Book | Live Pterosaur

November 25, 2018November 26, 2018

A Response to an Amazon Customer Review

cryptozoology book, nonfiction, on modern pterosaurs in the USA - "Live Pterosaurs in America"

By the cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

The following is my reply to some critical remarks from a reader of my nonfiction Live Pterosaurs in America (apparently the third edition). Terry Betts did not give the book an overall poor rating: three stars, yet some of the comments he made, especially in the title of his review, are not actually relevant to the content of the book. He titled his review “A look at a real Cryptid or a dissertation on Creationism?” Any objective reading of this book, however, (with that title in mind) will reveal that this is nothing remotely close to a dissertation on creationism.

Here is my response, which Amazon refused to allow to be published on the book-page for Live Pterosaurs in America:

I’m glad this reader found the sightings interesting. I now comment on part of this reviewer’s title, which asks if my book is a “dissertation on Creationism.” This brings up an important subject that is left out of some other reviewers’ comments: Something about at least one aspect of the book relates to religion. Being in the title of the above review, however, it may be misleading to both creationist and non-creationist potential readers of the book. I suggest we look at the content of the book objectively through searching for relevant words in its interior.

It has 153 printed pages, with 15 of those being pages of the index. The Appendix begins on page 109 and is in nine sections. One of those nine sections is mostly about philosophical or religious aspects of living-pterosaur investigations, although a bit of that is in a few pages in other areas of the Appendix. In brief, outside of the index, the book has 138 printed pages.

The word ‘creationism’ is found eight times in the book, with six of those (75%) being in one section of the Appendix: “Philosophy at the Foundation.” Only once is ‘creationism’ found outside of the Appendix. That alone suggests to me that this book really is mostly about cryptozoology rather than religion, especially before the reader gets to the Appendix.

Searching for the word ‘creationist’ I found 18 instances of this word, but not one of them was outside the Appendix. That seems to me to also indicate that the book is much more about cryptozoology than it is about creationism.

The word ‘Christian’ is found only twice in the book, both times on page 115, which is in the Appendix in the sub-section “Philosophy at the Foundation.” In addition, the word ‘God’ is found 13 times in the whole book, with 10 of those being in the Appendix. The three instances of ‘God’ found on pages 55 and 59 are in quotations from eyewitnesses, with two of those being expressions of gratitude that the person was able to see the flying creature.

The word ‘Bible’ is found only three times outside the Appendix, if my count is correct. Combining that with the searches on the other words related to religion, I submit that ‘creationist’ is good to mention in the body text of a customer review, much more appropriate than in the title of the customer review, for the book “Live Pterosaurs in America” (third edition).

Cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition)

Another Living-Pterosaur Nonfiction Book

My most recent book about non-extinct “pterodactyls” is The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur, which is for middle-grade children and young teenagers. It’s short, just 56 pages, yet has a number of benefits for the young reader. Here are a few of the benefits, taken from the description on Amazon (although not in precisely this order):

Tells you not WHAT to think, like many other nonfictions, but HOW to think about possibilities
Is understandable yet stimulating for kids and teens of about 8-14 years old
By a positive example, invites you to use critical thinking
Opens up an exciting new world: persons have seen an apparent living pterosaur
Uses sketches, photos, and other images to make things clear

[plus five more listed benefits for the reader]

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur [about modern living pterosaurs]

###

‘Dinosaur’ Book for Children and Teens

Why would the new book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur be the best Christmas or birthday gift for many kids and teenagers? It invites them into a new world of adventure in cryptozoology: true stories of encounters with modern living pterosaurs.

Book about non-extinct pterodactyls

Live Pterosaurs in America

‘Dinosaur’ book for a ten-year old

I wrote the nonfiction book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur for several purposes. As a gift giver for a child or teenager, you need to know what benefits it can give to the young reader. I recommend it for readers between about the ages of eight and fourteen; for some ten-year-olds (and eleven and twelve) it will be exceptionally delightful: easy to understand yet stimulating.

