Reptilian Flying Creature near Long Beach?

In June of 2012, from a residential neighborhood of Lakewood, California, comes a report of a "dragon" or "pterodactyl," that was seen by a 38-year-old woman in her backyard, at about noon. The reptilian flying creature was described as featherless, with a wingspan of about six feet, and with a tail about four feet long.

The tail was described as having a structure at the end, a "triangle" that reminded the eyewitness of what she would expect at the end of the tail of a "dragon." The apparent Rhamphorhynchoid tail vane was held horizontally, meaning it could be seen better from above or below the creature rather than from the side.

The woman was only about twenty feet away from the apparent ropen when she saw it, as the creature was sitting on the lowest line of a telephone cable at the back of her backyard. The featherless flyer was almost over the edge of the storm channel that runs through the neighborhood.

No wonder the possums that used to commonly run along that same phone cable have disappeared over the last 12-18 months.

Storm channel in Long Beach, California, south of the neighborhood of the sighting

I, Jonathan Whitcomb, interviewed the anonymous eyewitness, with her husband, soon after the sighting, finding her credibility high and the possibility of a misidentification low. I believe this apparent ropen is related to the one reported five years ago near the university in Irvine, California, perhaps even the same species.

The Lakewood ropen was reported over a storm drain; the Orange County ropen was reported near a drainage system. The mouths of both systems empty into the Pacific Ocean and those channel mouths are only 17 miles apart. It's possible that ropens have come up the coast from Mexico, over the past few years, although sighting reports of "dragons" in California go back more than a hundred years.


Ropens in California

How can living Rhamphorhynchoid (“basal”) pterosaurs fly in California, in modern times? In the United States, we have been taught since early childhood that all such creatures became extinct many millions of years ago. Rather than delve into speculations about fossils, let’s now consider eyewitness testimonies.

Live Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs on Canadian Television

On May 5, 2012, Canadian radio-television host Richard Syrett interviewed cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb for an upcoming television episode of "The Conspiracy Show."

Whitcomb & Syrett listen to producer's instructions

Whitcomb explained his conjecture about the source of the more mysterious of the Marfa Lights in southwest Texas. He believes that they might be similar to the ropen lights of Papua New Guinea: large nocturnal flying creatures that are bioluminescent. Whitcomb described how two lights sometimes separate in a way to indirectly attract Big Brown Bats that catch insects.

He also told Syrett a little about his interview with Gideon Koro, a native living on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, who encountered the giant ropen in daylight at a remote crater lake. Koro told Whitcomb that the tail of the ropen was seven meters long.

On May 4, Syrett had interviewed Garth Guessman, another Southern Californian cryptozoologist who had explored Umboi Island in Papua New Guinea searching for living pterosaurs. Syrett has also interviewed William Gibbons, who had explored in Africa, searching for living dinosaurs.

The talk show is scheduled to be aired in Canada around October.

Two Ropen Cryptozoologists Interviewed for Television

Richard, some of those skeptics who were really shocked were actually witnesses themselves. . . . Some of those witnesses . . . are shocked at what they have seen and . . . relieved to know that there are actually others who’ve seen something similar.

Whitcomb Opposes Shooting Pterosaurs

Richard Syrett, host of “The Conspiracy Show” in Canada, asked me, Jonathan Whitcomb, about my opinion on proving the existence of living pterosaurs by shooting one of them. I made it clear that I oppose killing a modern pterosaur for that purpose.

Why a Hoax Fails

Why does a combination of hoaxes fail to explain the many sighting reports that have come up since the 1990's? Several things practically eliminate a hoaxes as an overall explanation for pterosaur sightings. Consider the data compiled from ninety-eight sightings, the more credible reports of apparent pterosaurs that I have encountered over the past eight years.

Wingspan Estimates
When we look at the wingspan estimates (58% of the sighting reports include it), we see
no dramatic peek above any valley, as we would expect from any major hoax-involvement:

2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12.5,
13, 13, 13, 13, 15, 16, 16, 17, 17, 17, 18, 20, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21.5, 22, 24, 25, 25, 27,
29, 30, 30, 33, 33, 35, 40, 46

The five-number summary is: 2, 7.5, 13, 21.25, 46
Using Grubbs' test, there are no outliers here: a natural set of data.

Regarding hoax potential, perhaps the most obvious refutation of a combination of practical jokes is this: American hoaxers would most likely emphasize very large wingspan, to avoid any possibility of suggestions of misidentification of a large bird. But the data shows many estimates within the range of medium-to-large bird wingspans.

