discovered in a cave on Mt. Pilatus, that tells about a man named Winckelriedt who was kicked out of his village of Wilser for manslaughter and was told if he ever wanted to be brought back to the village, he must go and try to slay the dragon that was terrorizing the village for quite some time. So, to redeem himself, he went up the mountain to challenge a small, yet dangerous dragon known as The Dragonet (also known as The Wilser Dragon) whose fiery breath can incinerate anything nearby. Winckelriedt bravely dodge the flames and killed the dragon and returned to the village with a blood-stained sword as proof of his victory over the beast. But the blood of the dragon dripped all over the dragon slayer, killing him instantly - the dragon's blood is extremely deadly to the touch.
Dragonet is certainly not a dinosaur.
And third, The Native American Thunderbird myth may have been derived not from live pterosaur sightings, but pterosaur fossils and early condor and Teratornis sightings.
According to a Native American legend told in a popular classic dinosaur book for children, 2 braves natives were out hunting when they come across a huge storm. Suddenly a large bolt of lightening struck. They believe to have seen an object in shape of a bird falling down to the ground. After traveling for days, they came across bony remains of what they believed to be a large monstrous bird that fell to the ground so hard that it embedded itself in the ground with sharp claws on its huge wings and feet and a sharp beak. What they saw was actually fossil remains of a Pteranodon. Along side of the remains, the braves also found what they believed to be "thunderstones." Thunderstones that are actually fossilized seashells that were found along side of the pterosaur fossil. No live pterosaurs here. This is one of the myths creationists fabricate to fit their idiocy about the Thunderbird being a Pteranodon that isn't. This fabrication is seen on Answers in Genesis' so-called ministry cards, the ones they hand out to hapless people roaming about.
Ancient sightings of the endangered California condor along with prehistoric sightings of Teratornis, a massive bird of the Pleistocene epoch made by early man in the past may also have inspired the Thunderbird folklore. To this day certain Native American Tribes continues to worship this bird as a god, which their ancestors have done for many centuries. According to the legend, the Thunderbird is a large majestic bird that has eyes that flash out lightening, huge feathery wings that sounded like rolling thunder when it flapped, and its cry was like a crack of lighting. In many Indian folklore the Thunderbird have been known to fight against killer whales and water monsters. YEEs falsely assumed that this is a pterosaur only because it's gigantic, bird-like, and it flies, never mind the fact that pterosaurs lacked feathers, rather they have a hairy body and bat-like wings that is skin membranes supported by one elongated 4th finger on each side. Thus, the YEEs' view of the Thunderbird is nothing but a fabricated lie.
There is some evidence that a few dinosaurs and great marine reptiles could still be alive, teetering on the edge of extinction. Scientists are still discovering unknown animals each year. Natives in a very remote jungle in Africa repeatedly told of seeing large animals a lot like the sauropod dinosaurs. The sauropods included the Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus and others like them. A group of natives claimed to have killed a small one in 1959. Scientists studied the reports and made trips into the deep jungle in hopes of finding a dinosaur still alive. None has been found so far.
Rebuttal: Mokele-Mbembe is the name of the creature that is described to be a swamp bound creature (which sauropods are not due to their narrow elephant like bodies and their elephantine feet that has no splayed toes on them.) with a large barrel shaped body, a long neck and tail, a small head with a large spike on its snout and a frill on the back of its head (Something sauropods completely lack), and is between the size of an elephant and a hippo with 3 clawed feet on each leg (sauropods have actually 5 toes with 1 claw on the front feet and 2 to 3 claws on the back feet.). It had been known to hate hippos and would kill any hippo that gets in its way as well as natives on a boat by sweeping them off with its tail. It is also said that the natives saw the creature and, at one time, have manage to kill one of them, but died after they have eaten its flesh.
However, according to one of the natives, when asked about the creature, he said that there's no such thing as Mokele-Mbembe. The creature is a spiritual being of Congo folklore. It does not exist. Yet, outsiders over the years have misunderstood the point and mistook the creature as a real physical animal and that the supposed eyewitnesses have fabricated stories of physically existing animals for financial gain. Over so many years, people have been searching for the creature, only to come back empty handed with no valid proofs of any kind that confirms the existence of the alleged sauropod creature and Lake Tele and its surroundings, where is said to be the home of the creature, is highly 4 feet shallow making it impossible for a sauropod hide in such shallow waters. Looking for the creature will be a total waste of time because the creature will not be there for real for it is an imaginary creature just like the unicorn.
