Pterosaurs
Still Living
The oldest living-pterosaur web site
Pterosaurs Still Living is here to document, then analyze, eyewitness accounts of apparent extant pterosaurs, or flying creatures that appear
to be “pterodactyls,” and to support expeditions and research to obtain relevant evidence. Please report any sighting to Jonathan Whitcomb
A “Gitmo pterosaurs” scared two children in Cuba in 1965
Opai villager was astonished, one night, by a bright light over a reef
Duane Hodgkinson and his army buddy saw the “pterodactyl”
in a jungle clearing in New Guinea. The tail: 10-15 feet long.
Brian Hennessy, from Australia, saw a flying creature
that “certainly looked prehistoric,” for it had a long tail,
a disproportionately-large head, and no sign of any
feathers. He’s not crazy, just another eyewitness.
Oh yes, and Mr. Hennessy is also a psychologist.
Throughout human history, and more recently, come
fascinating reports of what may have been living
pterosaurs. From “fiery flying serpents” of the Bible
ages ago, to strange flying creatures called “dragons”
in England and other European countries a few cen-
turies ago, to a huge pterosaur flying across a country
highway in South Carolina in 1986, descriptions of
these “flying dinosaurs,” commonly called by some
people “pterodactyls,” make it obvious that they are
non-fictional and very much non-extinct.
Twentieth century and twenty-first century eyewitness
testimonies in Papua New Guinea suggest that long-
tailed Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs fly overhead at
night. Consider many accounts of amazing encounters
with creatures described like living pterosaurs, unlike
any bat or bird known to science.
Some reports are from Americans and Australians,
including Duane Hodgkinson (a flight instructor and
World War II veteran) and Brian Hennessy, who is a
psychologist. In Perth, Australia, a couple witnessed
an extremely large featherless flying creature, yet the
sighting reports come from around the world.
The U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn was stationed
at the Guantanamo Bay military base in
Cuba, in 1971. One day, he saw an amazing
sight. In clear view and at close range, he
saw two pterosaurs flying together at low
elevation. He tried to get another eyewitness
to verify that two “pterodactyls” were there,
but the creatures had flown off before Kuhn
was able to pull the sergeant out the door.
Within minutes, Kuhn began sketching the
two animals. He now gives his testimony to
the world: two wonderful flying creatures.
Late in 2006, American explorer Paul Nation
explained to Jonathan Whitcomb how he had
witnessed and then videotaped flying lights
deep in the mainland of Papua New Guinea.
Whitcomb took a copy of the video footage to
a missile defense physicist, Clifford Paiva,
who analyzed it. Paiva declared that common-
place explanations couldn’t explain the lights.
Still image from about 15 seconds of
video recorded by Paul Nation, during
his expedition deep in the mainland
interior of Papua New Guinea (2006).
A scientist later analyzed the footage,
finding the lights were not from car
headlights, flashlights, meteors, air-
plane lights, fires, etc.
Much of the research done from about 1994 till
2005 involved the ropen of Papua New Guinea:
At least six Americans participated, beginning
in the 1990’s with Carl Baugh of Texas, followed
by Paul Nation (also of Texas) and, in 2004, by
Jonathan Whitcomb, Garth Guessman, and
David Woetzel. James Blume, for many years
a Baptist missionary in Papua New Guinea, has
often assisted investigators. Although these six
Americans had few sightings, from 1994 through
2005, they interviewed native eyewitnesses.
Paul Nation’s expedition, in the Tawa Village
area of Papua New Guinea in 2006, elevated
the credibility of living-pterosaur investigations
in cryptozoology. He videotaped what he and
his associates believe was the bioluminescent
glow of two living pterosaurs. Within only a few
weeks, the TV show “Destination Truth” team
also videotaped a similar light to the east of the
village of Tawa, as it flew over the coast.
copyright 2005-2018 Jonathan Whitcomb
From 2005 until the present, eyewitness
reports in the United States have rivaled
those in Papua New Guinea. As some
Americans learned about the surprising
living-pterosaur investigations in the
southwest Pacific, eyewitnesses of many
similar flying creatures have reported
encounters to Jonathan Whitcomb. He
analyzed the many accounts and then
wrote the nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs
in America (expanded third edition,
published late in 2011). This astonishing
cryptozoology book is sold online by
sellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
One reader of the second edition of this
book has said, “This is an updated review
of the book and I am changing my rating
to 5 stars. This book has been on my shelf
for almost a year now. I pick it up every
now and then and a part of me becomes
more impressed by the book every time.”
A reader of the first edition said, “This
seems to be the author's second book on
the subject, and this one is worth the
effort. He has focused on the accounts of
witnesses who saw something, and that
adds credibility. The writing is easy to read
and he adds comments and analysis to
make it all more useful. Mostly, the author
lets the sightings speak for themselves,
which is good. . . .”
Second ropen expedition of 2004
First Umboi Island expedition of 2004
Jonathan Whitcomb, in 2004, interviewed many native
eyewitnesses of the large nocturnal ropen that flies over
this tropical island in Papua New Guinea.
