book – Live Pterosaurs in America

September 20, 2018

New Cryptozoology Book

just east of Griffith Park in Los Angeles

By living-pterosaur author Jonathan Whitcomb

Upcoming ebook “Live Pterosaurs in America” (fourth edition)

The following quotations are from a preliminary version of this book’s interior. The final publication may differ, at least in a few details. This will be the fourth edition of Live Pterosaurs in America, to be published first in ebook format. (The third edition, only in print format, was published in 2011.)

Chapter 2: Sightings of Pterosaurs in California

Long before getting this report early in 2018, I had concluded that at least some modern pterosaurs in the United States navigate by following stream beds or storm channels. This is more obvious in some of the many reports from Southern California, not that a flying creature always needs to be directly over such a structure on the ground, in order to use it for navigation.

Chapter 4: More-Recent Reports

I can only describe . . . a dragon or flying dinosaur. . . . I saw this large dark colored flying animal. At first I thought it was a vulture. However, I notice that it had pointed wings and a long tail that was skinny and had a pointed shape at the end of it like a triangle or something . . .

The fourth edition of SFRFG mentions this encounter in Raleigh, North Carolina, and says, “The many hundreds of comments on this encounter, some positive but mostly negative, deserve attention, yet not here.” It’s time to dive into some of those details. . . .

The [apparent living pterosaur] seen flying over the I-540 in Raleigh, in March of 2013, appeared to have a wingspan of five to six feet, much smaller than the one in Idaho. It had small things in the middle of the wings that could have been claws, according to the eyewitness, who reported the sighting on a musician’s forum within hours of the encounter. . . .

Let’s now pause to take all this in context. This forum discussion began in March of 2013 (The Gear Page—still online early in June of 2018), when the great majority of Americans had little or no comprehension of any reports of pterosaur sightings in North America. Not until January of 2018, apparently, did newspapers like The News and Observer or the news outlet Charlotte Stories report sightings of apparent “flying dinosaurs” in North Carolina and specifically in Raleigh. That’s when some of the media in that area responded to my press release. In other words, many of those who commented on The Gear Page forum knew little or nothing about pterosaurs except what they had been exposed to all of their lives: universal extinctions.

“Los Angeles River, near location of sighting of May 13, 2013 . . .”

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New cryptozoology book

“I found this book very interesting. . . . The problem with science is that we think we know it all and that is far from reality. This book shows courage to continue the search. If you have an interest in cryptozoology you should read this.” [reader comment from Dale, who lives in Pennsylvania]

Nonfiction cryptozoology book

Searching for Ropens and Finding God – fourth edition

Live Pterosaurs in America (cryptozoology book)

Some of the publications listed are these:

Bird From Hell
Mysteries of the Unexplained
Live Pterosaurs in America
Searching for Ropens and Finding God

Cryptozoology book by Whitcomb

On the verge of the most astonishing discovery in the history of biology . . . “Live Pterosaurs in America”

Modern pterosaurs in North America

Two sightings of Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs in eastern Cuba in the mid-20th century, one by Patty Carson and one by Eskin Kuhn

Living pterosaurs (or pterodactyls) in California

Sightings included in CA:

Fremont
Anaheim

Non-extinct pterosaurs in North Carolina

Where do these flying creatures appear? They have been reported in Raleigh, Durham, Asheville, Wilmington, and in other areas of N.C., as well as in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and in many other states

November 16, 2011

Cryptozoology Book LPA-3 Now Available

The third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America is now available on Amazon, with a suggested retail price (Amazon sometimes reduces their price) of $13.65. Before going into details about how it differs from the second edition, I include a recent Amazon review about the second edition:

I couldn’t put this book down. It is absolutely fascinating to read about eyewitness accounts of the people who have seen these creatures. To learn about these testimonies from such an open minded perspective is refreshing in the extreme! The way that our school systems and scientists alike are indoctrinated is sad. There is so much money out there being used for research, if only they would use it for good. I highly recommend this book to anyone! People should know the truth about what is going on. No one ever hears anything about this unless they conduct extremely specific internet searches, even then, information is minimal. Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books! [from “StrangeDream” – Oct 11, 2011 review on Amazon – rating the book with five stars out of five]

The third edition has a thrilling account from the eyewitness Patty Carson, whom I interviewed earlier this year. I quote part of what is in this new edition:

“I [Patty Carson] was watching Monster Quest . . . it triggered my memory of [my] sighting of the pterodactyl and just out of curiosity, I googled ‘Pterodactyl in Cuba’ and I’ll be . . . if that guy’s drawing didn’t come up on the first page, and the word Guantanamo!!! . . . “I was only a child when I saw it . . . We lived at the end of the road, last house, by the radio tower. [American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1965] . . . Suddenly it sat up, as if it had been eating something or resting. . . . right in front of us about thirty feet away. All of us froze for about five seconds, then it leaned to its left and took off . . . in a big hurry, . . . and flew to its left and disappeared behind trees and terrain.”