What about tail-length in relation to wingspan? Many sightings include descriptions of long tails that suggest Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs, and those long-tailed species are believed to have been much smaller, according to fossil records. But the estimates shown above, for wingspan, show nothing even remotely like any peak related to those fossils. Someone making a hoax on the basis of known sizes of those fossils would (when reporting a long tail) give a wingspan estimate less than about seven feet. The data shows something very different: Most estimates over seven feet. There was no major hoax involvement.

The data on wingspan estimates is consistant with what we would expect from the following combination of conditions:

1. Eyewitnesses had various capabilities in giving size estimates
2. A number of species of pterosaurs were observed
3. A number of ages of pterosaurs were observed (different sizes)
4. Sightings were under various conditions
5. Very few (if any) hoaxes were involved

Much could be said about the degree of certainty of lack of feathers; I'll summarize: For those who gave some indication of how certain they were about lack of feathers, most admitted that they were not sure about no-feathers, and that is not at all what we would expect for data contaminated with any significant number of hoaxes: Hoaxers would report a certainty of featherless appearance. The actual data shows the opposite: More eyewitnesses report probably-no-feathers than those who report definitely-no-feathers.

Skeptics are probably unaware that the sightings that I have publicized over the years have been the more-credible accounts, NOT the more-incredible ones. In general, when a report suggests something may be wrong with the eyewitness, I keep it on file for reference, but I do not publicize it. Probable-hoaxes were kept out, and are not among the ninety-eight reports that have been analyzed.

All of that, however, is not to say that not one of those ninety-eight reports was a hoax: only that there could not have been many hoaxes, far less than 20% maximum, and that would be stretching it. In the end, for at least one species of pterosaur to still be living, it only takes one of those many sightings to have been valid, to prove modern living pterosaurs.

Pterosaur Sightings From Hoaxes?

I have been interviewing eyewitnesses for eight years now, ordinary persons who encountered extraordinary flying creatures: apparent pterosaurs. For the most part, these eyewitnesses seem to be credible, with no apparent reason to play a hoax.

Tunnel Pterodactyl of 1856

Much has been made of the obvious signs that this was only a hoax; I agree, it looks like a hoax. But some critics of living-pterosaur investigations have tried to use that to dispute eyewitness sightings in the 20th and 21st Centuries. How shabby that reasoning! 

No Hoax With Pterosaur Sightings

Evelyn Cheesman was a biologist who searched for insects and small animals in remote areas, including New Guinea, in the 1920′s and 1930′s. . . . Nobody suggests Cheesman ever played a hoax.

Hoax or Pterosaur?

. . . the experiences of the U. S. Marine Eskin C. Kuhn, whose sighting has been called a ”hoax.” I gave him a surprise phone call, a few years ago, and found him to be highly credible, answering my questions as a valid eyewitness would respond, not as a hoaxer would respond. He has stood by his sighting account for four decades, in spite of accusations that his experience never happened.

Expert in Pterodactyls

This relates to an online discussion with the title "Jonathan Whitcomb: Pterodactyl Expert." I did not participate in that discussion and had no knowledge of it for many months, until it became prominent in a search engine result with similar key words. I do not link to that forum thread, for it has at least one libelous comment (about "lies" in my book).

Not everything was negative on that cryptozoology forum discussion; most of it, however, was ridicule (or worse) of me, Jonathan Whitcomb, as a person and ridicule of my writings, although I was not quoted. But for now I will concentrate more on the positive.

Words of "Adder"

. . . it is because by pure chance alone I happened upon his book and fell into this whole field called cryptozoology . . . I only like him because of the chance he gave me [to discover cryptozoology]

This seems an appropriate time to quote from my book Live Pterosaurs in America (Introduction in the third edition):

This book might make a few Americans uneasy to walk alone at night; my intention, however, is not to frighten but to enlighten as many readers as possible to know about live-pterosaur investigations. Those who’ve been shocked at the sight of a flying creature that “should” be extinct—those eyewitnesses, more numerous than most Americans would guess, need no longer be afraid that everyone will think them crazy, and no longer need they feel alone. Those of us who’ve listened to the American eyewitnesses, we who have interviewed them, we now believe. So, if you will, consider the experiences of these ordinary persons (I’ve interviewed most of them myself) and accept whatever enlightenment you may.

Names for Live Pterosaurs

From natives of Papua New Guinea to Westerners like Americans, Europeans, and Australians, we find that apparent living pterosaurs have many names.

