United States sighting – Page 3 – Pterosaur Eyewitness

September 27, 2019

Youtube Videos on the Ropen

sketch of ropen on the official banner for the Youtube channel "Protect Animal Life"

By the investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

The following is to the best of my knowledge, as of early September 27, 2019, regarding Youtube channels that have videos about eyewitness reports of apparent modern living pterosaurs, including the ropen.

Only two Youtube channels have many videos about these featherless flying creatures:

“Jonathan Whitcomb” (obviously my channel)
“Protect Animal Life” (also one of my channels)

The first is much older and has many views on most of its 9 active videos about living pterosaurs. The most popular is “Ropen-Pterodactyl – American eyewitness” (with over a third of a million views).

The second channel has fewer views but has been much more active in the last six months: It now has 27 active videos about these amazing flying creatures of the night.

Here’s the most recently uploaded video on the first channel:

The above video answers a question that few persons have ever wondered about, although it is relevant to living-pterosaur investigations: Why did the gigantic ropen of Umboi Island fly over the crater lake Pung, just a few minutes after the seven island boys had arrived at that lake? That was in the middle of the day, and the ropen is generally a nocturnal flying creature. This video gives a simple explanation.

Active Videos on the Channel “Jonathan Whitcomb”

Ropen Sighting at Lake Pung – Why?
Dragons and Pterosaurs Trailer 1
Grantsville Flying-Creature Sighting in Utah
Brief introduction to living-pterosaur investigations
Ropen expedition by Whitcomb (2004)
Ropen-Pterodactyl – American eyewitness
Abram sees the ropen (maybe fishing)
Grave robbery by the ropen pterosaur
Spiders of Umboi Island
Three Eyewitnesses of the Ropen

Both Youtube channels have videos about sightings in Papua New Guinea and in North America.

###

Free online videos about modern pterosaurs

As we approach the 15-year anniversary of my ropen expedition on Umboi Island, I’ll share my views on some Youtube videos and playlists: about these amazing flying creatures. You choose which ones to watch.

Videos on living pterosaurs

The most active Youtube channel on ropens (and other living pterosaurs), as of mid-2019

Hair or fur on the ropen

Over the years, I’ve rarely mentioned much on this blog about the possibility that ropens in general are covered with some amount of fine hair. Only a small fraction of the total eyewitnesses have been close enough to see such a detail, even if they had a mind to take notice of hair, or lack thereof, at the time of their sightings.

Ropen videos

The oldest and most popular Youtube channel having many videos about living pterosaurs

February 27, 2018January 16, 2019

“Pterodactyl” in Arkansas

Over the years, I’ve gotten several pterosaur sighting reports from the state of Arkansas. I recently got another report from Arkansas, except this is a “hearing” rather than a sighting:

My friends and I have a nice spot on the Mulberry river where we like to go camping. After one camping trip was over and most of us went home, . . . [two] decided to stay and enjoy one more night . . .

They were sleeping in the back of the SUV when they were woke up by what they described as the sound of a pig squealing. . . . then the sound came toward them and went right over the SUV. They discussed it and decided it must have been an owl carrying off a piglet.

I replied with my opinion about what they heard overhead that night and about the possibility the predator was what many Americans call a pterodactyl:

I agree in the possibility that it was a large owl taking away a piglet, but there may be an issue with that interpretation. For those unaware of modern pterosaurs, that idea may appear to be the best explanation. But I daresay piglets are rarely carried off by owls in the middle of the night. Most pigs (wild or domesticated) are too big for any owl to handle. Those are not the usual prey for such birds. A particular ropen, however, may have developed a method for catching pigs in that area. That would seem a better explanation to me. [opinion of Jonathan Whitcomb]

Here’s an even more recent encounter, but this one was a sighting (slightly edited for English):

. . . So for the first time I’ll tell my weird story. In the summer of 2012 my husband was working . . . for *Buffalo River National Park, Arkansas . . .I was living in Georgia with our infant son but was really missing my husband so we arranged a visit getting a two week rental of a mountain cabin near the park in late August. . . . every morning I’d drink my coffee out [on the deck of the cabin] while the baby was next to me in his play pen.

One morning . . . I looked up. Silently flying was a pterodactyl right over us, lowering in circles without flapping; it was featherless, long beaked, crested, and [had] a tail with something on the end of it. It was still very high but I screamed and ran inside. It was hard to judge its size, but I’m guessing 10-15’ in wingspan.

From the window, I watched it fly as it turned to a tiny speck disappearing over the mountains. I had no phone signal, and the nearest houses were five miles down the road. I just sat shaking holding my baby for a long time. . . . I know what I saw, and it scared me into silence for five and a half years. [This was reported, in February of 2018 by the eyewitness, to Jonathan Whitcomb (who concluded that the flying creature was a large ropen).]

*The more common form of the name is Buffalo National River.