What I did not mention in the book is the orientation of the tail vane on the apparent Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur that Patty had seen. She is sure that it was horizontal, meaning it would be visible from below or above but not from the side. I double-checked it, asking her about this below/side perspective, and she verified that is how the tail vane was arranged on the flying creature.

Cryptozoology Book on Barnes & Noble

The details are slower in getting through to Barnes & Noble, but Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition, is now available with that online book dealer.

December 21, 2010December 21, 2010

Flying Creatures in a Cryptozoology Book

“Winged Wonders” is the chapter on flying creatures in Williams Gibbon’s cryptozoology book Missionaries and Monsters, and wonderful indeed are those huge apparent pterosaurs (“pterodactyls” or “flying dinosaurs”) in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. I recommend this cryptozoology book that has a spiritual undertone. It is filled with cryptid-encounter reports from long ago and more recently. Some of the information about reports from Papua New Guinea (about the ropen and the “Duah”), however, is outdated and needs clarification.

On page 78 of Gibbon’s book, we read, “villagers of Gumalong, on the mainland, observed a huge Duah as it flew from Mount Bel, across the jungle valley, then directly over the village as it headed out to sea.” I would like to make some corrections here, even though the sighting mentioned appears to be a true encounter with a giant flying creature (or two sightings which have been confused and fused in their details).

Based on my experiences in the village mentioned, I think a better spelling is “Gomlongon,” based on my memory of how those villagers pronounced it; the word skips off their tongues so easily and quickly that we can easily miss the details and simplify the word. This village is not on the mainland but on Umboi Island, the island called by the people of Papua New Guinea “Siasi.” How do I know that Gibbons is not referring to another village (and another sighting), a village on the mainland? I interviewed many natives in villages within sight of Mount Bel; that mountain is near Gomlongon Village, on Umboi Island. For almost two weeks, my base camp was in the morning shadow of Mount Bel, at the edge of Gomlongon, next to the Baptist Church.

Perhaps this account in “Missionaries and Monsters” comes from confusing two encounters, one of which involved the name “duwas.” I know Gibbons uses the word “Duah,” but I think that comes from another mistake: The correct word is “duwas.” I have written much about that elsewhere, however, so I will leave that subject of “duwas” versus “Duah” aside for now.

Perhaps the sighting mentioned in Missionaries and Monsters (” . . . it flew from Mount Bel . . . it headed out to sea.”) was the one described by this eyewitness (the young woman motioning with her hand), notwithstanding this video seems to have been recorded in Lab Lab (east coast of Umboi Island). If so, that might explain the word “duwas” in the report, for Lab Lab has natives with languages different from that of Gomlongon, where the giant featherless flying creature is called “ropen.”

December 8, 2010April 4, 2011

“Marfa Lights Solved” – Is it a Giant Bird?

I reply to a blog post (Houston Press Blogs) by Richard Connelly: “Marfa Lights Solved!! It’s a Giant Bird!!” His brief remarks of December 7th were surely occasioned by the December 6th press release about my hypothesis on Marfa Lights. I don’t mind the brevity of his post, for it was just ridicule. I commented twice, in detail, on his blog, but more detail seems in order here. (By the way, “Giant Bird” is Connelly’s invention; I never used that expression.)

The first problem, appearing to me to need immediate clarification, relates to a misunderstanding about the basic nature of the true ML (James Bunnell’s designation for “Mystery Lights”) around Marfa, Texas. It seems Mr. Connelly needs to read Bunnell’s book, Hunting Marfa Lights, more than he needs to read my book, Live Pterosaurs in America. I quote part of my comment on Connelly’s blog:

. . . the investigation by the Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas. It’s brief and easy to read. Note that those two nights of observations were done with the assumption that car headlights were the cause of all the appearances of strange lights. Since they assumed “car headlights,” that is where they looked on those two nights: [towards] Highway 67.

Did those students of the University of Texas at Dallas really solve a controversial mystery? I think not. Ask the right question in the beginning, for it can lead us into enlightenment; asking the wrong question (even if answered correctly) can lead us into ignorance. This appears to be a critical error that doomed those students to failure, for they seemed to have formulated a question like, “Can car headlights near Marfa, Texas, appear mysterious?”

What scientist or investigator doubted the possibility of night mirages of car headlights? None of which I am aware. Perhaps the best that can be said of the student experiment is this: It confirmed that visitors passing through the Marfa area, when they stop at the viewing platform, often see distant car headlights on highway 67 and find their appearance mysterious.

Questions about the true ML near Marfa could include, “Is it biological or geological in origin?” The flat assumption of Richard Connelly, that there are no mysterious flying lights near Marfa—that may have come from his avoiding any critical evaluation of that student experiment and his eagerness to ridicule a strange-sounding interpretation.

“Big Bird” may have been avoided, in favor of “Giant Bird,” for the Sesame-Street-sounding name is the title of a nonfiction cryptozoology book about sightings of strange flying creatures (at least some of which are like pterosaurs), especially sightings in the state of Texas. Indeed Big Bird (the book, not the Sesame Street character) competes with my own nonfiction cryptozoology book, Live Pterosaurs in America.

