The third edition of my cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens (which will be retitled “Searching for Dragons”) should be published by around November of this year [postponed because of the publication of the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America]. Like earlier editions, many eyewitness sightings of pterosaurs or the ropen of Papua New Guinea are included. But this new edition will be more in the cryptozoology genre rather than religious-cryptozoological. Nevertheless, it will be clear about the religious beliefs of the cryptozoologists who explored remote tropical rain forests in Papua New Guinea, searching for the elusive nocturnal flying creatures that we feel sure are modern pterosaurs.
Although the upcoming third edition will have many additions and improvements, it seems appropriate to quote a bit from the second edition.
Searching for Ropens
The investigators interviewed Dickson Nolo, a man from Mararamu Village. He saw a ropen a few days earlier, on October 22, at 10 p.m., as it flew over a beach (something like “Makopit” Beach) from the direction of Mount Tolo. Glowing brightly, the skinny creature was between two and three meters long, from nose to tail.
Before leaving this part of the island, the men found Jonah Jim, the same young man I had met south of Lake Pung a few weeks earlier. Guessman’s interview was more thorough. Jonah’s sighting, in July of 2001, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., revealed that the creature was flying between 500 and 550 feet high, coming from the sea and heading for Tanglup or Tolo. All six members of his family were together when the ropen, without wing flapping, flew “directly overhead.” . . . The “wingspan” was six to seven meters; tail length, two-and-a-half to three meters . . .
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The book In Witchbound Africa (by Frank Melland) “describes it as living along certain rivers, and very dangerous, often attacking small boats, and anybody who disturbed the creature. They are typically described as either red or black in color, with a wingspan of four to seven feet.
“It had a 20-30 foot wingspan and was about the same length long. It had a long tail with [a] seeming spike at the end. Its head was very pterodactyl shape with a fluted back pointy head. It glided at about 700 feet in a westward direction . . . We watched it glide . . . and land somewhere on the southern expanse of Magdalena Mountains.”
One man, Leroy Jones, used to talk about area ranchers in the late-1800s who swore they had seen pterosaurs — reptilian and enormous and startlingly alive — swooping over the desert hills and scrub brush of New Mexico’s southwestern Boot Heel.
The following compilations of eyewitness testimonies [about ropens] and second-hand accounts, are supplemented by the conclusions of Jonathan Whitcomb. It seems that at least two types of long-tailed modern pterosaurs live in the Southwest Pacific, although there may be sub-species variations. Reports of smaller creatures (under three meters wingspan) in the Manus Island area of Papua New Guinea might be juveniles of the same species as the larger creatures to the south.
This simulation is with a hypothetical planet with at least the water content of the earth. Beginning with simple one-celled organisms (relying on sunlight for energy) as the only life forms, simulations are made on the growths of sub-populations. These groups are characterized by several general types of non-harmful mutations. They are categorized by the general effects of those mutations. . . .
Evolutionary Boundary Conclusions:
These simulations have been done using the assumption that increases in the useful-information content of DNA might result in evolutionary creation of a multi-cellular structure absent in the ancestors. I know of no evidence for any such case in the real world. The simulations show that should such increases occur in nature, within a very large sample of competing organisms natural selection would eliminate those organisms that might show potential for major evolutionary change. Should any such potential changes occur in a smaller environment, the plausibility is even weaker.
Post on the Evolutionary Boundary
“An Evolutionary Boundary” involves simple math, for a biologically saturated environment is the normal condition to be expected, and the population calculations are simple. I’ll get to the point. After about six months of calculations, using computer programs I wrote myself, the original population of organisms of 10e29 (the number having “1″ followed by twenty-nine zeros), after only a few generations, had only a minute fraction of viable candidates for macro-evolutionary change. But the critical point is this: Those competitive populations that did not have any macro-evolutionary potential vastly outnumbered those that did, and their competitiveness was at least equal to the “Darwinian” candidates.
My investigations of reports of living pterosaurs (including the ropen of Papua New Guinea) came after I had completed my Evolutionary Boundary study, for I then had scientific evidence, clear mathematical evidence, against Darwin’s General Theory of Evolution.
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Third edition of the nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America
From an Amazon review of the second edition (“stevie”): “. . . this author has really done a lot of work researching this issue. . . . the author tried hard to deliver these stories and was very good at it. This is well written and very hard to put down.”
From another Amazon review of the second edition: “I couldn’t put this book down. It is absolutely fascinating to read about eyewitness accounts of the people who have seen these creatures. To learn about these testimonies from such an open minded perspective is refreshing in the extreme! . . . I highly recommend this book to anyone! People should know the truth about what is going on. No one ever
hears anything about this unless they conduct extremely specific internet searches, even then, information is minimal. Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books!” (“StrangeDream” awarded five stars out of five on Amazon.com)
From a reader of a preliminary version of the third edition: “. . . there is something here for everyone, whether you are a child or adult . . . once you start reading it you won’t want to put it down . . . based on years of research it is that much more amazing and awe inspiring. Out of five stars I’ll give it all five” (Isaac Elekom, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
From a reader of the first edition: “He has focused on the accounts of witnesses who saw something, and that adds credibility. The writing is easy to read and he adds comments and analysis to make it all more useful. Mostly, the author lets the sightings speak for themselves, which is good. A worthwhile book.” (Red Rabbit, Cleveland, Ohio, awarded the book five stars out of five)
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