A recent survey of biology professors in large universities in
the western United States turned up something interesting. Even
though less than 2% of the professors responded to the questions
about living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea, the average
confidence those few professors gave to the possibility of
living pterosaurs was 1.5%. So why is it so interesting that
biology professors would rate the probability at 1.5%? Those who
responded were ignorant of the research and expeditions in Papua
New Guinea. If they had been knowledgeable, they might have
given it a much higher rating. Sighting Reports Analyzed
Recently analysis was done on eyewitness accounts of pterosaur
sightings, even though some of the persons involved called the
flying creatures “pterodactyls.” The purpose of the work was to
get a handle on how much the influence of time had on the
memories of the eyewitnesses. It turned out that those who had
reported their sightings many years afterwards had no major
problem with memory influencing their