How important is sincerity for the seeker of truth! What can be learned from somebody who only acts out the searching, without expecting any discovery? Should a tourist visit the Smithsonian in Washington D. C., and return home to report no evidence for the existence of the President of the United States, that tourist’s lack of presidential discovery would be meaningless. Consider now the attitude of the leaders of the 2009 expedition on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, in particular the television production members of the team.

A pre-production lady had consulted with me briefly, months before the MonsterQuest expedition. I doubted that I would be ready to travel with them, so my associate Garth Guessman became part of their quest. But my friend was really seeking a living pterosaur, and the others were not.

From the third edition of my nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America:

I am grateful that the History Channel’s MonsterQuest episode on “flying monsters” in Papua New Guinea revealed to many Americans the living-pterosaur searches by Garth Guessman and Paul Nation; but the MonsterQuest expedition on New Britain Island, in early 2009, was not itself a serious living-pterosaur investigation but a show that cast doubt on that belief of those two Americans. . . .

The world’s greatest expert on chickens—that’s a fox. The details of that expertise culminate in picking bones, executed differently than, but for the same purpose as, the work of a fossil expert: to make a living. The hope differs: The paleontologist searches for ancient bones somehow protected from the destructive forces of time; the fox, for fresh meat, somehow unprotected by the farmer for a time. Interminable dogmatism keeps both of them searching: one for death anciently; the other, death soon-to-be.

We trust no fox to analyze the automatic switch that turns on the electric fence protecting chickens; why trust a paleontologist to analyze reports of live pterosaurs, for supporters of that idea appear to threaten standard paleontology? Both fox and paleontologist have specialized knowledge, with each specialization tied to its own dogma. Trust neither one outside. . . .

[A paleontologist played a major role in this MonsterQuest episode.]

It seems to me that valuable air time was wasted promoting the “unknown-species-of-bat” hypothesis, for they instead could have delved into details of eyewitness accounts. . . .

Except for Garth Guessman, the Western members of the expedition team (mostly American or Canadian) went to New Britain Island to create a television show, not to search for living pterosaurs. Guessman was not the decision-maker, so his quest was at least partially nulified by the limitations imposed by the others. They found no living pterosaur.

But for those who sincerely seek the truth, even the unorthodox non-extinct pterosaur, the possibility of discovering one is thrilling.

Do a Google search with “pterodactyl” and see how many pages come up with one of the following:

• Music
• “A dormant volcano deep with the Turkish forest”
• “enjoyment and practice of creating art”
• Foul language and “comics”
• A video game
• “Enchanted Learning Software”

“Pterodactyl” is even the name for a particular series of opening moves in the ancient game of chess. I have one recommendation, for those who are interesting in the possibility of living pterosaurs in modern times (maybe save yourself a Google search):

Pterodactyl

This YouTube video features my friend and associate Garth Guessman and the World War II veteran Duane Hodgkinson. My friend interviewed the old veteran a few years ago, and the videotaped interview I put up on YouTube. Here is part of what I wrote about Hodgkinson’s encounter, quoted from the second edition of my book Searching for Ropens:

Hodgkinson was interviewed in person by Garth Guessman (another American ropen investigator) in June of 2005, and he revealed more details about the sighting . . . [It] occurred at about noon, west of Finschhafen . . . The creature, which Hodgkinson first assumed was a bird, flew up from the edge of the clearing and, as it circled, fifty to one hundred feet above the men, presented a “perfect side view” of itself—obviously no bird.

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Now if you do a Google search with “pterosaur” the irrelevancies will be much fewer than with “pterodactyl.” Still, here is my recommendation:

Pterosaur

This home page has been recently revised: It is now much more informative, attractive, and inviting. Sub-topics include the following:

Paul Nation’s Indava Expedition

The two lights in that video were strange indeed: not car headlights, not flashlights, not camp fires, not meteors, in fact nothing ordinary. On the other hand, eyewitnesses describe a giant flying creature.

Psychologist Sees a Pterosaur (a brief overview)

An eyewitness of a long-tailed living pterosaur on the island of Bougainville, New Guinea, in 1971 . . .

Kongamato of Africa

“The boy was walking from one mud-brick hut to another, one night in 1988 . . . he noticed something on the roof of his uncle’s hut. A creature was perched on the edge of the roof, lit up by the nearby porth light. The winged creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery with no feathers . . .”

Living Pterosaurs and Dragons

“The Marfa Lights of southwest Texas have been compared with the flying lights of Papua New Guinea and with the Wawanar legend near southwest New Britain Island. . . .”

