Four notable non-fiction cryptozoology books (with at least some emphasis on sightings of apparent living pterosaurs) are in print or available by publishing-on-demand. I list them here in order of Amazon sales for the combined months of May-June, 2010, with “market share” under the assumption that non-Amazon sales are similar and referring to these four books as if they’re the only ones with special emphasis on extant pterosaurs.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no cryptozoology book, as of July 1, 2010, primarily about living-pterosaur sightings around the world. Dinosaurs, Dead or Alive is about worldwide sightings, but dinosaurs, not pterosaurs, are the main topic; Searching for Ropens (second edition) is only about pterosaur sightings, but refers almost exclusively to the Southwest Pacific; Live Pterosaurs in America is only about pterosaur sightings, but relates only to the forty-eight states of the U.S.A.; Big Bird is about large flying creatures, be they bird-like or pterosaur-like, and emphasizes sightings in Texas.

Descriptions of these cryptozoology books are from Amazon.

Live Pterosaurs in America

LPA was by far the best-seller, with 47% of the sales for these four nonfiction books (Amazon.com sales for the combined months of May and June). On Amazon, it is categorized in Nature / Wildlife

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.

Big Bird

BB had 26% of the sales for these four non-fiction books.

A LEGEND ON LEATHER WINGS! The Indians called it the Thunderbird, a winged monster so vast that the beating of its mighty pinions sounded like thunder. But this ancient beast is not to be held in the cage of mythology. Today, from all over the dusty U.S. / Mexican border come hair-raising stories of modern day encounters with winged monsters of immense size and terrifying appearance.

Searching for Ropens, second edition

SFR-2 had 15% of the sales for these four non-fiction books.

Expanded second edition: An American flight instructor, an Australian psychologist, many natives on tropical islands, an Australian couple, a Baptist minister, a teenaged farm-boy–each saw a giant living pterosaur. Each was amazed, or terrified, or shocked by a brown or dark-colored featherless creature: long-tailed and with a wingspan as great as fifty feet.

Dinosaurs, Dead or Alive

DDA had 12% of the sales. (No Amazon.com description is available.)

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Cryptozoology Book

Living pterosaurs have been reported in the United States, for years. Astonishing! Eyewitnesses had been afraid to come forward, for the most part; now those who choose can remain anonymous and tell of their encounters. Read the many astonishing eyewitness sighting reports  by purchasing your own copy of this amazing nonfiction, yes NON-FICTION, book directly from the publisher: Live Pterosaurs in America, expanded third edition.

For the second edition of this book, one reader wrote the following review 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! The way that our school systems and scientists alike are indoctrinated is sad. There is so much money out there being used for research, if only they would use it for good. I highly recommend this book to anyone! People should know the truth about what is going on. No one ever hears anything about this unless they conduct extremely specific internet searches, even then, information is minimal. Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books!” (review by “StrangeDream”)

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The video footage obtained by Paul Nation, (late-2006 expedition, Papua New Guinea) was analyzed by the physicist Cliff Paiva (BSM Associates, California). The mountains where Nation observed the indava lights was just a little south of where Evelyn Cheesman had observed similar strange lights decades earlier.

From page four (Whitcomb’s explanation for technical details of the Paiva report, excerpts on ropens.com site):

Casual observation of Paul Nation’s video seems to show that the lower-left light fades out while the upper-right light is still glowing brightly. Paiva’s analysis shows that the lower “target” does not completely cease glowing but continues a low-intensity emission eight seconds from the beginning of the video recording.

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Did you know that living pterosaurs are also reported in the United States? Read about it in the nonfiction book “Live Pterosaurs in America,” available on Amazon.  (Your purchase shall then support these living-pterosaur investigations; thank you.)

Since the two ropen expeditions of 2004, in Papua New Guinea, more Americans have become exposed to the amazing living-pterosaur investigations and the many resulting eyewitness interviews. Many web pages have sprung up, many of them by explorers themselves. But despite other web pages, by scornful critics who never went anywhere and never interviewed anyone, these two expeditions, and those that preceded and followed them, are causing an awakening, the birth of a new perspective about extinction-assumptions regarding pterosaurs.

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 . . . until now.

More about cryptozoology books (nonfiction) on modern living pterosaurs

Since Paul Nation’s 2006 video recording of two lights on a ridge deep in the mainland of Papua New Guinea, cryptozoologists have a new name for the ropen: “indava.” It’s not that everything about the glowing indava is identical to ropen lights; indeed, the indava seems to glow for many more seconds than the apparently giant ropen that flies between mountains on Umboi Island. But both creatures have been described, by local natives, as giant flying creatures.

Evelyn Cheesman appeared to have no thought about pterosaurs when she observed the strange glowing objects that flew near the top of a mountain ridge. The British entomologist would surely have been interested in the explanation of “large flying animal” if the local villagers had said anything; but they were reluctant to talk about the lights. Nevertheless, Cheeman wrote about the mystery in her book, The Two Roads of Papua (published in 1935). Her observations were a few mountains to the north of Paul Nation’s later observations.