Controversial scientific finding:

“Research on a 19th Century Photograph of an Apparent Pterosaur” Salt Lake City-Murray, UT (sfrfg press release) May 10, 2017 Two American scientists have declared that a photograph, that was previously assumed a hoax made through Photoshop, was not created through any digital image-manipulation trickery. On May 6, 2017, Clifford Paiva, director of BSM Research Associates in California, announced his discovery of an apparently previously unknown detail in the photo that is called Ptp. While magnifying part of the image under the head of the animal, looking for possible evidence for its legs or feet, he discovered a pile of small tree branches or small logs that supported the head. He phoned his associate, Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer in Utah, who had been working with him in analyzing the photo. They agreed that the pile of props under the head was evidence finalizing the disproof of the Photoshop conjecture. The two American scientists acknowledge the controversy in the idea that the head of the animal might be that of a large pterosaur, but they maintain it is a real object: That apparent “pterodactyl” head was not created in a computer and then digitally pasted onto a photograph of Civil War soldiers. A photographer, or the men shown in the photo, had propped up that apparent Pteranodon head so that it could be better photographed in that clearing. Earlier in 2017, Whitcomb had magnified the images of buttons and belt buckles on the soldiers and measured their pixel widths. He found that the soldier standing in front of the animal appears closer not just from a human imaging trickery of the mind, but the man was actually standing closer to the camera. The buttons and belt buckles are actually slightly wider for that soldier, verifying the apparent placement relationships of the men. This makes it likely that those six men were actually photographed together rather than having their images pasted onto a background. Whitcomb gives this as additional evidence that no hoax was involved. On February 16, 2007, ten years before the investigations by Paiva and Whitcomb, Loren Coleman, “one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists,” put the photograph on one of his online pages, declaring that it originated from “photoshopping.” Yet he gave no evidence, at least on that page, to support the Photoshop idea. On the site skeptic.com, the paleontologist Dr. Dave Martill, a well-known expert on pterosaur fossils, perhaps the world’s leading expert, also referred to the Ptp photograph, saying, “it is very similar to a faked photo from the canceled television show FreakyLinks.” Yet he gave no evidence, at least on that page, that this particular photo (Ptp) was a fake. In April of 2017, Whitcomb published a nonfiction book on the photograph: Modern Pterosaurs. The following is from page 71: I got an email from a Tom Payne, early in 2017, and he told me he remembers this photo from a book he saw when he was in his twenties, which would put his encounter, with the photo, in the 1970's. Here's part of what he told me:  “Check out the uniforms! The guy on the right is a lefty, and he has a left handed holster. . . . I have a degree in Computer Science. I can tell you that technology [Photoshop] wasn't available to modify a photo like this before about 1980. . . . I've always been convinced that this is an authentic photo. . . . Thanks.” ###
News Releases
Photo of an apparent Pteranodon
Clifford Paiva, a physicist in central California
Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer
Contact Information
Jonathan David Whitcomb 5347 South New Hampton Dr Murray, Utah 84123 801-590-9692               About Whitcomb Contact online             Whitcomb’s blog Youtube video introduction    Press room Nonfiction book: Modern Pterosaurs
The photograph called “Ptp”
Paiva’s imaging work and his discovery of a pile of support props under the head (The image is reversed horizontally to prevent mental fatigue in the person who examines it)
“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” Albert Einstein
Nonfiction Modern Pterosaurs
Copyright 2017 Jonathan David Whitcomb

Controversial scientific finding:

