The Myth of the "Thunderbird Photos"

[Carnoferox]

Here is the link to the article: http://www.dinosaurhome.com/the-myth-of-19th-century-pterodactyls-14388.html

Edited July 18, 2016 by Carnoferox

[aquatus1]

Welcome to the forum, Carnoferox.  Is there a particular point you would like to discuss regarding the thunderbirds?

[Carnoferox]

I am sharing the article that I wrote to debunk the many photos circulating on the Internet.

[Dyna]

Quote

As for the photo that so many claimed to have seen, it is likely a case of what is termed the Mandela Effect. The Mandela Effect is when a large group of people mis-remember the same event, object, place, etc.

Well I disagree with your assessment here. it is (your opinion) that people misremember!

 

Personally I do remember a photo you don't have in your collection I saw many years ago it may have been in a book from the library 30 years or so ago. It was a print of a black and white photo of some men I think there were three, in normal western dress in a desert looked like 1800's with the "thunderbird" at their feet propped on a sand dune or lump of soil a couple feet high. I can't remember the details or where i saw it but you don't have it.

 

The one you say is rubber does have clear legs.

[Carnoferox]

Yes, you remember it from 30 years ago. The human memory degrades over time, and coupled with suggestions from others you may remember something different than you actually saw. I can guarantee you that if you went back and found the book, there would be no such picture. As I stated in the article, many others remembers seeing the photo in various books, magazines, and even TV episodes, yet when they look back at them there is no photo. Keep in mind that the power of suggestibility is immense.

There is also a problem with the creature that is featured. Notice how in sightings and pictures of "thunderbirds", they always resemble a Pteranodon. That is because Pteranodon is usually the only species of pterosaur featured in popular culture (movies, TV shows, books, video games, etc.). It is instantly recognizable and easy to describe. No one describes seeing a Hatzegopteryx, Tupuxuara, Anurognathus, or any more obscure species. Once again the power of suggestibility.

The model in the last photo does not actually have legs; you were probably seeing the lighter areas on the man's pants. It also has a disproportionately small head that is twisted the wrong way around, and has no structure in the wings. Clearly a sign that it was made by a person who actually knows nothing about pterosaur biology.

[Podo]

An interesting theory, but not a particularly new one. The Mandala Effect has been understood for some time now, so while it's cool that you wrote the article, you're not really breaking new ground. It's as good of a theory as any, though. The human brain is a notoriously unreliable thing.

[Carnoferox]

Yes I know that I am not the first to suggest the Mandela Effect (Karl Shuker was). I wrote it mainly to disprove the photos, which are still claimed to be genuine on many websites. Four of them are hoaxes, and the other two are artwork taken out of context.

[Vlawde]

 Oh man, please..not the Mandela Effect!  I remember many things incorrectly, and by going back to my youth in documentation,, photos, yearbooks etc I've found over time the memories can change a bit, kind of like the telephone game. It can change with every retelling or revisiting the memory.  I've seen people go ballastic on other forums insisting their old memories are correct and that we must have gone off the rails to a different timeline/'dimension. makes me feel like this




When I want to feel like this
 

[Carnoferox]

It is frustrating when people claim to "clearly remember" something that they briefly saw decades ago (over 30 years, as Dyna claimed). Not only does the memory fade, but it is also distorted by outside influences and suggestions.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Real Thunderbird caught on film:

[Carnoferox]

Mine is better.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

6 hours ago, Carnoferox said:

Mine is better.

Does your fly?

does it have its own theme tune?

 

My case, it rests.

[Timothy]

Welcome to UM, the photos have already been debunked many times over. Plenty on this forum.

Same goes for your Loch Ness Monster thread.

[Carnoferox]

Quote

Does your fly?

does it have its own theme tune?

It has a scramjet on the back (not visible in the photo) and retractable wings (also not visible). It reaches speeds of over 600 miles per hour on the road, and over 10,000 miles per hour in the air. Its theme song is Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 sped up 200 times and played in reverse. It's also a natural female attractor, sexual prowess enhancer, and it fits in a garage. Can't say the same about yours, considering it's piloted by a bunch of creepy puppets with dead eyes that bore into your very soul.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Carnoferox

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

1 hour ago, Carnoferox said:

It has a scramjet on the back (not visible in the photo) and retractable wings (also not visible). It reaches speeds of over 600 miles per hour on the road, and over 10,000 miles per hour in the air. Its theme song is Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 sped up 200 times and played in reverse. It's also a natural female attractor, sexual prowess enhancer, and it fits in a garage. Can't say the same about yours, considering it's piloted by a bunch of creepy puppets with dead eyes that bore into your very soul.

