ropen – Cryptid Eyewitness

April 13, 2019

“Pterodactyls Alive in North Carolina” (Youtube video)

By the investigative journalist Jonathan Whitcomb

On April 5, 2019, I uploaded to Youtube an 11-minute video on eleven sightings of apparent pterosaurs in North Carolina. Those are just some of the eyewitness reports that I have received from that state.

Youtube video “Pterodactyls Alive in North Carolina”

Rather than just here repeat details from this mini-documentary, I’ll report some of what I learned from one other sighting report in North Carolina, one not covered in this video.

Pterosaur Sighting in Asheville, N.C.

On Jan 19th 2019 near downtown Asheville, NC in a neighborhood that borders the blue ridge parkway where I live. I was in my front yard playing with my almost 4 year old children on a clear day. My daughter pointed up to the sky and said, “look dad an airplane . . .”

I looked up and saw what appeared to be a small personal aircraft, then realized I heard no noise. It was moving fast and on a direct course, but I was able to move around the yard and track its movement . . .

I estimate that it was flying 250-300 feet above the ground level. If guessing, I would estimate the wing span to have been 15-20 feet. Because of the size alone I had convinced myself I was seeing a small aircraft.

Then I saw the wings flap several times after being stationary the other two minutes I witnessed it. I have lived in the area my entire life and have witnessed every kind of animal known to be here and more.

. . . being a father to small children and running my own business I do not have time to waste making up anything or bothering to tell people about anything like that. This was a very unique experience. I was able to discern it had a very large body that was long with huge wings that would flap at hinge points. I did not see any kind of feathers with its body looking smooth and (dark brown or black). . . .

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The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur (about the video)

Let’s begin with the good news: I uploaded a new video to Youtube yesterday, about the sighting at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in about the year 1965, and about how it relates to other sightings.

Pterosaur sightings in St. Louis and in North Carolina

I saw something . . . HUGE above me in the sky. . . . It didn’t appear to have any feathers, and it had the tail with the diamond shape on the end.

Ropen seen at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Patty Carson, I am sad to announce, passed away early in 2019. Her contributions to living-pterosaur investigations have been great, for she has spoken freely about many details that she observed in the flying creature she encountered in Cuba in about the year 1965, when she was a little girl. She also gave us a remarkable sketch, drawn from her memory of that ropen.

Dragons of Los Angeles

She was driving north on the Interstate 5, just east of a golf course on the east side of Griffith Park, in Los Angeles, on Sunday, March 3, 2013. The flying creatures flew almost exactly over her car in the opposite direction. It was just minutes before sunrise, so the sky was no longer dark and she could see the undersides of the “dragons.” [Actually she saw three long-tailed living pterosaurs, also called “ropens.”]

December 7, 2018August 3, 2020

New ‘Flying Dinosaur’ Book

By the nonfiction author Jonathan David Whitcomb

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur introduces young readers (about 8-14 years old) to an exciting new branch of cryptozoology: eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, and most of these flying creatures appear to be ropens. Here is but a brief summary of some of the book’s benefits for children and teens (this is NON-fiction):

Exciting encounters people have had with what they sincerely believe were actual “pterodactyls,” real animals, apparently living pterosaurs
Invites the reader to use critical reasoning and let’s him or her decide what to believe about each of these apparent non-extinct pterosaurs
Explains the three major interpretations for any particular sighting
In simple English, allows the eyewitnesses to tell us what they saw
Does NOT indoctrinate; says not what to think but HOW to think

Other Amazon sites having The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur:

French language

German

Spanish

Eyewitness accounts are in The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

Of course these cryptids are not literally dinosaurs—the correct word is pterosaur—but some eyewitnesses and others use the phrase “flying dinosaurs” for these featherless flying creatures. The girl mentioned in the title of this book is Patty Carson. As a small child, she probably used that phrase, or one like it, when she tried to tell her family what she had seen in some tall grass on the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1965.

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur is a short nonfiction, just 56 pages, yet it can be delightful for readers between about the ages of eight and fourteen years. Give one as a gift for Christmas or as a birthday gift. Better yet, purchase a number of them and give them out to many children and teens. Your purchase will help support the author in his research and interviewing of eyewitnesses worldwide. The suggested retail price is only $7.80 (U.S.).

According to the author Patty Carson really did have a flying cryptid encounter many years ago in Cuba.

