Georgia Pterosaur (from the cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America)

The lady . . . had been trying to find someone who might help her verify the existence of the strange animals that she had seen twice in the past few weeks. . . . Her first sighting was at 7 a.m., the second, 9 a.m., with both mornings overcast. . . .

Fifteen miles of her commute is on a two-lane 55-mph road through woods alternating with pastures . . . on August 27, 2008. She had woken up early and could not get back to sleep, so she left her house at 6:45 a.m., with the sky still overcast from the last remnants of [a] storm. . . . She had driven less than ten miles, just leaving an area of pasture, entering an area of thick woods . . . when an animal suddenly flew from the right, just over the front of her car. Although alone, she yelled, “What the — what — what is that?” She was stunned.

. . . It was the tail; she looked up at a “very long” tail that had a strange shape at the end. . . . a thick almost-heart-shape at the end of the tail . . . “Dive-bombing my car,” is how she described the flight path, as it crossed the highway in front of and slightly above her. “Curved, like a hammer,” is how she described the head, which had a crest that she thought was “solid, not feathery at all.” . . . a smoothly curved head crest.

Obviously what the lady saw near Winder, Georgia, in the summer of 2008, was no Flying Fox fruit bat, even if that species of Megabat lived in Georgia, which it does not. So what about sightings in Papua New Guinea, where those bats live in great numbers?

Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen

The cryptid seen in New Guinea, by Duane Hodgkinson in 1944 and by Brian Hennessy in 1971, I have named “Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen.” Similarities between the descriptions given to me by these two eyewitnesses struck me as too much for coincidence. . . .

. . . these different lengths of head crest I believe fall within the range of eyewitness error. In other words, the creatures observed by these two men could very well have had the same length of head crest (relative to the size of the head) . . .  it seems likely that the species is the same for the 1944 and 1971 sightings.

Both Duane Hodgkinson and Brian Hennessy were struck by the long pterosaur tail . . .  in a manner of speaking, and Hodgkinson was close enough to make an estimate of tail-length: “at least ten or fifteen feet.” It was obviously not any Flying Fox fruit bat.

Eskin Kuhn Pterosaur Sighting

Her sighting [Patty Carson] confirms the credibility of the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn, who long ago reported his 1971 encounter. But Patty saw a similar creature in 1965 . . .

Kuhn sketched what he had seen, soon after his sighting (obviously no fruit bat):

On The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs, the February 23, 2011, post gives more details about the Frigate bird, in particular on how the misidentification possibility relates to the 1944 sighting by Duane Hodgkinson. That American saw a giant featherless flying creature that could not have been a Frigate bird.

Two army buddies were standing at one side of a jungle clearing (1944, west of Finschhafen, New Guinea); a large creature flew up from the ground of the other side of that clearing. The soldiers had a perfectly clear view of the “pterodactyl,” as it ran to their left and took off into the air. Hodgkinson still remembers how the vegetation swayed from the wing flapping. How critical is the size of that clearing! At about one hundred feet in diameter, that field was small enough to prevent any major distortion in estimating the size of the flying creature. An estimate of twenty-seven feet for the wingspan makes it impossible for it to have been a Frigate bird in masquerade.

The Frigate Bird and Pterosaur Sightings in Papua New Guinea

Duane Hodgkinson’s 1944 sighting leads us into other sightings of apparent pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea. Could this World War II veteran’s encounter be an exception? Could the Frigate-bird-explanation answer most other sightings? Actually, no. One problem relates to pterosaur bioluminescence: Frigate birds do not glow at night. Another problem relates to grave robbery: Frigate birds do not rob human graves, carrying off the body of an adult human. And then there are the reports of live adult humans being carried away by giant flying creatures: not likely Frigate birds.

Frigate Birds and Living Pterosaurs in General

How are some critical sightings evidence of a live pterosaur, rather than a misidentified bird? Consider the 1971 Cuba sighting by Eskin Kuhn. Look at his sketch of the pterosaur with wings down, about to begin an upbeat-cycle of wing-flapping. Notice the legs, separate from the long tail. Also notice the large head crest at the back of the creature’s head. How obvious that this is not a sketch of a Frigate bird!

