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Ropen Bioluminescence

test: Ropen Bioluminescence - plus small light (simulation)

By the nonfiction author Jonathan Whitcomb

Last week I uploaded to Youtube a video on the strange flying lights that have long been seen in Papua New Guinea, observed by both PNG natives and Westerners.

Ropen Bioluminescence

You can watch this short video (3 min, 20 sec), so rather than list what’s in it, I’ll go into more details about these flying lights by answering three questions that are based upon comments people have sent me over the years.

Question #1:

Could they be airplane lights?

Answer:

A physicist did a deep analysis of the two lights videotaped in 2006 by the explorer Paul Nation and found that they could not be lights from airplanes; they were a completely different kind of light.

In addition, the respected biologist Evelyn Chessman, early in the 20th century, observed many of the lights from a distance, in the dark of night, and that was long before planes commonly flew over New Guinea, even in daylight. In fact, those lights had a mountain range behind them, meaning they were flying quite low, and they were only slightly above the tops of the trees in that jungle.

Even in modern times, people do not see many airplanes flying, at the same time, at night just above the treetops, where there is no airport.

British biologist and entomologist Evelyn Cheesman

Question #2:

Could they be fireflies?

Answer:

Evelyn Cheesman was an entomologist (specializing in the study of insects). If there had been any possibility that she had observed fireflies, she would have mentioned it in that part of her book The Two Roads of Papua (published in 1935).

Keep in mind that she took note that the lights were brighter than a common flash light (“electric torch”), after she took into account the distance between her and those flying lights. Also, the flash duration was much longer than firefly flashes: Each light was on for between four and five seconds.

Question #3:

Why believe that the flying lights are the bioluminescence of pterosaurs?

Answer:

From the second ropen expedition of 2004 on Umboi Island, we know many details from interviews with two natives: Jonathan Ragu and Jonah Jim. Garth Guessman took detailed notes and later gave a copy of the interview forms to me, Jonathan Whitcomb.

Two things stand out together in the reports from those two eyewitnesses:

  1. A large flying creature was glowing
  2. The silhouette sketch chosen was for the Sordes pilosus

Sordes Pilosus Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur silhouette

The above silhouette sketch was one of 34 images (of birds, bats, and pterosaurs) on one page of paper used by the two cryptozoologists David Woetzel and Garth Guessman on Umboi Island in 2004. Both Jonah Jim and Jonathan Ragu chose this one, silhouette #13, for the shape of the large glowing flying creature observed.

Neither man was aware of the choice of the other man when the selections were made. To the best of my knowledge, of the natives interviewed during that expedition, none of the other eyewitnesses had nearly as clear a view as those two had, neither were they able to give nearly so sure an indication for the ropen’s body shape. The large number of images shown to those two natives (34) makes it highly unlikely that they had both independently chosen #13 at random.

By the way, the Sordes pilosus known by paleontologists from fossils is (or was) a Rhamphorhynchoid, a long-tailed pterosaur.

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A British biologist sees ropen lights

She later wrote about the mystery in her book The Two Roads of Papua (published in 1935)

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Videos about living pterosaurs

On the Youtube channel Protect Animal Life you can watch dozens of videos on these amazing flying creatures.

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Living pterosaurs in newspapers

Last night, I uploaded a new video to Youtube, “Living Pterosaurs – in newspapers” and present it as an introduction to such newspaper articles. I believe it makes a good start in answering questions about such news publications, yet I hope to produce one or more additional videos about apparent extant “pterodactyls” in newspapers.

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Ropen lights

Another report of flying lights has surfaced, this one from a wilderness area of Oregon. It seems that the mysterious lights that have been reported to fly over the Yakima River in the state of Washington—those are also seen to fly over a river in Oregon, reported by two cryptozoologists from the Portland area.

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Flying Dinosaur

This is a short Youtube video featuring two eyewitnesses of modern pterosaurs: Harriet Sconce and Duane Hodgkinson.

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Glowing Ropen

Let’s compare the words of four witnesses: three natives on Umboi Island and one British biologist on the mainland of New Guinea. Each describes flying lights: on two sides of Umboi and on the mainland to the west of Umboi.

