ropen – The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs

May 11, 2022

Youtube Videos About Pterodactyl Sightings

By Jonathan Whitcomb

The following videos, on the Youtube channel “Protect Animal Life”, are some of the more recent ones on eyewitness reports on these flying creatures, many of which live in North America:

New Pterodactyl Sighting Report From Colorado (girl on horseback)

The huge flying creature flew by them, close to the ground, fortunately seeming to ignore the horse and rider; perhaps it was hunting different prey (after all, some humans on horseback have guns but wild animals on the plains and domestic cattle can be safer prey for an apparent modern pterodactyl).

https://youtu.be/eIkWOhIMFV0

Pterodactyl Sightings NOT Birds Misidentified

Can someone see a common bird and think it was a pterodactyl? Yes, and that does happen but not as often as some critics proclaim or insinuate. Comparatively few living-pterosaur reports come from a misidentification of a feathered bird. That becomes more obvious when we consider biologists who declare that they have seen live pterosaurs.

https://youtu.be/Xt2ugbYlfOo

Ropens – Long Tail – Pterodactyl in Ohio

Modern-pterosaur researchers and searchers are hoping for more eyewitness testimonies of live pterodactyls, so what is to be done? Some eyewitnesses of these flying creatures keep searching the sky for a second encounter, and sometimes it pays off.

It certainly did for a biologist in Ohio, who had a second sighting of a non-extinct pterosaur. This time his wife was with him. With both encounters, this biologist was sure that what they encountered was not any kind of bird but a living pterosaur, what many persons would call a “pterodactyl”.

Pterodactyls in North Carolina – ROPEN sightings

Flying dinosaurs in the capital city of North Carolina? ALIVE!? Yes, and many persons in Raleigh have seen these large flying creatures, including the eyewitness Cynthia Lee, a veterinary technician. Now we have video evidence from the cell phone of this young lady.

Cynthia Lee had just gotten onto the city bus in Raleigh, North Carolina, when she began videotaping two apparent pterodactyls with her cell phone. Unfortunately, the two flying creatures were going in the opposite direction from which the bus was, making it almost impossible to get any reasonable video footage of the two apparent ropens.

Still, in 2021, this footage was stabilized and magnified, giving us a glimpse of these fascinating flying creatures.

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New Youtube Videos on Living Pterosaurs

In the first four weeks of March, 2020, I uploaded to Youtube five videos about modern pterosaurs (a.k..a. “pterodactyls”) . . .

Ropen or Pterodactyl Sightings in Videos

The following are just a few of the hundreds of Youtube videos, on the channel “Protect Animal Life”, about modern living pterosaurs . . .

The ropen, a living pterosaur

[in the words of Jonathan Whitcomb] Of all the sighting reports, of apparent living pterosaurs, that I have received since the year 2003, the great majority have been from the eyewitnesses themselves. Most of those reports have been emails from the persons who encountered those flying creatures and found me from my online publications. A significant minority of those persons I have been able to interview face to face and others through phone conversations.

Ropen Sighting in Ohio in Late 2016

Last month I got an email from a man who lives in Gahanna, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. He and his teenaged son were driving near their home at 6:45 p.m. on December 19, 2016, when a large creature flew over their car, giving them a quick but close view. It had a wingspan greater than the width of their car.

Living Pterosaur

For generations, Americans and other people in Western nations have been indoctrinated into believing that all species of certain basic types of living things became extinct millions of years ago, the two most notable types being dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

This idea of universal extinction for those two types has become so taken for granted that any person insinuating that one of their species might still be alive may be taken as either insane or as a fanatic deserving no attention.

For generations, however, in various areas of the planet, eyewitnesses have reported living pterosaurs . . .

Pterodactyl Videos on Youtube

The eyewitness said, “I was horseback riding when suddenly my horse stopped dead in her tracks then began to tremble violently . . . I saw it. This thing was huge . . . [sighting in the state of Colorado]

August 6, 2021

Why Believe in the Ropen or Modern “Pterodactyls”

sketch of two flying pterosaurs - "In reality, not all species are extinct."

By Jonathan Whitcomb

Why are some skeptics so insistent that somebody must force them to believe in non-extinct pterosaurs before they will believe? The following is part of a comment made under a Youtube video on my channel Protect Animal Life, and it’s from a young man who used to live in Florida:

Several years after moving to a northern state (during a family get-together) I met a man, and we engaged in conversation. One of the topics included outdoor activities, of which I related my frequent encounters with alligators and how I would attempt (sometimes successfully) to feed leftover food to the “small” (3-4′) who would come into my yard periodically (my property bordered a grown in waterway.)