Critics have sometimes questioned the objectiveness of investigators of eyewitness accounts of living pterosaurs. It seems that those critics have been hasty. Consider details, then judge for yourself.

Woetzel-Guessman expedition of 2004

When the American cryptozoologists David Woetzel and Garth Guessman explored Umboi Island late in 2004, they used a sketches in some of their interviews. Dozens of silhouettes were available for native eyewitnesses to compare: birds, bats, and pterosaurs. Detailed interview forms were used. To be more objective than previous explorers, they used those sketches and forms to interview native eyewitnesses.

When Woetzel had his sighting one night, he described the strange flying light that he had observed. He did not imagine any shape to the light, no form that would suggest a modern pterosaur. He only reported what he had seen. (Contrary to some of the vague ridicule from critics, we can really be quite objective.)

Nation-Kepas expedition of 2006

When Jacob Kepas climbed up a mountain ridge with a local guide, their first viewing location was insufficient for Kepas to be sure that what he was observing was a large winged-creature. Only after the guide had climbed up to a higher viewing location was it ascertained to be what they had suspected.

On that expedition, when Paul Nation videotaped the two strange lights on the ridge, he did not say that he had observed the shapes of two pterosaurs. He described the lights that he had seen; he admitted that no shape was observed.

Nation expedition of early 2007

Paul Nation returned to the Tawa Village area of Papua New Guinea only weeks after his first expedition there. He scrutinized the various lights that he had observed in late 2006 and determined that the bright white lights far to the east were from automobile headlights. After he had returned to the United States, he reported his findings to me and admitted his previous mistake, notwithstanding the other lights were genuine indava lights. This may have been somewhat embarrasing, at first, but it verifies the objective purity of the investigations. It shoots down the ridicule that we are grossly biased and therefore incapable of conducting objective investigations.

More about the Living-Pterosaur Cryptozoologist Jacob Kepas

Science and Clear Thinking (from The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs)

Follow living-pterosaur investigations on Twitter

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Did you know that living pterosaurs have been reported in North America, even in the United States? Read the many eyewitness sighting reports  by purchasing a nonfiction book on Amazon or buy Live Pterosaurs in America from the publisher.

In its original first edition, for many weeks, this has been the best-selling nonfiction book (Amazon.com) about living pterosaurs. It is in pure cryptozoology genre, unlike some books about modern living pterosaurs and dinosaurs, packed with exciting observations by shocked eyewitnesses. Find out for yourself why many Americans are awakening to the knowledge that these creatures still fly, not just in remote jungles but right here in the United States.

This cryptozoology-book breakthrough has now been published in its third edition:

“Ropen” is what natives of Umboi Island call the nocturnal flying creature, and legends abound. Most eyewitnesses have only seen it from a distance, at night, and they describe a strange flying light.

David Woetzel led the second ropen expedition on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, late in 2004, accompanied by fellow-American cryptozoologist Garth Guessman. One night, near Arot Village (northern Umboi), Woetzel saw a strange light flying towards the mountains near Lake Pung. Consider this excerpt from my interview with him in 2005:

“My sighting was so quick that it was impossible to get a video—maybe 2 seconds  . . . [The flying light was] almost golden and shimmering around the edges. It looked like an old-fashioned street light in the fog.

“There was no tail and it was flying horizontal from  Mt. Barik toward  Mt. Tolo . . . The size, color and speed made it immediately stand out as unlike any other thing I’ve ever seen in the sky.”

Woetzel estimated the angular-size of the light: about 20%-25% the size of a full moon. With a lack of any meteor tail and horizontal movement, a meteor interpretation is unreasonable. This must have been the same object observed by my interpreter (Luke Kenda) a few weeks earlier and a few kilometers to the east: a horizontally-flying light with a mountain background. I believe that both sightings were of the ropen.

Although this sighting, by itself, obviously does not prove that pterosaurs are still living, it validates the honesty of this cryptozoologist: Woetzel could easily have reported some kind of pterosaur-feature, rather than only a glowing object, were he to have been dishonest. This is one example (among many) of the honesty of the explorers who searched for  living pterosaurs from 1994 through 2004, for they interviewed many eyewitnesses but admitted never observing any pterosaur-like animal themselves. It disproves the careless general accusation (from some critics) that they are dishonest.

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Did you know that living pterosaurs have been reported in North America, even in the United States? Read the many eyewitness sighting reports  by purchasing this incredible nonfiction book on Amazon or from the publisher—Live Pterosaurs in America.