dragon | Live Pterosaur

August 23, 2018

Modern Living Pterosaur in a Remote Jungle in Papua New Guinea

natives in a remote village of Papua New Guinea

By living-pterosaur investigator Jonathan D. Whitcomb

News about a non-ropen pterosaur in PNG

Last week, I found a Youtube documentary on an expedition on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, in which two Americans, Milt Marcy and Peter Beach, were searching for a living pterosaur. They spent quite a few weeks on that remote tropical island in 2015, but they were rewarded with a sighting of a flying creature that others had previously seen in that area: a non-extinct pterosaur. This was observed in daylight.

I sometimes refer to this modern pterosaur as the “New Britain Creature.” I don’t know what natives call it, but I believe that many English people of the world would have called this kind of flying creature “dragon” in earlier human history. Let’s consider sightings in the late 20th century, before getting into the encounter in 2015. Keep in mind that all eleven of these sightings were in the same area deep in the interior of New Britain Island, and not one of them appeared to be the same species as the long-tailed ropen observed in other areas of 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 Marcy and 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.

By the way, Peter Beach is a biologist and once taught biology in a small college in the Portland, Oregon, area.

Sighting by Marvin Sconce

His son was a missionary deep in the interior of New Britain Island when Marv Sconce encountered three flying creatures there, in the early afternoon of a spring day in 1989. They were gliding in single file, at a slight downward angle, and he saw them for about a minute or two, starting when they were about three hundred feet above him. The three apparent pterosaurs glided over a river valley that was below the eyewitness, and the last he saw of them they were a little below him, following the course of that valley.

Garth Guessman interviewed Marv in August of 2006, and before the end of that year had given me the detailed eyewitness sighting report. It included the following:

No indication of feathers or hair
No feathers obscured the creatures’ muscular physique
[general] color: dark brown or black
head shape: Had point on back of head with no color difference
neck length: 8-10 inches
wingspan: 10-12 feet
Marvin saw no indication of a tail

Sighting by Harriet Sconce

The wife of Marvin, Harriet, had a sighting of one creature, on May 1, 1990, yet it was a close encounter. The following details were obtained from Guessman interviewing Harriet on October 15, 2006:

The sighting lasted about two minutes
She was about 30 feet away from the apparent pterosaur
It was about 3:00-4:00 p.m., with a clear sky
The animal was gliding at about 3 miles per hour
It’s total length was about five feet
“Smooth skin . . . like a bat wing, did not notice any hair”
Head shape: “Pointed beak, like bird but much bigger, similar to crow”
[head] “Crest? Yes, a pointy crest facing rearward”
The wingspan she estimated to be 9-11 feet
Harriet did not recall anything about a tail

Eight Sightings by Steve Sconce

Guessman interviewed Steve on October 8, 2006, obtaining information that included the following, regarding his eight sightings that occurred over a period of 18 months from 1990 to 1991:

“Number of creatures: two or three in tandem . . . 20 to 30 feet apart”
“Covering: leather, like a bat, not shiny: dull”
“Head shape: pointy straight beak . . . Crests/Comb: about 8 inches”
“Neck length: long . . . (18-24 inches)”
“Sound: . . . like [scratching] a blackboard, but a much lower pitch.”
No report or any indication of a tail

From the Youtube video on the expedition by Beach and Marcy

Sighting on New Britain Island in 2015

Milt Marcy and Peter Beach, both living in the Portland area of Oregon, went on an expedition in Papua New Guinea early in 2015, arriving in a remote village, deep in the interior of New Britain, on March 19th. Six days later, on March 25th, both Americans had their sighting of a pterosaur flying overhead.

I’ll quote from what they said in the Youtube documentary “PNG Expedition 2015 Documentary:”

Milt Marcy:

“We had a pretty momentous occasion.”

Pete Beach:

“I was in my hammock [sick], and I heard ‘big bird, big bird’ . . . I came out; I grabbed a camera that I had . . . and I looked up in the sky . . . It was almost directly above me. It was large, larger than any of the eagles or any of the other birds that we’d seen: leathery, had the claws on the wings . . . I saw the animal; I was stunned . . .