Live Pterosaurs in America (3rd ed)
Ropen sighting in eastern Cuba
Big Bend National Park, Texas
Cryptozoology book - nonfiction
Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition, by
cryptozoologist Jonathan David Whitcomb, is
sold online on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-
a-Million, AbeBooks, and elsewhere
The third edition of the true-encounters book
is sold on Amazon.com and on other online sites:
Suggest retail price, $13.65
ISBN-10: 1466292113
ISBN-13: 978-1466292116
Susan Wooten was driving between the
city of Columbia, South Carolina, and the
town of Greenville, around 1986, at about
3:00 p.m., when a huge creature glided
down from the trees on the side of the high-
way and above and in front of her car. She
could see that it had no feathers. Other
drivers pulled over to the side of the high-
way that day, but Wooten could not stop
and talk with them about the amazing big
flying creature, for she was following a girl
who was driving ahead (a friend from the
college they attended), and she wanted to
keep up with her, to avoid being separated.
She did research at a library and found a
number of possibly-related reports.
Big Bend National Park
With about 800,000 acres, the Big Bend
National Park has plenty of room to hide a
nocturnal flying creature that would rarely
leave a track. The Marfa Lights that appear
north of the park—those lights fly in strange
light-splittings and in light-rejoinings, but
only a few times each year. Those glowing
flying predators (maybe they're like the
ropen) may hunt periodically in various
areas in this part of North America, not just
around Marfa. Reports of large apparent
pterosaurs flying around are not restricted
to southwest Texas. In Mexico, in areas
bordering this part of Texas, eyewitnesses
have reported frightening flying creatures
that may be related to the Marfa Lights.
Mountains near Marfa, Texas
Not all mystery lights in southwest Texas are from car headlights. Some are called CE-III lights by the scientist
James Bunnell, who for many years has studied these phenomena around the town of Marfa, Texas. Consider it.
Another Eyewitness of the Gitmo Pterosaur of Cuba
The U. S. Marine Eskin Kuhn wasn't the only person to have seen a giant flying pterosaur at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, in the middle of the twentieth century. Patty Carson described what she had seen:
"We were walking down near the boat yards, headed home . . . We were walking through that scrub area, and
suddenly it sat up, as if it had been eating something or resting. The head and upper part of its body, about a
third of the wings at the joint . . . showed. . . . [It was] about thirty feet away . . . It did have a tail and it had a
diamond shaped tip . . . The skin was a leathery, brownish reddish color. It had little teeth, a LOT of them."
In her interview with Jonathan Whitcomb, many years later, she said nothing about any glow, for the sighting
was in daylight. These featherless nocturnal flying creatures come out in daylight only on limited occasions,
which is part of why they have not, as of mid-2017, been officially classified as extant animals by Western
science. Yet sometimes an eyewitness will be fortunate enough to see both the shape of a pterosaur and the
glow, giving us evidence that at least some of these flying creatures use bioluminescence.
Could the long-tailed pterosaur of Cuba be related to Marfa Lights in Texas and to winged creatures that
frighten people in Mexico, some of them just across the border from that area of Texas? Some eyewitnesses
have seen glowing “pterodactyls” in North America, including in the United States.
This deserves a serious investigation. As of early 2017, three scientific papers on living pterosaurs have been
written, two of them by the three scientists Clifford Paiva, Jonathan Whitcomb, and Harold Slusher.
“Diamond” shape at the end of a long tail
In his limited English, the eyewitness Wesley
Koro told the American that the tail was “long.”
When asked what they did on seeing the ropen,
Wesley said, “We run home.” Wesley’s brother
Gideon was with him at the time, as well as
their friend Mesa Augustin.
To Mesa Augustin, of a remote village on Umboi
Island, Papua New Guinea, it was terrifying,
pterosaur or not. The natives here have only
one word for it: "ropen." Yet other islanders
have other names for giant nocturnal flying
creatures that glow brightly at night.
Gideon answered many questions
It was around December of 1993 when the seven
“boys” (probably in their early teens) climbed up
to Lake Pung. Soon after they had arrived, the
ropen flew down to just above the surface of the
crater lake. The boys ran home in terror. The
American forensic videographer Jonathan David
Whitcomb interviewed three of them in 2004.
Paul Nation, from Texas
This American has been on at least four
expeditions in Papua New Guinea, more
than any other American explorer who
has searched for living pterosaurs in the
southwest Pacific. He was the first one
to bring back video footage of the glow
of the flying creatures (late in 2006).
Baptist missionary Jim Blume in PNG
James Blume has been a missionary in Papua
New Guinea for over thirty years. He has assisted
a number of American Christian cryptozoologists
a number of times in the ropen investigations:
reports of apparent living pterosaurs.
Paul Nation led the Papua New Guinea
expedition of 2002: ropen searching
With his son Nathanael Nation, Paul took a ship
from the mainland, arriving on Umboi Island,
where they interviewed natives and searched
for the elusive nocturnal ropen. Paul had been
on this island before, with Carl Baugh.
Other names and expressions used by many
eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs include
"pterodactyl," "flying dinosaur," "prehistoric bird,"
"flying creature," "big bird," and "dinosaur bird."
Most of the labels are technically incorrect;
scientifically correct is the word "pterosaur."
Mount Sual (photo by J. D. Whitcomb)
During the first ropen expedition of 2004, Jonathan
Whitcomb and his native interpreter Luke Paina
stayed in the home of Mark and Delilah Kau, where
they prepared for two excursions into the jungle of
Umboi Island. The second trek resulted in many
valuable interviews with native eyewitnesses.
Southwest Pacific
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