Demon Flyer 

On Umboi Island, at least some of the villagers have a different perspective on the concept of spiritual beings, at least different from many Americans. An intelligent being need not be either 100% spirit or 100% physical. The ropen of Umboi, according to Darius (who recited native traditions to the American explorer Paul Nation, in 2002), is like a spirit but also like a man. It flies around at night and sometimes comes down from a mountain to hunt game animals. To many islanders, this being may appear to be both spiritual (flying) and human (hunting animals for food).

In addition, natives may have a more complex concept of spirits than most Westerners have. A spirit, to them, need not be either 100% good or 100% bad. In that sense, at least, “demon flyer” seems a poor translation for a word that probably does not have a purely negative connotation for them.

Ropen

Duane Hodgkinson . . . 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.

Kor

The nocturnal flying creatures that he described to me [around northern islands of Papua New Guinea]–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.”

Pterodactyl

The word "pterodactyl" is often used by Americans when they really mean "pterosaur."

Live Pterosaurs in America now in Third Edition

Amazon has recently made available the third edition of my nonfiction cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America. This new expanded edition has an important new sighting report: Patty Carson's encounter with the "dinosaur" when she was a child at the U. S. military station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1965.

Introduction (first paragraph)

This book might make a few Americans uneasy to walk alone at night; my intention, however, is not to frighten but to enlighten as many readers as possible to know about live-pterosaur investigations. Those who’ve been shocked at the sight of a flying creature that “should” be extinct—those eyewitnesses, more numerous than most Americans would guess, need no longer be afraid that everyone will think them crazy, and no longer need they feel alone. Those of us who’ve listened to the American eyewitnesses, we who have interviewed them, we now believe. So, if you will, consider the experiences of these ordinary persons (I’ve interviewed most of them myself) and accept whatever enlightenment you may.

Page 22 (part of a sighting report: Southern California)

I asked her if she was sure and she said they weren’t lights exactly, but that the wings had a glow or reflection. I wasn’t sure what to make of that so when I got to work today I begin my search for “flying creature” on Google. One link led to another and eventually I discovered something known as a Ropen. That was it! The description matched exactly what we saw, down to the glow. This isn’t a hoax, we really saw something strange last night and after finding your website by following Wikipedia, I had to let you know. The time was approximately 10:30 pm and the nearest cross streets were Burbank Blvd & Woodman in the city of Sherman Oaks, CA (Los Angeles County). 

Cryptozoology Book Now Available

I couldn’t put this book down. It is absolutely fascinating to read about eyewitness accounts of the people who have seen these creatures. To learn about these testimonies from such an open minded perspective is refreshing in the extreme! . . . I highly recommend this book to anyone! People should know the truth about what is going on. No one ever hears anything about this unless they conduct extremely specific internet searches, even then, information is minimal. Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books! [from "StrangeDream" - Oct 11, 2011 review on Amazon]

Polish Language page on Live Pterosaurs: "zyc pterozaura" - język polski

W 2004 roku Jonathan Whitcomb zbadać wyspę. Umboi Island ma zwierzę latające. Nazywa się "ropen." Większość świadków widać tylko światła latające. Kilku świadków było bliżej do zwierząt, że leci.

Live Dragons

Of course we use the word "pterosaur," for it's more scientific sounding than "dragon." But with the assumption that many sightings, in modern times, of apparent living pterosaurs, add up to the present existence of at least one species of pterosaur, some "dragon" stories in earlier human history were from sightings of pterosaurs. I believe some dragons of history were pterosaurs.

A Live Dragon

Patty Carson was only a child when she and her brother saw the “dinosaur” at the U. S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, in 1965. But the children froze as they watched the flying creature that was only thirty feet away. Patty had the time to gain a clear memory of details. But the two children were not alone as eyewitnesses of a pterosaur in Cuba. [Eskin Kuhn and others also saw this kind of flying creature at Guantanamo Bay.]

Sightings of Apparent Pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea

Before the ship arrived on Umboi (Siassi), Luke and I met an old sailor who knew something about what we were seeking. "You want to catch Wawanar?" he asked. I assured him that we only wanted to get a "photo" of the flying animal. The old man told us that the dragon Wawanar is said to own the land and the sea; nobody can catch Wawanar.

I was not surprised that a native of Papua New Guinea would use the label "dragon," for that large flying creature of the night was famous for its mysterious glow and its giant size. I was also not surprised that natives of Pilio Island (the old sailor's original home) have their own name for the creature. But I had not expected to hear a story about it before the ship arrived at Umboi Island.