A British blogger, Chris Jensen Romer, after reading Whitcomb’s nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America, wrote:
And ultimately, I am afraid I still doubt it is true. However, I am more open to Pterosaurs in other parts of the world than I was before, and I am much more open to the possibility of live Pterosaurs. I actually find it hard to type those those three words together “possibility” + “live” + “pterosaurs”, so strong is my ingrained prejudice against the case. After all, during my dinosaur phase (aged 5-10 roughly) the one thing I knew absolutely was that they were all extinct.
This is the “normal” perspective in developed countries like the USA, where dinosaur extinction and pterosaur extinction is taught as if scientific fact. But as readers, and in this case a blog writer, become exposed to the idea of non-extinction of pterosaurs, some of them start to consider that possibility, even though it runs counter to their cultural beliefs.
But when we look at some of the eyewitness reports from the United States, we sometimes read that the eyewitnesses themselves have great difficulty believing that they saw what they saw. Some people even come to doubt their sanity, and not for any reason except that they saw something that they had been taught is impossible to see.
Weird Appearance of Live Pterosaurs
Whitcomb’s eyewitnesses don’t really convince me greatly, though they are at the heart of his case.
Actually, the book in question was not written mainly to convince skeptics that pterosaurs are still alive. It was written for the eyewitnesses themselves, so that they would know the big picture and not doubt their own sanity, although there were doubtless other purposes in its writing and publication.
Would you like to read a non-fiction cryptozoology book about modern “pterodactyls” in North America? You now have three choices, at least, and they are not at all similar in style or sighting locations or anything else, except in emphasizing the possibility of modern pterosaurs living in North America.
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Nonfiction book on modern living pterodactyls: “Live Pterosaurs in America,” third edition
The Alchemist
No doubt one of the best-selling novels from the late twentieth-century to the present, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, has been purchased in the millions of copies worldwide. But Wikipedia had published a serious mistake, prior to January 18, 2012, giving it credit for 65 million copies sold, instead of the 21 million declared on the author’s own site.
How does that relate to the concept of modern living pterodactyls? Wikipedia also has declared that all pterosaurs became extinct by 65 million years ago, a declaration flatly contradicted by countless eyewitnesses worldwide. Let’s set aside the fiction of The Alchemist for a moment and look at another book, a non-fiction cryptozoology book: Live Pterosaurs in America.
From the title page of the third edition of this cryptozoology book:
“Reports of huge flying “pterodactyls” in American skies have floated around the internet for years; but before about 2005, details were scarce. When an eyewitness was named, the interviewer was often anonymous; even when an eyewitness was credible, and the account published in a newspaper, the story was ridiculed, discouraging others who had also seen strange flying creatures. Where could eyewitnesses go? What a predicament for them! Who would believe their reports?
From page 13 of the book:
“The greatest danger facing innovators, rebels, and those who search for living pterosaurs—that’s a newspaper. National newspapers ignored the success of the Wright brothers (their December, 1903, successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina). News reporters and editors, many of them, assumed that the controlled powered-flight of two bicycle mechanics was a lie, that it never happened. Even as late as 1908, many newspaper professionals thought the Wright brothers ‘better liars than flyers.’ . . .
“But flying dragons! In modern California? Without news headlines? It’s easier to believe in flying bicycle mechanics.”
Learn From The Alchemist
(From the Amazon page of the English paperback)
The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys . . . across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.
The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.
As we continue to follow our dream of the scientific discovery of a species of living pterosaur, let us remember the long journey of Santiago in The Alchemist. We need patience, however long the journey.
A considerable portion of pterosaur sightings occur while driving. One of the older online reports involves a couple driving through the Trinity National Forest in the 1960′s. Another report involves two drivers in San Antonio, Texas, early in 1976. Another involves an ambulance driver in Los Fresnos, Texas, in 1982. In those reports, details are sparse, with no reference for interviewers, whether cryptozoologist or news reporter.
The second edition of this cryptozoology book gives many sighting reports of eyewitnesses who were driving.
I interviewed a young man who reported a long-tailed flying creature 117 miles to the northeast, on a hot summer day in Antwerp, Ohio. . . . “It was huge. . . . About 4.5 ft tall, 10 ft from head to end of tail. Long skinny tail with a spade about 3-4 [inches] from end of tail. It had a wing span of I would say 8-10 ft. Dark green skin sort of like an alligator. It had round long pointed teeth, jutting out in every direction and [its] snout was long and skinny . . . I was driving across a bridge out to my friend’s house, when the damn thing nearly ran into the side of my car. They fly so incredibly graceful. So much more than any kind of bird. Well anyway, it effortlessly flew over my car and that is when I stopped (in fear of having it hit my side window) and got out of my car to see it fly over the other side of the bridge.”
