Some of the oldest web pages about reports of apparent living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea are on the “laattorneyvideo” site. Although some of the pages may be a bit outdated, in places, they are worth a view:

Umboi Island Eyewitnesses

David Moke, of Opai Village, Umboi Island, was shocked at the bright flash lighting up the reef where he was fishing one night. . . . villagers of Umboi Island have seen the ropen light flying to or from the larger mountains . . . Gideon Koro related how he was terrified at the sight of the giant ropen that flew over Lake Pung . . .

What is a ropen?

It seems that at least two types of long-tailed modern pterosaurs live in the Southwest Pacific, although there may be sub-species variations. Reports of smaller creatures (under three meters wingspan) in the Manus Island area of Papua New Guinea might be juveniles of the same species as the larger creatures to the south. . . . Described like a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur, the ropen lives in some tropical areas of the southwest Pacific. . . . It’s main diet may be fish or other oceanic life that it catches at night with the aid of a bioluminescence that attracts fish. . . .

 Possible Ropen Off Indonesian Coast

In June of 2008 . . . flying a small twin-engined plane . . . saw what he at first assumed was another airplane flying in a head-on collision course. . . . avoided a collision by banking away from what he and his co-pilot thought was something like a “pterodactyl.”

Pterodactyls, Dinosaurs, and Dragons

Video of two indava lights . . . 2004 expedition (by Whitcomb and Kenda) . . . Opai Village . . . Bioluminescent organisms . . . Ropen of New Guinea . . .

Popular Youtube Video

The Youtube video “Ropen-Pterodactyl American Eyewitness” has had over 275,000 views, but far more astonishing is the view that Duane Hodgkinson had of the giant flying creature he saw near the city of Finschhafen, New Guinea, during a lull in fighting with the Japanese military (World War II).

I have interviewed Duane several times since mid-2004. The Youtube video, however, I edited from footage recorded by Garth Guessman (a living-pterosaur investigator associate of mine), who visited the old veteran in Montana in 2005. Many who view the online video are impressed with the credibility of the eyewitness.

Hodgkinson Sighting, in Summary

He and his army buddy had stopped on a trail, just west of the coastal city of Finschhafen, in 1944. Something took off into the air; Hogkinson assumed, at first, it was a bird. But he soon realized that the size was all wrong: about the wingspan of a small private airplane. The tail he later estimated to be at least ten or fifteen feet long. But what caught his attention was an appendage coming out the back of the head; it reminded him of the “pterodactyl” in the Alley Oop newspaper cartoon strip.