BY PHILIP J. SENTER
PTEROSAURS BECAME EXTINCT OVER 60 MILLION YEARS ago. Nevertheless, anti-evolution authors often suggest that the Thunderbird traditions of Native American peoples are based on human encounters with living pterosaurs.1 Those suggestions are part of an attempt to dispute the separation of humans and pterosaurs so as to cast doubt on the passage of tens of millions of years, which in turn, is meant to cast doubt on the evolution of all organisms from a common ancestor. It’s a standard creationist tactic.
The anti-evolution Thunderbird effort began with a very detailed story that was narrated in the film The Great Dinosaur Mystery, hereafter called the Taylor film after its writer and director, Paul S. Taylor.