Pterodactyl Sightings Improve

I have posted on and also reviewed individual sightings that appeared to be some type of pterosaur.  In fact there seems to be a wealth of types and indicated within that family description.  Here are some of the scant items so far available on the subject.  It is not well organized yet but reports are beginning to show up and we even have a convincing picture to look at.

Two observations.  Firstly, although seen in daylight, it is a nocturnal animal.  Secondly it is able to produce managed bioluminescence.  This is a pretty extraordinary creature that really does not overlap our own ecological niche at all.

I want to make a conjecture.  Since it lacks fur or feathers, it is able to easily slip into the water and capture fish for its food and then just as easily fly out of the water to return to its roost and young.  In this way it avoids feeding of land based prey.

Bioluminescence allows it to see its own kind in the air and also in the sea.

Again this is all different from our expectations but certainly explains the actual rareness of human observation.  As the material makes clear, the Ropen is clearly well established in Papua New Guinea which is part of the surviving Sahul continent that harbored remnants of the age of Dinosaurs.  Yet a surviving population would have easily spread out globally and also speciated.

A recent report was clearly a North American report and again observed bioluminescence and the tell tale shape of the creature..  It will take many more sightings before most observers will come forward and tell their stories.

http://livepterosaurs.weebly.com/

What comes to mind when you read "dinosaur?" Probably "extinct" or "extinction." What about the word "ropen?" Until 2007, when the Sci-Fi Channel gave us the Ropen episode ofDestination Truth, most Americans would think "jump rope'in" or "cowboy rope'n a steer." But gradually Americans are coming to learn about a strange flying creature that is said to live in Papua New Guinea. How strange? Try "giant long-tailed pterosaur."

The ropen is described in ways that actually lead to two words: "dragon" and "pterosaur," depending on culture and taste. But notice the word noticeably absent: "extinct."

Several Americans searched for the elusive creature; important expeditions were in 2002, 2004 (two), and 2006. But the Sci-Fi Destination Truth expedition of 2007 introduced the word "ropen" to many thousands of American T.V. viewers.

Live pterosaurs! But it gets even stranger. Reports starting coming in from North America, and some of the Americans who explored Papua New Guinea, in 2004, searching for ropens, began searching for them in the United States. In at least two of the West Coast states, one of the locations became extremely secret. Nevertheless, according to one press release, one of the living-pterosaur cryptozoologists has estimated that at least 1400 Americans have seen a living pterosaur between early-1980 and the end of 2008. Most of those who have given their reports remain anonymous.

But not everything is secret. According to a new nonfiction book "Live Pterosaurs in America," (by Jonathan Whitcomb), Scott Norman stayed up one night and saw a pterosaur-like animal that "had an 8-10 foot wingspan; the wings were bat-like . . . the neck about 1-2 feet in length, the head was about four feet in length, and the head . . . has a crest that was about 2 feet in length." With a long neck, a long head, a head crest, and an 8-10 foot wingspan, it was no bat. And it was not in Papua New Guinea but in the Western United States.

Pterosaurs Alive, Not Extinct

Part of the problem is the breadth of the belief in absolute extinction of all species of pterosaurs. That means that nobody, in a "developed country," can easily report a sighting of an apparent pterosaur, even if that species is not extinct but simply rare. Anyone reporting a live pterosaur is subject to being not just doubted: A person's mental health can easily be brought into question. Eyewitnesses can be interviewed, however, by cryptozoologists who specialize in this field of cryptozoology: Jonathan Whitcomb and Garth Guessman (of Southern California) or Phillip O'Donnell (of Oregon). Interesting to note, those who have interviewed eyewitnesses in "primitive" cultures find no such problems interviewing eyewitnesses or finding those who have seen an apparent pterosaur. In Papua New Guinea, natives have no fear about what their neighbors will think about their mental stability, so they freely report what they have seen.

by Nathaniel Coleman (a cryptozoologist not closely related to Loren Coleman)

http://www.ropens.com/

Home:

Ropen's territory is situated on the island of New Guinea and its neighbors, but pterosaurs have been seen in the Americas and Africa, especially in rainforest regions.

Unique Talent:

Ropen seems to have the power to be bioluminescent, able to naturally glow in the dark. Bioluminescense occurs in fungi, bacteria, and animals, but the only known bioluminescent land animals are invertebrates and the only known glowing vertebrates are aquatic. If the ropen exists, that would make it the only known land vertebrate that's capable of glowing! But how and why? One possibility is it shares a symbiotic relationship with a type of plant or more likely fungi, but that's unlikely because it is said ropen can control its glow. That means that it's like a fish in a way. If it could control the glow, it would need a symbiotic relationship with light producing bacteria contained inside its body or it has light producing cells called photocytes.

Escaping the KT event:

The KT event is the famous mass extinction 65 million years ago that took out the dinosaurs and (supposively) the pterosaurs. The only large animals to survive lived deep underwater. The only land animals to survive could only grow to the size of a cat. During that extiction, birds and mammals were probably small oppurtunists as the fossils suggest. The theory of the meteor means most of the plants died because the sun was blocked out. The small nocturnal mammals were better suited for such an environment then the large diurnal (day-time) dinosaurs.

My theory is that there were small pterosaurs as well. The fossil record can't tell us everything. For one thing, certain fossils could be destroyed. It is possible that small pterosaurs dwelled during the Cretaceous era with the birds and their larger cousins. To add, fossils can't tell us much about soft organs and nothing about exact behavior, so it is possible that somewhere along the line of pterosaur evolution, there could have been a light producing mutation that faired well during the dark end of the Mesozoic era.

Ropen sightings:

Ropen, aka the duah, is usually only seen as a light in the night sky, but they have been seen for hundreds of years. It took World War 2's end to bring the ropen to the Wesstern world. A small group of soldiers saw a ropen (meaning demon flyer) on the ground, before it took off, circled above them, and left. A pilot estemated its wingspan to be 20 feet long. They said it had a beak, a crest, a dark-grey body, and a long neck. Maps dating 1565 has two images of ropen-like creatures, but with a major difference. The images are described to be more fish-like than the bird or bat-like creatures we know pterosaurs to be. They were sea monsters rather than the reported airborn creatures known to the natives. It is said they have been seen hunting humans and scavenging human remains at buriels and funerals.

Ropen's African Cousin: Kongamato

Pterosaurs have been seen across the world, but few are more famous than the Ropen of New Guinea and Kongamato of central Africa. Kongamato means overwhelmer of boats because of how it has been known to attack native canoes. Kongamato is often described as a bright red pteranadon of some kind. Many sightings have been situated in the Jiundu swamp in Zambia. Unlike it's Oceanic cousin, Kongamto doesn't produce light.

Culprits:

Misidentification is the main arguement. Africa and New Guinea have high levels of avian biodiversity. Large birds like storks, herons, and eagles could easily be mistaken. Bats, even ones of cryptid sizes can be mistaken for pterosaurs. Ropen's light could be mistaken for stars or planes.