Pterosaur Eyewitness

It was his third expedition in Papua New Guinea, but the first one on the mainland. Deep in the mountainous interior, in Tawa Village, at 7:20 p.m., on Nov 9, 2006, Paul Nation videotaped two lights on a nearby ridge. A few weeks later, in Central California, Cliff Paiva (a missile defense physicist) analyzed the video footage, concluding that the two lights were not from any campfires, flashlights, car headlights, meteors, or airplanes. They were also not from any camera artifacts or paste-on hoax. Paiva was unable to resolve the structure that creatured those two lights, for the recording had been done on a typical video camera, not an expensive thermal imaging recorder. But according to his associate living-pterosaur investigators, Paul Nation was the first American to bring back video evidence for living bioluminescent pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea.

An article in the Creation Research Society Quarterly (Volume 45, Number 3, “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific”) states:

The first American to bring back video evidence for the bioluminescence of the ropen was Paul Nation, who explored near Tawa Village in late 2006. He saw a number of flying lights on several nights and videotaped, for about fifteen seconds, two lights that were on a ridge where there were no roads, cars, or campfires.

According to Wikipedia (English Wikipedia: “ropen”):

In late 2006, Paul Nation, of Texas, explored a remote mountainous area on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. He videotaped two lights that the local natives called ‘indava.’ Nation believed the lights were from the bioluminescence of creatures similar to the ropen of Umboi Island.

From Searching for Ropens (second edition, nonfiction book):

[We] “saw one yellow glow start from a small glow to a bright glow and then a second appearance start and increase in intensity. The second and higher up the mountain glow, flew up and over the ridge and out of sight. While the first glow went out. 10 pm saw a single yellow glow flying along the mountain ridge to the east of our location following the terrain up and down going south to north.”

From Live Pterosaurs in America (nonfiction book, published in 2009):

On the Papua New Guinea mainland, in 2006, Paul Nation and his associate, native minister Jacob Kepas, explored deep in the highland interior. One night, Paul videotaped two glowing objects at the top of a ridge. The natives attribute this kind of light to large flying creatures that used to carry away animals and children from their village.

More resources:

Giant Bat and ropen of Papua New Guinea

Problems with a bat interpretation (this blog site)

Paul Nation, the most active LP explorer (another blog on living pterosaurs)

Brian Hennessy, an Australian who works at a medical university in China, I interviewed by email in 2006 (two years after my expedition in Papua New Guinea). His sighting, on the island of Bougainville in 1971, relates to the sighting by Duane Hodgkinson, in 1944, although the locations are many miles apart.

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 Kongamato, according to Wikipedia, is said to reside in Western Zambia, Angola and Congo (Africa). According to In Witchbound Africa (non-fiction book by F. Melland), this very dangerous creature flies along certain rivers, attacking small boats, at times, hence the name that means “breaker of boats.” Although the wingspan seems smaller than the ropen of Papua New Guinea (four to seven feet), some pterosaur-like creatures in P.N.G. have been described as about that size, especially the kor of the Manus Island area (northern P.N.G.).

But what about the “flying snake” of Namibia? According to research done by the British cryptozoologist Richard Muirhead, one of these creatures “swooped down” from a cave near Kirris West, in 1942, (sixty miles east of Keetmanshoop, south-west Namibia.) It left a trace of something on the ground and a burning smell. Could that burning smell be related to the cause of death of a fisherman who was killed by a kor (northern Papua New Guinea, 1960′s)? The man died three days after being attacked by the pterosaur-like animal; his body was not just torn: It was also burned. In at least one other area of Papua New Guinea, the creatures are said to drip a liquid that can burn human skin.

Look at the eyewitnesses. They’re from Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, the United States, Great Britain, Sudan, and many other countries around the world. What do you see? Common (and sometimes uncommon) persons of many occupations, languages, and beliefs. They seem to have nothing in common except that they have seen a pterosaur or pterosaur-like creature and they have spoken to someone about what they have seen.

Consider Papua New Guinea. For Umboi Island, eyewitnesses have included an Australian who served in a government position there, a native government leader, many common villagers, and a visiting cryptozoogist. For other areas of P.N.G., they have included an Australian psychologist, American expedition members of a television true-life adventure series, an American World War II soldier, a British entomoligist (biologist), missionaries, a non-missionary visiting a mission, many common villagers, a minister, and a visiting cryptozoologist.

Consider other areas of the Southwest Pacific. Eyewitnesses have included an Australian scientist and his wife, an Australian farm boy, a real estate agent, school-aged children, a pilot and co-pilot of a small plane, sailors on an American military ship, and common villagers.

Consider the United States. Eyewitnesses have included an attorney, a business owner, a hospital lab employee, an artist working for a silkscreening company, farmers, a fireman, teenagers, school-aged children, elementary school teachers, an ambulance driver, a minister, a plane pilot, and several cryptozoologists.

The eyewitnesses are as varied as we would expect of persons who each just happened to be in the right place at the right time, to witness a living creature rare enough and usually-reclusive enough to remain undiscovered by Western science.

More Resources:

Australian eyewitness: the psychologist Brian Hennessy

Analysis of two interviews of Gideon Koro on Umboi Island: How many ropens?