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Video “Living Pterosaurs” on Youtube

Jonathan Whitcomb on left; two living pterodactyls on right - thumbnail for Youtube video "Living Pterosaurs"

By the independent investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

This morning I uploaded what I think is the best-yet video on my Youtube channel Protect Animal Life : “Living Pterosaurs — Part 1” (more similar videos will be coming). In this one, I appear for the camera, proving I am a real person and not just some vague anonymous voice on the internet.

Here are the ropen-hunting explorers shown:

  • Paul Nation
  • Jonathan Whitcomb
  • David Woetzel
  • Garth Guessman
  • Luke Paina

I call this video a brief introduction to living-pterosaur investigations, yet it’s longer than the great majority of videos I had previously uploaded to this channel: almost seven minutes long. I put it into the playlist “Pterodactyls in the Tropics.”

It begins with a brief overview of what was accomplished in the late-20th-century expeditions on Umboi Island. It then covers a bit of what we did in the two expeditions of 2004, including my interviews of Gideon, Wesley, Mesa, and Michael: Three clear daylight sightings and one ropen-light sighting at night. Excerpts of the interviews are shown.

Watch this video above: “Living Pterosaurs – Part 1”

One video clip included is hard to find elsewhere: My face-to-the-camera account in 2005, just months after my expedition, brief as it may be.

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Paranormal living pterosaur video

. . . this paranormal music video is an entertaining way of informing viewers of a sighting of an apparent living pterosaur in Sudan, Africa, and comparing it to an encounter in Cuba . . .

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Mini-documentary on pterosaur sightings

Almost immediately after hearing about her passing (Patty Carson), I began creating a Youtube video on her sighting at Guantanamo Bay. It took more than two weeks of work to complete “The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur.”

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Video on living pterosaurs in Hawaii

I just uploaded a video to Youtube: “Do Pterodactyls Live in Hawaii?” on my new channel Protect Animal Life.

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The ropen – a “flying dinosaur”

I have direct eyewitness reports, of apparent living pterosaurs, from five continents, accumulated over the past 15 years, and the great majority of them are credible accounts of long-tailed pterosaurs . . . some kind of large Rhamphorhynchoid.

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“Pterodactyls in the Tropics”

A playlist on the Youtube channel Protect Animal Life

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Videos on Living Pterosaurs

This is about new mini-documentaries I’ve recently uploaded to Youtube on my channel Protect Animal Life. Although many of the sighting reports of apparent modern pterosaurs suggest the nocturnal long-tailed ropen, none of the short videos, at least as of June 1, 2019, has the word ‘ropen’ in the title.

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“Big Bird” in Draper, Utah

field with trees - ropen sightings were near here in Draper, Utah

By the modern-pterosaur author Jonathan D. Whitcomb

On June 26, 2017, my wife and I met with several eyewitnesses in a neighborhood of Draper, Utah, (in the southern part of the Salt Lake Valley) a few miles west of the Wasatch Mountains. Each of the four persons we talked with lived within about 300 yards of each other and a little south of the Swire Coca Cola complex, which is in northwestern Draper. These four wish to be anonymous, at least for now.

The flying creature involved, which may be more than one animal, appears to be an American Hammerhead Ropen. Some of the words that came to the minds of eyewitnesses, after the sightings in this neighborhood, were these:

  • dragon
  • hammer (shape of the head with a crest)
  • big bird

Bioluminescence appears to be involved, as in many ropen sightings worldwide. The June 21st sighting seems to be not an isolated encounter but part of a general flight pattern in Western Draper. Consider some of what each of these four persons told me and my wife.

Eyewitness-A

Between 35 and 55 years old, she is the mother of two children who also have had some kind of encounter with the flying creature at some time within the past few months, either seeing or hearing it. I gave her a copy of my recent nonfiction cryptozoology book, Modern Pterosaurs (about the Civil War photograph of an apparent Pteranodon that was living in the 19th century).

At about 11:00 p.m. on June 21, 2017, she saw the strange thing fly over her house. She was baffled, unable to come up with a sensible-sounding explanation. It reminded her of what her children had seen with her in movies: not something that is supposed to be still alive.

