There has been renewed interest in Pterosaur research in the past 2 decades. I have posted the information as it was forwarded to me. An expedition in Papua New Guinea uncovered interesting anecdotal evidence. There have been a few videos released but these, IMO, are not convincing and depict only common native species. Nonetheless, there is an excellent possibility that pterosaur-like creatures exist somewhere on Earth.
I am posting some of the information that started to trickle in, beginning in 2005:
Papua New Guinea, Southwest Pacific Ocean—The Ropen (‘demon flyer‘) is a monstrous creature that has terrified the natives of Papua New Guinea for thousands of years. Another smaller creature, the Duah-possibly related to the Ropen-haunts some of the far-flung outlying islands.
Now sensational eyewitness reports—collected by determined exploration teams seeking strong evidence of the creatures—have led serious researchers to the conclusion that two distinct animals exist.
The descriptions of both monsters match those of fabled pterosaurs, ferocious flying dinosaurs that were thought to have been extinct for 65 million years.
Jim Blume and David Woetzel are two daring researchers who have explored the dangerous regions—including the treacherous outlying islands—where the prehistoric monsters are known to hunt their prey.
Not only have these two compiled eyewitness accounts of the creatures from frightened natives, and physical evidence of gigantic nesting sites in some of the mountainous cliff areas, but both men have personally witnessed the soaring creatures—and Woetzel even shot some video footage of one.
First brought to the attention of Western missionaries following WWII, the often nocturnal flying creatures are described as having large bat-like wings, an elongated beak filled with razor teeth, sharp, tearing claws, and a very long whip-like tail with a split or flange on the end.
Reports from natives and investigators indicate that the creatures glow in the dark and are clearly visible in the night sky. Researcher David Woetzel observed this phenomenon, called the ‘Ropen light,’ at length and videotaped it.
It’s hypothesized that the bioluminescent glow assists the creatures in hunting and catching fish—their primary diet—in the deep darkness of the tropical night.
The evidence for two types of living pterosaurs
Although the Ropen and Duah have strikingly similar physical characteristics, the giant Ropen inhabits Papua New Guinea while the smaller Duah stays relatively close to the outlying islands.
Other than actual modern-day sightings of the two, a surviving 16th-century maritime chart lends credence to the hypothesis that they are two distinctly different creatures.
The 1595 chart cautions sailors about ‘sea monsters’ and depicts various coastal regions of Earth where monsters might be found. In the area of Papua New Guinea, two ‘sea monsters’ are illustrated: one is much larger than the other, yet both have almost identical physical traits. Each has long necks, prominent head crests, tails ending with a flipper-like appendage, and ridges along their backs. They are shown flying above an island.
Despite the general consensus among orthodox zoologists that the creatures don’t exist, those who have traveled deep into Papua New Guinea’s primitive rain forests and tiny offshore islands are convinced the creatures are living there now—especially since they have seen them firsthand.
Furthermore, strong evidence exists that one type is very big, with impressive 20-foot-plus wingspans, while the smaller island dwellers have 4 to 4 1/2-foot wingspans.
Blume and Woetzel are convinced that two different types of pterosaurs exist, and the indigenous natives concur. However, the locals insist the Duahs are not Ropens.
Mounting evidence supports the contention that the large Ropen are living Dimorphodon pterosaurs, with dermal bumps and a head crest; while the numerous sightings of the smaller creatures that inhabit the caves of the islands dotting the Bismarck Archipelago are that of the supposedly extinct Rhamphorhynchus-a pterosaur with a wingspan of about 3 to 4 feet.
Blume’s investigations indicate that the wingspans of some pterosaurs may reach 10 to 15 feet, though several other investigators point out that natives have encountered Ropens with much larger wingspans.
Most intriguing of all, the living pterosaurs may not be exclusive to Papua New Guinea. Similar creatures have been sighted and reported on and off for centuries throughout Central Africa.
The natives of Congo, Zambia, Angola, Kenya, and Zaire call the creatures Kongomato. They assert that the reddish African version has large, leathery wings, sharp claws, a split tail, and prominent teeth.
While humans smugly believe they are the masters of this planet, the original rulers may still command some of the darker corners of this shrinking world.
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NOTE: In 2010, I received an email from Jonathan Whitcomb at Live Pterosaur: "Last month I interviewed an eyewitness who lives in the Manus Island area of Papua New Guinea. More interesting than his short sighting one night is the account from an older man: The "kor" (a new name to me, probably the same species as the ropen of Umboi Island, or at least similar) creatures attacked some Japanese, during World War II, with a devastating response from those Japanese. I believe this story, for my contact seems to be credible."
The following is posted on his blog:
Japanese World War II Ship Shelled Pterosaur Caves
February 18th, 2010 at 5:29
Three days ago, I received an email from R.K. (anonymous), of the Manus Island area of Papua New Guinea. (We started communicating earlier this month.) The nocturnal flying creatures that he described to me–I believe they are Ropens–were common and were dangerous to local fishermen previous to the early 1940’s when their numbers declined. In these northern islands, the creature is called “kor.”
