Interviews of three
American Eyewitnesses
Late in 2006, Garth Guessman, a living-pterosaur
investigator, interviewed three Americans who had
worked in or visited a medical mission in Central
New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. The three
had separate sightings, in daylight, of what may be
extant (non-extinct) Pterodactyloids. (short-tailed
pterosaurs, a.k.a. “pterodactyls”)
“Trust one eyewitness of a plane crash over the imaginations
of a hundred professors who’ve agreed how that kind of
plane should fly.” Jonathan David Whitcomb (Searching for Ropens and Finding God)
Pterosaurs Still Living
Garth Guessman, cryptozoologist and explorer
Copyright 2006-2017 Jonathan David Whitcomb
Sightings of apparent
pterosaurs on New Britain
Island, Papua New Guinea
According to the fourth edition of the nonfiction cryptozoology book
Searching for Ropens and Finding God, the ten sightings, of pterodactyl-like
creatures flying over the island of New Britain, were from April of 1989
through 1991. None of the three American eyewitnesses saw anything like
a tail. This, along with other things, indicates that the New Britain creature
is quite different from the ropen of nearby Umboi Island. (notwithstanding
both creatures are described like pterosaurs)
The New Britain creatures are seen in the daylight and often fly two or
three at a time, even in single file. They are said to glide without any wing
flapping, at about 20-30 miles per hour, although one eyewitness did
describe a much slower flight for the one that she had seen. Another
American saw them “soaring” for half a mile.
Estimates for overall length vary from four-and-a-half feet to six feet. The
wingspan is from eight to twelve feet. The width of the wing has been
estimated from one to two-and-a-half feet.
Two American researchers, Garth Guessman (interviewer of the three
Americans) and Jonathan Whitcomb (author of four nonfiction books on
modern pterosaurs), noticed several clues that eliminated a fruit-bat-
interpretation of the sightings. Not only the long-soaring flights and long
wingspans are unlike the flying fox bats: The eyewitnesses reported
pointed head crests on the New Britain flying creature.
Read about living-pterosaur investigations in the fourth edition of the book
Searching for Ropens and Finding God.
Two pterosaur books by Jonathan Whitcomb
Two more nonfiction books by Whitcomb
Images at top: Papua New Guinea (generic photo), Garth Guessman, and Monsterquest