A recent post on this blog, (“Strange Flying Creature – Bioluminescence in Pennsylvania . . .”) received a critical comment that deserves attention in more detail than I feel is appropriate through my own reply-comments on that post. The comment was by S. Hill.

“An investigation of what she may have seen should come first”

It seems that Hill thinks that I should have evaluated non-pterosaur explanations before publishing this brief report on a blog post. I suspect that Hill may not be familiar with this blog and its purposes, or was simply trying to discredit this account. Most critics I have encountered during the past eight years have actually tried to discredit the general idea that modern pterosaurs still fly, that they are not extinct; I will not get into that here, for Hill does not explicitly state that. This appears a good time for explaining some of the purposes of this blog.

Some eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs may never send me an email or give me a phone call. I can understand that. But some of them may be comforted in reading about other eyewitness accounts, for it eases their minds: They are not crazy for seeing something that Western indoctrination proclaims cannot exist. I feel that is a worthy purpose. But there is more.

Eyewitnesses who have sent me an email or given me a phone call usually had read something online, often something I had written about reports of apparent live pterosaurs; in other words, publishing reports of living pterosaurs results in more eyewitnesses coming forward. I suspect that some of the eyewitnesses might never report their sightings to any cryptozoologist if they had not learned of someone (me) who specializes in listening and taking such reports seriously. Part of the purpose of this Live Pterosaur blog is to encourage more eyewitnesses to come forward.

What if another eyewitness in Pennsylvania has had a close encounter with a ropen-like flying creature: a glowing pterosaur? How could that person find the courage to report such a weird experience? The December 15, 2011, post “Strange Flying Creature” (mentioned above) gives few details, mostly because the eyewitness has not yet given me much more than that. But what an impact it could make on another eyewitness! This short report, imperfect as it is, might result in a much more detailed sighting account, a report that will be much more useful, for it could give another eyewitness the courage to come forward.

“To assume that it is a ropen or pterosaur is ridiculous”

The glowing pterosaur or bioluminescent ropen is not necessarily the only explanation for the Pennsylvania sighting, of course. But Hill needs to understand that the eyewitness gave her sighting report to me because she thinks it could have been a ropen. Nothing in that blog post suggests that it must have been a bioluminescent pterosaur; in fact, I mentioned, “it is sufficient to consider that it was a possible American ropen.”

We need to keep in mind that the eyewitness said, “I have found that a pterosaur is identical to what we saw.” That deserves some consideration, at least, unless and until a better explanation is found for her experience.

We also need to keep in mind the subtitle of this blog: “Investigating Reports of Living Pterosaurs.” The point is the continuing nature of the investigation of each sighting report. Although some reports have many sighting-details given, and may have been analyzed in detail, I do not wait for all that before writing a post about a sighting. The key is “investigating,” not “investigated.”

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Press Room for News Releases on Live Pterosaurs

Pterodactyl Reported in Papua New Guinea

Glowing Creatures Videotaped in Papua New Guinea

Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the U.S.A. not Hoaxes

Unmasking a Flying Predator in Texas

etc

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“How are sightings in the United States related to those in the southwest Pacific? How do some apparent nocturnal pterosaurs pertain to bats, and how are bats irrelevant? How could modern living pterosaurs have escaped scientific notice? These mysteries have slept in the dark, beyond the knowledge of almost all Americans, even beyond our wildest dreams (although the reality of some pterosaurs is a living nightmare to some bats). These mysteries have slept . . . until now.”

Purchase your own copy of this amazing nonfiction cryptozoology book, on Amazon or from select book-sellers. Don’t forget: the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America.

The third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America is now available on Amazon. A sighting in Cuba deserves quoting:

In early October, Carson downloaded an image processing program and finished the sketch herself, perfecting the eye and giving the head three-dimensional shadowing. When I received the email attachment, her sketch stunned me: What an improvement! She was also delighted at the final product and told me, “THAT is the eye I saw looking at me!”

The end of the head crest shows a flattening that she explained to me in words, one of the words being “spoon.” To properly appreciate the top of the head crest in the sketch, we need to think of the head being at least slightly turned toward us, rather than in strict profile.

From a page regarding a sighting in South Carolina:

After months of email interviews, I became convinced that Susan was a credible eyewitness. I believe she saw something like a ropen—probably a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur—that flew in front of her car. The overall communications we have had are inconsistent with both a hoax and a mental health condition. Her descriptions of the creature, and the closeness of the encounter, repudiate a misidentification of a bird or bat.

