ropen – Page 3 – Pterosaur Eyewitness

November 25, 2014

Donald Prothero and “Fake Pterosaurs”

Another paleontologist has stepped outside his field of expertise and railed against my writings about modern pterosaurs: Donald Prothero, who specializes in mammalian paleontology, according to Wikipedia. His November 24, 2014, post is titled “Fake Pterosaurs and Sock Puppets” on skeptic.com. I avoid linking to libelous pages, and this one includes “Whitcomb admitted the deception in July, 2014” and links to one of my posts. Strange to tell, but that post of mine explains why I was NOT being dishonest in using pen names. Here’s the link: Jonathan Whitcomb pen names. It gives me some hope that Prothero was making an honest mistake, when he included that link; nevertheless, his post appears sure to lead his readers astray from the truth, not only about my motivations but about investigations of living-pterosaur sighting reports in general. I must respond.

I’ll not say much about the sock puppet accusations here; I’ve written much on it already. For those who go to that link in question, it may become obvious that I was not trying to deceive anybody concerning reports of modern living pterosaurs, including the flying creature called ropen; for those who read only that post by Prothero, however, it can seem like I’ve tried to deceive people about the ropen and that I did so almost single-handedly. Let us look deeper.

Do “virtually all” writings about the ropen come from just one person: Jonathan Whitcomb?

My blog posts and web pages outnumber those of anyone else on the subject of modern “pterodactyls” or primitive flying creatures that have been assumed to have been long extinct; that need not suggest that I have been dishonest. Skeptics include at least three of the best-known paleontologists in the world; that need not suggest my investigation over the past eleven years has been in vain. Look at some details.

Notice, if you read that post by Dr. Prothero, the absence of the following words:

Umboi
expedition
exploration
eyewitness

Now notice the absence of the following names of explorers, on his post:

Paul Nation
Garth Guessman
David Woetzel
Jacob Kepas
James Blume

“Whitcomb” is found twelve times on his post. If only it were saying only nice things about people. Oh well, I’m getting used to it.

What does Donald Prothero think I have been writing about for eleven years? Most of my web page publications have been in blog-post format, and those posts number well over a thousand. Yet to anyone who wants to look deeper, it will become obvious why Google has not penalized my pages about eyewitness accounts of these flying creatures: My posts are not spam-repetition of previously published pages. Their quoting of other pages is limited, as is this post by Prothero (“Fake Pterosaurs and Sock Puppets”).

A paleontologist has stepped outside his area of expertise in yet another way, declaring that my online writings are a “classic case” of “sock puppetry” online. Nonsense! The majority of my posts have been under my name of Jonathan Whitcomb (or Jon Whitcomb), NOT any pen name. And by the way, for a spammer to use many alias would hardly hide repetitive content from detection by a search engine system like Google. It seems Prothero is again outside his field of knowledge, making another assumption without any deep investigation beforehand. (I’ll leave sock puppetry for another post, but I used two pen names because I was falsely accused of dishonesty, NOT to be dishonest. Readers really needed to be enlightened by eyewitness reports, without being distracted by my name.)

Expeditions in Papua New Guinea

I was surprised at the way Prothero referred to the Destination Truth and Monsterquest episodes that related to the ropen of Papua New Guinea. He declares that those two television show episodes were “based on the obsessions of one individual.” Really?! I was consulted by the pre-production researchers of both Destination Truth and Monsterquest before their expeditions in the southwest Pacific, it is true. But many persons have been involved in interviews in Papua New Guinea, before my own 2004 expedition in that remote area of the planet.

Again Mr. Prothero appears to have stepped outside his area of expertise. I would not have expected him to deeply investigate how those two production teams decided to include the ropen in their shows, yet one paleontologist has taken a big leap of faith, and a blind leap apparently, in assuming that I, Jonathan Whitcomb, as a lone individual, inspired those television producers to pay for teams to be sent to Papua New Guinea. Some of my web pages may have caught their attention but the power of persuasion was in the eyewitness testimonies.