Consider the 2007 San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary pterosaur sighting of a long-tailed flying creature with no feathers and with a total length of about thirty feet. (The length-estimate was no wild guess, for the apparent-ropen flew just above the road; I later measured the width of that road, the approximate length of the ropen: thirty feet) In addition, the wrinkles on the underside of the wings indicated the giant flying creature had no feathers.

Consider also the worldwide sightings of glowing pterosaurs flying at night: those are not Frigate birds.

The cryptid seen in New Guinea, by Duane Hodgkinson in 1944 and by Brian Hennessy in 1971, I have named “Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen.” Similarities between the descriptions given to me by these two eyewitnesses struck me as too much for coincidence. . . .

As I mentioned in my scientific paper (in The Creation Research Society Quarterly, Volume 45, Number 3, “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific”), these different lengths of head crest I believe fall within the range of eyewitness error. In other words, the creatures observed by these two men could very well have had the same length of head crest (relative to the size of the head) . . .  it seems likely that the species is the same for the 1944 and 1971 sightings.

I have interviewed both of these eyewitnesses, finding both of them to be highly credible. Nothing in either the substance of their testimonies or in the way they communicated with me gave any hint of any hoax or any reasonable possibility of any misidentification error.

Pterosaurs are sometimes called “dinosaur birds,” even though they are neither dinosaurs nor birds.

Brian Hennessy

Hennessy told me, “The creature I saw one early morning . . . was so unusual. I actually heard it before I saw it. A slow flap…flap…[flapping] sound. The air was still, and our truck had stopped on our downward journey from the top of the range to the coast way below. . . . When I looked up, trying to see what was making this sound, I saw a very unusual creature. Firstly, it was very big (wingspan at least 2 metres, probably more … possibly much, much more).” [the distance was difficult to judge and distance is critical when estimating size. JW]

“It certainly looked prehistoric, in that it did not look like any other bird that I have seen before or since. Why prehistoric? Well, maybe my memory has been influenced by the intervening years, but I recall seeing this creature with a longish narrow tail . . . the head was disproportionately large compared to the body (no feathers in sight). The wingspan was large. . . . and not a feather in sight (and that is not to say that there weren’t feathers…maybe I could not discern them).”

His objectiveness becomes obvious when we consider his comments about the featherless appearance, for he admitted the possibility of feathers that he did not see. Nevertheless, the absence of visible feathers suggests that it was no bird. Could this have been a strange large bird with feathers not easily visible? Mr. Hennessy also mentioned something on the back of the head of the creature; he used the word “horn.” That horn and the long tail suggest a ropen or at least a large flying creature similar to the one seen by Hodgkinson.

I am very grateful that he gave us permission to use his name and quote his comments on what he had seen, for it demonstrates the credibility of living-pterosaur investigations. Why? For one thing, the possibility of a hoax is practically nil, because of the lack of any motivation for a hoax and because of the eyewitness’s profession. What about insanity? Ask him to see a psychologist; it’s easy for him to look in a mirror, for Mr. Hennessy is himself a professional psychologist.

More resources:

Pterosaur Hoax Idea Itself Refuted

Giant Pterodactyl of 1944 (sighting by Hodgkinson)

The astonishing experience of two American soldiers, in that jungle clearing just west of Finschhafen, New Guinea, in 1944—that can be read in many places. But let’s now look at this man Duane Hodgkinson, and learn what we can about him.

Like most American soldiers who began serving in World War II, Duane was hardly more than a boy. But he had been a farm boy in his teenaged years in Ohio. His experience with the animals and farm yard probably helped him to have a feel for distance and size in the outdoors. I don’t know the responsibilities of a weather observer for the field artillery in 1944, but Duane was trusted with that assignment. When he and his army buddy saw something fly up into the air, on the other side of the field where they stood, they could not very easily make any big mistake in estimating the size of the field: about 100 feet across. With no obstruction, Duane was able to make an estimate of the size of the strange creature that flew up and out of the field: The wingspan was about that of a small private airplane. Sometime after his military service, Duane was able to obtain a Piper Tri-Pacer and he later compared the wingspan of the ”pterodactyl” with that plane’s wingpan; it was similar.

Some time after World War II had ended, Duane became a flight instructor. He has accumulated thousands of hours of flying time. The point? He would never have continued his declaration of seeing a giant “pterodactyl” unless he was serious about his experience; it would have been bad for business. The only reasonable explanation is that he saw something at least close to what he described, for he was not drinking or on drugs at the time (he has never been a drinker).