Well, he practically called me a liar. As it turned out, this man has never visited any southern state nor took any opportunity to leave the boundaries of his home state. To him, what I related regarding my experience was a fantastically fictitious story, and he vocalized this to his chagrin, as several family members and a few guests (who were listening to said conversation) who were fortunate enough to have either lived “down south” or vacationed there (including Florida) collaborated my story, especially with the alligators intruding into “backyards”.

This to me highlights the limited mindset of people when told something outside the scope of their experience, for example ropen. I believe the ropen exist without seeing one, as a substantial amount of creditable people worldwide have experienced and importantly reported the sighting of them.

Thank you for all your painstakingly investigative research and your most valuable time in sharing and enlightening us & those who seek the truths of our world.

Reply from Jonathan Whitcomb (under that Youtube video)

Thank you so much, Nix! How relevant! It reminds me of a desert nomad with much experience moving around a huge desert but with no experience with any whale. Such a person might disbelieve in whales. On top of that, such a nomad might also disbelieve in the possibility of an ocean.

Why we Believe

Eyewitnesses from around the world report large featherless flying creatures, and their descriptions contain significant similarities in details. Keep in mind that those eyewitnesses come from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, languages, and educational experiences. How could those countless hundreds of sightings have been from hoaxes or hallucinations or misidentifications when the persons who saw the similar apparent pterosaurs are so different from one person to another?

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Modern-Pterosaur News – July of 2021

. . . relates to the formation of a nonprofit organization that will specialize in research into reports of non-extinct modern pterosaurs, including the long-tailed featherless ropen . . .

Pterodactyl Sightings – 170+ Videos by mid-2021

This is a Youtube channel trailer video for “Protect Animal Life”, with brief excerpts from seven living-pterosaur videos, out of about 170 total videos on this channel, almost all of which relate to pterodactyl sightings . . .

Short Mini-Documentaries on Modern Pterosaurs

A playlist of many videos on these astonishing featherless flying creatures, videos on the Youtube channel “Protect Animal Life”.

New Youtube Video: “Pterodactyl” Sighting in California

The video is titled “A confession about a pterodactyl” and gives my account of an ironic twist in my life: from a severe skeptic to a firm believer in modern pterosaurs.

Ropen

Duane Hodginson’s description of the giant “pterodactyl” heand his buddy saw in 1944 demonstrates to recent researchersthat the two soldiers had seen a ropen.

December 29, 2018December 29, 2018

Scientific Paper on Modern Pterosaurs

By investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb (nonfiction author)

Introduction

The ten-year anniversary is approaching for the publication of my scientific paper “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific,” so here is an introduction to that peer-reviewed article, with links to images of some of the pages. It was published in Volume 45 of the Creation Research Society Quarterly (issue: Winter of 2009), beginning on page 200 of that issue.

I also include here a few details about some of my cryptozoology books, for the scientific paper is only 13 pages long, and my books have much more information. In addition, the books are more-recently published and contain more-recent sighting reports.

Page 1 of the scientific paper on living pterosaurs

The Abstract refers to standard models of evolution regarding asserted extinctions of all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. It also refers to the Flood of Genesis and to the young-earth view that allows for the possibility that some of the pterosaurs survived extinction. It also mentions that some descriptions suggest a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur lives in Papua New Guinea and that expeditions were made on Umboi Island.

Page 2 of “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific”

A body of indirect evidence has accumulated that suggests that extant pterosaurs exist in the southwest Pacific area. This paper will present and evaluate that evidence and address some the skepticism of the possibility of extant pterosaurs, . . . this skepticism tends to rest on an evolutionary worldview.

map of Papua New Guinea

Page 3 of the scientific paper (but page in the journal is “202”)

This includes evidence gathered from the two expeditions on Umboi Island in 2004 (Whitcomb and Guessman and Woetzel). It also briefly mentions the expedition of 1994, in which Carl Baugh, Jim Blume, and Paul Nation participated. This page also briefly answers the suggestion that the animal called ropen is not a pterosaur but a bat.