November 22, 2018

“Dinosaur Book” and ‘The Neverending Story’—a Comparison

book "The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur" back cover

By the nonfiction cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

I’ve already written several posts, on this blog, on my new book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur (GFD). Let’s now compare elements of this nonfiction with what is found in a popular fiction: The Neverending Story. We’ll use the film version (1984) of NS for many comparisons.

For those new to promotions of my new book, “flying dinosaur” refers to a kind of modern pterosaur: the ropen; it’s not about dinosaurs in the scientific use of that word. In addition, some of the eyewitnesses who have contacted me over the past fifteen years have used the word ‘dragon’—nothing close to scientific, but I’ll use it here.

A Young Reader can Find Himself or Herself in the Story

In the make-believe NS, a long story, young Bastian eventually comes to completely believe, while reading the book, that he is part of the never-ending story. This takes a long time for him, and only near the end does he believe to the extent that he is able to be transported into that new world of wonderful life.

In the non-fiction GFD, a short book, the young reader may come to believe in the stories, yet that may be long before the end of the book. This is not likely to be as gripping an adventure for the child or teenaged reader, but he or she can soon become aware of already living in the same world as a yet-to-be-discovered wonderful form of life. That can mean that taking a walk, without reading, can feel like an adventure, for that person who thinks about the wonder of living in the same world as living pterosaurs. The reader is not literally transported but his or her understanding can be positively transformed.

In NS, Bastian appears to be almost the only person in his immediate world who is aware of a new incredible world he is discovering: a world without humans. In GFD, the young reader may actually be the only person in his or her immediate world who is aware of something not yet scientifically discovered: an incredible animal in a world with humans.

Near the beginning of The Neverending Story (1984 film)

A Fictional Dragon and Real “Dragons”

In The Neverending Story, a boy is carried to safety by a luck dragon that discovers him in a swamp of sadness; the boy is saved from death. In The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur, the young reader discovers that one kind of “dragon” has been lucky enough to have escaped the sadness of extinction; that species was somehow saved from death.

The Basics in Comparing the Nonfiction with the Fiction

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur has only 56 pages. The mass-market paperback version of The Neverending Story, if you prefer that to the film, has 448 pages. From my experience, writing GFD and reading the first part of NS, I think that the popular fiction is much more exciting to read, in a story-telling sense, at least for the first 100-200 pages.

But reading my book, for a child or a teenager, can make all of life more exciting, giving the reader a sense of adventure that stays with the young reader long after the reading is over. For all those moments when a kid or teen is not reading, my book will give a lasting benefit, incalculably better than if that young person had read the fiction book instead.

Real eyewitness reports of modern pterosaurs (ropens)

###

Is this “flying dinosaur” book for you?

Actually, I highly recommend my book that was just published: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur. I just want to be sure that copies of it go to those young readers who want the adventure of approaching this subject with an open mind.

.

Benefits from reading a “dinosaur book”

1) Simple to read yet stimulating for middle-grade children and teens
2) Explains the benefits of believing someone who has seen something
3) Gives interesting comparisons between accounts, allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusion about each report
4) Explains the three major interpretations available for a sighting report, allowing the reader to choose one of them . . .
5) Gives the young reader many photos, sketches, and other images, making the book easier to dig into and understand

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

This short non-fiction book, for readers eight to fourteen years old, gives the following benefits . . .

Living Pterosaurs in the USA?

This gives the numbers of sightings in many states of the USA, including but not limited to the following:

California (39)
Georgia (15)
Texas (15)
North Carolina (13)
and in 36 other states and in Washington D.C.

November 14, 2018November 14, 2018

Hot Spots for Pterosaur Sightings

ropens or living pterosaurs seen in Cuba

By investigative journalist Jonathan D. Whitcomb

Let’s begin with areas outside the United States, then we’ll get into the major hot spots in the USA, for sighting reports of these featherless flying creatures.

