The Long-Tailed Ropen of Papua New Guinea
As the day came to a close, the British biologist
Evelyn Cheesman glanced out to the horizon. What
was that strange light that flew just below the top
of a nearby mountain ridge? In the early twentieth
century, Western scientists were mostly ignorant of
those mysterious lights deep in the jungles of New
Guinea; Cheesman had never heard of them, but
she soon became determined to learn more.
From her base camp in Mondo, deep in the interior
of the mainland of what is now Papua New Guinea,
she watched the light; it lasted about four to five
seconds. Another similar slow flash came up a little
distance away, followed by others, all of them being
in a horizontal line, about three miles from Mondo.
She took detailed notes of their behavior, coming to
a firm conclusion that they were not “from any
human agency.” The local natives refused to answer
her questions about those flashing lights, so she
was left without any explanation. She probably had
no idea they were bioluminescent pterosaurs.
The Ameriocan cryptozoologist Jonathan
Whitcomb interviewed Gideon Koro on the
remote island of Umboi, Papua New
Guinea, in 2004. The native described
how the giant flying creature, with no
feathers, flew over Lake Pung in clear
daylight. The tail was seven meters long;
the mouth, “like a crocodile.” Two other
natives verified this ropen encounter.
Guessman and Hodgkinson
Biologist Observes Flying Lights
Copyright 2010, 2011 Jonathan David Whitcomb
Pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea
Trying to understand the ropen
expeditions in remote areas of
Papua New Guinea, without
reference to Duane Hodgkinson--
that is like trying to understand
the American Revolutionary War
without reference to Gen. George
Washington. This flight instructor
of Livingston, Montana, was a
soldier in World War II, stationed
on the mainland of New Guinea.
His sighting of a giant long-tailed
“pterodactyl,” in the presence of
his army buddy, launched the
living-pterosaur expeditions that
began in the 1990’s.
Eyewitness Gideon Koro