Page 4 of the scientific paper by Whitcomb

This is mostly two tables about what was learned in six expeditions in Papua New Guinea in the following years: 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2007. Here are some examples of what was learned about the ropen, according to natives:

“ropen never glows longer than 5-6 seconds at a time”
“the ropen may be similar to a Sordes pilosus (but ropen is large)”
“tail length is 7 m [23 feet]; mouth ‘like a crocodile’ . . .”
“has a long tail with a ‘diamond’ . . . Lake Pung”
grave robbery in the village of Gomlongon (Umboi Island)
“large empty clam shells . . . the ropen eats clams”

Page 5 of “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific”

The following are some examples from Table II:

Finschhafen — 1944 — Giant, long beak & tail, head appen.”
Umboi — 1972 — “Gov’t official sees light fly near Lab Lab”
Bougainville — 1971 — “Long beak, long tail, head appendage”
Umboi — “upright, it holds onto a tree trunk”

Page 6 of the scientific paper

This has the continuation of Table II and all of Table III. Here are a few examples from this page, restricted to flying lights on Umboi Island:

Umboi — 2003 — “it flew from beach to [the mountain] Bel”
Umboi — 2003 — “light flew down to reef, as if fishing”
Umboi — 2004 — “creature glowing as it flew”
Tawa Village — 2006 — “two lights on a ridge (videotaped)”
Tawa area — 2006 — “winged creature sleeping on a cliff”

Books on Modern Pterosaurs

The preceding references to images of pages of that scientific paper can be used in finding the other pages, up to the final one: page thirteen.

I recommend my book Searching for Ropens and Finding God, which is the longest nonfiction print publication on living pterosaurs. For young readers, especially those between eight and fourteen years old, I recommend my shorter book: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur.

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Scientific paper on living pterosaurs

Eyewitness sightings in “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific,” include the sighting by Duane Hodgkinson, the World War II veteran. This excerpt is from Volume 45, Number 3, of the Creation Research Society Quarterly (Winter issue, 2009).

Nonfiction cryptozoology books

Six books that have at least some content related to sightings of apparent living pterosaurs—that’s what this blog post covers.

Scientific papers about modern pterosaurs

Two peer-reviewed articles are covered here, one by David Woetzel and the other by Jonathan Whitcomb:

“The Fiery Flying Serpent”
“Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific”

Non-fiction books on living pterosaurs

Two paperback books are closely compared:

Searching for Ropens and Finding God (4th edition)
Live Pterosaurs in America (3rd edition)

Modern pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea

Around 1965, some of the natives in this general area of New Britain got access to a gun and shot a pterosaur. They then cooked it in three large pots, feeding the village. This event was told to [Milt Marcy] and [Peter Beach] by two of the older natives, Fraggie and Hulio, who were boys at the time of the feast. Apparently, however, Marcy and Beach stayed in a different village than the one in which Fraggie and Hulio remembered enjoying that home-cooked meal.

Scientific paper on non-extinct pterodactyls (& a sighting in Spain)

Let’s examine an individual sighting report and its credibility: an account of an apparent living pterosaur in Spain. (I’ve already written much about the overall honesty-credibility of the reports, so we’ll here concentrate on this individual account.)

Cryptozoology book on pterosaurs

“Since the time of Darwin, many scientists have assumed that some general types of animals became extinct long ago. One of the assumptions is that all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs died off before any humans existed.” [from Jonathan Whitcomb]

November 6, 2018

Nonfiction Book for Kids and Teens

front cover of this new cryptozoology book

By nonfiction-cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

This cryptozoology book, for readers from eight to fourteen years old is titled The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur. I make it clear, on the back cover and inside the book, that this is about living pterosaurs, which are not literally dinosaurs. It should be published by about the middle of November (2018).

This is not just the true-life adventure of a child who sees a flying creature: It explains how Patty Carson was disbelieved at first but gradually came to be believed, and it’s about a number of eyewitnesses, children, teenagers, and adults, who have seen these extraordinary animals.

Table of Contents inside this cryptozoology book

Quoting part of the Introduction

This is more than a story of one little girl who saw a modern pterosaur. It’s about many persons who have seen these flying creatures: adults, teenagers, and children.

Several persons suggested that “flying dinosaur” would be a poor choice of words in the title. Pterosaurs are not, after all, dinosaurs. But when little Patty Carson ran home to tell her family what she had seen, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1965, she probably said something like, “I saw a flying dinosaur.”

Quoting from the last chapter: Conclusion

The first discovered pterosaur fossil examined by a Western scientist was in 1784, when Benjamin Franklin was still alive. Other fossils were discovered, yet none of the scientists were able to connect those remains of pterosaurs with any living animal. It looked like those pterosaur fossils must have come from animals that had become extinct.

Yet we can look closer. We now know about many kinds of animals now living. Some of them, however, were not known to any Western scientist in the year 1800. Let’s consider some of those animals, just a sampling . . .