Is your garage underneath a volcano? No? Shame.

and it's a Lady Attractor, as in Lady Penelope: 

 

[psyche101]

13 hours ago, Carnoferox said:

I am sharing the article that I wrote to debunk the many photos circulating on the Internet.

I enjoyed reading it. Nice layout. 

[Podo]

22 hours ago, Carnoferox said:

It is frustrating when people claim to "clearly remember" something that they briefly saw decades ago (over 30 years, as Dyna claimed). Not only does the memory fade, but it is also distorted by outside influences and suggestions.

Well, technically they do clearly remember whatever they remember. The problem is that the memory is inherently flawed. You can remember something super clearly and still be wrong, after all. For example, I have a "memory" of when I was a child and an octopus got stuck to the bottom of my dad's boat, and we had to jab at it until it let go. It was a giant pacific octopus, the largest species in the world, so it was huge. However, the memory isn't real, because that event happened to my dad before I was born. But, I've been told the story so many times that I've internalized it to the point of thinking that I remember it. I "remember" it very clearly, and the memory doesn't fluctuate very much. It's a crystal-clear memory, but I consciously know it to be false.

The same can be said for those suffering from high-profile Mandala Effects, such as Thunderbird Photos. They may not be lying when they say that they remember the photos clearly, they're just simply wrong.

[psyche101]

On 7/19/2016 at 3:26 PM, Lord Fedorable said:

Does your fly?

does it have its own theme tune?

 

My case, it rests.

 

[Orcseeker]

I enjoyed the article. There is a massive thread on this forum regarding that image.

@Dyna

A lot of people claim to have seen it in a book or a magazine (similar description to yours or the barn description), and many people have looked through their entire collection and realised its not even in that book and the magazine in question (some boys magazine I forget the name) had a sketch of it but as a fake article. Apart from delving into the fun, incredibly far fetched and unlikely reasons to explain this image being "missing", it's likely, as suggested, a psychological reason, the Mandela effect. 

[Merc14]

On ‎7‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 3:36 PM, Dyna said:

Well I disagree with your assessment here. it is (your opinion) that people misremember!

 

Personally I do remember a photo you don't have in your collection I saw many years ago it may have been in a book from the library 30 years or so ago. It was a print of a black and white photo of some men I think there were three, in normal western dress in a desert looked like 1800's with the "thunderbird" at their feet propped on a sand dune or lump of soil a couple feet high. I can't remember the details or where i saw it but you don't have it.

 

The one you say is rubber does have clear legs.

This one from Mysterious Universe?  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/03/strange-tales-of-thunderbird-photos/

Edited July 27, 2016 by Merc14

[Carnoferox]

1 hour ago, Merc14 said:

This one from Mysterious Universe?  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/03/strange-tales-of-thunderbird-photos/

It can't be this one; he said it wasn't featured in my article.

[Merc14]

3 minutes ago, Carnoferox said:

It can't be this one; he said it wasn't featured in my article.

Unfortunately I can't see your article here at work but will take a look when I get home.   The above look like it was made of fiberglass and the photo taken in modern times then aged artificially but hard to tell anything due to the poor quality.

Edited July 27, 2016 by Merc14

[Carnoferox]

3 minutes ago, Merc14 said:

Unfortunately I can't see your article here at work but will take a look when I get home.   The above look like it was made of fiberglass and the photo taken in modern times then aged artificially but hard to tell anything from the poor quality.

I don't have any information about the model used, but I do know about the photograph. It is actually an edited version of the 1893 photo of the captured train robber John Sontag, shown lying wounded with the posse that captured him. Some of the men were rearranged, Sontag was covered by the model, and the quality was greatly decreased.

Edited July 27, 2016 by Carnoferox

[Merc14]

14 minutes ago, Carnoferox said:

I don't have any information about the model used, but I do know about the photograph. It is actually an edited version of the 1893 photo of the captured train robber John Sontag, shown lying wounded with the posse that captured him. Some of the men were rearranged, Sontag was covered by the model, and the quality was greatly decreased.

 

Great catch, thanks!

[Dyna]

4 hours ago, Merc14 said:

This one from Mysterious Universe?  http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/03/strange-tales-of-thunderbird-photos/

No there was no buildings in the picture and it was clear sagebrush and sand.