This is the first edition, before the expansions of newer editions.
Live "pterodactyls!" In the United States? Prepare for a shock if you thought they all died millions of years ago. In California, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and many other states, eyewitnesses have been shocked by featherless creatures flying overhead. Many of the apparent living pterosaurs are much larger than any bat; Many have long tails; many have head crests. Where are the news headlines? How did living pterosaurs avoid the media spotlight? Rare and nocturnal, they have always lived here. But something else has hidden them. Enter now the realm of a new branch of cryptozoology, a struggling branch hampered by the dogma of universal extinction. Consider the words of ordinary Americans who fear ridicule but have still come forward with their extraordinary experiences: encounters with apparent living pterosaurs. Nonfiction.
{"itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.25,"ASIN":"1441477039","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":8.95,"ASIN":"1930585241","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":24.4,"ASIN":"1616460105","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"1441477039::NT%2BtUAl1nB1SIiKH7b0Fuh4aXkkwCDjclzVWWeNWec4l3BUX4IoYJoA5DNlBt8cY5Gd5rrdmiz74wsWCgm0D5AUPLvjVTrX3LjiKCI0InWwREQLC0UN5cg%3D%3D,1930585241::69AmrYQrFtCpby6frcql9Q4LcHk9%2Fs4wq1U4gyi2bQy7a9p1BXma03MbVFWlzy1UevESlz4H5c6%2FKaVe1bOvIZ6NhI3wHAY6lNK8RbykP3JAYX7w3uItOw%3D%3D,1616460105::0YgjciKzY8gcFu5WGyZdlRFMRdvN6feiaGDJPL5psjwDemjV%2FCcp8TPFluWwVUpFs8LuGytq2enls8K1%2F5mnZiAkoyHxD%2Brsx0ffl3k14Cyse10%2FtnUe%2FA%3D%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"currenyCode":"USD","shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","yz":"availability","xy":"availability","xyz":"availability"},"tags":["x","y","z"],"strings":{"showDetails":"Show details","differentAvailabilityAll":"Some of these items ship sooner than the others.","addToWishlist":["add to wishlist","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List"],"shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","differentAvailability":"One of these items ships sooner than the other.","preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:"],"hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","hideDetails":"Hide details"}}
The third edition of this book became available in November, 2011
About the Author
As a forensic videographer, Jonathan Whitcomb was an independent interviewer and video specialist for attorney firms. After examining home video footage of natives on a tropical island, he became convinced that they were telling the truth about what they saw: a creature Westerners would label "pterodactyl." The deportment of the natives, while telling about their eyewitness experiences, gave them high credibility, in Whitcomb's view. Whitcomb set aside his work in legal video, traveling to Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea. He returned to the United States but not to his former profession. He became a writer, proclaiming to the world that pterosaurs are still living.
Each person in each of my nonfiction books is real, notwithstanding most eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs are anonymous. I take the side of each individual, believing at least in the possibility that each is telling me the truth about an actual encounter. After an interview, if credibility is sufficient, I often publish the account, usually without the person's name.
I was surprised by that first phone call in 2003; it was from Texas. Paul Nation had been to a remote island in Papua New Guinea twice, searching for a nocturnal flying creature that he and his associates believed to be a giant pterosaur. His account of the testimonies of native eyewitnesses intrigued me. A few days later, after viewing the home videos he had sent me, I was thrilled at those native testimonies. I had no idea that one year later I would be climbing up a jungle trail on that same island and talking with some of those same natives. But it happened: In late 2004, I searched for the same legendary flying creature for which my first book was later named: "Searching for Ropens."
I was one of several American cryptozoologists who explored small portions of the vaste tropical wildernesses of Papua New Guinea, searching for the elusive nocturnal flying creatures. Expeditions from 1994 through 2004 resulted in mostly indirect evidence for living pterosaurs, but Paul Nation's 2006 expedition on the mainland---that made cryptozoological history, for he videotaped the bioluminescent glow that had made the creatures famous amoung natives.
After Paul Nation's return to the United States, I flew from California to Texas and interviewed him in his living room. He gave me a digital copy of his video footage of the two pulsating lights, which video was eventually given to a missile defense physicist for analysis (Cliff Paiva of California). Although Paul's amateur video camera was insufficient for recording any clear form or features of the nocturnal creatures, the lights were shown to be truly mysterious: not from fireflies nor camp fires nor meteors nor car headlights nor airplane lights nor flashlights nor camera artifacts nor any paste-on hoax. Nothing was found by the physicist that would cause any doubt in the hypothesis that the two lights were caused by two large bioluminescent flying creatures.