###

Eyewitnesses Report Living Pterosaurs

“It was probably 1982 when me and my older brother were sitting in our carport [in Texarkana, Arkansas] It was getting dark but there was plenty of light in the sky when we saw what we believe to be a pterodactyle [pterosaur]. The wingspan seemed to be about 25’ to 30’ ft wide . . .”

Ropen-pterosaur of Umboi

Seven boys were terrified, in about 1994, as they saw the ropen fly over a crater lake. On the remote island of Umboi, in Papua New Guinea, the boys climbed up to Lake Pung, just north of their village. Within just a few minutes, they saw the giant creature fly over the water. The boys ran home in terror and the memory of that fear lasted for years.

New book by Jonathan Whitcomb

It [the nonfiction book being written] will include a simple explanation of the “Evolutionary Boundary” experiment and an introduction to living-pterosaur investigations.

Live Pterosaurs in America

The following publications have more than just a few comments or just one chapter about reports of apparent extant pterosaurs in our modern day.

November 25, 2017January 16, 2019

“I saw a Flying Dinosaur”

sketch, by eyewitness, of the Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur of eastern Cuba

Although it’s more common, in the United States, for an eyewitness of an apparent living pterosaur to use the word pterodactyl, I sometimes come across the phrase “flying dinosaur.” Consider now an encounter in July of 2012, in the words of the eyewitness herself:

Wed 18 2012 my two sons n i was traveling down Hwy 27 n Franklin Georgia around 8:15 or so in the morning…when i looked up n saw a flyin dinosaur..I was so shocked at what i was seein i started yealing to my sons to look up look up..i ask my oldest ..do u see what im seeing..n he goes..Wow..in i go what do u see..cause i wanted to make sure i could belive my own eyes n he goes..it looks like a Terradactyl…in i go…yeah it looks like a dinosaur to me too and dats my n my son story n we’re stickin to it.

Before going any further, please be clear in this: Eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs are not always less skilled in the English language. Some of them are highly educated, and they include men and women in a variety of professions:

an attorney in California
a college professor in Florida
a former biology professor in Oregon
a scientist in Australia (Perth sighting)
a president of an electronics company in New Hampshire

I could go on, with other eyewitnesses who reported to me their encounters with these astonishing featherless flying creatures, but I’ll let it go at that. We need to consider a common skeptical comment.

One criticism that I have seen more than once is something like this:

“How could living pterosaurs have gone undetected for so long?”

First, I see a contradiction: The reason a skeptic makes a comment like that is because somebody has reported that they saw a living pterosaur. In other words, it was not only detected but it was reported, so the skeptic is completely wrong in assuming that apparent living pterosaurs have gone undetected.

But I think the skeptic actually means something different, notwithstanding it may appear to be similar. The critic, when he or she asks something like the above question, probably assumes that any species of pterosaur that survived into the present day would have been discovered by one or more scientists before the day that the eyewitness (supposedly a non-scientist) reported the sighting in question. Not only that, but the skeptic probably assumes that when one scientist sees a living pterosaur then its existence will somehow automatically become common knowledge among scientists in general and the non-extinction of that species will become accepted by many scientists. How greatly would that skeptic be wrong! The reality is this: A scientist who reported seeing a living pterosaur would likely lose his or her position at a university or college or would lose his or her employment.

Another reality of which a typical skeptic would be ignorant is this: The number of eyewitnesses, worldwide, who have seen an obvious living pterosaur is at least in the tens of thousands, and the number of persons who have had some kind of an encounter, however brief and difficult to see clearly, with a living pterosaur is at least between 7 million and 128 million. How enormous is the depth of ignorance of the typical skeptic who encounters one eyewitness report of a non-extinct pterosaur and quickly rejects it! (Please be aware that those numbers are not from tabulations of eyewitness reports directly but from estimations based upon sightings that have been reported.)

By living-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

###

Flying Dinosaur

Of course we mean “pterosaur” when we say “flying dinosaur,” but people use various words and phrases when they refer to this featherless flying creature . . .

Flying Dinosaurs in Papua New Guinea

Until 1938, the fish called Coelacanth was thought to have become extinct 65-million years ago. Does that number sound familiar?

When a Child Sees a Flying Dinosaur

Why should only adults see apparent living pterosaurs? In fact, some of the eyewitnesses of “pterodactyls” are children.

Dinosaur Bird sightings

The older estimate for the number of sightings that Americans have had of living pterosaurs—1400 or more—is now believed to have been an under-estimate. It now seems that the number is more like in five or six digits at least, depending on one’s definition of “sighting.”

Flying dinosaur book

An excellent nonfiction book for children and teenagers

Sightings of Living Pterosaurs

Let’s examine what’s been learned from sighting reports that are mostly from North America, with a critical eye on the overall honesty-credibility of eyewitnesses.

Pterosaur sighting in Georgia (USA)

In mid-2012, a lady and her sons saw a “flying dinosaur” in the city of Franklin, GA.