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Dinosaur Books for Children

Four books for young readers in general, including the short nonfiction The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

Is the New Book About Religion?

My new nonfiction is for middle-grade children and many (but not all) teenagers: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur. This is a short cryptozoology book, not about religion but about eyewitness sightings of apparent living pterosaurs. It invites you to seek the truth behind what people around the world report observing.

Gift Book for a Ten-Year-Old Girl

A few days ago, my new book became available on Amazon: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur. I’m not saying that this paperback is the ideal gift for every 10-year-old girl who reads English, of course, but it’s a whole new approach to the “dinosaur bird,” and I wrote it for readers 8-14 years old or thereabouts.

Is the ropen a modern pterosaur?

Questions and answers on the ropen

October 22, 2018

Important Ropen Sightings

A significant number of the eyewitnesses of ropens have given their real names, and most of them are still living, as of early 2018. Here is a list of sightings of these long-tailed modern pterosaurs, although this is only a partial list of the more important encounters, by eyewitness name, or by place if the eyewitness is anonymous:

Patty Carson

Her sighting was in 1965, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when she was only about six years old. She immediately tried to tell her family about the flying “dinosaur,” but they did not believe her . . . at least not at first. Within about a year or so, however, her sister saw what may have been the same species of pterosaur, and her older brother also had a sighting.

Brian Hennessy

In recent years, he has worked as a psychologist, making it less likely that he had any mental health problem when he saw the large long-tailed flying creature on Bougainville Island, New Guinea, in 1971.

Keep in mind that Mr. Hennessy did not use the word ‘pterodactyl’ while reporting his sighting to Whitcomb in 2006, but on the other hand he did not say anything that contradicted the possibility that it was a pterosaur.

Duane Hodgkinson

With his army buddy next to him, this American saw a “huge” “pterodactyl” in a jungle clearing just west of Finschhafen, New Guinea, in 1944, after all the Japanese military had left that area. The wingspan he estimated as similar to that of a small private airplane.

Gideon Koro

This native of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, was interviewed face-to-face by Whitcomb in 2004, in his village. He estimated the length of the tail of the ropen at seven meters. It was obviously no fruit bat. Gideon was one of seven boys who had hiked up to the crater lake Pung around late 1993 or early ’94. This sighting, by seven boys, was in clear daylight, as the ropen flew over the surface of Lake Pung.

Eskin Kuhn

This U.S. Marine saw two “pterodactyls” flying together at close range to Eskin and at fairly low elevation, in 1971, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Being a talented artist, he commenced sketching, from memory, those two long-tailed pterosaurs, within minutes of the sighting.

Lakewood, California (two eyewitnesses)

Two sisters each had a sighting of a long-tailed dragon-like flying creature, near the same backyard. Their sightings, however, were made with each sister unaware of the other’s encounter, and these views were in different years.

Sandra Paradise

This young lady saw a huge “pterodactyl” that flew in front of her car, while Sandra was driving east of Winder, Georgia, early one morning in August of 2008. She was shocked but quickly phoned a friend to report what she had encountered. She later reported her sighting to Whitcomb

Perth, Australia (two eyewitnesses)

In December of 1997, a couple was taking a walk between two residential neighborhoods, well into the evening, when they saw an approaching flying creature. Even at a distance, it looked huge. As it flew closer, it became obvious that it was indeed gigantic.

The husband, who was a scientist, estimated the wingspan to be between 30 feet and 50 feet. The tail was very long and the creature appeared to have no feathers. It may have had fine hair or small scales, but it was too difficult to make that out completely.

Susan Wooten

This young lady was driving on a major country highway in South Carolina, around 1986, when a huge long-tailed featherless creature flew in front of her car. She was shocked, as a number of drivers in other cars pulled over to the side of the highway.

Sketch by the eyewitness Patty Carson (sighting in Cuba in 1965)

A blog post by the investigative journalist Jonathan David Whitcomb

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New book on eyewitnesses (children & adults) of living pterosaurs

I quote from this nonfiction book, although this is a preliminary form of these sentences in this book, The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur [long-tailed ropen in Cuba]

Press release: living pterosaurs in North Carolina

Jonathan Whitcomb, author of nonfiction cryptozoology books, has suggested that flying creatures reported in Raleigh, North Carolina, over several years, may be related to what Americans in other states have reported to him over the past fourteen years.

