ropen – Page 2 – Pterosaur Eyewitness

June 12, 2015January 16, 2019

Ropen Bioluminescence in North America, including in Utah

By the investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

UPDATE: The links in this blog post have been updated with “https” in support of those pages that are secure online. Everything in this post (on the bioluminescence of modern pterosaurs) was already safe; this just verifies that safety.

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Three boys were playing at night on a playground in the farming community of Grantsville, Utah, around the fall of 2001, when they were shocked at the appearance of a large glowing creature that flew overhead. At the first moment that 12-year-old Dallin saw the thing, he had no way of telling if it were several glowing objects flying together or one large object. But Dallin eventually resolved that it was one huge bird, and he shouted to the other two boys that the bird was on “fire.”

By the time his brother Devon saw the creature, it was overhead, and the farm animals nearby were “going crazy” in panic. Devon thought of the legendary Phoenix bird, but he eventually got the impression that it was a strange kind of bioluminescent flying creature, with a wingspan of perhaps 15-20 feet.

That was around 2001, when very few Americans knew anything about investigations into the bioluminescent ropen of Papua New Guinea. And few people in North America were aware of sightings of apparent living pterosaurs, including sightings in the United States.

I interviewed both Dallin and Devon face-to-face in 2015, recording their testimonies on video.

Dallin described to Jonathan Whitcomb the strange flying creature seen by the three eyewitnesses

After the videotaped interviews, I wondered if that night was not the first time that the apparent ropen had flown over that area of Grantsville, Utah. Devon and Dallin both told me of the noise the farm animals made when the creature flew overhead, at least when it was glowing. That degree of panic, among a number of farm animals, is consistent with the idea that one or more of those animals had been attacked on a previous night.

I believe that the truth will eventually come out into the open and that these glowing flying creatures will be seen to be related to the Marfa Lights of Texas and to the ropen lights of Papua New Guinea.

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Flying Lights: Bioluminescent Predators?

I am now beginning to dig more deeply into reports of strange flying lights around Brown Mountain in Burke County, North Carolina. . . . have researched the most mysterious of the Marfa Lights, concluding that they are from bioluminescent flying predators (BFP) that return to the same general area of Texas every few weeks. [The more mysterious of the Marfa Lights of southwest Texas have baffled the investigators who had assumed they are non-living energy forces.]

The Bioluminescent Ropen

On Umboi Island (Morobe Province), the ropen has a 5-6-second bioluminescent glow that the natives see when the creature is about one hundred meters above the ground (although villagers sometimes see it over a reef). . . . In 2004, in central Umboi Island, Jonah Jim was interviewed twice: by Whitcomb and, a few weeks later, by Guessman and Woetzel. . . . it ties the glowing form to the pterosaur-like form. He saw it glowing and he saw its long tail (obviously not a Flying Fox fruit bat).

Locations of Pterosaurs in the United States

Within hours of a sighting, a ropen (or other modern pterosaur) could be many miles away, with who-knows-what destination. Within years of a sighting, a ropen could be on the other side of the planet. Who knows, except that ropen?

Pterosaur Sightings in Utah

. . . we stared up at the night sky . . . [My brother] suddenly noticed something and started yelling something about a giant bird . . . At around the same time, the animals in the farm next to us started going berserk.

April 24, 2015

Pterosaur Sighting in Papua New Guinea Early in 2015

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.

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

April 10, 2015January 16, 2019

Rhamphorhynchoid Pterosaurs

By the nonfiction cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

UPDATE: “https” has been added to the links on this post (about long-tailed modern pterosaurs). This demonstrates that those posts and pages are safe (internet security).

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For many years, many scientists have assumed that the Rhamphorhynchoidea suborder of pterosaurs was an early “primitive” type, ancestral to the Pterodactyloidea (the shorter tailed ones depicted in movies). Yet modern sightings of long-tailed featherless flying creatures suggests many older ideas need to be examined in a new light. Remember that real science allows progress in discoveries, allowing new interpretations as well.

The point comes from the many eyewitness sighting reports from around the world.