Nonfiction for middle-grade and early-teen readers

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The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

This blog post, from October 19, 2018, is titled “New Book on Child (and Adult) Eyewitnesses of Living Pterosaurs.”

Nonfiction book for children and teens

As with most of my nonfiction books, this one [The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur] shows readers evidence, albeit mostly cryptozoological, for recent “dinosaurs” or pterosaurs.

Recent Dragons or Pterosaurs

What a wonderful world we live in, a planet that provides for so many forms of life! For many human cultures and in many periods of history, people have had no difficulty in believing in flying dragons [modern pterosaurs].

Book on cryptozoology (this nonfiction is on living pterosaurs)

Searching for Ropens and Finding God

Kids who see a pterodactyl

Sometimes the eyewitness of an apparent modern pterosaur was a child at the time of the sighting—Patty Carson saw one in Cuba around 1965.

Books on modern pterosaurs

This has a number of nonfiction books, including Searching for Ropens and Finding God (fourth edition) and Live Pterosaurs in America (3rd ed.).

Children who see living pterosaurs

Declaration on apparent modern pterosaurs

June 4, 2018

Searching for the Ropen of Umboi Island

By the living-pterosaur investigator Jonathan Whitcomb

Years ago, some skeptics speculated that reports of the ropen of Papua New Guinea came from people misidentifying the common fruit bats found there. Those critics, however, appear to have failed to take into account exactly what people report observing: something much larger and looking much different.

I received an email, in August of 2009, from a native of Papua New Guinea. Here is most of it, slightly edited into more standard English:

Hi my name is Rex Yapi. I’m a 2nd Year Business Accounting Student at the PNG University of Technology in Lae City.

I just want to remind you of the current sighting of the dragon named Ropen. I was on an out board motor as early as 9 am when we saw a giant creature floating along the coast line near Bunsil Bay. Its body was submerged under the sea but its tail was emerged. I saw that its tail is about 6-7 meters long with sharp diamond shape. It was an awesome scenerio and I started pointing to the others towards the object. It was floating 10 meters away from the boat and its color was
brownish-dark without any form of hair.

Being in fear, we stopped the boat to let it pass by. Later I was told that, Bunsil Bay Coast Line up the Goosh River is the normal route which Ropen takes when it’s coming into Umboi Island from the mainland of PNG. It could not fly during sunlight hours so it has to at least swim and come into the island.

I wish I had a camera at that time because it was a frightening scene. Right now I’m looking for a camera to monitor this beast. I’m planning to take shots basing along the coastline in early hours between 5:00-6:00 am.

In addition, some of my relatives also spotted it a month ago.

Expeditions on Umboi Island

Rex got in touch with Luke Paina, who was my interpreter and body guard during my two-week expedition on Umboi Island (Siasi) in 2004. Yet other Americans have explored that tropical island, searching for the ropen, and other natives have guided them in their expeditions.

Expeditions there have included these (but not limited to them):

In the 1990’s, several Americans searched for the elusive ropen of Umboi, including Carl Baugh, Jim Blume, and Paul Nation. In 2004, I spent two weeks there searching for this apparent nocturnal pterosaur, but my success was in the interviews I was fortunate to get with important eyewitnesses, for I was not able to see the animal itself. A few weeks later, two other Americans, Garth Guessman and David Woetzel explored on Umboi, much of it being in other parts of the island than I had been in.

For several months now, as of early June of 2018, Rex Yapi Epa (the same native who wrote the eyewitness report near the top of this post), has been on an expedition with several other natives of PNG, as they have searched for the ropen. Yesterday was the official prayer day for their success, although I will continue to pray for them. They need to get good photographs of the ropen.

Rex (left, with camera) and other expedition team members

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Jonathan Whitcomb really was in Papua New Guinea

I don’t know of anyone who has disputed the reality of my expedition on Umboi Island in 2004, but a few skeptics have tried to pin the label “deception” on me and my associates or on those we have interviewed, and many Westerners have a tendency to come to disbelieve in historical events as time carries us further away from the past.

Book on ropens

Some people call it “dragon” or “flying dinosaur.” If you have seen one, then you’ll know it. You’ll know it’s not a legend and very much non-extinct.

Ropen of Umboi Island

A giant bioluminescent flying creature?

A living pterosaur in Papua New Guinea

Three Americans explored a tropical rain forest in Papua New Guinea, within the past few weeks, and two of them succeeded in observing an apparent living pterosaur. That’s better than the previous ten expeditions, over the past 21 years, at least in regard to direct observations of a flying creature . . .