Here is part of R.K.’s account of the Japanese retaliation against the creatures that had attacked them:
”...it was the japs [Japanese military] on the island who were attacked by the kor. They [Japanese soldiers] apparently shot several wounded them then followed them to cves [caves] and blew [blew up] the entrances. They called ships fire on the hills and pounded them for several hours.”
R.K. asks an interesting question: “I wonder if there is a record of that somewhere?” Perhaps there is an old Japanese veteran who knows about this or has written about the battle with those creatures. If so, perhaps the word used for those creatures would be “dragons."
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The Kor of Northern Papua New Guinea
R.K., of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, reports that the glowing nocturnal flying creature of those northern islands is called “kor.” Descriptions strongly suggest that they are at least similar to the Ropen of Umboi Island, perhaps the same species: glowing with various colors, a long tail, “skin all over it,” and a few creatures growing to a large size. A few American investigators (some of them exploring some areas of Papua New Guinea) are convinced that these are living pterosaurs.
According to what R.K. has learned from some older villagers, the kor catch fish “by skimming slowly around on the ocean surface, then as the light under their wings and belly glowed bright and attracted fish, the korr would swoop in . . . ” and “they eat in flight.”
But these are not just old reports. R.K. has reported his own encounter [early 2010 report]: “Two years ago we took a boat out to investigate and could see the lights soaring over us and heard flapping of wings.”
Older web page reports of smaller “Ropens” around Manus Island (as if these were a different species because of size) are questionable. One kor was large enough to kill an islander in the 1960’s (according to R.K., this was the last human death from an attack). Perhaps the reports of smaller creatures come from the larger number of younger ones. Larger ones are reported to eat turtles and even young crocodiles. Some animals continue to grow throughout their lives; perhaps the kor, on occasion, also grows to a large size.
Click for the video - Three men describe the pterodactyl-like creature of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea. They saw the giant "Ropen" (about 1994) flying over Lake Pung.
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World War II Veteran Saw Giant Living "Pterodactyl"
Duane Hodgkinson, now a flight instructor in Livingston, Montana, in 1944 was stationed near Finschhafen, in what was then called New Guinea. After he and his buddy walked into a clearing, they were amazed as a large creature flew up into the air. The men soon realized that it was no bird that started to circle the clearing. It had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long,” (book Searching for Ropens, 2007) and a long appendage at the back of its head: apparently, a live pterosaur.
Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer, interviewed Hodgkinson, in 2004, and found his testimony credible. In 2005, Garth Guessman, another experienced Ropen investigator, videotaped his own interview with Hodgkinson and the session was analyzed by Whitcomb, who became even more convinced the World War II veteran was telling the truth: The man had seen a Ropen.
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INVESTIGATIONS
In late 2006, Paul Nation, of Texas, explored a remote mountainous area on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. He videotaped two lights that the local natives called "indava." Nation believed the lights were from the bioluminescence of creatures similar to the Ropen of Umboi Island. The video was analyzed by a missile defense physicist who reported that the two lights on the video were not from any fires, meteors, airplanes, or camera artifacts. He also reported that the image of the two lights was authentic and was not manipulated or hoaxed.
In 2007, cryptid investigator Joshua Gates went to Papua New Guinea in search of the Ropen for his TV show Destination Truth. He and his team also witnessed strange lights at night and could not confirm what they were.
In 2009, the television show Monster Quest conducted an expedition in search of the "demon flyer" but found no evidence of the creature. Later, they had a forensic video analyst examine the Paul Nation video. The analyst could not definitely conclude what was causing the lights but ruled out vehicles and campfires believing the footage was of a pair of bioluminescent creatures perched in a tree that later took flight.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ropen
As well, here is the YouTube page with the MonsterQuest clips - Flying Monsters
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In the second half of 2007, living pterosaur investigators were active in a new sighting area. The location they kept secret but it's known to be on the west coast of the United States. Some of the men had been on cryptozoological expeditions in Africa or Papua New Guinea, including Scott Norman.
On one of the first nights of observation, Scott stayed up later than the other researchers. He'd been skeptical after watching an unclear video that others thought might be a pterosaur; he was sure it was just a bird. But in the early morning hours of July 19th, he saw something large fly nearby: no bird.
Silent, with stars for a background, the dark creature flew twenty feet high, over a shed only twenty feet from Scott. Although it was dark, there was no mistaking it: a wingspan of eight to ten feet, a head three to four feet long, and a two-foot-long head-crest that reminded him of a Pteranodon. The wings were more bat-like than bird-like.
How does this sighting relate to the Ropen sightings in Papua New Guinea? Investigators were attracted to this area in the Western United States by a familiar eyewitness description: Flashes of light that often look like meteors but occasionally look different. Also, the landowner, who allowed the men to search on his property, had seen a large Ropen-like creature in daylight.
It seems that Scott Norman is the first American cryptozoologist to see the clear form of a living pterosaur while looking for one.
A few months after his historic sighting, he fell ill; to the sorrow of many friends, relatives, and cryptozoology associates, Scott left this world for a better, where extinction itself is extinct and where life never ends.
