Flying Creature

If you live in the United States, you have

the same problem as hundreds of other

eyewitnesses of living pterosaurs. Do

you call the police? The newspaper?

Animal control? A nearby university? A

brief reflection makes it obvious: None of

those will do. Other American eyewitnesses have

been called "crazy" for reporting what they saw.

So who do you call? I hope you'll contact me, Jonathan Whitcomb.

As far as I know, I am the only person on earth who has devoted

anything like a full-time effort, over years, to interview eyewitnesses

of apparent living pterosaurs and promote the concept that these

flying creatures are not extinct but very much alive. As of mid-2010,

I have written two non-fiction books on modern living pterosaurs.

Most of these flying creatures fly at night, although

some sightings are in the daylight. Please be aware

that a sighting in the day does not mean that what was

observed must be a creature normally out in daylight. It

may have been frightened out of sleep during the day. It may be a nocturnal creature that was out on that one day.

In my cryptozoology book "Live Pterosaurs in America," I devoted two chapters to concepts related to the glowing creatures of the night, not fireflies but flying creatures much larger: Apparent intrinsically bioluminescent owls and pterosaurs. This is controversial, with reluctance to admit, by most biologists who hear of it, the possibility.

But "giant bat" is not really a reasonable explanation. In

Papua New Guinea, the Flying Fox fruit bat is large, it is true; but that bat is huge only in comparison with most of the bats. The "ropen" is much larger, with some of the reports suggesting a wingspan greater than twenty-five feet. No fruit bat has a wingspan much greater than six feet at the very most. And the ropen is said to eat fish on reefs at night. It uses its bioluminescence to attract the fish. Also telling is the tail of the ropen. According to the World War II veteran Duane Hodgkinson, the creature he saw had a tail "at least 10-15 feet" long.

But the tail movement of the ropen has amazed some cryptozoologists: It is stiff except at the base, and the tails of Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur fossils are the same.