A Flying Cryptid Resembling a Rhamphorhynchoid Pterosaur
Reports from Papua New Guinea and other areas suggest this flying creature is
mostly nocturnal, with rare exceptional daylight flights shocking eyewitnesses.
Ropens
Ropen, in Cuba, sketched by the eyewitness, Patty Carson
From the book Searching for Ropens and Finding God:
From the Acknowledgements:
“What more could we ask of the U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn and the little girl
Patty Carson, two eyewitnesses of “pterodactyls” at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
in the middle of the twentieth century? They carefully observed those flying
creatures and later drew detailed sketches that defy any misidentification
conjecture . . . Thank you, Eskin; thank you, Patty.”
From the Introduction (beginning and end):
“Expect answers in this book: why my associates and I traveled to a remote
tropical island to search for living pterosaurs and why so few professors
have given us any hope that they still live. What about adventures, with
danger, failure, and success? Yes, expect those, but I hope my readers will
discover more than adventure—a purpose in life—as worthy a purpose as
I have found. . . .”
“Believe what you will about modern dragons, about living pterosaurs, about
giant glowing ropens. But the power of the testimonies of the eyewitnesses
I’ve encountered, over the past ten years, including many credible natives I
met on Umboi Island, makes that flying creature as real to me, almost, as if
I had stared a ropen in the face. How can I deny the credibility of the eyewit-
nesses I have interviewed? With no other reasonable explanation, I now
believe in modern dragons, in living pterosaurs, in giant glowing ropens.”
From the first chapter (beginning and end):
“It looked like a dead pterodactyl: not fossil bones but with skin, like it had
died recently. Could those creatures, non-extinct, still fly? Although I could
not verify the photo was genuine, the idea within that image in a soon-
forgotten book would be awakened four decades later, to plunge me into the
most dramatic adventure of my life: exploring a remote tropical island,
searching for giant living pterosaurs. . . .”
“In September of 2004, whether with childlike faith or childish folly, with
lovely wonderful thoughts I would fly across an ocean to arrive alone in
Papua New Guinea. Appearing like the boy who wouldn’t grow up, I would
explore a tropical paradise, a wonderland of legend. I myself would be
searching for ropens.”
Mount Sual, Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, where the nocturnal ropen
is sometimes reported to fly, as it glows with an apparent bioluminescence
Lake Bono, Umboi Island (a crater lake), surrounded by the peaks of Mount
Sual — This photo was taken during the second expedition of 2004, by the
two American explorers David Woetzel and Garth Guessman. Although they
failed to see the ropen here, Woetzel later observed a strange light as it flew
mostly horizontally towards another crater lake on Umboi Island. Natives
describe the features of what produces that flying light: long tail, large size,
and no feathers. Eyewitnesses include Gideon Koro, Wesley Koro, Mesa
Augustin, and Jona Jim. Read about their encounters in the book Searching
for Ropens and Finding God, the fourth edition.
This true-life adventure/spiritual nonfiction
book has been nicknamed “the Bible of
modern pterosaurs.” Get your own copy
of this extraordinary work and see how
lives have been changed by learning of
these wonderful flying creatures that are
very much non-extinct: Searching for
Ropens and Finding God, by Whitcomb.
Contact the author, if you have seen any
animal that looks like a “pterodactyl.”
NON-FICTION