Other paleontologists, including Darren Naish, have at least dipped their toes into the ocean of eyewitness sighting reports, before rejecting everything that chilled them. Dr. Prothero seems to pretend that the ocean does not even exist, at least in this post “Fake Pterosaurs and Sock Puppets.” Dr. Prothero, burying ones head in a fossil bed in the middle of North America does not make the Pacific Ocean disappear.

Eyewitnesses are the point

For those who read his post about me, I would ask, “Where do I get new material for writing countless web pages about apparent living pterosaurs?” I promise I do not just repeat myself endlessly. I continue to get emails from eyewitnesses of flying creatures that appear to have been living pterosaurs. I now have reports from eyewitnesses from four continents and from islands in the Pacific. No need for much repetition. I write about new sighting reports and compare them to older accounts.

Now please notice the following names of eyewitnesses, persons from various places and with various backgrounds and religious beliefs. Each of these names is found in the fourth edition of my nonfiction book Searching for Ropens and Finding God. Not all of them believe in modern pterosaurs, but most of them do, having seen them. (Some of these persons witnessed a flying light at night, rather than the form of an apparent pterosaur.)

Blume, James
Bunnel, James
Carson, Patty
Cheesman, Evelyn
Conrad, Venice
Cooper, Sherry
Cottingham, Steven
Eunice of Umboi Island
Fabian of Salamaua
Gates, Joshua
Gima, William
Grotty, Rob
Guessman, Garth
Hennessy, Brian
Hodgkinson, Duane
Jonah Jim
Kau, Mark
Kepas, Jacob
Koro, Gideon
Koro, Wesley
Kuhn, Eskin
Laura in Arkansas
Leonard of Opai
Marcy, Milt
Meixner, Kevin
Moke, David
Nation, Paul
Nolo, Dickson
Norman, Scott
Paina, Luke
Paradise, Sandra
Quiroz, Lydia
Ragu, Jonathan
Rhodriquez, Devin
Schroder, David
Stew (in Mexico)
Watters, Professor Steven
Woetzel, David
Wooten, Susan
Zacharia of Owongai Village

The above is not a complete listing, in my book, of all the eyewitnesses of possible pterosaurs, but it should suffice.

Why not listen to the eyewitnesses? They are the point of all these investigations in cryptozoology, including the work of my associates, Paul Nation, Cliff Paiva, Garth Guessman, David Woetzel, Jacob Kepas, and others. I testify that I have not been alone in this work, and the eyewitnesses deserve to be heard.

Eunice, an eyewitness on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

Garth Guessman and Duane Hodgkinson, both eyewitnesses of one or more living pterosaurs

David Woetzel, another cryptozoologist-eyewitness of living pterosaurs

Jonathan Whitcomb, nonfiction writer and author who believes many of the eyewitnesses

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Is there no new evidence for modern pterosaurs?

Ricky Kearns and family members witnessed a large flying creature at night, and it had wings that were glowing. This was in Point Pleasant, although Ricky mentioned to me that what he saw did not look like what the Mothman is reported to look like. Nevertheless, there may be a relationship with some sightings of what has been labeled “Mothman.”

Modern pterosaurs, AKA “flying dinosaurs”

Look up “pterosaur” in a dictionary and one of the first words you’ll see is “extinct.” Many Americans call them “pterodactyls” or “flying dinosaurs.” Few Americans have admitted believing that those “prehistoric” flying creatures could still be living, few indeed, until recently.

Flying creature of the night

So who do you call? I hope you’ll contact me, Jonathan Whitcomb. As far as I know, I am the only person on earth who has devoted anything like a full-time effort, over years, to interview eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs or ropens, promoting the idea that these flying creatures are not extinct but very much alive.

Live Pterosaur Media – press releases

A physicist [Clifford Paiva], who examined video footage of two strange lights that explorers think are bioluminescent pterosaurs, declares that the glow is not from meteors, lanterns, campfires or an airplane.

A quest for discovering modern pterosaurs

September 8, 2014January 3, 2019

Ropen “Extinction” on Wikipedia

By the investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

The “ropen” page on Wikipedia, at one time, had many paragraphs, delighting some cryptozoologists but annoying some skeptics. One biology professor in Minnesota, in particular, detested the many web pages he saw that supported belief in modern living pterosaurs, including the long-tailed ropen. It may have been a coincidence, but when he wrote his own blog post, ridiculing me about my writings about the ropen—that was about the time that the “ropen” page became extinct on Wikipedia. With limited warning, it was deleted, with the excuse that it did not provide enough mainstream opinion about the flying cryptid.

