Live Pterosaur Media Center News Media Center Hodgkinson “Pterodactyl” Sighting Finschhafen Pterosaur Deadly Attacks on Natives in Morobe Province   According to the second edition of the book Searching for Ropens: “West  of Finschhafen, in about 1985, a man was attacked while working in his  garden. The villagers heard the noise but came too late. The huge creature  lifted the man off the ground, dropping him before picking him up again,  then carrying his body into a large tree. The villagers were terrified as they  watched the creature eat the man’s body.”   This attack near Finschhafen was not an isolated event. According to the  same book, a man was attacked and died near Lae (west of Finschhafen).  “An old man who, crippled with cancer in about 1995, was attacked by  one of the creatures. In daylight, in a village near the city of Lae, thirty  eyewitnesses saw the creature carry the man into the air and then drop  him; this happened three times before the creature finally carried off the  body to eat it.”   Pterodactyl Sighting of 1944   In recent years, Duane Hodgkinson has been a flight instructor at a small  airport near Livingston, Montana. In 1944, during a quieter period of  World War II around Finschhafen, New Guinea, he and his army buddy  were taking a hike to a village. They stopped at a clearing that was about a  hundred feet in diameter. As they watched some large ants, a wild pig ran  through the clearing, catching their attention. But as soon as it ran past, a  large winged creature took off into the air, running to get airborne.   According to a scientific paper titled “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the  Southwest Pacific,” Hodgkinson “estimated the legs to be 3–4 ft (1–1.2  m) long.’ He also estimated “the top of the back was 5–6 ft (1.5–1.8 m)  above the ground just before takeoff.” The length of the head he estimated  “not counting the appendage, was about 3–4 ft (1–1.2 m).” In addition  with a tail length that Hodgkinson estimated to be “at least ten or fifteen  feet,” the flying creature was not a misidentified fruit bat.   The cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb, who has interviewed many  eyewitnesses, including Hodgkinson, believes the World War II veteran  saw the saw kind of featherless flying creature that natives of nearby  Umboi Island call “ropen.”                                                            ### Other Online Resources Cheesman Lights  Lucy Evelyn Cheesman wrote The Two Roads of Papua (Published by Jarrolds, Limited, in 1935), in which she described the strange lights that defied any explanation related to human origin. She saw that it would be unreasonable to suppose that the natives could have produced the lights. Eventually she gave up on any clear explanation for them. Flying Dinosaurs in New Guinea Cryptozoological investigations, like ropen hunting in Papua New Guinea, seem to resemble the evidence gathering of detectives or the early work of a scientific investigation. Critics seem to have overlooked this, for they insist on physical evidence such as a living or dead ropen, or a photograph of one. According to Jonathan Whitcomb, (the author of "Searching for Ropens" and "Live Pterosaurs in America"), however, the purpose is to promote a major expedition, so that ropens (or "flying dinosaurs") may be videotaped. The “light expeditions” have been the cryptozoological preliminary investigations.  The opinions expressed are those of Jonathan David Whitcomb. Media professionals may use these paragraphs in whole or in part for news distribution. All of the images on this page may also be used by the news media The “Gitmo Pterosaur” of Cuba may be like the ropen of Papua New Guinea: an apparent Rhamphornynchoid pterosaur Gideon Koro probably saw the same species of flying creature seen by Hodgkinson. See Umboi Island Ropen  This World War II veteran stands by his testimony that he saw a big flying creature in 1944, a creature with a wing- span similar to that of a Piper Tri-Pacer airplane and a tail at least 10’-15’ long. Finschhafen Harbor, Morobe Province, PNG (Photograph by Jonathan David Whitcomb)