Ropen sightings in the USA

The author Jonathan Whitcomb looks into a storm channel in Lakewood, California, near where a “dragon-pterodactyl” was reported to have flown in mid-2012.

Live Pterosaurs for Kids

Patty Carson was about six years old when she and her brother saw this animal. Patty is grown up now. She is a good artist and drew this picture of what she saw . . .

Pterosaur encounters in the United States and around the world

I, Jonathan David Whitcomb, proclaim that not only are not all species of pterosaurs extinct but more than one species is living, and they range in extensive areas of the planet. During the past fifteen years, I have received reports of apparent living pterosaurs from six continents, most of which reports were directly from the eyewitnesses themselves. [Direct accounts were received by Whitcomb from five continents.]

Nonfiction books about the ropen

From the author: “Both nonfictions include the two sightings in Cuba, encounters by Patty Carson (1965) and Eskin Kuhn (1971), both of which were at Guantanamo Bay. [The books referred to on this site are Searching for Ropens and Finding God and Live Pterosaurs in America.]

Not all pterosaurs are extinct

Many species of pterosaurs have lived on this planet at some time in the past. What evidence is there that all of those species have become extinct? NONE!

April 4, 2017July 10, 2017

Are Modern Pterosaurs Paranormal?

By extant-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

I’ve lost count of the number of radio/podcast talk shows that have interviewed me over the past twelve years; many of those shows are considered paranormal. Most Americans, and Westerners in general, would classify modern-pterosaur investigations as paranormal. I can understand that. But more than once I’ve encountered a paranormal explanation that involves something like a time tunnel in which a pterodactyl can fly into our time and space and then disappear from our modern reality; I’ve struggled to find words that express how displeased I am with that imaginative interpretation. Why are so many Westerners so averse to considering the obvious implications of worldwide sightings of living pterosaurs?

How deeply we have been indoctrinated into the assumption that all dinosaurs and pterosaurs died out many millions of years ago! Yet how rarely, if ever, has any scientist explained, in the media of television or widespread print, why all of their species must have become extinct so long ago!

From the introduction in the nonfiction cryptozoology book Modern Pterosaurs:

Take the time to insulate yourself against generations of indoctrination into the Western philosophy of total extinctions of basic types of life. Without protection, your skin will become numb, and your eyes, snow-blind. You need to know what people have been encountering around the world, before you can see clearly what’s in the Ptp photo.

In that same book, we read the following about the apparent Civil War photograph called “Ptp:”

The real “problem” in this photo of a Pteranodon-like thing is that the thing looks like a Pteranodon.

Skeptics say that fact proves it must be a fake; I say that fact, taken with the most credible testimonies of eyewitnesses, proves that the universal extinction assumption is a dogma needing to be put on a leash.

Conclusion

Why do so many Americans (and other Westerners) seem to take it for granted that all species of pterosaurs much have become extinct many millions of years ago? It comes from generations of deep indoctrination into the dogma of the universal extinctions of basic forms of life, especially dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

As a side note, the cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God says this:

Some authors of paranormal books have served the cause of truth by including modern reports of these featherless flying creatures: Big Bird (Gerhard), and Bird From Hell (McIsaac). Even The Min Min Light, The Visitor Who Never Arrives, by Fred Silcock, enlightens us to the possibilities of bioluminescence in large flying creatures, although he writes only about owls.

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Why the Ropen is Real

Scientific methods may be used in researching and searching in cryptozoology, yet a cryptid, by definition, is not an animal being studied in a laboratory, by a science professor; it is a creature known more from eyewitness testimony.

Sense of Truth – Nonfiction Book

Look at a box of mac ‘n cheese or frozen chicken nuggets, the ones with tasty shapes of dinosaurs. Notice that some of those shapes have wings, like what many of us call pterodactyls. Did you notice the word prehistoric on the box? Now notice what small children are taught.

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

The credibility of these young men impressed Whitcomb (who was a forensic videographer at that time). Their demeanor convinced the American that they were telling the truth about the huge ropen that they had seen flying over Pung. The descriptions suggest that the ropen of Umboi Island is indeed a living pterosaur.