“I got the camera, so I turned the camera on, and I tried to focus in on it, but it was a very bright day [Beach had been indoors, suffering from pneumonia] . . . so I could not get a good view of the thing [with the camera]. I only had an LCD screen to look at . . .”

Beach did obtain video footage of the flying creature, but he was not able to zoom in to it. The video was examined by Wayne A. Hall, and the testimonies of eyewitnesses Peter Beach and Milt Marcy correlate with what is seen in the enhanced, enlarged images from that footage.

From video recorded by biologist Peter Beach

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News of Living Pterosaurs on New Britain Island

The other day, I found a Youtube video about an expedition in Papua New Guinea in 2015, a search for a modern pterosaur on the island of New Britain. What a success it was!

Pterosaur expeditions in Papua New Guinea

The following are expeditions in which at least one American has traveled to Papua New Guinea to search for modern pterosaurs or at least to interview native eyewitnesses of those flying creatures or to make a television show with an apparently similar purpose . . .

Those who explore remote jungles searching for modern pterosaurs

Including Garth Guessman, Jacob Kepas, Paul Nation, Jonathan Whitcomb, and David Woetzel (to name only some of them)

Dinosaurs on New Britain Island

Since the 1990s, a large ‘reptilian’ creature has been sighted occasionally on Ambungi Island in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Ambungi Island is located on the south coast of West New Britain between Kandrian and Gasmata. . . . When shown the handbook by Hazel Richardson, Dinosaurs And Prehistoric Life . . . Robert identified a picture of a Therizinosaurus as closely matching the animal he observed, with the exception of one feature, i.e. the creature’s head.

Dinosaur birds

The pterosaur is known by several names in the United States: “dinosaur bird,” “flying dinosaur,” and perhaps the most popular “pterodactyl.” In Papua New Guinea, it is known by many names: “ropen,” “duwas,” “indava,” and “kor.” But what shocks many Americans and Europeans are eyewitness reports that these supposedly “ancient” and “extinct” flying creatures are alive and well and even flying over our heads on rare occasions.

Living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea

Brian Hennessy was one of several men who were in a truck driving down a mountain on Bougainville Island, New Guinea, in 1971. He heard the wing flapping of the flying creature be-fore he saw it. Jonathan Whitcomb, after interviewing Brian, concluded that the Australian had witnessed a ropen, but that conclusion was made more sure after he gave both Hennessy and Duane Hodgkinson a series of silhouette-sketch choices.

Americans saw a living pterosaur during World War II

This is a reply to a portion of a huge web page . . . by the living-pterosaur critic Glen Kuban: “Living Pterosaurs (‘Pterodactyls’)”.

Recent Dragons or Pterosaurs

Once I get into a sighting report or begin to interview an eyewitness, I care little about the label used for a particular flying creature. Common is the word pterodactyl, although some eyewitnesses call it a dinosaur bird or a dragon. I care much more about exactly what the person saw. I suggest using this approach.

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The “Bible of modern pterosaurs” — Searching for Ropens and Finding God

This fourth edition of the nonfiction book is essential for all those who have any serious interest in these extraordinary flying creatures.

Pre-publication image of the back cover of this cryptozoology book

August 2, 2018August 3, 2018

“I saw a Prehistoric Bird”

Gitmo Pterosaur of Guantanamo Bay Cuba, sighting in 1965

By nonfiction-cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb

A number of words and phrases come up in eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs. The following are some of them:

Pterodactyl
Dinosaur bird
Ropen
Prehistoric bird
Dragon
Flying dinosaur

I know that pterosaurs are not actually dinosaurs, but people often think of them like that, for in our Western culture those flying creatures are connected with dinosaurs because of assumptions about universal extinctions that were supposed to have occurred many millions of years ago.

