bioluminescence | Live Pterosaur

December 17, 2019

Ropen Bioluminescence

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.

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:

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

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)

Videos about living pterosaurs

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

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.

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.

Flying Dinosaur

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

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.

August 14, 2015

More Pterosaurs in Utah

On August 13, 2015, I received an email from an eyewitness living South of Provo, Utah. It confirms earlier reports of apparent pterosaurs in Utah, especially nocturnal flying creatures that are very large. Here is part of what the new eyewitness reported to me:

Well, last night I was outside in my backyard in Spanish Fork, UT, we were watching the Perseid meteor shower. I brought out a very bright focused beam flashlight to point at stars and satellites for my buddies that were out there with me. After a few minutes, I saw these “birds” . . .

There were two or three circling around. I shined the flashlight on them and saw what was unmistakably the shape of bat wings. I know in Utah we don’t have bats that big . . . The largest bat in Utah supposedly has a 17″ [inch] wingspan. This flying animal was undoubtedly 7-10 foot wingspan.

My two friends that were out there with me confirmed the same thing. They said it had bat shape wings and that it looked huge. It was hard to judge the actual size with a backdrop of the night sky, but it looked to be flying 150-200′ overhead [150 to 200 feet high].

The beam of my flashlight barely illuminated it, but it was enough to see a greyish brown flying animal that looked similar to a bat. Very concerning. We found your site after researching it and we believe we’ve sighted a Pterosaur!

More About the August 12th Sighting in Spanish Fork

The flashlight used by the eyewitness was a Streamlight Stinger DS LED, and it has a 310-meter beam distance, at the highest setting, with a rating of “350 lumens; 24,000 candela peak beam intensity.” I believe that explains why the flying creatures (possible ropens) were seen overhead, for they came within minutes or so of when the beam was first pointed up into the sky that night. They may have been attracted to the light.

It was not the first time that this particular eyewitness had encountered those flying creatures. On August 8, 2015, in Salem, Utah, (just south of Spanish Fork) he saw something similar, during a large commercial fireworks display, about a quarter of a mile from where the possible-ropens were seen. Both sightings were at about 10:30 p.m.

At the first sighting, the man did not appreciate what he had seen and dismissed it. During the second sighting (four days later), he saw more, for he had the use of the high-powered flashlight.

The eyewitness also reported to me the following, concerning the second sighting:

The wings had the characteristics of bones, how you can see the skeletal structure and skin stretched in between. It looked a lot like a bat, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was MASSIVE. I’ve never seen a flying creature that big in Utah before.

He did not notice the presence or absence of a tail, which is common with sightings at night. He also told me the following about the possibility of bioluminescence:

I’ll admit, I learned about the apparent bio luminescence after the sighting by reading on your site and others, but now that I know that, it makes total sense why they looked ghostly . . .

Comparison With the Grantsville, Utah, Sighting

Two eyewitnesses of the night-time sighting in Grantsville, UT, years ago, saw more clearly that the huge flying creature had something like bioluminescence, a glow that the animal appeared to turn off and on. The farm animals became very alarmed at the appearance of that very large flying creature.

Like the sighting in Spanish Fork, there were multiple eyewitnesses.

Ropen Bioluminescence

The following is from the fourth edition of my nonfiction cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (Chapter 22: Fly by the Light):

Do all nocturnal pterosaurs glow like the ropen of Papua New Guinea? Not necessarily. Do all bioluminescent pterosaurs glow for less than seven seconds at a time? Not according to some witnesses of the indava.

We could have a number of species of large glowing flying creatures in this world, some of which are modern pterosaurs, including ropens. The eyewitness in southeast Texas has probably seen a species of ropen, for I have not yet found anything suggesting any bat has bioluminescence, and many daylight sightings in the southern USA convince me we have ropens.

Report Your Sighting

Please CONTACT me, if you have seen something similar, in Utah or anywhere else. Thank you.

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Religion and Belief in Modern Pterosaurs

. . . your religion has nothing to do with whether or not you will see an apparent pterosaur, however it relates closely to whether or not you will go on an expedition in search of those creatures.

Pterosaur Sightings Reported in Utah

Sightings of apparent pterosaurs have often been reported in California. We also have reports from Oregon and Arizona and the middle states of America. What about Utah? Consider the following, part of a sighting report . . .

Ropen Pterosaur

Image of the “Gitmo Pterosaur” of Cuba

Long-tailed Ropen

What comes to mind when you read “dinosaur?” Probably “extinct” or “extinction.” What about the word “ropen?” . . . Live pterosaurs! But it gets even stranger. . . . [Americans] began searching for them in the United States. . . . “the neck about 1-2 feet in length, the head was about four feet in length, and the head . . . has a crest that was about 2 feet in length.”