Why did no biologist or paleontologist seem to make any “ropen” statement on Wikipedia? Who knows? I tried to quote the words of one paleontologist Dr. David Martill, to save the Wikipedia page from deletion, but one self-appointed editor, with not enough patience to look deeply, deleted my quotation. It was unfair, but I could not spare more hours of work to submit text that could again be deleted within five minutes.

The “Ropen” page was censored through deletion on Wikipedia

I don’t think Dr. Martill (the pterosaur fossil expert) had anything to do with deleting the Wikipedia page; whether of not the biology professor in Minnesota caused the censoring, directly or indirectly, I don’t know. But since the man in Minnesota railed against the countless web pages that I, Jonathan Whitcomb, have written on the subject of modern pterosaurs, I now submit the following as evidence that I am not the “only” source of information about ropens. None of the following three pages were written by me:

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

I don’t believe this page is perfectly accurate in all details. The wingspan estimate given by Duane Hodgkinson was actually about twenty-nine feet rather than twenty feet, for it was similar to the size of a Piper Tri-Pacer. Also, I do not believe that “demon flyer” is the literal meaning of the word “ropen.”

Unknown-Explorers – Ropen

I also see problems with some details on this page, including the wingspan estimates and confusion about “ropen” and “duah.” Different names of flying creatures, among natives having hundreds of different village languages, is hardly evidence that different species of animals are being described. Some ropens are small and older ones are larger. “Duah” surely is a mistake by a Western explorer, many years ago; the correct name is “duwas.”

Ropen on Destination Truth

This actually has little text. It does mention extinction being avoided by this “pterodactyl”-like creature. The page has links to Destination Truth pages on cryptids like the Orang Pendek, Ogopogo, and Swamp Ape.

Critics and Bulverism

The British author and philosopher C. S. Lewis used the word “bulverism” for the habit some people fell into to avoid actual reasoning on topics. A person may dismiss an opposing idea by explaining why the opponent is “so silly.” Some critics of modern-pterosaur investigations find fault with imagined motivations of me and my associates, using that bulverism to avoid the real issue of whether or not all species of pterosaurs became extinct. Why not, instead, just discuss the subject?

UPDATE: January 3, 2019

As of January 2, 2019, there is still no page on the English Wikipedia named “ropen.” On the other hand, it does have a page titled Kongamoto, which is about a cryptid in Africa that seems to resemble the ropen of Papua New Guinea. Wikipedia also has a page on the winged cryptid Orang-bati, which is reported to fly in Indonesia.

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Ropen made extinct on Wikipedia

. . . his blog post may have contributed to the extinction of that page on Wikipedia, however (“There are no living pterosaurs and ‘ropen’ is a stupid fantasy”). It seems likely that one or more of his students or one or more of the readers of his post were involved.

Ropen Q & A – Modern Pterosaur

I just got an email from a reader of my digital nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea. The man’s questions deserve answers but for everybody, not just this one reader.

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013

Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology – A Global Guide

At a list price of $75, the Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology is not for everybody, but for cryptozoology readers who visit libraries it is priceless; I found a copy in the main branch of the Long Beach (California) Public Library. This is one of the twelve reference works awarded special acclaim, in 2006, by the American Library Association; regarding the selection process, the RUSA states, “The titles . . . represent high-quality reference works that are suitable for small to medium-sized libraries.”

Keep in mind the publishing date: January 6, 2005, just a few weeks after the two ropen expeditions of 2004. The book was surely written before the author, Michael Newton, had any reasonable opportunity to become aware of critical new insights that my associates and I had obtained in those two expeditions. In addition, much more has been learned since 2005.

An astonishing 2744 cryptids are included in this massive reference work, from accounts and stories and resources from around the world; a few of those suggest modern living pterosaurs. Please do not judge this book negatively because of the insights gained within the last nine years, regarding the ropen of Papua New Guinea and similar pterosaur-like cryptids in the southwest Pacific. Encyclopedias are not expected to remain completely up-to-date forever.

Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology – A Global Guide (by Michael Newton)

Geography

Let’s consider new insights, regarding the ropen; but we first need to be clear about geography. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is now an independent state, a nation that includes the eastern portion of the island of New Guinea (the second-largest island in the world). Sometimes the three-word designation for the country is used incorrectly, as if it designates a particular island, which is does not. When you want to refer to the largest island in that part of the world, regardless of political boundaries, just say “New Guinea.”

When you’re in PNG (literally or in conversation) and you want to refer to the main area of that country (the eastern part of the island of New Guinea), just say “the mainland.” The western area of that island is part of another nation and that is another subject.

Ropen of Umboi Island

Westerners use the name “Umboi” for what people of PNG now call “Siasi,” or “Big Siasi.” (I noticed a couple of mispellings for “Umboi” in the Encylopedia of Cryptozoology.) Some villages on that island use the word “ropen” for the large glowing creature that flies around at night. I know of no other island in which a local language uses that word in that way, contrary to what seems to have come from sources that contributed to this encyclopedia.

The word “ropen” is surely not a compound word formed from “demon” and “flyer,” whatever the original language involved (although some native, years ago, may have used “demon flyer” as a quick answer for an inquisitive Westerner); Michael Newton does not explicitly state that in his cryptozoology book, but something like that could be implied.

Unfortunately, some web pages now proclaim “demon flyer” as if it were a translation of the word “ropen,” which it surely is not. For those who like to cling to that direct-translation idea, consider this: The native Baptist minister Jacob Kepas comes from a village in the Wau area of Morobe Province, and he told the American explorer Garth Guessman, in a videotaped interview in late-2004, that the word “ropen,” where he comes from, simply means “bird.” Few persons, anywhere, consider all birds to be demons.

We Westerners need to remember the consequences of learning one word in one village language in this area of the world in which hundreds of languages have complex relationships. A word in one village can have a different meaning (closely-related or not) from that same word in another village, and completely different words often have the same meaning, of course, in another local language. How different is that from the USA, where one language dominates!

Duwas versus Duah

“Duah” is probably a distortion from some Westerner who heard the word “duwas” and thought of “duah” as the singular; it is not. The only real word I know (in the southwest Pacific) that is close to “duah” is the Tok Pisin word for “door.” To the best of my knowledge, there is no animal, real or unreal, that in a local PNG language is called “duah.”

In 2003, while examining Paul Nation’s video footage from expeditions through 2002, I noticed an interview from around 1994. A native described how fish were stolen, one night, from a camp where his father had been sleeping. The man interviewed said, “In our language we call it ‘duwas.'” I believe he recognized that “ropen” on Umboi Island has basically the same meaning as “duwas.”

Conclusion

The Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology, with all its wonderful details about thousands of cryptids, carries on the questionable speculation that two different names in Papua New Guinea refer to two types of ropen, which is unlikely. Nevertheless it reveals how seriously some investigators and explorers consider the possibility that a strange unclassified flying creature lives in the southwest Pacific.

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Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition (by Jonathan David Whitcomb)

A Specific Cryptozoology book: Live Pterosaurs in America

From the Title Page:

Reports of huge flying “pterodactyls” in American skies have floated around the internet for years; but before about 2005, details were scarce. When an eyewitness was named, the interviewer was often anonymous; even when an eyewitness was credible, and the account published in a newspaper, the story was ridiculed, discouraging others who had also seen strange flying creatures. Where could eyewitnesses go? What a predicament for them! Who would believe their reports? [before 2005—now it’s believable]

From the Introduction:

This book might make a few Americans uneasy to walk alone at night; my intention, however, is not to frighten but to enlighten as many readers as possible to know about live-pterosaur investigations. Those who’ve been shocked at the sight of a flying creature that “should” be extinct—those eyewitnesses, more numerous than most Americans would guess, need no longer be afraid that everyone will think them crazy, and no longer need they feel alone. Those of us who’ve listened to the American eyewitnesses, we who have interviewed them, we now believe. So, if you will, consider the experiences of these ordinary persons (I’ve interviewed most of them myself) and accept whatever enlightenment you may.