Eyewitnesses who know of other eyewitnesses

How many friends, relatives, and acquaintances do you know well enough that you would tell them that you had observed a non-extinct pterodactyl, if you had seen such a flying creature? If you live in the United States, or in another Western country, you might know only a few persons, if any, whom you could trust, feeling that they could trust that you were not having a nervous breakdown. It’s a big problem for Western eyewitnesses of pterosaurs.

Yet during the fifteen years that I have been questioning eyewitnesses I’ve found that a significant number of them, albeit a minority, report to me that they know somebody else who has seen a living pterosaur. These reports keep coming in, mostly through emails. I see only one reasonable explanation, but let’s first look at what is unreasonable:

Take the case that all species of pterosaurs became extinct many millions of years ago. Let’s also suppose that a young lady in training to become a veterinarian’s assistant sees what appears to be a living pterosaur, in daylight, in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Also assume that she began telling people, face-to-face, about her apparent encounter and about her belief that it was a non-extinct pterosaur. After a long period of time, she has talked with one hundred persons about it. Under the assumption of universal extinction of such flying creatures, how many persons should we expect would reply to her that they had also seen a living pterosaur? Probably not even one person.

Now let’s get back to reality. In the middle of the year 2018, my associates and I continue to proclaim that not all species of pterosaurs are extinct. We still make up only a tiny part of the American public, yet we stand with many eyewitnesses of these flying creatures. Let’s now take a look at the young lady in Raleigh, North Carolina, for she is in fact a real person, even though she has probably talked face-to-face with only a few persons about her encounter, nothing close to a hundred, at least not in the first few weeks after she saw the strange flying creature.

Cynthia Lee sent me an email on June 1, 2017, the same day that she had her sighting. Here’s sentence number six of that first email that she sent me:

“My mother and uncle saw one too while they were playing outside of my grandma’s house when they were really little.”

Eyewitness Cynthia Lee

I submit that the most reasonable explanation is this: Many more people in North America are observing living pterosaurs than my associates and I imagined fifteen years ago. It’s not just the eyewitnesses who send us sighting reports but the other eyewitnesses that never get in touch with us, and we know that they exist because the reporting eyewitnesses have told us of them. On occasion, one of these other eyewitnesses will come to contact me and report what was seen by them, but those are the exceptions.

More Eyewitnesses who Know Other Eyewitnesses

Setting aside those exceptions, let’s look at a few other cases.

Around 1965, little Patty Carson encountered a “dinosaur” that flew up out of tall grass at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She did not contact any researcher, like a cryptozoologist, about it until she sent me an email in 2011. It seems that it was much later that she learned that her brother Tom also had a sighting, probably of the same species of flying creature (not far from where Patty had her sighting at Guantanamo Bay).

Sketch draw by the eyewitness, Patty Carson

Near Detroit in 2012, a man saw an apparent pterosaur in flight. He reported the encounter to me, mentioning that he had a relative who saw something similar in that general area (both encounters in Canada, near the border).

Late in 2012, I got an email from a man who encountered a “pterodactyl” while the man was driving, a little after sunrise, between Katy and Houston, Texas, about five or six years earlier. Perhaps that was not enough to cause him to contact me, but on December 3, 2012, his wife was talking on the phone with him while looking (I believe through the window of the house) at what seemed to be a “pterodactyl.” That was in a different area in Texas, and that was enough for him to send me an email and report those two sightings.

To the best of my knowledge and memory, that lady never contacted me or any of my associates about her sighting. That seems to be the norm.

Conclusion

Sightings of modern pterosaurs are far more common than cryptozoologists used to think. The vast majority of eyewitnesses have not yet contacted us.

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I saw a prehistoric bird

I have been haunted for close to 20 years by what I saw in the desert. I have never told anyone due to the fact that I was afraid I would be thought nuts . . .

Dinosaur bird in Utah

I interviewed three eyewitnesses in Draper, Utah, two days ago. The sightings were about four miles west of the mountains that are the eastern border of the Salt Lake Valley, near the southern area of the valley.

Ropen or dragon?

The Fiery Flying Serpent of the Bible may have been a long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoid, related to the modern-day ropen.

