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I had the individual PG Tips cards, only got the album off eBay a couple of years back - it's got some classics in there all right.
 
Do the reports of memories of the thunderbird photo mention if it had feathers or not? Now we know dinosaurs probably had feathers, would it make it less likely to be an authentic memory if nobody had mentioned that detail in the legendary pic?
 
Do the reports of memories of the thunderbird photo mention if it had feathers or not? Now we know dinosaurs probably had feathers, would it make it less likely to be an authentic memory if nobody had mentioned that detail in the legendary pic?

Pterosaurs weren't dinosaurs.
 
But was the thunderbird a pterosaur and did it have feathers in the memories of those who remember it?
I remember the thunderbird photo being 4 or 5 prospector types standing, holding a huge raptor type bird in front of them, ive seen pretty much all of the images proported to be the thunderbird pic, the civil war soldiers, the nailed to a barn, the stork but the one i reember was not a pterosaur or stork, definately a huge bird with feathers.
 
I remember the thunderbird photo being 4 or 5 prospector types standing, holding a huge raptor type bird in front of them, ive seen pretty much all of the images proported to be the thunderbird pic, the civil war soldiers, the nailed to a barn, the stork but the one i reember was not a pterosaur or stork, definately a huge bird with feathers.

Having a look at the mock-ups, it seems you get both feathered and unfeathered varieties mentioned as memories.
 
Having a look at the mock-ups, it seems you get both feathered and unfeathered varieties mentioned as memories.
This sort of thing

3983d1987f4808a61bb5e92021a19dfc.jpg
 
Having a look at the mock-ups, it seems you get both feathered and unfeathered varieties mentioned as memories.
Reasonable since it's all derived from people's imaginations of memories.
There isn't a right answer to the questions of what THE "thunderbird" photo really looked like.
 
I browsed the entire thread earlier.
Many of the posted links are now dead but, to summarise, both the photos of US Civil War soldiers standing around a supposed downed pterosaur (the Freakylinks one and the canoe one) are confirmed hoaxes and something of a red herring.
The legendary "missing" photo that people recall seeing had a large winged creature - possibly feathered, possibly not, stretched out in front of a barn or similar building.
A brief Google, using these criteria, displays a number of photos and a few sketches.
I won't bother posting the drawings, but I assume the following photos have long since been thoroughly debunked?

tb1.JPGtb2.JPGtb4.JPG
tb5.JPG

Isn't it possible that mock-ups like these have been used in cryptozoological publications and credulous readers took them at face value as genuine photos?

Let's face it, finding an extant pterosaur or even an Argentavis magnificens would be utterly fantastic - but it isn't going to happen and these magnificent creatures haven't graced our skies for millions of years.
 

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(Copied from the False Memories thread ... )
I wonder if persistent reading/hearing about something can give rise to a false memory? I had a friend who used to tell the story of the time we went to a nightclub and my tights fell down because the elastic waist gave way. She told it most amusingly - the only problem was that she wasn't there when it happened. She couldn't go with us that night and I was there with another friend (who also verified that first friend wasn't there). But she wouldn't have it and swore blind that she'd been there and seen the whole thing, when really she'd just heard us tell the story many times.

I agree, I've noticed that some of my anecdotes have become the anecdotes of friends and family down the years. I don't think I'm guilty of believing other people's memories are my own but I think I've recounted other people's anecdotes as though I was there when I wasn't. Sometimes it's just easer to do so, rather than explaining that someone else related the story to me and I feel that doing that often robs the story of some of its power. I wonder if people start off like that and eventually end up falsely believing they were "there" as it were.

Reading about the mythical "Thunderbird Photo" over the years has, in the past, almost made me feel like I've seen it, even when I'm certain I haven't. There was a letter to FT years ago about a playground tale of giant one eyed centipede under a primary school, the writer said tat just writing about it made them feel as though they had seen it when they knew that this was absurd, reading the letter gave me a very clear image of said beastie under my old primary school and made me feel the memory was my own... Most people are not as analytical or thoughtful as the posters here and probably end up believing all sorts of things through similar processes.
 
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Reading about the mythical "Thunderbird Photo" over the years has, in the past, almost made me feel like I've seen it, even when I'm certain I haven't.
There is one though, or several. Or have these been worked up as a joke since people started arguing about it?
 