Much of the pygmy population describes the Mokele as a rhinoceros, in which some cryptozoologists take it as a reference to large monsters that resembles ceratopsians called Emela-ntouka (meaning "killer of the elephants" in the native language), which is an alleged ceratopsian-like creature known to battle elephants, kill natives, and is said to bear a long, ivory horn on its nose, long, sharp teeth (or tusks), smooth skin, crocodile-like tail, and a neck frill. No ceratopsian ever had ivory horns. The horns of the ceratopsians are made entirely of <em>bone</em>, not ivory. The frill of the creature is not like the frills of the ceratopsians. Ceratopsians have bony frills while the creature is said to have a skinned frill. Plus ceratopsians have rough scaly skins and in some cases a coat of porcupine like spines growing on their tails. Ceratopsians are known to lay eggs while the alleged cryptid is known to give birth to live young. And above of all, no ceratopsian remains has ever been found in Africa. If they and Mokele-Mbembe are still living in Africa, then we would have found traces of them along the Congo basin concerning their eggs, nesting grounds, feces, footprints, as well as fully intact bodies, valid observations and photographs, and their post-Mesozoic fossils. But none are found. Thus, the native is right! There is no such thing as those creatures. But that doesn't stop wishful thinkers like YECs from believing them to be real.
Great numbers of pterosaurs (TARE-oh-SORS) were killed in the Flood. These were sometimes large, but delicate, flying reptiles. Many of their fossils have been found. Are all the pterosaurs in the world dead today? Almost surely, but some people still hope. In Africa, a scientist once found evidence that a few might still be alive. Natives living in northern Zimbabwe described a strange flying animal which they called the "kongamato." It was not a bird but more like a reddish-colored lizard with bare, bat-like wings. The distance between its wing tips was four to seven feet. The scientist showed the natives pictures of various animals, both living and extinct. Each person interviewed said the Pterodactyl (TEH-ro-DAK-till) was most like the Kongamoto. These animals are supposed to live mainly in a huge, dense area called the Jiunda Swamp. Researchers have heard of animals like this in other places, too.
Rebuttal: The Kongamato ("Breaker of boats") in modern day Zimbabwe could possibly be a direct misidentification of large wading birds, like the Saddle-Billed Stork or giant fruit bats. Especially the hammer-headed fruit bat, the largest fruit bat in all of Africa. If you ask the natives of that area if they actually have seen living pterosaurs in that area, they'll say no. But they do see giant bats flying about especially the hammer-headed fruit bat. Pterosaurs have died out at the same time as the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. None of them were killed in the alleged Flood. Plus, the so-called pterosaurs, in which they are claimed to be alleged surviving rhamphorhynchids, are described to have smooth bodies and 4 long fingers that supported their skin membranes while real pterosaurs, especially rhamphorhynchids, have only one long finger supporting their wings and hairy bodies. According to the fossil record rhamphorhynchids have died out at the end of the Jurassic Period. If Kongamoto is really a rhamphorhynchid pterosaur, then we would see any traces of their remains way above the Jurassic strata along with eggs, fully intact bodies, droppings, recordings of their sounds and observations of them as well as valid photographs and sightings being made of them. But none are found. One particular photograph was ruled as a hoax. There are no traces of their remains being found along side of man's remains in the post-Mesozoic strata, either. This claim is most likely nothing more than made-up fabrications greatly inspired by sightings of large unknown species of large wading birds and giant fruit bats. There are other claims of alleged modern pterosaur sightings that are out there. But just like all the rest, these stories are nothing more than conflicting claims, hoaxes, misidentifications, and gross exaggerations. Still the YECs out of ignorance still continues to insist that the sightings of those so-called modern pterosaurs to be true and must be considered so while ignoring evidence pointing to the opposite.
Fabrications of Medieval artifacts
One YEC website, known as rae.org, there is a creationist who stupidly claims that there were alleged sightings of a live pterosaur called Scaphognathus, a Late Jurassic basal pterosaur (actual image here and actual skeletal drawing here), whom he believes to have survived into modern times just before the 17th century. These proofs all made up on this page are not really proofs at all. Having no knowledge of the true anatomy of pterosaurs, especially Scaphognathus, John Goertzen, who wrote this idiot article, took some old medieval art, artifacts, maps, folklore, and hoaxes and distort them all to falsely brand them as evidence of live pterosaur sightings out of complete ignorance of the fact that all pterosaur fossils are found in the Mesozoic stratas and nowhere else.