Shropshire, England

In September of 2017, I received an email from a lady living in England, near the border of Wales. She is the mother of four children, and some members of the family, including the mother, have seen an apparent pterosaur, very much non-extinct. This family had two sightings in September of 2017.

In August of 2018, I received an email from a man living in that same general area of Shropshire, but this sighting was in February of 2017. Here’s a bit of what he reported to me:

A creature with a wingspan of about 4-6 feet and a mottled greyish brown colouration flew directly overhead and onwards towards a field . . . this was way too big to have been a native bat species. . . . I recall a short tail, but it became thinner and more tapered out towards the end of it.

Shropshire, England (West Midlands), east of Wales

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (mid-20th century)

I’ve written a great deal about two sightings in eastern Cuba, about the flying creatures witnessed by Patty Carson (1965) and Eskin Kuhn (1971). An important point is that their sketches reveal similarities with many other apparent pterosaurs seen in other areas of North America.

These sightings, and others, are covered in my new nonfiction book for children and teenagers: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur.

Ropens seen by Eskin Kuhn (left) and Patty Carson (right)

Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

So much has been written about ropen sightings on this remote tropical island that we’ll only consider a brief summary of some sightings here:

Seen by seven boys/teenagers around late 1993 (Lake Pung)
Jonathan Ragu and his daughter saw one in 2004
Jonah Jim saw one flying towards Lake Pung in 2001
Rex Yapi Epa saw a huge ropen. It was mostly under water.

The crater lake Pung, Umboi Island (photo by G. Guessman)

We now turn to pterosaur sightings in the United States

Raleigh area of North Carolina

Some of these sighting reports have received negative reactions from popular press in North Carolina, but the news professionals, apparently, had only a limited number of sighting reports to go by. I’ve written much about these sightings elsewhere, so let’s move on.

Mansfield, Ohio, area

We don’t have many sighting reports to examine from here, but the city of Mansfield has a human population of less then 50,000. In that context, the two sighting reports that I have received are significant, for only a tiny fraction of the eyewitnesses ever contact me, wherever the sightings take place.

A man saw an apparent pterosaur on June 30, 2016, at about 4:00 a.m., and the report did not appear noteworthy to me when I got it; when I got another report from another eyewitness from Mansfield, Ohio, however, I saw it as more significant.

Ten days ago (Nov 4, 2018), I got an email from another eyewitness in that little city. Here’s a portion of what he told me:

I was taking my brother to work at 6 am. We live in a heavy wooded area where a creek runs through and when we made a left turn and my dad hollered deer. It flew in front of the truck about street light level and I said that’s not a deer that’s a bird. It was huge. My dad said that’s a pterodactyl. . . . It’s neck was long, it’s skin was like leather . . .

That would seem to make two sightings by three eyewitnesses in Mansfield, but there’s more. A few decades before, the mother of that eyewitness (the man who was taking his brother to work at 6 a.m.) also saw a “pterodactyl.” To bad for her but her parents did not believe her. That was also in Mansfield.

Los Angeles County

These sightings in this area of Southern California have been so numerous that one blog post alone will not properly hold all the details in many of them. Since I have written about those encounters in many other publications, we’ll let them suffice for now. (See the link below: . . . Los Angeles County.)

Draper, Utah

Just a few days ago, I interviewed an eyewitness face-to-face, in this community in the Salt Lake Valley. Last year, my wife and I interviewed another family in that same general area of Draper, also a face-to-face interview. Those two locations are only about two miles apart.

I’ve written elsewhere about those encounters. To summarize, three sightings involved four eyewitnesses, within a period of about eighteen months. I have no major doubt: They encountered a large ropen. I am not speculating about whether or not it was the same exact animal; I believe it was the same species.

How to Support this Investigation

Please support this work by purchasing your own copy of the new nonfiction book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur (or buy one or more copies to give as gifts to children or teens).

I’ve been told that the title should have the word ‘pterosaur’ and not ‘dinosaur,’ but the girl referred to in the title seems to have used the d-word when she reported her sighting to her family (Patty Carson in Cuba in 1965). I also came to see that people would remember the title better (and find it easier) by using the word that is technically incorrect.