Scott Norman's passing, on February 29th, just days before he would have turned forty-four, caused a partial disclosure of the secret living-pterosaur searches in the Western U.S. Investigations continued through 2007 and into 2008, but the landowner insisted on location secrecy. By early 2009, some trespasser had fired a gun at one of the creatures. The landowner has no desire for any curious crowds, even if they trespassed with no guns.
Many areas of the United States have had their sightings: New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York State, Ohio, Wisconsin, and California. Reports continue to come in about pterosaurs.
The cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb continues to interview eyewitnesses of Ropen-like creatures seen in the United States. He encourages cryptozoological investigations across the U.S.
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Myths and legends about creatures from the Chupacabra to the Jersey Devil to Bigfoot are everywhere, but in southern New Mexico and parts of Texas people say they've seen birds so big they seem prehistoric.
One man claims the rugged landscape near Las Cruces hides a mystery that's haunted him for several years.
Dave Zander has lived near the Doña Ana Mountains for more than 30 years spending almost all his spare time hiking, exploring, and fossil hunting in the range between the Robledo and Organ mountains.
He saw something that he's unable to explain and many people find hard to believe.
He recalls the day eleven years ago when he spotted something extraordinary: two creatures perched on a mountain less than a mile away.
"These creatures were so huge they looked like the size of small planes," Dave Zander said. "All of a sudden one of them jumped off dropped off the top of the mountain, came down the front of the mountain and all a sudden these huge wings just spread out.
"I would say the wings were at least a 20-foot wingspan."
Definitely something out of the ordinary.
"Not a normal bird, definitely of a giant variety," Zander continued. "It makes you feel like it could come over and carry you off if it wanted to."
Zander witnessed a real-life scene from the movie Jurassic Park?
One ancient bird in the vicinity is an Andean condor living at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque. But its wingspan of 12 feet pales to what Zander described: birds with an unprecedented twenty-foot wingspan, with pink bald heads and all-black bodies, and feathers on their enormous wings.
There is nothing in the modern record like it.
"In comparison, a 20-foot wingspan would truly be a monster and something undocumented by science," cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard said. "I believe what Dave Zander may have seen are surviving pteratorns."
Gerhard has made a career studying prehistoric birds.
"What's interesting is the reports of these giant raptor-like birds to continue into modern times," he said. "We seem to have a large concentration of them here in the Southwest particularly in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas as well as New Mexico and parts of Arizona."
Gerhard documented many of these strange reports from all over the globe in the book "Big Birds! Modern sightings of flying monsters."
The book includes sightings in different clusters over the past 30 years.
In 1972 in Maxwell in northeastern New Mexico, Ronald Monteleone of Trinidad, Colo., reported what he thought was a pterodactyl flying out of an arroyo.
In Lordsburg in the 1800s locals talked constantly about the sightings of pterosaurs.
And a picture circulated the country in 1890 out of Tombstone, Ariz., but it's never been considered totally legitimate.
"Other eyewitnesses are describing specifically giant feathered dark birds with an enormous wing span," Gerhard said.
Gerhard said his research falls into two different descriptions from witnesses. Some said the birds look like the prehistoric pterodactyl while others, like the creatures described by Zander, resemble the ancient thunderbird from Native American mythology.
You can find thunderbird images atop many totem poles and also carved into the lava rocks of the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. Similar images are found in petroglyphs all over North America.
According to legend, the thunderbird is said to have a wingspan the length of two canoes with the ability to deafen people with the sound of its flapping wings.
"It is definitely a real animal, according to the native peoples that lived here," Gerhard said. "It's not necessarily a legendary animal."
However, a word of caution comes from folks like Ben Radford, managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which applies scientific reason and evidence to extraordinary claims.
"There is a desire to link modern sightings with these Native American stories but the problem is they're not necessarily the same thing," Radford said.
Radford said believes the eyewitnesses saw something:
"Ultimately a lot of these sightings, whether it's these monsters, these creatures, Chupacabras, what have you, these come down to eyewitness testimony," Radford said. "They're stories, there's nothing wrong with stories, but they're just not good evidence."
Radford has debunked numerous stories about the Loch Ness monster, crop circles and Bigfoot.
He said he relies on evidence.
"You don't have bones, teeth," he continued. "You don't have any hard evidence, so you look to these stories, you look to these myths.
"We know from many scientific experiments people are notoriously unreliable about estimating things."
And in this case, Radford said he thinks Zander and the other witnesses in Texas overestimated the birds' size.
What makes the reports intriguing is that most experts agree scientists have yet to discover every species on the planet and really have no idea what is out there:
"I believe there's a good chance that several large prehistoric animals remain undiscovered by modern science," Gerhard said.
Radford readily concedes there are species yet to be discovered, but...
"Do I think there are giant animals and birds and creatures out there?" he said. "No."
For his part, Zander continues to keep his eyes on the skies but hasn't had a repeat visit from the creatures. The one experience has stayed with him.
"I feel honored to have seen the one sighting," he said. "I had if they're still up there still living up there and thriving, I say awesome, more power to them."
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