I agree, I've noticed that some of my anecdotes have become the anecdotes of friends and family down the years. I don't think I'm guilty of believing other people's memories are my own but I think I've recounted other people's anecdotes as though I was there when I wasn't. Sometimes it's just easer to do so, rather than explaining that someone else related the story to me and I feel that doing that often robs the story of some of its power. I wonder if people start off like that and eventually end up falsely believing they were "there" as it were.

Reading about the mythical "Thunderbird Photo" over the years has, in the past, almost made me feel like I've seen it, even when I'm certain I haven't. There was a letter to FT years ago about a playground tale of giant one eyed centipede under a primary school, the writer said tat just writing about it made them feel as though they had seen it when they knew that this was absurd, reading the letter gave me a very clear image of said beastie under my old primary school and made me feel the memory was my own... Most people are not as analytical or thoughtful as the posters here and probably end up believing all sorts of things through similar processes.
I'm certain I've seen it. But is what I've seen a fake?

There is this one (from Reddit) which appears to be in a book.

https://i.redd.it/9fh6oy3l4uz61.jpg

It's not the original, it's a conjectural reconstruction.

But anyways the one I remember had the bird spread out before a hut or similar to a hut with people standing in front.
 
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I'm certain I've seen it. But is what I've seen a fake?

There is this one (from Reddit) which appears to be in a book.

https://i.redd.it/9fh6oy3l4uz61.jpg

It's not the original, it's a conjectural reconstruction.

But anyways the one I remember had the bird spread out before a hut or similar of a hut with people standing in front.
I've seen several versions and assumed they were all fake. :wink2:
 
I'm certain I've seen it. But is what I've seen a fake?

There is this one (from Reddit) which appears to be in a book.

https://i.redd.it/9fh6oy3l4uz61.jpg

It's not the original, it's a conjectural reconstruction.

But anyways the one I remember had the bird spread out before a hut or similar to a hut with people standing in front.

Where did you see it, any idea? How big was the animal? Bird or something else? How many people?
 
There is one though, or several. Or have these been worked up as a joke since people started arguing about it?

I suspect it's a Fortean myth, maybe there was something to get the ball rolling as it were but I suspect whatever it was was either a fake or an illustration that people have remembered as a photo. Or maybe it's just a very persistent, sticky bit of folklore, it's a lovely idea/story.

Cochise is the first person I've come across who says they've seen it.
 
I've seen several versions and assumed they were all fake. :wink2:
I certainly think all the ones that have some sort of pterodactyl are fake. The one I remember, though, had what looked like an Eagle with about a 12 foot wingspan.
 
I certainly think all the ones that have some sort of pterodactyl are fake. The one I remember, though, had what looked like an Eagle with about a 12 foot wingspan.

Twelve feet isn't that big is it? I mean it's big for an eagle, though apparently the Andean Condor can get to 11ft, could it have been an errant one of those?
 
I'm positive that I saw it years ago. I'm wondering if it was in a Man Myth and Magic magazine.
 
[Re: The Thunderbird Photo]

I saw it too. In fact, I've been collecting every photo I've seen that proclaims to be "it", and none of them look like what I remembered.

Can you describe your recollection of it?
 
Can you describe your recollection of it?

As I recall, it was a huge bird (not a pterosaur). It was I think hung on the side of a barn with a bunch of people posing in front of it. The image (IIRC) was sepia-toned or black & white.
 
As I recall, it was a huge bird (not a pterosaur). It was I think hung on the side of a barn with a bunch of people posing in front of it. The image (IIRC) was sepia-toned or black & white.
This?
Moth616.PNG.png
 
I browsed the entire thread earlier.
Many of the posted links are now dead but, to summarise, both the photos of US Civil War soldiers standing around a supposed downed pterosaur (the Freakylinks one and the canoe one) are confirmed hoaxes and something of a red herring.
The legendary "missing" photo that people recall seeing had a large winged creature - possibly feathered, possibly not, stretched out in front of a barn or similar building.
A brief Google, using these criteria, displays a number of photos and a few sketches.
I won't bother posting the drawings, but I assume the following photos have long since been thoroughly debunked?

View attachment 35895View attachment 35896View attachment 35901
View attachment 35899

Isn't it possible that mock-ups like these have been used in cryptozoological publications and credulous readers took them at face value as genuine photos?

Let's face it, finding an extant pterosaur or even an Argentavis magnificens would be utterly fantastic - but it isn't going to happen and these magnificent creatures haven't graced our skies for millions of years.

Or any of the 5 above that I posted back in February?
 
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