From a reader who reviewed the second edition of the book on Amazon:

“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! . . . I highly recommend this book to anyone! People should know the truth about what is going on. . . . Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books!” (StrangeDream – review dated October 11, 2011)

Other Languages, European

Although Live Pterosaurs in America is only available in English, we have a few web pages in various languages, on the subject of sightings of apparent living pterosaurs.

język polski – Polish Language

Gideon Koro zobaczył “ropen” w świetle dziennym. Gideon rozmawiał z Whitcomb. Gideon zna trochę angielski. Whitcomb wie trochę “Tok pisin” język

Die kritik der Idee, dass pterosaurs lebendig sind – Antworten (Deutsch Sprache - German Language)

Viele Jahre lang sagen Personen, dass pterosaurs in verschiedenen Ländern leben. Einige jener Länder sind in Afrika. Aber die meisten Entdeckungsreisen, um nach pterosaurs zu suchen, die lebendig sind, sind in Papua-Neuguinea, nicht Afrika gewesen.

Les renseignements sur pterosaurs dans Nouvelle Guinée Papua (dans la langue française – in French)

Les gens qui voient l’animal venir de différents pays: Papua Nouvelle Guinée, Australie, les États-Unis. Les gens ont de différentes langues et de différentes convictions. Mais ils voient la même sorte d’animal. Le ropen doit être un animal réel.

A kritika az ötlet, hogy pterosaurs él – Válaszok (in Hungarian)

Az ropen egy madár vagy egy denevér? Több tanú azt mondják, hogy az állat nem tollak, ez nem egy madár. Hodgkinson látta a farkát.

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We all need to know truth and to become free from falsehoods introduced through indoctrination. That does not mean that all those who would read the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America would give a glowing review about how they were enlightened. It’s not for everybody, at least not in the usual sense. For the reader who has little interest in cryptozoology and much interest in protecting standard models of biology, especially regarding extinctions, I recommend avoiding my book, unless there is some possibility of open-mindedness.

Flying Creatures in a Cryptozoology Book

I recently gave my opinion about this on a page of flying-creature.com.

. . . many readers of the first two editions were those with an interest in cryptozoology. But a peek at the Introduction gives a clue about a larger audience who would benefit from reading the third edition and the kind of reader who might not want to read it:

“This book might make a few Americans uneasy to walk alone at night; my intention, however, is not to frighten but 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 no longer need they 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.”

Rather than go over all the points on flying-creature.com (or quote it extensively), let’s consider who should immediately benefit from reading the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America.

1. Those who have seen an apparent living pterosaur
2. Those with an interest in cryptozoology
3. Those who would like to know the truth about Western indoctrination into universal extinct of dinosaurs and pterosaurs
4. Those who may hope that there is some truth in old legends about dragons
5. Those who would like to know about shocking encounters that some Americans have had with strange flying creatures

The largest group of potential readers may belong to the fifth group; those who may most benefit from reading the book may belong to the first and third groups. Many of those who have read the first two editions may belong to the second group: those interested in cryptozoology in general.

Map – Index of the Media Center on Live Pterosaurs

“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 took off with a fwap fwap fwap sound . . .”

This index is for the news media pages regarding sightings and investigations of apparent modern living pterosaurs.

The third edition of my nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America is undergoing final editing on the cover and the interior. Perhaps the most notable improvement is the addition of details on the 1965 sighting by Patty Carson: the “Gitmo pterosaur” in Cuba. Previous editions had nothing about this sighting at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Her sighting corroborates the 1971 pterosaur encounter Eskin Kuhn experienced in 1971, on that same base.

Carson’s 1965 Pterosaur Sighting

A few months after the publication of the second edition of this book, I began interviewing Patty Carson, by email and telephone. Her sighting (around 1965) makes Kuhn’s 1971 encounter even more credible. . . .

“I was watching Monster Quest . . . it triggered my memory of [my] sighting of the pterodactyl . . . I googled ‘Pterodactyl in Cuba’ . . . if that guy’s drawing didn’t come up on the first page, and the word Guantanamo!!! No kidding! I searched around some until I found your link and emailed you. . . .

“I was only a child when I saw it . . . We lived at the end of the road, last house, by the radio tower. We were walking from the boat yards toward home, but still closer to the boat yards, to where it was sandy underfoot, sparse scrub vegetation around four feet tall . . .

“ . . . Suddenly it sat up, as if it had been eating something or resting. The head and upper part of its body, about a third of the wings at the joint (tips still held down) showed. . . . All of us froze for about five seconds, then it leaned to its left and took off with a fwap fwap fwap sound, in a big hurry, more of a scramble, and flew to its left and disappeared behind trees and terrain.”

From the Title Page of Cryptozoology Book

How are sightings in the United States related to those in the southwest Pacific? How do some apparent nocturnal pterosaurs pertain to bats, and how are bats irrelevant? How could modern living pterosaurs have escaped scientific notice? These mysteries have slept in the dark, beyond the knowledge of almost all Americans, even beyond our wildest dreams (although the reality of some pterosaurs is a living nightmare to some bats). These mysteries have slept . . . until now.