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Pterosaur Sighting in Papua New Guinea Early in 2015

Eora Creek Village, Papua New Guinea

Peter Beach and Milt Marcy, both of the Portland area of Oregon, led an expedition in Papua New Guinea, in March and April of 2015, searching for a living pterosaur that previous American explorers had failed to see clearly. This time Americans did see, in daylight, the form and features of an apparent pterosaur.

The exact location in Papua New Guinea is undisclosed for the present, while follow up investigation continues there. Unfortunately no photos or video were obtained during the sighting.

Beach and Marcy hope for success with a native who was given a camera and appeared determined to get back into that area of the jungle to videotape a pterosaur.

Eora Creek Village, Papua New Guinea

Generic photo of huts in Papua New Guinea, not directly related to the 2015 apparent-pterosaur sighting

Non-Ropen Pterosaur Sighting in 2015

The recent sighting in Papua New Guinea involved several eyewitnesses, including the Americans Peter Beach and Milt Marcy. I interviewed them separately, in three phone conversations, from April 20-23, soon after they had returned from their expedition, having been away in the southwest Pacific for about six weeks.

Marcy told me he does not want to go on record as being 100% convinced it was a pterosaur that they had seen. He did agree, however, to the estimate that it was more than 50% likely to have been so.

Peter Beach, a former biology professor, has tried to come up with some non-pterosaur explanation for what they saw, but as of April 23, 2015 (during our second phone conversation) he could not, for it was too much like a pterosaur. He could not see any evidence of feathers, so a bird seems questionable; he saw soaring-gliding flight, so a Flying Fox fruit bat is practically eliminated. He saw huge wings that were leathery and they gave an impression more like a parachute than like feathery wings.

From the telephone interviews I had with those two Americans and from what I have learned from other eyewitnesses in that area of Papua New Guinea, I believe this recent sighting was of a Pterodactyloid (short-tailed) pterosaur. In other words, it was probably not a long-tailed ropen, but it was what many Americans would call a pterodactyl.

Significance to Living-Pterosaur Investigations

Careless skeptical speculations about dishonesty in natives in Papua New Guinea—that decomposing body needs to be buried and never again dug up, so to speak. Most of the more-credible sighting reports of apparent pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific have been by Western eyewitnesses, anyway. Some of them have included the following:

  • Duane Hodgkinson (in recent decades a flight instructor)
  • Brian Hennessy (in recent years a professional psychologist)
  • An Australian couple (together they saw the huge creature in Perth)
  • A British pilot and Australian co-pilot flying northwest from Australia

That is not to say that natives of Papua New Guinea have had fewer encounters or less dramatic ones than Americans and Australians. After all, some of those native eyewitnesses have been carried off and eaten by some of the larger flying creatures (according to some indirect reports), and you can’t get closer or more dramatic than that. But we Westerners have a lot fewer detailed reports from natives we can directly question in face-to-face interviews.

Careless speculations that ropens or modern pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea are only legends—that does not fit with human experience, and it is human experience that lives at the heart of scientific progress.

Background of Peter Beach and Milt Marcy

I had interviewed both men last year, on the banks of the Yakima River in southeastern Washington state. They had witnessed flying lights over that river and knew a man who had reported an apparent “pterodactyl” in a tree on the bank of that river. But before their recent expedition in Papua New Guinea, they had never seen an apparent pterosaur in daylight, with form and features visible.

I submit that these two men would not have spend many thousands of dollars on this expedition in Papua New Guinea if they intended to deceive anybody. A liar would have just declared seeing a clear form of a pterosaur in southeastern Washington state, rather than spend his own money to go to Papua New Guinea to look for those flying creatures.

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Possible Ropen off Coast of Indonesia

H. put the plane into a dive but the creature also dived. H. then avoided a collision by banking away from what he and his co-pilot thought was something like a “pterodactyl.”

Pterosaur Expedition in Papua New Guinea

On Saturday, April 18, 2015, two American explorers returned from Papua New Guinea, after searching for living pterosaurs on a tropical island where the creatures were previously reported. . . . Both Americans saw, in daylight, a huge apparent living pterosaur.

Ropen or Pterodactyl Seen by American

In 1944, in (Papua) New Guinea, Duane Hodgkinson and his friend saw a “pterodactyl” with a wingspan similar to a Piper Tri-Pacer (29 feet).

Ropen-Pterosaur Seen in Washington State?

On August 6, 2014, I interviewed Milt Marcy and Peter Beach on the bank of the Yakima River in Washington state. I knew, when we arrived for the interview, about the flying light that they had witnessed one night and the apparent pterosaur that another man had encountered in daylight

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South Carolina Sighting

sketch of the South Carolina PterosaurSusan Wooten first communicated with me, by email, in 2007, and I was delighted that she wanted to share her sighting with others. Over the years, she has established her credibility as a reliable eyewitness of what Western society is sometimes unprepared to accept: Some Americans, sometimes, see flying creatures that can only be described as living pterosaurs. Please consider now her testimony in light of other accounts.

South Carolina Pterosaur

Susan Wooten, of Greenville, South Carolina, was driving from Greenville to Florence (about 1989) when she saw a giant creature glide over the highway. . . . “It looked as big as any car, and had NO feathers, not like a huge crane or egret. . . . it swooped down over the highway and back up gracefully over the pines.” . . . a remote swampy area.

A number of other web pages include parts of Susan Wooten’s testimony of what she observed flying over the highway in South Carolina years ago. It’s important to consider related eyewitness accounts, for some critics have sought to simply dismiss this account as if it were an anomaly. But many Americans have reported similar creatures flying in many states of the United States, from California to Maine and from Washington state to Florida.

Also keep in mind that Ms. Wooten has been interviewed a number of times, over several years, and she is clear about her frame of mind when the sighting happened: She was not under the influence of anything that could have caused her to hallucinate. In addition, several other witnesses stopped their cars on the side of the highway right after the creature had flown overhead; that verifies that she was not alone in observing something very strange.

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"Live Pterosaurs in America" nonfiction book front coverShocking? Perhaps, but it is true. Did you know that living pterosaurs have been reported in North America, even in the United States? Read the many eyewitness sighting reports;  buy the nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America, on Amazon or from the publisher. Your purchase shall help support this research.

One reader said, “I found this book very interesting. . . . The problem with science is that we think we know it all and that is far from reality. This book shows courage to continue the search. If you have an interest in cryptozoology you should read this.” (Dale Reeder, Pennsylvania)

This has been the number-one best-selling book, by far, on Amazon.com for nonfiction books about living pterosaurs. (late 2009 through mid-2010, compared with “Searching for Ropens,” “Dinosaurs, Dead or Alive,” and “Big Bird.”) Find out why by reading it yourself.

It includes many details not available on web pages, including much about Susan Wooten’s sighting in South Carolina.

Mount Dandenong, Australia, Sighting

I received an email late in 2009, from M. H. (anonymous).

“I live in Australia in the state of Victoria near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 [kilometers] east of Melbourne. . . . around the late 1990’s . . . I saw was what I first thought was a pelican flying about 3000 feet high but realised pelicans at that height did not look as large as this . . . [it was about 9 p.m.] It was full moon . . . It was something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here . . . This thing was at least as large as . . . say a Cesna. . . . lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. Very strange . . . I had it under observation for about 5 mins . . .”

In Australia, this man is not alone, witnessing what our Western culture implies is impossible. I have communicated with several other Australians, over the past six years, and they have seen similar giant flying creatures. But the others have had much closer encounters.