Dragons and pterosaurs

How delighted I was, this past March, to receive an eyewitness report of three “dragons” flying over the I-5 freeway in Los Angeles!

Living pterodactyl in California

On March 18, 2013, I compared eight sighting reports of apparent pterosaurs in Southern California. The most recent sighting had been just fifteen days earlier, between Griffith Park and Glendale. Not one of those sightings was very far from a storm channel or stream bed.

Living Pterosaur in Ontario, Canada

I was phoning around dawn on a hill on Eglington Ave. across from the Ontario Science Centre when I saw a very smooth brown flying creature about the size of a great blue heron, with an appendage on its tail’s tip, fly northeast from the dense vegetation around the power lines where there was a cliff. I was stunned and shocked as it slowly flapped its wings . . .

Flying dinosaur

What do these persons have in common: Duane Hodgkinson, Gideon Koro, Susan Wooten, Brian Hennessy, Mesa Augustin, Aaron Tullock? Each has seen a large flying creature that is much more like a pterosaur than anything else.

Eyewitnesses of modern pterosaurs

In daylight, seven native boys or teenagers climbed up to a crater lake, around 1994, on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea . . . the giant ropen, flew just over the surface of Lake Pung. All seven boys ran home in terror . . .

Pterosaur sighting in Raleigh, North Carolina

Jonathan Whitcomb, author of nonfiction cryptozoology books, has suggested that flying creatures reported in Raleigh, North Carolina, over several years, may be related to what Americans in other states have reported to him over the past fourteen years. One kind he has labeled the “American Hammerhead Ropen.”

September 30, 2017December 9, 2017

Pterosaur Sighting in England

By nonfiction author Jonathan D. Whitcomb

Living-pterosaur (LP) cryptozoology involves interviewing eyewitnesses of unusual flying creatures, analyzing details in those reports, and comparing various accounts. Sometimes a number of sightings occur in the same general area. Let’s look at the British Isles, an area mostly neglected in my previous writings about these wonderful flying creatures that are not extinct. In particular, we have many reports of dragons in England, earlier in history, and some of those accounts may have involved flying creatures that have been reported in recent generations.

Please be aware that one explanation that people may suggest is that ropens or non-ropen modern pterosaurs have flown from Africa to the British Isles. I now have not nearly enough knowledge to say anything about that potential connection between Africa and western Europe, so let’s put that aside for now.

Pterosaur Sightings in Western England in September of 2017

Whitchurch, the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire, England, has a population of about 10,000 and is only two miles from the border with Wales. On September 27, 2017, I received an email from a lady who wishes to be anonymous but whose experience needs to be shared with the world. In one of the emails I sent her, I mentioned the possibility that some of the larger living pterosaurs may be dangerous to people.

Here is part of her account (slightly edited for punctuation, spelling, etc):

. . . I am in the best of health mentally. I do not take any form of narcotics nor prescription pills, and I do not drink. I am a God fearing women. . . . Two weeks ago around 9 a.m. . . . I went into the garden . . . we live near a wildlife reserve which has an abundance of birds and wildlife, including eagles and hawks, heron, geese, swans, etc. It’s usual for them to fly overhead, and I see them flying; you hear their calls and get familiar with sounds.

Well, on this particular morning I heard a very strange screech; I say strange as I had never heard it before, and it was very loud, almost resounding. I could hear it getting closer across the way from behind the trees. I was curious as to what the sound was, but nothing prepared me for what I actually saw.

I saw two pterodactyls, side by side, flying past the tree. Now at first I had to check myself, because the first thing I thought was “those are blooooody big birds, that’s no lie.” But what struck me was that it had a giant size beak and the wings had no feathers.

. . . this was huge and flew directly past [some crows, revealing size], so due to its size I could see it clearly although it went past fast due to the size of the clearing between the tree and the houses. It was grey in colour, both of them as far as I could tell.

I have [researched] every bird in England and even foreign birds that look similar, in case any had escaped, but the one thing is the sound. None of the birds sound like what I heard. I took a whole day pondering and wondering what it is I actually saw . . .