“Research on a 19th Century Photograph of an Apparent Pterosaur” Salt Lake City-Murray, UT (sfrfg press release) May 10, 2017 Two American scientists have declared that a photograph, that was previously assumed a hoax made through Photoshop, was not created through any digital image-manipulation trickery. On May 6, 2017, Clifford Paiva, director of BSM Research Associates in California, announced his discovery of an apparently previously unknown detail in the photo that is called Ptp. While magnifying part of the image under the head of the animal, looking for possible evidence for its legs or feet, he discovered a pile of small tree branches or small logs that supported the head. He phoned his associate, Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer in Utah, who had been working with him in analyzing the photo. They agreed that the pile of props under the head was evidence finalizing the disproof of the Photoshop conjecture. The two American scientists acknowledge the controversy in the idea that the head of the animal might be that of a large pterosaur, but they maintain it is a real object: That apparent “pterodactyl” head was not created in a computer and then digitally pasted onto a photograph of Civil War soldiers. A photographer, or the men shown in the photo, had propped up that apparent Pteranodon head so that it could be better photographed in that clearing. Earlier in 2017, Whitcomb had magnified the images of buttons and belt buckles on the soldiers and measured their pixel widths. He found that the soldier standing in front of the animal appears closer not just from a human imaging trickery of the mind, but the man was actually standing closer to the camera. The buttons and belt buckles are actually slightly wider for that soldier, verifying the apparent placement relationships of the men. This makes it likely that those six men were actually photographed together rather than having their images pasted onto a background. Whitcomb gives this as additional evidence that no hoax was involved. On February 16, 2007, ten years before the investigations by Paiva and Whitcomb, Loren Coleman, “one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists,” put the photograph on one of his online pages, declaring that it originated from “photoshopping.” Yet he gave no evidence, at least on that page, to support the Photoshop idea. On the site skeptic.com, the paleontologist Dr. Dave Martill, a well-known expert on pterosaur fossils, perhaps the world’s leading expert, also referred to the Ptp photograph, saying, “it is very similar to a faked photo from the canceled television show FreakyLinks.” Yet he gave no evidence, at least on that page, that this particular photo (Ptp) was a fake. In April of 2017, Whitcomb published a nonfiction book on the photograph: Modern Pterosaurs. The following is from page 71: I got an email from a Tom Payne, early in 2017, and he told me he remembers this photo from a book he saw when he was in his twenties, which would put his encounter, with the photo, in the 1970's. Here's part of what he told me:  “Check out the uniforms! The guy on the right is a lefty, and he has a left handed holster. . . . I have a degree in Computer Science. I can tell you that technology [Photoshop] wasn't available to modify a photo like this before about 1980. . . . I've always been convinced that this is an authentic photo. . . . Thanks.” ###
“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” Albert Einstein
News Releases
Photo of an apparent Pteranodon
Clifford Paiva, a physicist in central California
Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer
Contact Information
Jonathan David Whitcomb 5347 South New Hampton Dr Murray, Utah 84123 801-590-9692               About Whitcomb Contact online             Whitcomb’s blog Youtube video introduction    Press room Nonfiction book: Modern Pterosaurs
The photograph called “Ptp”
Paiva’s imaging work and his discovery of a pile of support props under the head (The image is reversed horizontally to prevent mental fatigue in the person who examines it)
Nonfiction Modern Pterosaurs
Copyright 2017 Jonathan David Whitcomb

Controversial

scientific finding:

“Research on a 19th Century Photograph of an Apparent Pterosaur” Salt Lake City-Murray, UT (sfrfg press release) May 10, 2017 Two American scientists have declared that a photograph, that was previously assumed a hoax made through Photoshop, was not created through any digital image-manipulation trickery. On May 6, 2017, Clifford Paiva, director of BSM Research Associates in California, announced his discovery of an apparently previously unknown detail in the photo that is called Ptp. While magnifying part of the image under the head of the animal, looking for possible evidence for its legs or feet, he discovered a pile of small tree branches or small logs that supported the head. He phoned his associate, Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer in Utah, who had been working with him in analyzing the photo. They agreed that the pile of props under the head was evidence finalizing the disproof of the Photoshop conjecture. The two American scientists acknowledge the controversy in the idea that the head of the animal might be that of a large pterosaur, but they maintain it is a real object: That apparent “pterodactyl” head was not created in a computer and then digitally pasted onto a photograph of Civil War soldiers. A photographer, or the men shown in the photo, had propped up that apparent Pteranodon head so that it could be better photographed in that clearing. Earlier in 2017, Whitcomb had magnified the images of buttons and belt buckles on the soldiers and measured their pixel widths. He found that the soldier standing in front of the animal appears closer not just from a human imaging trickery of the mind, but the man was actually standing closer to the camera. The buttons and belt buckles are actually slightly wider for that soldier, verifying the apparent placement relationships of the men. This makes it likely that those six men were actually photographed together rather than having their images pasted onto a background. Whitcomb gives this as additional evidence that no hoax was involved. On February 16, 2007, ten years before the investigations by Paiva and Whitcomb, Loren Coleman, “one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists,” put the photograph on one of his online pages, declaring that it originated from “photoshopping.” Yet he gave no evidence, at least on that page, to support the Photoshop idea. On the site skeptic.com, the paleontologist Dr. Dave Martill, a well-known expert on pterosaur fossils, perhaps the world’s leading expert, also referred to the Ptp photograph, saying, “it is very similar to a faked photo from the canceled television show FreakyLinks.” Yet he gave no evidence, at least on that page, that this particular photo (Ptp) was a fake. In April of 2017, Whitcomb published a nonfiction book on the photograph: Modern Pterosaurs. The following is from page 71: I got an email from a Tom Payne, early in 2017, and he told me he remembers this photo from a book he saw when he was in his twenties, which would put his encounter, with the photo, in the 1970's. Here's part of what he told me:  “Check out the uniforms! The guy on the right is a lefty, and he has a left handed holster. . . . I have a degree in Computer Science. I can tell you that technology [Photoshop] wasn't available to modify a photo like this before about 1980. . . . I've always been convinced that this is an authentic photo. . . . Thanks.” ###
“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” Albert Einstein
News Releases
Photo of an apparent Pteranodon
Clifford Paiva, a physicist in central California
Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer
Contact Information
Jonathan David Whitcomb 5347 South New Hampton Dr Murray, Utah 84123 801-590-9692               About Whitcomb Contact online             Whitcomb’s blog Youtube video introduction    Press room Nonfiction book: Modern Pterosaurs
The photograph called “Ptp”
Paiva’s imaging work and his discovery of a pile of support props under the head (The image is reversed horizontally to prevent mental fatigue in the person who examines it)
Nonfiction Modern Pterosaurs
Copyright 2017 Jonathan David Whitcomb