Even before my 2004 expedition, I began publishing web pages about eyewitness accounts of apparent pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific. Most astonishing was the response to that publicity: For seven years, many emails and phone calls from eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs in the United States of America. Really!
My second nonfiction book on these eyewitness accounts is now in its second edition: "Live Pterosaurs in America." I will continue to speak up for the honor and honesty of the eyewitnesses, for human experience should be valued above the dogma of tradition: the Western indoctrination into universal extinctions of all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
102 pages of decently written information on flying oddities. It draws heavily on his previously published "Searching for Ropens." It fills a gap and was inexpensive.
Had I written this review a few years back, I would have titled it "Silly season creationism" or something to that effect. But sure, I'm still *very* sceptical to Jonathan David Whitcomb's book about - wait for it - sightings of apparent pterosaurs in the United States. Apparent...what exactly?
Creationists (and perhaps a few others) have been searching for living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea, where there are native legends about a luminescent "demon flyer" harassing remote villages at night. Whitcomb and other enthusiasts believe, or want to believe, that there are pterosaurs at large in the United States, as well. The eye-witnesses prefer to be anonymous or pseudonymous due to fear of ridicule. Whitcomb and his fellow researchers (some of whom claim to have seen pterosaurs themselves) have sometimes kept the locations of the purported sightings hidden. This means that scientists can't do much with their material, and other cryptozoologists or investigators of the paranormal might also feel left in the lurch. Whitcomb claims to be able to tell a hoax from the real thing, but he never explains how. To be honest, I don't think he can - I wonder what would happen if a nefarious sceptic would try to prove him wrong by fabricating an observation?
Many of the "pterosaur" observations are probably misidentifications of large herons, bats, kites or pterosaur models. Many have been made at night. Others have a certain occult feel, as when one eye-witness reported a huge pterosaur in the middle of Suburbia, but nobody else noticed! The creatures are biologically impossible. What do they eat? Where do they breed? How come bird-watchers aren't seeing them? Whitcomb believes that the pterosaurs eat nightjars or bats, but shouldn't this affect nightjar or bat behaviour?... I think it's obvious that we are dealing with a modern ghost story (with the usual older antecedents) rather than a flesh-and-blood creature.
In New Guinea, the Demon Flyers (or Ropens) are associated with strange lights in the sky, the lights themselves being something of a mystery. Whitcomb claims that at least in some American localities, this connection exists as well. People see strange, seemingly intelligent lights which on closer inspection reveal the form of a pterosaur. To the author, this means that the creatures are real and emit light (a bit like fireflies). The Papuans say pretty much the same thing. Of course, another explanation would be the exact opposite: the strange lights are the real phenomenon, creating hallucinations of pterosaurs. Or "hallucinations" - see my review of Paul Devereux' "Earth Lights" for more on this.
Overall, I must say that "Live Pterosaurs in America" is a rather badly written book. It's also very short. I'm going to give it three stars only because it seems to be the only book available exclusively dealing with this (far out) subject (the author himself admits, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that he isn't "normal"). Otherwise, I would have given it just two.
I think it's more likely that the U.S. hinterland is haunted by Frigatebirds with mange and a penchant for Venus, than Noah saving a baby pterosaur on the Ark. But then, you never know. Patterson-Gimlin film, anyone?Read more ›
This seems to be the author's second book on the subject, and this one is worth the effort. He has focused on the accounts of witnesses who saw something, and that adds credibility. The writing is easy to read and he adds comments and analysis to make it all more useful. Mostly, the author lets the sightings speak for themselves, which is good. A worthwhile book.
I found this book very interesting. The subject may be a bit strange to some but folks who scoff at what people "SEE" should wait for the research . Some may be a hoax,or misidentified but others have seen "Out of Place" creatures. It is to bad the author has to spend so much writing time defending his research. Why is it not possible for the Ropen to still live? Perhaps they may have evolved to hunt at night and glow to attract pray or mates. 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.
This book is a great book! This book contains a lot of sightings and information on living pterosaurs. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in living pterosaurs.
