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Author Archives: Jonathan Whitcomb

Free Book on Modern “Pterodactyls”

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You may be able to download a free book about reports of living pterosaurs, commonly called pterodactyls. The pdf book is titled Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea. It is 44 pages long and can be viewed on many computers.

pdf nonfiction book on modern pterosaurs in southwest PacificFree digital cryptozoology book

It is not available as a printed book but only as a digital-download book. On the cover is a sketch of the head of the flying creature seen by Patty Carson when she was a little girl in Cuba, around 1965. She drew the picture herself, from her memory, when she was an adult. When it flew away, she saw the long tail. Patty was close enough to see that the “flying dinosaur” had no feathers.

Part of one page from the book

. . . in the 1990’s a few American Biblical creationists began intermittent light expeditions in Papua New Guinea, investigating reports of possible living pterosaurs. This led to more expeditions, from 2002 to 2007, by cryptozoologists who were better prepared and who had more success with interviews and observations.

But why Biblical creationists? For the moment, lay aside any judgment of any concept of earth-age; look only at the recent history of expeditions in Papua New Guinea. Who would be more likely to search for living pterosaurs, those who believed in a major extinction event 65 million years ago or those who believed in many pterosaurs living 6,000 years ago? How much easier to organize an expedition when the organizers are convinced of the recent existence of what is being sought!

A cryptozoology book

Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea is a cryptozoology book, with very little about religion or about the Bible. Yet it does mention the Americans who went to far away jungles to look for the ropen, Americans who believed that the ropen was a pterosaur because they believed in the Old Testament of the Bible.

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Ropen pterosaur in Papua New Guinea

Duane Hodgkinson, now a flight instructor  in Livingston, Montana, in 1944 was  stationed near Finschhafen, in what was  then called New Guinea. After he and his  buddy walked into a clearing, they were  amazed as a large creature flew up into  the air. The men soon realized that it was  no bird that started to circle the clearing. It  had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long.”

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Are flying dragons for real?

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Let’s make the question more precise: Does anybody believe in a large flying creature in Papua New Guinea, an animal that is much bigger than a flying fox fruit bat but which also appears to be without any feathers, an animal that has a long tail and glows brightly at night? Some persons believe that an animal called ropen lives on Umboi Island, flying at night between a mountain and the reef that surrounds the island. Some persons would call it a dragon.

A few Americans believed in the ropen enough to travel to Umboi Island in several short expeditions, beginning in 1994. My name is Jonathan Whitcomb. I led a small expedition there in 2004, and I interviewed natives who had seen the ropen. Over the past eleven years, however, I have done more than just go on a short expedition to a tropical island in the southwest Pacific.

I published the fourth edition of my first nonfiction book in October of 2014: Searching for Ropens and Finding God, about eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, what many people call “pterodactyls.” I have also written two other smaller books about these flying creatures. Some people do believe in real dragons, especially those who have seen this kind of animal themselves.

"Searching for Ropens and Finding God" by J. D. Whitcomb

Nonfiction book on modern pterosaur sightings

This is a long book, written mostly for adults. I plan on writing a book for younger readers, I hope before the end of 2015.

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The dragon called “ropen”

So if you live in the United States, how do you report your encounter with a dragon in a cave? Most important, try using the word “ropen,” rather than “dragon.”

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