Live Pterosaurs in America: Sightings of Apparent Pterosaurs in the United States [Paperback]

Jonathan David Whitcomb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2009

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.

The third edition is now available.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace; 1st edition (July 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441477039
• ISBN-13: 978-1441477033
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #744,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look to the Skies, November 26, 2010

By 

Red Rabbit (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Live Pterosaurs in America: Sightings of Apparent Pterosaurs in the United States (Paperback)

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.

13 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author's Comments, July 30, 2009

By 

jdw (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live Pterosaurs in America: Sightings of Apparent Pterosaurs in the United States (Paperback)

I wrote this, not to simply expand on "Searching for Ropens" (living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea), to explain why the news media has only rarely reported eyewitness accounts of similar creatures in the United States. It vindicates those who have reported pterosaur-like animals in Washington State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and other states. It explains why eyewitnesses are hesitant to talk about their experiences and why news professionals are hesitant to report them.

But, unlike "Searching for Ropens," "Live Pterosaurs in America" is a pure cryptozoology book, leaving the evolution-creation controversy to mostly only a part of the appendix. Only a reader who is both sensitive to controversy and opposed to Biblical creation might take limited offense at this limited part of LPA.

"Big Bird," the 2007 nonfiction by my associate Ken Gerhard, only began to introduce reports of strange giant flying creatures in America. My book specifically examines sightings of feather-less creatures and digs deeply into the similarities and differences in the reports. It contains eyewitness quotations and examines the possibilities and probabilities of interpretation. The great majority of the accounts in LPA are previously unpublished.

The eyewitness stories are extraordinary, but only the reasonably credible accounts are included. I chose the ones that would most likely inform readers; shock was not my purpose. Nevertheless, shock my be the result for those who have never before considered the possibility that pterosaurs, rare-and-mostly-nocturnal or not, may live among us. This is nonfiction.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Live Pterosaurs in America, September 11, 2009

By 

Dale S. Reeder "Dale Reeder" (Lehighton, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Live Pterosaurs in America: Sightings of Apparent Pterosaurs in the United States (Paperback)

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.