Coping With a Live Pterodactyl While Driving
Two weeks ago, Americans (at least a few Americans) observed Drive Safely Work Week; this week, it’s National Teen Driver Safety Week. I doubt we will ever have Drive Safely While Witnessing a Live Pterodactyl Week. But in the United States, driving may be the most common activity when someone sees an apparent living pterosaur (probably because most Americans are usually indoors when they’re not in an automobile). Within a period of about three years, I received reports of at least ten sightings in seven states: South Carolina, California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, Ohio (3), Georgia (2). With sighting dates from about 1980 to 2007, one involved driving a tractor, the rest involved driving a car.
The July 20, 2006, press release “Pterosaur-Like Creatures in Papua New Guinea” was revised, in April of 2011, with some additions, including new contact information for Jonathan Whitcomb.
According to popular standard models of science, all species of pterosaurs became extinct by about 65-million years ago, notwithstanding traditional interpretations of the Bible suggest that they lived in human times. According to Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer who interviewed native islanders in 2004, the “ropen” of Umboi Island is at least similar to a long-tailed pterosaur.
. . . American creationists explored the island intermittently from 1994 through 2002, searching for the ropen. Whitcomb believes that they were not overly imaginative in believing the creature to be a pterosaur . . .
The puzzle for some investigators, perhaps even some of the creationists, is that the ropen is unlike Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur fossils in some ways: A few of the nocturnal flying creatures are larger than fossils of long-tailed pterosaurs and at least one report suggests dorsal ridges along the back. In addition, some eyewitnesses report a head crest on the ropen while few long-tailed pterosaur fossils have such appendages.
Although Whitcomb admits that nobody has yet come up with a clear photograph to disprove textbook declarations that all pterosaurs are extinct, he disputes the suggestion that the ropen is an unknown bat . . .
Race to Discover A Pterosaur and Racial Bias That Holds us Back
The title page of the new cryptozoology book Searching for Dragons has been released, even though the book itself is months away from publication, maybe even half a year. Part of that title page refers to Western bias regarding dark-skinned natives who are regarded as ignorant.
“With the election of an African American president of the United States of America, who could dispute the decline of racial prejudice in Western society? Yet one remnant of that bigotry has continued to haunt us, preventing many Westerners from learning from dark- skinned natives in remote countries . . .
“. . . These pages extol discoveries by a few light-skinned Americans whose belief in the Bible led them to interview eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs, especially the discovery of high credibility in testimonies of eyewitnesses, many of whom are dark-skinned natives in a remote country.
“Believe what you will about Darwin’s writings on the common descent of all life on earth. But these pages extol the credibility of natives whom Darwin would have thought less evolved than himself, natives some Westerners consider superstitious and unworthy of belief when their testimonies appear to contradict the extinction assumptions that support Darwin’s ideas. Believe what you will about Darwin, but most native and Western eyewitnesses that we have interviewed have been found credible.”
Searching for Dragons will be the third edition of what was formerly titled “Searching for Ropens.” The new edition will have less emphasis on religion, if any, according to reports. That may be welcome news to those who were offended at what they considered was repeated religious preaching in the earlier editions of the book.
Pterosaurs in Pennsylvania
We now have two sighting reports of a pterosaur (or pterosaurs) in Pennsylvania, regardless of loud proclamations of extinction of all their species, proclamations without scientific proof, proclamations based on tradition and indoctrination.
I observed it for about two minutes as it flew towards us . . . roughly 200 to 300 feet in the air. . . . Being that far up the “bird’s” body still appeared to be much larger than my 100 pound dog (wider and longer). . . . The wingspan appeared to be at least six feet and although it was a bit away from us you could clearly make out a long “horn” or “cone” type protrusion coming out of the back of its skull, which was at the end of an elongated neck.
As it was almost directly over us we all agreed we couldn’t see feathers anywhere and my student Carrie said, “It looks like pterodactyl.” . . . It flew over top us and landed in the water behind the school. . . . We could here it splashing around, and Carrie ran around the building to see it. There are always ducks in that water as well as rats and other things. When she came back in like three minutes she said it had taken off, Carrie said it was in the water splashing and eating or grabbing something in its mouth.
From the second edition of the nonfiction cryptozoology book, page 55:
I live in Philly. [My friend] was dropping me off . . . about six blocks away . . . we saw something that made our jaws drop. . . . This thing didn’t seem to fly quickly. [Its] wingspan was huge. We’d figured at least 20 feet or so. It wasn’t flapping real hard like a sparrow or pigeon does. It almost seemed to sail. It came from the South, and appeared to be heading west [towards the Delaware River]. . . . It had an anvil shaped head and somewhat of a long neck.
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Live Pterosaurs in America (second edition)
This nonfiction cryptozoology book will enlighten you about the living “pterodactyls” that sometimes are seen to fly at night. One chapter is devoted to the Marfa Lights of Texas, but many of the 48 contiguous states of the U.S.A. are included: California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kansas, etc. Find out for yourself about the sighting by Eskin Kuhn, the U.S. Marine who witnessed those two pterosaurs in Cuba, in 1971.