She might have dismissed it as some kind of drone aircraft, except that it was flapping its wings. She was struck by the lack of feathers and lack of hair on the tan-colored creature, which flew about 50 feet above the ground, over her backyard. She later searched online and found what looked very much like her “big bird.”

Perosaur Sketch by Eskin Kuhn
Kuhn saw two pterosaurs in Cuba, in 1971

The above sketch was seen by Eyewitness-A, after her sighting. It’s very much like what she had seen.

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Eyewitness-B

This twelve-year-old boy was on his back in his backyard in western Draper, Utah, on a warm night in mid-June of 2017, when the huge creature flew overhead. He later learned that his uncle, who lives nearby, had also seen the same animal flying over that same neighborhood, earlier in the year.

The boy told me (Jonathan Whitcomb) that the flying creature had a head that reminded him of a hammer. After he drew a sketch, I realized he was referring, at least in part, to the angle of the head crest. This led me to conclude that he had seen an American Hammerhead Ropen, similar to what was seen by Patty Carson in Cuba in 1965 and probably by Eskin Kuhn (also in Cuba) in 1971.

Eyewitness-C

This man lives in the same neighborhood as the first two eyewitnesses mentioned above (A and B). It flew over his backyard three times in one night, early in 2017, appearing to be searching for something. I believe it was hunting, for many family pets are kept in backyards in this neighborhood.

He described a glowing outline of the animal, suggesting to me that the flying creature was bioluminescent. It was flying too high to have been lit up from ground lighting.

Hearing a Screech

I talked with a teenage girl who also lives in this neighborhood. She heard what she believes were the sounds of a cat being attacked in the large yard next to her backyard. But the cat cry was quickly cut short as the girl heard a terrifying screech, a sound she compared with the screech of a velociraptor from a movie. She was sure that the sound was not from a raccoon. She also compared it with a girl screaming very loudly.

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Copyright 2017 Jonathan Whitcomb (“Big Bird in Draper, Utah”)

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Big bird-like animal in Hawaii

I am glad to find this website that shows others have seen something similar to what we saw– we thought we saw a pterodactyl on the Big Island of Hawaii!

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Ropen critic and the Ptp photograph

One skeptic, writing a very long online article, mentions what I have written about related words in some of the many village languages in Papua New Guinea. He says that “ropen” means bird in one language but fruit bat in another. He then writes, “Well, there you have it,” as if it supports his declaration that a significant number of sightings of apparent pterosaurs in that area of the world could be from misidentified birds or bats. But he misses the point . . .

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Objectivity and bias with the Civil War pterosaur photograph

. . . he [the critic] seems to have fallen into a severe combination of bias issues including both confirmation bias and belief perseverance, regarding his ideas about the old photo that is now known as “Ptp.”

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Civil War Soldiers and a Monster Pterodactyl

Before giving a brief history of our investigations of this old photograph, I present a recent discovery related to the source of what we now call “Ptp,” what some people would call the “Civil War” Pteranodon photo.

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Apparent Civil War era photograph

In January of 2017, the physicist Cliff Paiva and I agreed that the old photograph now called Ptp has a genuine image of a modern pterosaur. Since January, we have found additional evidence for its authenticity, which is what should be expected for something that is genuine rather than a hoax.

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Potential Attacks on Domesticated Animals, by Ropens

old newspaper sketch of a giant dragon in Utah

I recently got a question from a member of a Facebook group: “Living Pterosaurs of the World.” It was in response to a Youtube video of two interviews I had with eyewitnesses last year. These two young men testified that the local farm animals went “crazy” with fright, making a lot of noise, when a very large glowing flying creature flew overhead one night.

Rather than dive into details about this particular sighting (which was in Grantsville, Utah, around the fall of 2001), let’s consider the question on the Facebook group discussion:

Jonathan, have you noted these animal reactions in these type of sightings before?

Let’s begin with dogs. Man’s best friend seems to consider large ropens or pterodactyls to be very dangerous.