Ropen Hoax
Another claim of an alleged pterosaur sighting is made in Africa where a team of explorers lead by John Whittcomb who are sponsored by Carl E. Baugh, a staunch creationist other creationists regard him as a kook, yet just like Baugh they are kooks themselves. These kooks claim to have alleged sightings made of an alleged modern pterosaur known to the natives as the Ropen, an alleged modern pterosaur that lived in the forests of Papua New Guinea. This creature is described as a rhamphorhynchid with, in some versions of the claim, Ptranodon-like features such as a crest and a pelican-like pouch as claimed on their website. The website of this alleged sighting is located right here. But it is likely that the alleged sightings, each contain conflicting descriptions, are nothing more than a hoax — an obvious attempt to make a name for the creationists and make money off of dredging up the Ropen hoax out of ignorance of complete lack of pterosaur remains above the Mesozoic strata.
Like fish, some of the great reptiles of the sea could have lived through the Flood without being taken in to the Ark. Noah was told to protect land-dwelling animals and birds, not fish and other creatures that could survive in the floodwaters. An ancient Hebrew legend says that the only animals to survive the Flood, besides those on the Ark, were "the giant og, the monster reem and the fishes." The word "og" means gigantic and long necked—a good description of the big plesiosaurs (PLEE-see-o-SORS).
Rebuttal: This is a direct fabrication of an old Hebrew Flood Legend, that is part of a 4 volume epic known as The Legends of The Jews, written and published by German Jewish Rabbi, Louis Ginzberg in 1909 See here and here to read the story. Reem was a massive bovine whose name is translated as "wild ox" and Og, whose name only means "grand", was a giant human king that the Israelites killed in Numbers 21:32-35. When the Flood began Og begged Noah to save him but Noah refuse to let him on. Because Noah loves animals, Og offered to have Noah take Reem with him on the voyage. This leads Noah to change his mind and allow him to join in the voyage on the ark for the sake of the animal. Both were much too big to fit into the ark so Noah had to attach Reem to the ark with a strong rope so that the monster can swim and be fed to keep his strength up and the giant had to sit on the ark and hold on tight throughout the Flood after promising to be a slave to Noah and his descendants forever. Both have survived, Both are not plesiosaurs. YECs just fabricated the story to fit in with their own version of it even though they know all too well that Flood Chapter in The Legends of the Jews tale greatly contradicts "The Letter of the Law (Genesis 1-11, YECs own 'Bible'.)” involving the fate of those outside the ark “that breathe through their nostrils” (Genesis 7:21-23).
Story #13
The Navy ship U.S.S. Stein tangled with such a creature on its way to track submarines near South America. When its sonar equipment suddenly stopped working, the captain headed the ship back for repairs at the Long Beach Naval Dockyard. When the tough underwater sonar dome was examined in dry dock the crew found a big surprise. The rubber covering that protects the dome was torn and battered with dozens of big gouges. Hundreds of sharp, hollow teeth (or claws) were broken off in the covering. Some were longer than a inch. It looked as if some sea creature had been attracted to the underwater sound of the sonar and tried to bite it and break it. Naval Oceans Center made a decision. The animal "must have been extremely large and of species still unknown to science."
Rebuttal: The only thing that would attack a submarine is a large shark since Plesiosaurs and other "sea monsters" have been long dead since the end of the Mesozoic era. No creature like this shark could leave behind such a sloppy bite leaving teeth or claws behind. It has no claws at all. Only teeth. That story YECs made up is a direct fabrication of stories of nuclear submarines being attacked by sharks. Especially when it comes to submarines being attacked by a cookie cutter shark. The cookie cutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) is a very small shark that is known to attack big fish and other big objects that move underwater, including submarines.
Story #14
Speaking of sharks, In the older version of Paul's book also on page 46, there was a story about a Japanese fishing boat that caught a dead decaying body of a basking shark. Like some staunch creationists, Taylor grossly mistakens the carcass as a Plesiosaur. This claim, although it has been vigorously defended for over 20 years, is now being abandoned by many creationists. Only the most staunchiest, however, still defends the pseudo-plesiosaur claim. Nevertheless, I wish all of them would come to their senses about all of their idiot claims and abandon them, too. Especially the claims about dinosaurs living with man thousands of years ago and other preposterous claims.
(The newer version of GDM probably don't have that claim anymore, but then again…it might still have that myth.)