I thought perhaps it was a toy, yes they have some good toys, but they still look plastic and two dimensional unless at a great distance, even the ones that flap their wings. It didn’t flap its wings up and down like a toy. It was a very fluid motion even coming across in a down to side ways sweep. After a day of research I kept the information to myself except [for] my husband, who remained skeptical but listened very nicely.

I may also add that it did not have [that I noticed] a lump on it head. So that is my story, however last weekend two of my children were playing in the garden . . . around 10 a.m. [and] my son of 13 years came running in to me saying he saw a giant big brown bird with giant wings.

He did have a look of fright or concern on his face, so I knew he wasn’t trying to pull my leg or was exaggerating. My younger daughter, who is nine, was with him and she said she didn’t see it, as she was playing by the trees, but she heard its sound. I asked her the sound (she happens to be a very good mimic when it comes to animals), and she made the sound that I had heard.

[For] the screech sound, the only thing that has come close is on Youtube: a pterodactyl sound clip. I went through pictures of birds with my son; he said it was bigger than the eagles which usually fly around the area. He said it was brown with very long wings. I asked him [if] it have feathers; he said he doesn’t know, he only saw it for a moment. So . . . [I] showed him a [picture of a] pterodactyl and he said, “Yes, that’s what it looked like.”

What I saw had no feathers and its wings were almost bat shaped. I had hoped someone else had seen it or it may have been reported, but as to date no one has. I have done much research online and the largest heron here still does not compare to what I saw: The legs are not long enough and the beak is not as big and the feathers are a major factor here.

I cannot explain what I saw. It was something like out of a movie but it was so quick I still disbelieve what I saw, and at the same time I know what I have seen. I do not know how something like that flying around was not seen by anyone else, as it was low flying, or how it could hide, but what I have told you is true.

Kind Regards . . .

“Bridgenorth, Shropshire” by Paul Sandby (1731-1809)

I replied:

Thank you

I was fortunate to be able to pass through your area of England in 1972 and still hope to return some day.

I know it can be a shock to see this kind of flying creature: We’re taught from early childhood that all of them became extinct long ago. My associates and I hope that these animals will be acknowledged by Western science before long. My own research has been ongoing for most of the past 13 years. We have an expedition ready to start in Papua New Guinea, where these flying creatures are best known and most commonly acknowledged. I will not be able to go along myself but I am grateful that I’ve been able to do just a little bit in supporting it this year.

Let’s begin with what my associates and I know. The animals are indeed real and very much non-extinct. One common name that many people use for them in the USA and in many English-speaking nations is “pterodactyl.” The proper word among scientists is “pterosaur,” but let’s not worry about that technicality.

We know, from many years of interviewing eyewitnesses in a number of areas of the world, that these modern species of pterosaurs are real, not from human imagination or hallucination. The two you saw, and the one seen by your son, have probably been seen by other persons in your area, but most people do not report their sightings, at least not to me or to one of my associates.

Since you have cats and children, I need to warn your family that at least some of the larger ones may sometimes be dangerous, although we still have much to learn.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Did any of the ones seen by your family have a long tail?

2) What is the online address (URL address) of the Youtube video that has a “pterodactyl sound clip?”

Thank you very much for reporting your sighting. It has been some time since I’ve gotten a report from your area.

Jonathan Whitcomb

The lady replied:

Dear Jonathan,

Thank you for your reply and information regarding pterosaurs.

This is the youtube clip with the sound, there are a number of them on youtube but this one comes closest to what I heard, although only up to four seconds as the second part of the sound I didn’t hear that.

{sound of pterosaur shreek}

As for your question whether or not they had tails, this is my son’s interpretation of what he saw (he is not the best artist): He said it moved very fast like in stealth mode and was chasing one of the eagles or hawks around. He said it was 2-3 times the size of the bird it was chasing. I found a better image online but he said that it didn’t have such a big head crest part and the tail more like what he drew.