Pteranodon photo in Civil War

In addition, a scientist (Clifford Paiva, a physicist) has found a number of evidences for the authenticity of the image of the apparent Pteranodon in the older Ptp photo. These include consistent shadows under the boot of the soldier who stands in front of the animal, shadowing consistent with those found on and under the animal. In other words, no Photoshop manipulation was involved in pasting that soldier onto an image of an apparent modern pterosaur.

January 1, 2015March 28, 2016

Unidentified Flying Creature – UFC

Of all the names we might consider for these animals, let’s now use Unidentified Flying Creature or UFC. The following will be set aside for the moment, although some or all of them could apply:

ropen
dragon
pterosaur
pterodactyl
flying dinosaur
fiery flying serpent

Mysterious Disappearances of People

Humans can go missing for many reasons, the least common, quite possibly, from being carried away by a “flying dinosaur.” Yet among the strangest of cases of missing people, the circumstantial evidence has mounted up to this bizarre conclusion: The best explanation for some of these is that people are carried away into the air.

This about the following. Dogs often fail to track or follow the scent for a short distance and stop. I know that some people will suggest a Bigfoot carries away people; but how do you explain a dog that tracks a man to a vertical cliff in Yosemite? That man had neither the physical ability nor the climbing equipment to ascend vertically. The direct interpretation is simple: Something lifted that man up into the air near that cliff. (This does not mean that the UFC flew straight up, that would be unnecessary and exhausting; that was simply the spot where the man’s body was lifted up into the air as the UFC flew alongside the cliff.)

The nonfiction paperback Missing 411 Western United States & Canada, by David Paulides, mentions many cases where tracking dogs could not track. That does not necessarily mean those dogs were afraid of the scent of a Bigfoot, a scientifically non-classified primate reported to live in North America. Those dogs could just as well have an aversion for following the smell of a giant pterodactyl. Yet the best explanation we have, for the moment, is that some of those persons are lifted up from the ground.

Concerning the disappearance of eight-year-old Dennis Johnson, in Yellowstone National Park in 1966, a newspaper quoted one of the searchers: “It was nearly as if he had been snatched from the face of the earth.” Others have made similar statements about strange disappearances.

Clothing or Shoe Found Missing From a Found Person

It’s not very unusual for one shoe or one or more articles of clothing to be missing from a live person or body. This can be explained by the victim falling out of a shoe or shirt or pants or coat, while being carried a short distance above the ground. The shoe or clothing or shoe is then dropped in one location while the unidentified flying creature turns around and flies back to look for its prey. That is why some of the survivors are found in bushes, where the vegetation both cushioned the fall and hid the person from the returning predator.

Kuhn's sketch of Cuban pterosaurs

Two very large flying creatures seen in Cuba in 1971

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Missing Children and the Ropen

Many other cases give significant circumstantial evidence that large flying creatures have, on occasion, carried away a child. Many such cases have no resolution, meaning no child or body was ever recovered.

Missing Persons and Cave Appearances

This two-year-old [Mike McDonald] was found fifteen miles from where he became missing, in 1945 in southern Arizona, asleep in a small cave. Like the case in Australia, he was found the day after he disappeared. Mike had no injury other than a small cut on one foot.

Vapor or Mist Used in Attacks on Humans?

I would say the substance ejaculated from the mouth or head of the pterosaur is a mist, described by one eyewitness as a “smoke.” This very well could be part of the origin of old legends of fire-breathing dragons.

Fourth edition of this nonfiction cryptozoology book

The ultimate nonfiction book on modern pterosaurs

non-fiction paperback "Searching for Ropens and Finding God" Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition, by Jonathan Whitcomb

November 29, 2014November 29, 2014

Why the Ropen is Real

Fourth edition of this nonfiction cryptozoology book

The apparent Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur called ropen is a cryptid, and that means we are dealing with cryptozoology. Scientific methods may be used in researching and searching in cryptozoology, yet a cryptid, by definition, is not an animal being studied in a laboratory, by a science professor; it is a creature known more from eyewitness testimony.

One paleontologist, Dr. Donald Prothero, has gone far astray from scientific methods in his post about “fake” pterosaurs. It’s devoted to attacks against me, Jonathan Whitcomb, as he mentions my religious beliefs and proclaims my dishonesty, in spite of my explanations for my use of two pen names in a minority of my writings.

The question now is this: Is it better for a scientist to use non-scientific methods to ridicule, through bulverism, someone he disagrees with or for a cryptozoologist to use scientific methods to examine the credibility of the existence of the cryptid called ropen? I choose the latter.

