If apparent pterosaurs observed in Virginia are not the same species as the flying creature called “Gitmo Pterosaur” or “American Hammerhead Ropen,” it may at least be a closely-related species. I recently got another report from Virginia: a sighting just a few days ago in Richmond.
I’m not positive about what [I] and my 16 year old son saw flying across a major road in Richmond, VA, a couple of days ago at dusk. What I do know is, it was something we have never [seen] before. Its wing span was massive! It looked to be about 10 feet across and its tail was long with a triangle point! We were so flabbergasted looking at it that I nearly crashed! I have been constantly watching the sky to see it again. My son swears he saw a dragon AND I’m not sure what to believe I saw. It almost did look like a dragon or pterodactyl of some sort. Its quite mind boggling and baffling but amazing all at the same time!!
Here’s what I told this eyewitness (by email):
Thank you for reporting the sighting.
From what you described, you and your son probably saw a ropen. My associates and I believe this kind of flying creature is indeed a modern pterosaur. Some eyewitnesses call it a “pterodactyl” and there’s nothing much wrong with calling it that. Other people who have seen it call it a “dragon,” which is what everybody would have called it in earlier history. Yes, they are very non-extinct, very much alive, although they are somewhat uncommon and they usually come out only at night.
May I ask some questions?
1) Did you or your son notice any detail on its head?
2) How far away were you from it, at the closest distance?
3) Did you take notice of what time it was?
Thank you. Jonathan Whitcomb
Here are the answers:
Thank you for responding. We couldn’t see the head and according to my son
he said it was approximately 600 ft away. The sun had set and it was
starting to get dark. I will say it was almost 8 pm.
That flying creature seems to resemble the “Gitmo Pterosaur” of Cuba:
Call a Ropen What it is
I’ve come to feel we need to use the word ropen when an eyewitness observed a long tail with a flange or “diamond” or “triangle” structure at tail end. Of course we are still living within the realm of cryptozoology (as of early April, 2015), not yet having a live creature in a zoo or a recently deceased body to examine in a scientific laboratory. But people around the world continue to report seeing a flying creature whose description suggests a large Rhamphorhynchoid (long-tailed) pterosaur. Some eyewitnesses of ropens live in Virginia.
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I have not before nor since ever been so petrified in my life. . . . I felt incapable of moving my legs. I just stood there, facing it until it literally got about 20 to 30 feet away and it “stopped” and hovered mid-air.
Ricky Kearns, of Point Pleasant, WV, and other members of his family witnessed a strange flying creature on the night of October 20, 2014, as they sat outside, gazing up at the sky.
Pterodactyl Sightings in State of Virginia
“. . . a couple of weeks ago [mid-2012], by myself I saw two flying. Then this Sunday in about the same place, my daughter and I saw one fairly close up, flying in the opposite direction. . . . The most obvious feature was the diamond or spade tipped tail, I have not found any creature that compares. . . .”
The eyewitness was shocked to see that the creature had both a head crest (common in Pterodactyloids) and a long tail with a “diamond tip” (common in Rhamphorhynchoids). He saw a living pterosaur near the Maryland-Virginia border, in the 1980’s.
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