As for me, there was something trailing but I thought it was legs, but I didn’t really focus or notice as I was focused on its front, the beak and wings, and the time frame that I saw it was very quick. But to be honest I would say I saw legs rather than a tail. . . . It had very long wings.

My daughter told me yesterday that on the way home from school she was looking out the window and where the sheep were she saw one flying in the sky. My husband did not see it as he was driving. It could be a heat of the moment thing as she is my youngest daughter of nine years, and you know how children can be sometimes, but she said she honestly saw it so thought I would mention it. I asked her to draw what she saw.

I hope that has been of help to you, I shall certainly keep a look out and let you know if I see anything else.

Kind Regards . . .

Shropshire, England

Concluding notes from Jonathan Whitcomb

We need to keep an open mind about ancient accounts of flying dragons in England and consider them in light of the more recent sightings of apparent pterosaurs.

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Not extinct but living pterosaurs

How many critics have assumed that eyewitnesses of living pterosaurs must be either mistaken or dishonest! . . . I have interviewed eyewitnesses from many countries, including the United States, England, the Netherlands, Sudan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia. Many of them describe a large flying creature with a long tail.

Cryptozoology in England

A witness reported a large pterosaur-like creature flying above Nursery woods.

Pterosaur Sightings in Europe

Lake District of England
Spain, mid-2007
Books on modern pterosaurs

Living Pterosaurs (monsters?)

(by the cryptozoology author Jonathan David Whitcomb) I’m also grateful to Lon Strickler for allowing me here tp report a few sightings of apparent pterosaurs, but it deserves a brief introduction. This is a strange investigation in a narrow branch of cryptozoology.

Non-extinct pterodactyl

“The extinction of some species of pterosaurs, out of so many known from fossils, is hardly disputed. The popular textbook declaration that all species became extinct millions of years ago, universal pterosaur extinction—that concept itself is approaching extinction.” Jonathan Whitcomb

Living-pterosaur books for LDS readers

Searching for Ropens and Finding God
Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea
Live Pterosaurs in America
Modern Pterosaurs

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

Plans for an expedition on Umboi Island, possibly starting before the end of 2017

Owlman sightings in England

The young witnesses ran back to their father, crying and frightened. They claimed they had seen a large unidentified winged creature . . .

Extinction ideas and pterosaurs

Western indoctrination into the dogma of universal-extinction of all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs has been so widespread for so many generations that any mention of the possibility of one species surviving to modern times is often met with extreme skepticism or worse.

Living pterosaurs in Africa

. . . specific sighting reports have similar details, namely this: a large or giant size, a long tail with a Rhamphorhynchoid-like structure at the end, and a lack of feathers.

Ropen bioluminescence

Dragon or Big Bird in Sandy and Draper, Utah
Ropen Sightings in the United States
Ropen-Pterodactyl in Utah and Arizona?
Marfa Pterosaurs? You’re Getting Warmer!

Eyewitnesses of living pterosaurs

With each passing year, it becomes more obvious why many eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs are credible and that the flying creatures observed are indeed modern pterosaurs. Many of the sightings are of obvious ropens, in other words modern Rhamphorhynchoids.

December 5, 2014January 19, 2015

Attacks From a Ropen in New Mexico?

apparently desert scene in Chaves County, New Mexico

A speculation can fail, under scrutiny, but when human lives are in danger we need action. I’ve recently been reading the nonfiction Missing 411 – Western United States & Canada, by the former lawman David Paulides. On page 200, the author points out that all six of those missing persons listed in New Mexico disappeared in the Santa Fe National Forest. Why did none of them go missing in any other national forest of New Mexico? We have four other national forests in that state, plus three national grasslands (and two other managed areas, designated wildlife or wilderness).

Some kind of predator was probably involved in at least two of those cases, someone or something dangerous residing in that part of New Mexico. This may get complicated.