###

Living pterosaur in England

These extraordinary flying creatures are nocturnal, at least most of them and for most of the time.

“Flying Dinosaur” Book for Ten-Year-Old Girls and Boys

To the best of my knowledge, no other nonfiction cryptozoology book about living pterosaurs has ever been written specifically for English readers between the ages of about eight and fourteen years old. The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur . . .

Living pterosaur in Cuba

“I communicated with another eyewitness, in 2011, by emails and phone, about what I’d eventually call the “Gitmo Pterosaur.” Here is some of what I received from Patty Carson, whose father worked at Guantanamo Bay in the mid-1960’s . . .”

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

One new nonfiction . . . takes the reader into a little explored jungle, figuratively and literally: human encounters with living pterosaurs, what some persons call “dinosaur birds” or “pterodactyls” or “flying dinosaurs.” One eyewitness was a little girl in Cuba in 1965: Patty Carson. [about the non-fiction book for kids and teens]

Living pterosaur in Los Angeles County

“Dragon Pterosaurs in Southern California”

Flying Dinosaur book for ten-year-old

About a new nonfiction book for children and teens

November 9, 2018

“Dinosaur” Book for Children and Teens

"The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur" - a paperback nonfiction book

By the nonfiction cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

Why would the new book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur be the best Christmas or birthday gift for many kids and teenagers? It invites them into a new world of adventure in cryptozoology: true stories of encounters with modern living pterosaurs.

I know that those flying creatures are not actually dinosaurs. But when little Patty Carson saw one of them poke its head above the tall grass on a U.S. military base, in 1965, the first thing she probably said to her family was something like this: “I saw a flying dinosaur.”

Even when she soon changed her approach by using a word that was more precise—’pterodactyl’—they still would not believe a six-year-old. . . . at least not until other members of the family started to see similar animals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I know that sounds like a fiction, something for kids much older than those who delight in Danny and the Dinosaur. (Six million copies of that children’s book have been purchased since 1958, yet it’s not the right gift for most youth from eight to fourteen years old.) The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur is not only what the older ones will enjoy but what they need: a NON-fiction that can inspire youth to look deeper than many adults have looked. It allows them to freely come to their own conclusions, yet the book invites them to consider how eyewitnesses feel when people don’t believe them and how they feel when someone does believe them.

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur is not confined to the story of one little girl in the 1960’s but compares little Patty’s encounter with those of many other eyewitnesses: in Papua New Guinea and in the United States. Those ordinary persons who have seen extraordinary flying creatures—those eyewitnesses have been not only children but teenagers and adults. Yet important details have come up in their testimonies: long tails on large featherless flying creatures, for example.

Sketch drawn by Patty Carson when she was an adult

More than that, it explains why we need to believe what other persons tell us about what they have seen, at least sometimes. We need to consider that some people might be telling the truth even when it sounds strange:

“With a person who reports observing something, I give this reason for believing what was said: When we believe that person, he or she might tell us more. That can help the other person be happy and it can help us be happy. There’s more: We can learn from each other.

“For that to always work, however, everyone needs to tell the truth all the time. That does not always happen. Not everyone is always nice, so we live in a world that is imperfect. Yet each of us can make the world a little better in small steps.” [from Chapter 7: Why Believe People?]

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur, however, does not preach but simply invites children and teenagers to consider what only a few scientists had previously thought about: that a wonderful new discovery in biology may soon be made and that science truly can advance in an exciting new way.

###

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

This book is for readers between the ages of about eight and fourteen. [official home page for this nonfiction]

Some dinosaur bones have been dated to have lived more recently

Since carbon dating became available, in the mid-20th century, many scientists had assumed that the new method for determining ages was inappropriate for dinosaur fossils. They took it for granted that no carbon-14 could be left from those bones, for radiocarbon dating should detect no radioactive carbon from anything that had lived many millions of years ago. [That now seems to not be the case.]