Big Flying Creature in Utah

Three children, including Devon Roberts and his brother Dallin, saw something huge flying overhead, at about 11 p.m., [in Grantsville, Utah] around the fall of 2001, something very unlike any bird.

Bioluminescent Ropen

What do the flying lights of Umboi Island, Tawa Village, and Salamaua have in common?

Pterosaur Sighting Data for the United States

. . . from the compilations leading up to the end of 2012, for the forty-eight contiguous states of the USA, for the more credible reports.

An Apparent Modern Pterosaur

The ropen is a long-tailed flying cryptid described as pterosaur-like and reported by eyewitnesses around the world, especially in North America and in the southwest Pacific.

Nocturnal Ropen

Could living pterosaurs still fly through the skies? An investigation in the realm of cryptozoology.

January 27, 2015

Pennsylvania Pterosaurs

forested area around the Susqauehanna River in PA

Does a species of ropen live in Pennsylvania or at least pass through that state on occasion? We need to keep these sighting reports in context, for other eyewitnesses have seen similar featherless flying creatures in surrounding states of the USA, including Ohio and Virginia.

We also need to keep in mind the concept that when one eyewitness reports to me a sighting (of an apparent pterosaur) in a particular area, there were quite likely other eyewitnesses who had similar sightings but never contacted me, for various reasons.

Here are some dates and locations of sightings:

2006 (mid-summer): Southwest Greensburg, PA
2011-June: southern Susquehanna County, PA
2014-June-14: Penn Hills (outside of Pittsburgh)

Encounter Near Pittsburgh (mid-June, 2014)

Today I witnessed a flying creature I’ve never seen in my life. I was riding passenger seat in Penn Hills (outside of Pittsburgh), PA. It was around [noon], very hot during this time. At first glance, I thought it was a hawk because of its bottom claws and wingspan. But the closer we got, the more I could see that it didn’t have feathers. It just [looked] like latex skin, there was a layer of hair but it wasn’t feathers. . . . But the STRANGEST PART had to be the tail; it had like a ball on the end. And the way it flew was like nothing I ever seen . . . like swimming in the air but maintained the same height and speed but it appeared like it was moving in slow motion at the same time.

Sighting near Marietta, Ohio

In June of 2014, I got an email from a lady who had witnessed an apparent pterosaur in a rural area of Ohio:

Several years ago when I was in college I briefly saw what looked like two of them flying close together while I was driving. . . . I thought I was crazy for a minute, like I was seeing things . . . but I don’t know of any birds that look like that that are featherless, that large, and grey. . . . I was happy to be inside my car.

Sighting in Virginia

In May 2005, in Midlothian, Virginia, . . . a giant bird glided down from a tree, no flapping of wings, probably 35 feet across. It looked exactly like a pterodactyl, and I have told very few people about it since it sounds like I have gone crazy. . . . Later at the same time period on Braddock Rd in N.VA there was a sighting also. It was enormous, and I am so glad to find I am not alone in this [kind of] sighting!

Potential for bioluminescent ropen in Pennsylvania

The following is from an email I, Jonathan Whitcomb, received from an eyewitness:

Last Sunday night (December 11, 2011), I was outside and I looked up and saw a moving orange light. At first I thought it was a meteor, but then I looked right at it and saw it wasn’t moving in a straight line. When I looked right at it, I could see it was zigzagging . . . Also, I thought it appeared to have wings that were flapping, although it was so dark I couldn’t tell for sure. If it did have wings, the wings weren’t glowing. The light only lasted about two seconds. . . . quite high up. It appeared to be somewhere near Robinson Lake (near mile marker 208 along I-81 in Pennsylvania).

West branch of the Susquehanna River, Clinton County, Pennsylvania

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A flying creature in Pennsylvania

I saw something flying from east to west, about 700 feet north of where I was (in our cow pasture, in southern Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania). It looked black, and I couldn’t see any feathers on it, although I couldn’t be sure it didn’t have feathers. . . . I saw a similar-looking flying creature flying over Lenoxville, and that one did seem to have a flange at the end of the tail — at least, there was some kind of bulge at the end of the tail . . .

A Real Pterosaur in Pennsylvania

The wing span appeared to be at least six feet . . . you could clearly make out a long “horn” or “cone” type protrusion coming out of the back of its skull, which was at the end of an elongated neck . . . This “bird” also seemed to have a long tail . . . As it was almost directly over us we all agreed we couldn’t see feathers anywhere and my student Carrie said “It looks like pterodactyl . . . doesn’t it?”

Universal Pterosaur Extinction, or not

How could Darwin have imagined that small populations of nocturnal pterosaurs are scattered across the planet? They rarely congregate anywhere and appear to humans in daylight only on occasion.