October 13, 2010November 24, 2010

Second Edition of “Live Pterosaurs in America” (Author: Whitcomb) Coming Soon

Within the next few weeks, the second edition of the nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America will be published. This expanded edition will include new reports of sightings, thrilling eyewitness accounts of encounters with living pterosaurs in the United States. Consider excerpts from some of the sightings.

San Fernando Valley, California Pterosaur Sighting

I received an email, in September of 2009, from a man who lives in the San Fernando Valley (northern Los Angeles County). . . . my girlfriend and I saw a creature last night (9/21/2009) that baffled us. It was a very large, winged creature that was gliding maybe 100 yards above us. We stared at the creature in disbelief because it was so strange . . . the wings had a glow or reflection.

Black and Orange Pterosaur in Texas

Aaron Tullock was eight years old (about 1995) when he saw a hovering flying creature . . . Late in a sunny afternoon in Marion County, Texas, he was alone in the yard of his grandparent’s house. “I saw a featherless flying animal with a wingspan of about 4 1/2 to 5 feet and a long tail with a diamond type shape at the tip of it. No hair or feathers anywhere, just leathery reptile type skin. . . . mouth/beak full of long sharp teeth . . . Its color was bright orange with black ‘tiger stripes.’ . . . although the animal was brightly colored, the underside was not brightly colored . . .”

“Pterodactyl” Flies At Night in Ohio

“. . . On June 26, 2010, at 11:15 pm, I was driving on Rt 309 just outside of Kenton, Ohio, perfectly clear night . . . and I had a creature swoop down and glide over my hood of my car. It glided smoothly and looked like a Pterodactyl . . . Because of the full moon of that eve I could see it remarkably clear and it was very close to my car. . . . I just can’t get this out of my mind. I did not know who to contact . . . thank you for your quick response.”

In addition, there is a new chapter about the Marfa Lights of Texas.

The appendix of the book will have several pages on the 1971 pterosaur sighting in Cuba, by Eskin Kuhn (actually he saw two pterosaurs). The proximity to the United States and the similarities with pterosaurs seen in the U.S. made it appropriate to include that sighting in the book.

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May 20, 2010May 20, 2010

Living Pterosaur on Front Page of a Newspaper in Ohio

Something on front page of the Antwerp-Bee Argus newspaper was different, on August 5, 2009. It was the live pterodactyl that made the news.

“A young man was reported to have seen something strange flying over the Maumee River in the summer of 2003.; he described it like a pterosaur, according to a recently-published book, Live Pterosaurs in America. It was reported to be chasing sparrows as it flew over the Route 49 bridge near Antwerp, Ohio.”

It delighted me to see that the editor of the small-town Ohio newspaper had published my article. Many big-city newspapers seem to ignore these kinds of reports, for whatever reasons. I knew of newspaper reports from the 1980’s of giant pterosaurs flying in Texas, but I’ve noticed little else like that in recent years. It seems to be a matter of culture, for Americans live in a news environment that has become unfriendly to anything that seems to contradict standard models of biology.

April 29, 2010February 10, 2011

Pterosaur Sighting in South Carolina

From the nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America (Chapter One: South Carolina Sighting):

Susan Wooten was driving east on Highway 20, to the town of Florence, on a clear mid-afternoon in the fall of about 1989, following a girl who lived in her dorm, who was driving ahead. . . . Wooten saw something flying from her left, then passing in front of her, behind her friend’s car. “It swooped down over the highway and back up gracefully over the pines,” but its appearance was shocking: “It looked as big as any car . . . NO feathers . . . like a humongous bat.”

Local libraries revealed other sighting accounts in the area, but not until 2007 did Wooten find much more: accounts on web sites . . .

Since early 2004, living-pterosaurs investigations have relied on eyewitnesses finding a web page and responding. Have you seen something like a living pterosaur? Do you know someone who saw a “pterodactyl” or “dinosaur bird?” Please contact me, Jonathan Whitcomb. You may remain anonymous; your privacy will be protected.

Read more about bats, ropens, and pterosaurs

This crude sketch relates to the realistic sketch done by Eskin Kuhn of two pterosaurs he saw in Cuba in 1971.

April 7, 2010May 5, 2010

Introduction to “Live Pterosaurs in America”

From the Introduction of Live Pterosaurs in America (published in 2009), first paragraph:

I know that this book might make a few Americans uneasy to walk alone at night; I am sorry for that. But I’m glad to enlighten as many readers as possible to know about live-pterosaur investigations. Those who’ve been shocked at the sight of a flying creature that “should” be extinct—those eyewitnesses, more numerous than most Americans would guess, need no longer be afraid that everyone will think them crazy; and they need no longer feel alone. Those of us who’ve listened to the American eyewitnesses, we who have interviewed them, we now believe. So, if you will, consider the experiences of these ordinary persons (I’ve interviewed most of them myself) and accept whatever enlightenment you may.

Buy this nonfiction cryptozoology book on Amazon. This book is in English; nevertheless, there are many web pages on modern living pterosaurs, and some of them are in languages other than English: French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.