Two apparent “pterodactyls” observed in Cuba, in 1971, by Eskin Kuhn, who drew the sketch

From nonfiction book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (4th edition)

“Before scientists created words like Rhamphorhynchoid for long-tailed pterosaurs, common folk used the word dragon for large destructive creatures, including those with long tails and wings but no feathers.” (page 8)

“Maybe some stories of fire-breathing flying dragons were mostly based on giant bioluminescent Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs. That’s what I believe.” (page 9)

“Prior to September of 2004, I had assumed what other ropen investigators had assumed regarding two pterosaur types: Rhamphorhynchoids, small and long-tailed, rarely have head crests; Pterodactyloids, large and short-tailed, commonly have head crests. But this perspective, based on standard knowledge of pterosaur fossils, by the end of 2004 we found was too simplistic. [regarding modern sightings]” (page 26)

“The interviews revealed many details about the ropen and gave us hope that future investigators may videotape and photograph a ropen by camping near Lake Pung. I believe these testimonies suggest this creature is a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur, in spite of the giant size.” (page 82)

“Guessman estimated the distance: nose-to-tail length was eleven feet. From thirty-four silhouettes of bats, birds, and pterosaurs, Ragu chose the Sordes pilosus, a Rhamphorhynchoid (“basal”) pterosaur.” (page 96)

“What about the tail? When asked about its movement, villagers said that it never bends; Dickson, however, added a critical detail: The tail is stiff except where it connects to the body. . . . Guessman was thrilled, for pterosaur fossils indicate that the tail could not bend much except at a few vertebrae near where it connected to the body. Guessman took this as strong evidence that the ropen is a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur.” (page 98)

“I analyzed data from the late-2012 compilation of more-credible sightings and learned that 41% of eyewitnesses saw a long tail and only 2% noticed the absence of one. I know that leaves 57% of the 128 reports in doubt regarding that one evidence for Rhamphorhynchoids, but a twenty-to-one ratio leaves no doubt: Long tails dominate.” page 178)

Apparent Sordes Pilosus of Umboi Island

Silhouette chosen by two native eyewitnesses on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

In the second ropen expedition of 2004 (led by David Woetzel and Garth Guessman), several natives were interviewed, eyewitnesses who could have seen the creature well enough to choose from among 34 silhouettes shown to them by the two Americans. Yet when I examined the reports brought back to the United States by Guessman, it appeared to me that only two of the native eyewitnesses had good-enough views to reliably choose which image was closest to what was observed. Those 34 silhouettes, by the way, were of birds, bats, and pterosaurs.

Jonah Jim and Jonathan Ragu both choose the image of a Sordes pilosus, which is a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. That appears to relate to the three eyewitness reports from my own expedition on Umboi, a bit earlier in 2004, when both a long tail and “diamond” were mentioned (Gideon Koro, Wesley Koro, and Mesa Augustin).

Those interviews in Papua New Guinea in 2004 do not scientifically prove the ropen is very closely related to the Sordes pilosus, but it gives strong cryptozoological evidence that it may be related to that pterosaur known from fossils.

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End of tail on Rhamphorhynchoid

. . . a reference to what I have long presented as evidence for a Rhamphorhynchoid tail in featherless flying creatures that are observed worldwide: a structure at the end of a long tail, sometimes called a “diamond.”

South Carolina Pterosaur

The strange creature flew gracefully over the highway, right in front of the car Susan Wooten was driving to Florence, South Carolina. Other drivers stopped their cars on the side of the road (in the general area of Bishopville) but Susan drove on . . .

Tail Vane Orientation

According to at least a couple of key eyewitnesses, it is horizontal. Patty Carson was sure of this in [creature] she had observed in Cuba in 1965; an anonymous eyewitness in Lakewood, California, was sure of this in the “dragon” she had observed on June 19, 2012, at mid-day. Both of these persons had a close encounter in clear daylight.

Ropen Still Living

How often we’ve been taught that all dinosaurs and pterosaurs became extinct millions of years ago, as if that were proven! But what if some are still living? Before you dismiss the concept of a modern pterosaur (in particular, of a long-tailed featherless Rhamphorhynchoid), consider the many eyewitness testimonies of those flying creatures.

Nonfiction Books Mentioning Non-Extinct Pterosaurs

. . . the ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents . . . some of which ascend out of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men at unawares . . . [Moses led an army from Egypt before he became a prophet]

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Live Pterosaurs in America – true-nonfiction by Jonathan Whitcomb

This cryptozoology book about extant pterosaurs is probably both the most popular and highest rated nonfiction, on this subject, on Amazon. One critic mentioned its weakness: It gives limited space to disproving extinction ideas; it simply reveals to the readers what Americans have encountered. Here’s an example of part of one eyewitness report:

In July of 2008, I received a phone call from a man who reported a very large flying creature, seen one year earlier, in Orange County, less than one mile north of the University of California at Irvine. He described the dark gray or black animal as 30 feet long, with 15-16 feet of that being a tail. He saw the creature fly “at low altitude,” in front of his car, over the road (Campus Drive), into the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, in daylight.