Jonathan Whitcomb—paleontologist or cryptozoologist?

One critical point here, unappreciated by some paleontologists, is that those eyewitnesses come from various countries and have different backgrounds and beliefs, including differing religious beliefs. Why is that critical? Significant similarities in the descriptions include featherless appearances, a cone-like appendage at the back of the head, and a long tail, sometimes described with a “diamond” at tail-end.

Searching for Ropens and Finding God – fourth edition, published in October of 2014 – 360 pages – nonfiction – by the American cryptozoologist Jonathan David Whitcomb

January 22, 2015

Lights in Mississippi Deer Camera Images

deer at night is in light - Possible bioluminescence in a flying predator?

I have no clear estimate for the probability that strange lights in deer camera photos, from the state of Mississippi, are from bioluminescent ropens, to the best of my knowledge as of early January 22, 2015. The honesty-credibility of the couple who own the property in Jackson County, Mississippi, however, demands that I present to you what I do know about the ropen possibility.

Credibility of Rainer and Edith Shattles

Both husband and wife appeared to me to be highly credible, as I watched (on Youtube) the television news examination of their deer camera photos. Neither of them appeared to have any interest in promoting the concept of ET’s from another planet. In fact, Mr. Shattles suggested the possibility that the light may have come from a government drone, although he showed little conviction for that speculation. The point, however, is clear: neither Rainer nor Edith appeared to have any motivation for playing any hoax.

Criticism and speculation of a hoax

From what I have seen, critics dismiss these game-camera photos as worthless for giving credence to extra-terrestrial aliens shining lights on earthly deer in Jackson County, Mississippi. But those critics fail to realize that the two persons who present these photos have not suggested the lights come from any beings from any other planet. They simply show us what their game camera photographed one night in February of 2014.

Sighting by Garth Guessman in Papua New Guinea

Consider the following, from page 317 of the fourth edition of Searching for Ropens and Finding God, regarding the Monsterquest expedition on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, in which my friend and associate Garth Guessman participated:

After returning from the expedition, Guessman gave me many details. The hike exhausted all of them, so they welcomed sleep on that first night . . . with one exception. My friend knew the importance of nightly observations—he had been searching for ropens on Umboi Island in 2004—so he stayed up while everybody else went to bed. When he suggested they watch the sky, they told him they were there to make a show, not to conduct a scientific investigation.

While the others slept, Guessman saw a highly directional light that illuminated clouds. In daylight, no campfire was seen where that light had appeared, yet the other members of the team gave little attention to my friend’s report. That’s hardly surprising, for they were there to make a show and none of them had seen any strange light while they slept.

The point of that sighting of a strange light on New Britain Island is this: Something caused that directional light, and maybe, just maybe, it was a bioluminescent pterosaur, perhaps even a ropen. If so, why could not the directional light in the game camera photo from Jackson County, Mississippi, have also been from a similar flying creature?

Directional light seems to center on a deer (Jackson County, Mississippi, Feb-2014)

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Deer camera photos in Mississippi

Multiple Deer cam images from the 150 acres that Rainer and Edith Shattles call home in the Cumbest Bluff area of Jackson County show at least one UFO . . .

Ropen Attacks

“I also saw a ‘giant’ pterodactyl! Actually most of the senior students of our public school saw it too. This was back in about 1960 when I was 12 years old. . . . Since I am now almost 67 yrs old, I would like to find anyone else who might have seen one too.”

Bioluminescence of the ropen

The British biologist and explorer Lucy Evelyn Cheesman was the first woman ever hired as a curator at the Regent’s Park Zoo, in London. She traveled in the south Pacific prior to World War II, discovering a number of new species of small creatures and writing several books.

Umboi Island government official sees ropen light

At about 7:00 p.m., after fishing off the reef, Cottingham saw the glow: a light moving horizontally “across the top of the coconut palms.” The object’s slow wavelike motion was unlike any other light he had ever seen.

Ropen Lights in Southern California?

The ghost lights first came to the public attention in the “early” 1900’s, when John D. Spreckels [born in 1853] began construction on the impossible San Diego and Arizona Railways, through the treacherous Carrizo Gorge. . . . on moonless nights the camps were plagued by mysterious hovering balls of colored light. At least one worker was driven mad by fear.

Ropen sighting in Mississippi

“I was in Meridian, Mississippi [about 2001]. I was outside . . . around 9 pm . . . It’s a full moon . . . when I turned my head to look to the right, I caught this shadow of a figure floating over the top of my sisters apartment building. . . . The wing span had to be 25 ft across and from head to toe at least the same. I was yelling and screaming for my brother-in-law or nephews to look . . .”