Modern pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific

(and books about potential extant pterosaurs)

What is the ropen?

Nocturnal long-tailed pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere

September 22, 2017September 22, 2017

New Ropen Expedition in Papua New Guinea

near Lab Lab on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

By living-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

The following are the words of a native of Papua New Guinea. He will begin leading an expedition, we hope within a few weeks, on Umboi Island. The ropen search will probably last longer than any previous living-pterosaur expedition ever conducted in this area of the world.

Be aware that what follows are answers to specific questions regarding health precautions for expedition members, videotaping times, and getting local village permission to search particular jungle locations.

Also be aware that not all of these plans and ideas are necessarily completely what I would agree with or with what my own priorities would be if I were leading a ropen expedition on Umboi Island. With that said, I expect that this native will have more success than I had when I searched for ropens on that tropical island.

1: Health=health & safety are paramount issues in any field related physical or chemical tasks. Thus, my boys have to know how to get right dose based on prescriptions. So 4 able young men who have a fair bit of education will be entrusted to do this job in 4 different expedition camps. THERE ARE MANY PRIMARY AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS IN TARAWE VILLAGE ON UMBOI ISLAND, WHO WILL BE NOMINATED TO DO THIS JOB.

Tropical jungle diseases like malaria, cold, fever and flu are common and their symptoms are quit easy to detect and will direct the boys on what drugs to take for cure.

Remember, any serious casualties and serious illnesses which we can not interpret will be referred straight to German built health center to Finchaffen across Vitiaz Strait through rough seas. If that referral needs serious medical treatment or operation, then the patient will be transported further to Lae city on the same speed boat.

2: Filming times=

(i) At dawn a close watch is essential. It starts at 4:30 am till 5:30 am when sun comes up. Within this 1 hour period is the time birds wake up from their nests and sing. This is the crucial time when Ropen has always been seen to fly over tree canopies from one place to another. Timing of 6:30 am – 7:30 am are to be considered too because anything can happen within this time frame as jungle darkness will be evident by tree canopies and mountain clouds and fogs cover.

(ii) at dusk all cameras will be manned vigilantly at 5:45 pm-7:00 pm because this is the period Ropen is hungry and would want to feed on anything edible. Locals believe that this is the time it returns to its home from hunting trips from place to place. 4:30 am-5:45 am is on crucial watching time too because of cloud covers that make jungles gloomy and dark too quickly. REMEMBER, ROPEN HAS A CHARACTERISTIC THAT FAVOURS THESE TIMINGS.

(iii) daylight filming is 100% on because anything can pop up during day. But occasionally, chances of filming Ropen during daylight is slim.

(iv) Camera flash lights are vital. Greg Hedger’s Panasonic Full HD camcorder (5.1 inch, 29.8 mm wide and 20.4 mega pixel) has potential to do this night vision job. I need 4 digital cameras with flash lights that will support this camcorder. At least 4 Canon cameras with 10.0 mega pixels will do. EVIDENTLY NO STILL CAMERAS TO AFFORD SO WILL EMPLOY NATIVES TO USE JUNGLE KNOWLEDGE ON HOW TO AMBUSH AND HUNT WILD ANIMALS DURING HUNTING BY HIDING HUMAN SCENT AND TRACES THAT WILL SCARE ITS APPROACH FOR BAIT THAT WILL LURE IT.

3: Permission for Sacred Sites=It is a MUST THING. I have to get special permissions to film and I have to do it because without release I might face obstacles. Some of these taboo grounds got human bones that are used for spiritual worships.

Bones are remainants of grave yard dug by ropen for its food. Taboo sites are attached with evil spells. Traditionally, if someone trespasses without permissions, he/she faces death. TO CATER FOR ANY OPPOSITION FROM CUSTOMARY LAND LORDS, I GOT TO PAY SOME MONEY TO MAKE EASY ACCESS TO THESE SPIRITUALLY POSSESSED ZONES. SO JUNGLE JUSTICE IS EVIDENT ON UMBOI ISLAND TERRAINS.

Near Lab Lab on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea (2004 expedition by Whitcomb)

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Ropen of Umboi Island

Just weeks after my 2004 expedition on Umboi Island, the cryptozoologists Garth Guessman and David Woetzel interviewed Umboi native eyewitnesses with systematic interview forms . . .

What is a Ropen?

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?

Books for LDS readers

With the Christmas gift-giving season approaching, I offer the following three nonfiction books that I have written, each of them about evidences for non-extinct pterosaurs, what many Westerners call “pterodactyls.”

Books by Mormon Authors

This includes the cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God.