The nonfiction cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb wrote the book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur, which was published by the Createspace publishing platform on November 8, 2018. The intended readers are between the ages of eight and fourteen, for this short paperback.

In spite of the title, this nonfiction book is not technically about dinosaurs but about reported sightings of apparent pterosaurs, flying creatures that have long been thought to have all gone extinct long ago. The sightings covered in The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur are in the following locations:

• Papua New Guinea (seven)
• Los Angeles County, California (four)
• Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (three)

The ten reported benefits for readers, listed by Whitcomb on the Amazon page, include these:

• Is understandable yet stimulating for kids and teens of about 8-14 years old
• Tells you not WHAT to think, like many other nonfictions, but HOW to think about possibilities
• By a positive example, invites you to use critical thinking

Title Page of the Book

Quotation

The following three paragraphs, submitted by the author, are taken from page 54:

“In Western countries, people are taught from early childhood that all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs became extinct many millions of years ago. That means those who live in countries like the United States assume none of those animals could now be alive. When those people read or hear about somebody seeing a living pterosaur, they do not believe it, with almost no exceptions.

“My associates and I are some of those exceptions. We know that not all species of pterosaurs became extinct. Some of us have talked with natives of non-Western countries, persons who have seen animals like the ropen. That has helped us to be open minded when Americans and others tell us that they have seen a living pterosaur.

“I understand that all those things that I’ve just told you may not, by themselves, prove that one or more species of these wonderful flying creatures are still living. I’ve told you all those things to prepare you to learn about how I came to be sure that at least a few species of pterosaurs are still living.”

Basics

The following is taken from the Amazon page for The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur:

Paperback; $7.80

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 8, 2018)

“Patty Carson and other children, and teenagers and adults, have seen a living pterosaur, sometimes called a pterodactyl”

56 pages; 8½ by 5½ (inches); English

ISBN-13: 978-1727778847

Front cover of the book

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Two books about living pterosaurs

Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition) and The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

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Living Pterosaurs in the USA?

This post lists 40 states where sightings have been reported (plus the District of Columbia): encounters with apparent non-extinct pterosaurs.

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“Flying dinosaur” book

“The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur is a nonfiction book, but it’s not technically about dinosaurs: It’s a short cryptozoology book about apparent living pterosaurs.”

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Pterodactyls that are not extinct

“Many species of pterosaurs have lived on this planet at some time in the past. What evidence is there that all of those species have become extinct? NONE!”

The nonfiction Missing 411 Western United States & Canada, by the investigative journalist David Paulides, documents many strange missing-persons cases that were never solved. New investigations in cryptozoology now reveal an explanation for some of the cases.

Four American cryptozoologists have explored jungles in Papua New Guinea, during the past fourteen years:

• Paul Nation of Texas
• Garth Guessman of California
• Jonathan Whitcomb of Utah
• David Woetzel of New Hampshire

In the southwest Pacific, they interviewed native eyewitnesses of strange nocturnal flying creatures, large animals that are called by various names in villages that have different native languages:

• Ropen (Umboi Island)
• Wawanar (small islands near southwest coast of New Britain)
• Kor (islands north of Umboi)
• Indava (mainland of New Guinea)

Paul Nation, in his expedition in 2006, learned that the indavas once terrorized villagers on the mainland, carrying off pigs and even children. In other parts of the mainland, large flying creatures were reported to have even carried away full-grown men, in particular near villages around the cities of Lae and Finschhafen.

Whitcomb now proposes that at least a few of the strangest cases of missing children in wilderness areas of the United States may be from attacks from similar flying creatures, especially those cases that involve more than one of the following:

• Human body was found badly scratched and too far away from the original location
• Dogs cannot track where the child walked away
• Living child was found in thick berry bushes
• Toddler was found in higher elevation and too many miles away
• Some articles of clothing missing in cold weather: one shoe or just a sweater or the pants

Those four American cryptozoologists believe these flying creatures are related to those that left fossils that are known, in Western countries, as pterosaurs. Many Americans call those “primitive” flying creatures pterodactyls.

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Missing Children in the USA

He was playing in a small wash with his four-year-old brother on that cold February morning. Ronald did not return home with his brother, which must have alarmed their mother. A search found no sign of the two-year-old, a search that lasted four days and included airplanes, tracking dogs, and over two hundred volunteers and professional searchers, no sign until the fourth day.

“Pterodactyl” attacks in British Columbia, Canada

For many years, there have been reports of people being attacked in Africa and in Papua New Guinea. I have only recently noticed this news about flying creatures attacking people in British Columbia at night.

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(In a Nutshell)

Pterosaur in Australia

Western Australia

“My husband and I both sighted a huge creature flying over a densely populated area, while we were out walking one night in Perth, Western Australia on the coastline around 10:30 pm . . . it had a long tail and a wingspan that we estimated at between 30-50 feet across . . . “This creature was huge and never in my life have I ever seen anything that remotely resembled it until I found a page on Pterosaurs.”

Southern Australia

“I live in Australia in the state of Victoria near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 klms east of Melbourne. I was standing outside about nine o’clock one night. It was full moon and very bright with a cloud bank to the south east extending to and over the Ranges. . . . I glanced to the south and [saw] . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here . . . This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cesna.  It was about 5 klms away and was lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers.”

Another pterosaur has flown into news reports, this one, called “ropen,” is reported to fly at night in Papua New Guinea. The glow reported to come from the ropen has been compared with the flying Marfa Lights of Texas.

The blog post about the glowing flying creature of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, mentions years of expeditions in which many native eyewitnesses were interviewed. Their testimonies were deemed credible and were compared with those of an Austalian and an American, who had also described a long-tailed featherless flying creature in Papua New Guinea.

The strangeness of modern glowing pterosaurs was compared to the strangeness of the technological developments of human aviation: “I think it far easier for humans to believe in modern bioluminescent pterosaurs . . . than for those pterosaurs to believe in non-winged humans flying around the world. Try explaining airplanes to a pterodactyl.” (quoted from the post by the American cryptozoology author Jonathan David Whitcomb: “Umboi Island Expeditions”)

(KSN) According to Wikipedia, “The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the ‘increase and diffusion’ of knowledge.” But a blog post on the Smithsonian site seems to condemn any person involved with searching for living dinosaurs or living pterosaurs. The author of the post, Brian Switek, mentions “hucksters,” “overly-credulous wildlife enthusiasts,” and “showmen,” not mentioning names at first. When he does mention names, they are “Jim Blume” and “David Woetzel,” and he dismisses them because they are “creationist explorers.” Switek’s post is evaluated on another blog: “Ropen Dismissed by Smithsonian.”

At the end of the Smithsonian blog post, after seeming to condemn anyone who has searched for living pterosaurs, Switek admits the possibility that a long-tailed pterosaur might still be living.