The "leviathan" the Bible talks about in Job 41 is described as the greatest creature in the sea. Unlike a crocodile or fish, it was useless to try to catch a leviathan with hooks, harpoons or anything else. "Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature without fear" (Job 41:33, NIV). What was a leviathan? The large size, strong jaws, great teeth, fast swimming ability and its protected back and underside all give clues. It could have been a Kronosaurus (KRON-oh-SOR-us) or something like it. This was one of the greatest, most overwhelming animals ever to swim the seas. It was not a true dinosaur, but it was reptile-like and had great, sharp teeth. It seems these animals were still alive at the time of King David. Psalm 104 says they played where the ships go to and fro. This was probably the Mediterranean Sea.
Rebuttal: Leviathan comes from the Hebrew word meaning, "twisted" or "one who coils". Kronosaurus and Mosasaurus never had a snake-like body at all. Taylor never mentioned that the creature has armor all over his body that glows and eluminate from many miles around, which no Mesozoic marine reptile has. He is ignorant of the fact that the creature has 7 heads according to one passage in Psalm 74:14 and also in Job 41 there is a passage about the creature being a fire breather, which Duane Gish has often stupidly said to mean that Leviathan was a fire-breathing dinosaur. Totally unfounded and false, no dinosaur ever breathed fire. Not even Parasaurolophus, Kronosaurus and Mosasaurus never breathed fire either. Kronosaurus lived 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period and Parasaurolophus and Mosasaurus lived 70 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period, so no man has ever saw them all alive. Leviathan is in fact a creature of Jewish folklore in form of a serpentine fish that lives in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. Unlike Kronosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Mosasaurus who all died of natural causes millions of years ago, nothing can kill Leviathan except God who created the monster on Day 5 of Creation Week. God plans to kill Leviathan along with Behemoth and Ziz at the very end of the world and use their remains to benefit His kingdom and supply His people with a never ending smorgasborg of meat that even the Jewish people can eat because it's kosher.
The claim about David sighting a Kronosaurs is nothing but a direct fabrication of Psalms 104:26, where it says, "ships sail where Leviathan frolics"…. Kronosaurus actually had been long extinct for millions of years and no one has ever seen them alive. So the passage may have most likely been translated as "whales", not dinosaurs or Kronosaurs.
Story #16 (Page 49)
It is interesting that many reports of "sea serpents" closely match the ancient pliosaurs and mosasaurs. They looked somewhat like huge lizards or crocodiles with flippers or webbed feet. Fossils show their backbones were very flexible. They could probably swim in a snake-like motion. A creature very much like these was reported during World War I by a German submarine. Captain Georg von Forstner described what happened: "On July 30, 1915, our U28 torpedoed the British steamer Iberian carrying a rich cargo in the North Atlantic. The steamer sank quickly, the bow sticking almost vertically into the air. When it had gone for about twenty-five seconds there was a violent explosion. A little later pieces of wreckage, and among them a gigantic sea animal (writhing and struggling wildly), was shot out of the water to a height of 60 to 100-feet. At that moment I had with me in the conning tower my officers of the watch, the chief engineer, the navigator, and the helmsman. Simultaneously we all drew one another's attention to this wonder of the seas…we were unable to identify it. We did not have time to take a photograph, for the animal sank out of sight after ten or fifteen seconds. It was about 60-feet long, was like a crocodile in shape and had four limbs with powerful webbed feet and a long tail tapering to a point."
Rebuttal: The limbs of Kronosaurus and mosasaurs are flipper-like and bear absolutely no resemblance to the legs of a frog. They don't swim in a snake-like motion either. Kronosaurus, like other pliosaurs and plesiosaurs, swam in a unique "double-paddle" motion, while mosasaurs paddled with their flippers, using their tails to give themselves an added thrust when hunting. The tail tapering to a point may have been one of the squid's tentacles. Both Mosasaurs and Pliosaurs have only flippers and used them to propel them through the water like sea turtles or crocodiles. If they were still alive today, then they will be easily sighted because Pliosaurs and Mosasaurs are all air breathers and have lungs. From time to time they must come up to the surface of the water to breathe air. Problem is they're all extinct. They've been extinct for 65 million years, long before humans swam and sailed across the sea. So, the animal that has been blasted out of the water was probably either a giant squid, or an unknown species of shark or whale (Does this monster they blast out of the water have the word "Zeuglodon" written all over it?).