Before getting into details in those strange happenings in the southwestern United States we need to consider this: When all the experts’ explanations fail, consider the idea that fits many of the facts but runs contrary to a cultural assumption of those experts. Some of those strange happenings are probably unknown to those who were involved in the search and rescue efforts, namely observations of large long-tailed flying creatures in New Mexico. Now remember Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

I’d be surprised if Mr. Paulides had read my book Live Pterosaurs in America, for it’s not close to a national nonfiction best-seller. Few search and rescue professionals or amateurs, if any, are likely to have known, during their searching, about the investigations my associates and I have conducted over many years. Those trying to make sense of those missing persons in New Mexico could have been completely ignorant of attacks from large flying creatures in Mexico and in British Columbia, Canada. Yet why should Americans be immune to similar attacks in wilderness areas of the United States?

I applaud the work of search and rescue persons and investigators who have done all that could have been expected of them. Sometimes they find somebody or find a satisfactory reason for a disappearance; sometimes not. We now need to apply what we have learned about ropens in North America.

“Dragons” near Magdalena Mountains, New Mexico

The following I included in the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America:

“Fourteen years ago [1993, in Socorro, New Mexico], me and a close friend, who now has a masters in biology, were hiking during the midday sun at [a] box canyon and something blocked the sun for a moment. We both looked up to see what did that and saw a large flying animal. 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. . . . we watched it glide . . . and land somewhere on the southern expanse of Magdalena Mountains.”

The man who told me about his sighting (above) mentioned the word dragon.

Details on those missing

Of the six persons who were missing in one area of New Mexico, three of them were children, in age from three to seven, in June of 1951. Those three kids were lost together and found together, all alive. The other three persons were adults who were never found, and they disappeared in 1982, 1998, and 2009. The following comparisons suggest there is no cause-relationship between the children and the adults:

Found alive or never found
Mid-20th century or 1982-2009
Group or lone individual
Children or adults

As I see it, the strange disappearances in one wilderness area of New Mexico resolve into three critical cases, three adults who went missing from 1982 to 2009. Searchers and experts found those three cases baffling. According to Mr. Paulides, “The New Mexico State Police investigator who has the Emma Tresp [who went missing in 1998] case made this statement: ‘It’s like she vanished off the face of the earth.'”

Bigfoot complication, or not

Mr. Paulides mentions the case of the man who went missing in September of 2009; that’s too recent for me to mention the name here. On page 195 of the Missing-411 book it says that the tracking dogs followed the man’s scent for 150 years and then stopped. Some followers of Bigfoot investigations have suggested that dogs might be afraid when they encounter the smell of a Bigfoot, causing them to avoid that kind of trail. That too is speculative. I suggest the dogs that lose the scent suddenly, in some of these missing persons cases in wilderness areas of North America in general, have stopped their tracking where the child or adult was carried into the air.

Carried away by a giant pterodactyl? What could be more unbelievable? Well, what about being carried away by a Bigfoot? The logic of Sherlock Holmes says it was either a Bigfoot or a dragon; take your choice.

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Eyewitnesses of ropen interviewed

Three men describe the pterodactyl-like creature of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea. They saw the giant ropen (about 1994) flying over Lake Pung.

Glowing Ropen in New Mexico

The moon had already gone behind the trees, by the middle of that night a week ago Monday, so Mr. Slack and his buddy searched the sky for the Andromeda Nebula. This required using a low-magnification eyepiece, fortunately, to locate that galaxy, allowing the amateur astronomer to see the flying creature sweep through the field of view.

Attacks From Pterodactyls?

One of the American ropen-cryptozoologists, Jonathan Whitcomb, has now suggested that some of the strange missing-persons cases from wilderness areas of the United States may be from attacks from a few ropens.

Author Jonathan Whitcomb

[He] has interviewed eyewitnesses since 2004, common people who have seen, worldwide, uncommon flying creatures.

Modern-pterosaur book: Searching for Ropens and Finding God, by J. D. Whitcomb

From the back cover of this 360-page paperback:

Settle into a comfortable chair and prepare for what may become the most unsettling scientific discovery since Copernicus and Galileo. This true story takes you into the expeditions that began to prepare the Western world for a discovery not yet recognized by scientists in developed countries.