I now respond to Dr. Prothero by quoting from my Searching for Ropens and Finding God (4th edition).

The paleontologists are rare who take notice of my associates and me, at least through mid-2014. When one has commented on what we declare about modern pterosaurs, it’s usually with a word like “extinction” but in a difference sense: the demise of all species of pterosaurs. Am I slicing quarks? I know of nobody who denies that many pterosaurs may have lived without leaving any fossil. Beware of the fog around two meanings of a word. Even if all species of pterosaurs known from fossils had become extinct long ago, we live in the real world of the present, a world in which people report encountering living pterosaurs. [page 293]

Mr. Collini and Mr. Cuvier [two centuries ago] assumed the strange creature that left fossil evidence of its existence was extinct. What else could they think? They knew nothing of anything like that in the modern world. Now look at the key word: assumed.

Almost all biologists, from then until now, have assumed all species of pterosaurs became extinct, for those humans apparently knew nothing of anything like them in the modern world. Paleontologists are even more rare than eyewitnesses of ropens, and if one fossil expert saw one dragon fly overhead, how could the encounter be reported? That eyewitness would probably say nothing.

Gradual accumulations of new fossil species were too gradual to alert anyone. Alert them to what? Simple probability. If we were to dig into a cliff, looking for fossils, what might we find? Quite likely we would uncover a fossil of something quite similar to a modern organism, for those are common. If paleontologists had examined objectively the axiom of pterosaur extinction, over the past 200 years, they would have noticed what few have considered: As each new pterosaur genus was uncovered, by fossil discoveries, the probability of a modern version increased. Experts now have dozens of those genera to consider, yet how few paleontologists have examined the universal-pterosaur-extinction axiom itself! [page 295]

Science and mathematics

Statistical analysis proves that hoaxes could not have played a major part in the 128 sighting reports that I researched by the end of 2012. This is in simple math, easy for most adults to understand. I don’t know why Dr. Prothero mentioned nothing about statistics in eyewitness testimonies, but if he had, it would have reflected badly on his case for trying to persuade people to dismiss from their minds the possibility of any modern pterosaur. How much easier to use bulverism to convince followers that I, Jonathan Whitcomb, have been dishonest! Please note, I am not accusing Dr. Prothero of dishonesty; I am replying to his accusations of deceit.

Of course my use of math in that situation relates to the lack of hoaxes, not misidentification possibilities. But if many eyewitnesses have been telling the truth, what about the possibility that I too have been honest? And what if the ropen really is real?

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“Sock Puppets” and Jonathan Whitcomb

Both statements in each post are false, yet some of my proper use of two pseudonyms may resemble improper usage, so this needs to be explained in detail. . . . To publicize details about the encounters with apparent pterosaurs, I needed some way to emphasize those reports without my name getting in the way. [a perfectly valid reason to use a pen name]

Donald Prothero and “Fake” Pterosaurs

. . . It gives me some hope that Prothero was making an honest mistake, when he included that link; nevertheless, his post appears sure to lead his readers astray from the truth, not only about my motivations but about investigations of living-pterosaur sighting reports in general. I must respond.

Evidence for a Living Pterosaur

I continue to receive eyewitness reports of apparent living pterosaurs, as I have for the past eleven years. The following are some of the more recent emails: West Virginia (Oct of 2014) . . . Minnesota (Nov of 2014) [note: this post was written on Nov 29, 2014]

Cryptomundo and Jonathan Whitcomb

Did you know that the living-pterosaurs investigations that started in the mid-1990’s were in Papua New Guinea? Some reports were of large flying creatures that were covered with hair. The Woetzel-Guessman expedition of 2004 (a few weeks after my own expedition) involved detailed questionnaires, the main one being two pages long. There was also a silhouette page: 34 images of birds, bats, and pterosaurs.

Ropens and Pterosaurs

Recent and older editions of the nonfiction books Searching for Ropens and Live Pterosaurs in America

Honesty in Ropen Searching

I am shocked that somebody with so much education would make so many mistakes, indeed errors that are facing 180 degrees away from reality. But I do not accuse this man of dishonesty, for I cannot see into his mind or into his heart. Being honest or dishonest is, after all, about one’s intention. Those who search diligently will find the truth.

Searching for Ropens and Finding God – in its expanded fourth edition

Living-pterosaur nonfiction book