Of course “pterodactyl” is not the word; “pterosaur” is what people actually mean. But those featherless flying creatures, differing from bats completely (only resembling them as flyers without feathers), and portrayed as ancient extinct flying creatures—those pterosaurs are appearing to human residents of Ohio; they have been appearing in Ohio for years.

Long-tailed pterosaur of Antwerp

The Antwerp Bee-Argus newspaper carried a front-page report of an apparent pterosaur sighting.

“He described it like a pterosaur, according to a recently-published book, Live Pterosaurs in America.” The creature was reported “chasing sparrows as it flew over the Route 49 bridge [Maumee River] near Antwerp, Ohio.” The author found credibility in the testimony.

Maumee River; photo by Andrew Whitis

 Minister sees pterosaur in Mount Vernon, Ohio

I happened to notice a creature in the sky. . . . to my estimation it appeared to have no feathers. It was a leathery grayish color. . . . [very unusual] was the tail: longer than most bird tails . . .  with a diamond shaped point at the end. . . . I have been careful not to tell many people.

Perhaps potential pterosaur food in a park in Mount Vernon, Ohio (photograph by J L Linko)

Darren Naish may be a respected paleozoologist (a type of paleontologist), but he is not known in the cryptozoology community as a cryptozoologist, for he is just not a crytozoologist. He has, however, written a long page criticizing the concept of modern living pterosaurs. Here is a summary of one response to a criticism in a comment on that page:

Indeed we have many birdwatchers in the United States; I presume South Carolina is no exception. Watching birds is a popular hobby, but what is entailed? Well . . . watching birds and reporting those birds. So what does that tell us about a potential sighting of a giant Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur? Well . . . nothing.

What would I do, if I were a birdwatcher who saw a giant long-tailed pterosaur? I would certainly not bother trying to look up “pterodactyl” on my report form. But what would a typical birdwatcher do? Cameron seems to have missed something important here, for birdwatchers, every one of them, are quite human. Think about it. Who wants to be called “crazy?”

All species of pterosaur need not be extinct simply because no birdwatchers have successfully publicized their observations of giant living pterosaurs. That is the essence, perhaps, of this web page supporting live-pterodactyl research.

According to nonfiction author Jonathan Whitcomb, “at least 1400″ Americans have seen an obvious living pterosaur in the United States within the past three decades. One cryptozooology forum-blog has challenged that crude calculation, but what would be a better estimate? How can anyone estimate what is not reported?

We know, from what eyewitnesses have told us, that some people just will not come forward and admit that they have seen an obvious pterosaur. The Chasepeake Bay area sighting is one example: several men saw the creature in daylight, but only one of them wanted to talk about it. This is part of Western culture, for it is considered crazy to report seeing something like a “live pterodactyl.” Considering the many eyewitnesses who have come forward, it seems that there must have been at least hundreds of eyewitnesses within the past three decades.

The point is, we can no longer accept the old criticism: “If pterosaurs were still alive, we would have seen them.” That circular reasoning, to dismiss sightings, becomes more obviously invalid now that we have begun to consider how many eyewitnesses there really are.

[The third edition of LPA was published November 2, 2011] From California to Maine, from Washington state to Florida, apparent living pterosaurs appear to be able to hide in any or all of the 48 connected states of the United States. But they sometimes fail to remain hidden, resulting in many sightings. Live Pterosaurs in America, a cryptozoology book in the true genre of cryptozoology, dives into the eyewitness sightings that have catapulted this cryptid into public view.

To quote from Chapter Two (sighting by Scott Norman):

“The animal I saw had an 8-10 foot wingspan; the wings were bat-like in shape, the inside had that wavy type of look. The body was about 5-6 feet in length, the neck about 1-2 feet in length, the head was about four feet in length, and the head was key . . . it has a crest that was about 2 feet in length, fit that of a pteranodon . . .” (Others verified Scott’s report.)

Buy the nonfiction cryptozoology book on Amazon; it should be available by about Nov 10, 2011. [update: It was published on November 2, 2011, now available on Amazon]

Read the title page of Live Pterosaurs in America.

“ On September 4, 2009 . . . just as it was getting dark, but it was a bright full moon also, my bro in law pointed behind me and said ‘What the hell is that?’ and I turned around and saw the largest flying creature I’ve ever seen. It was heading straight towards us. I wish I’d had a video camera. It flew straight over us and off into the horizon. It must have had a 20 foot wingspan. It was gigantic. It flew about 50 feet over our heads.” So stated the man who reported what he called a “pterodactyl.”

But these two men were not the only eyewitnesses of strange flying creatures near the Cooney Reservoir in southeast Montana, in early September, 2009. The same eyewitness that gave the above account also said, “I told the fish and wildlife service lady who was working there what I saw and her eyes popped open and she said she’d seen several very large birds that she’d never seen before in the area the day before.”

Canine-cryptid and mysterious things in Montana