Behavior of Dogs

From page 200 of the fourth edition of Searching for Ropens and Finding God:

. . . it scared the hell out of me, also scared my dog so bad that she had her tail between her legs and ran into her dog-house and would not come out for over an hour. The feeling I got was that whatever it was it was really big . . .

From page 242 of that cryptozoology book:

At 11:45 [a.m.] [I was] sitting under my gazebo playing on my computer in Lakewood, CA. My dog started going crazy barking and whining. I started hearing what sounded like him having really deep burps and I got up after 30 seconds or so because I knew the sounds were not coming from my dog . . .

From page 249 of Searching for Ropens and Finding God:

Early on the night of August 3, 2012, according to John, Rex ran out to the back, near the camera, barking wildly. He then made a sound that he rarely makes: a sort of whimper. The dog then ran into the house and did not respond when John called him; that non-response to John’s call is very strange.

From page 35 of the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America:

She was twelve years old, at most (around 1995), when she walked out into her backyard one morning to check on the dog, for the dog food was untouched. GR found the poor animal cowering around the side of the house, apparently trying to hide behind a banana tree. The girl had no idea what was wrong, at that time, and called the dog, but it would not move. . . .

She turned her head and saw what it was that had terrified the dog. Next door, in the neighbor’s backyard, was what she first thought was a tall man; but he was about as tall as the house, too tall. He was “draped in a long black coat or cape,” facing away from her. “Dracula” came to mind as GR tried to understand what she was looking at. The “man” turned, and revealed a face that terrified the child: It was non-human.

Slowing the creature (revealing itself to be neither human nor bird) unwrapped its bat-like wings, dark leathery wings. The girl had never seen anything remotely like them. . . .

Farm animals and strange flying creatures

From page 88 of Live Pterosaurs in America (3rd edition):

He [David Woetzel] quoted a passage from a book by Marie Trevelyan (1909), who interviewed an old man who remembered “winged serpents” that lived in the mid-1800’s around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, Wales. I quote part of Woetzel’s quotation of the book: “The woods around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, had . . . . winged serpents . . . An aged inhabitant of Penllyne, who died a few years ago . . . said it was ‘no old story,’ invented to ‘frighten children,’ but a real fact. His father and uncles had killed some of them, for they were ‘as bad as foxes for poultry.’ This old man attributed the extinction of winged serpents to the fact that they were ‘terrors in the farmyards and coverts.’”

Conclusion

The farm animals in Grantsville, Utah, went “crazy” with fright one dark night around the fall of 2001, making lots of noise in their fear. I believe that those farm animals were in real danger from that flying creature, and I believe that the source of that terror was a very large bioluminescent ropen.

Reptile monster flies away with a horse

Old newspaper account of a giant flying creature over Stansbury Island, Utah

Although the newspaper account of a giant flying reptile carrying off a full-grown horse is very likely exaggerated, it seems to relate to the sighting by three boys in Grantsville, Utah, in 2001. Please note that Grantsville is only about eight miles south of Stansbury Island.

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Cryptozoology book about pterodactyls

“Neither my brother or I was prone to being scared . . .  This night was different. . . . the creature was flying just  above the phone lines. It would go one direction, turn, and  swoop back. . . . The wingspan was huge, anywhere from  6-10 feet across.” (Texas)

Ropen pterosaur

American eyewitness of a living pterodactyl

Book on the ropen

It [the nonfiction cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God] soars above disputes about religion, revealing why an official discovery of an extraordinary animal has been delayed for so long. Above all, this explores human experience: eyewitnesses and those who interviewed them.

Pterodactyl Attacks in Yosemite?

These weird disappearances are not confined to Yosemite, nor even to the United States. Several factors do seem to tie together cases that are separated by long distances and sometimes separated by decades. To understand what may be happening in Yosemite National Park, we need to see in a broader sense. Look to Canada and to Mexico.

The nocturnal ropen

Eyewitness testimonies suggest that the ropen is a Rhamphorhynchoid (long-tailed) pterosaur. According to the investigators this criteria is based on several consistent patterns such as the featherless appearance, long tail that ends in a flange or diamond shape . . .

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