By Jonathan Whitcomb
I use the word “potential” because the case for a particular cryptid does not depend on every single report of this animal. The nocturnal animal here examined is known mostly from eyewitness reports and an individual account can have very limited scientific value in itself.
Introduction to the ropen
This is written early in 2019, with the ropen still confined within the realms of cryptozoology rather than in standard Western biology. This featherless creature could be thought of as flying over the Bigfoot of North American or over the creature in Loch Ness, at least with people who follow investigations in cryptozoology.
Sketch by the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn
As best as my associates and I can determine, the ropen is a modern living Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. Strange as it may sound to most Westerners who have not previously heard about this flying creature, the long-tailed ropen is far more common in the eyewitness reports, from around the world, than those apparent extant pterosaurs that are described more like the short-tailed Pterodactyloids.
For those who have assumed standard models of evolution are sacrosanct, this can be shocking. Why? The apparent modern pterosaurs that are most commonly reported resemble the kinds that were supposed to have mostly become extinct millions of years earlier than the pterosaurs that appear to be less common, yet also alive, today.
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“Living fossils” and “molecules-to-man” evolution
An objective look at Darwinian evolution, and his basic thinking about consequences of natural selection, should take into account those modern living species that had once been assumed to have gone extinct many millions of years ago. Every time such a new modern species is discovered, it should cause people to take a fresh approach to axioms about major evolutionary changes, the kinds of changes that Darwin and his followers assumed must have taken place in the distant past.
When the ropen is officially discovered by the Western world, and this will take place, basic assumptions of evolution should be reevaluated. It’s long overdue, in light of the many previous discoveries of “living fossils.”
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What about the tail? When asked about its movement, villagers [on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea] said that it never bends; Dickson, however, added a critical detail: The tail is stiff except where it connects to the body. Knowing Rhamphorhynchoid anatomy, Guessman was thrilled, for pterosaur fossils indicate that the tail could not bend much except . . . near where it connected to the body.
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. . . Darwin’s Natural Selection actually PREVENTS ANY major biological-development change in ANY organism.
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Many natives living on the tropical island of Umboi (Siasi), Papua New Guinea, have seen the flying light, the bioluminescent glow of the ropen. Compare their experiences with others in PNG.
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Evolution and modern pterosaurs
Believe what you will about Darwin’s contributions to science, but most of my associates and I have rejected the unlimited-common-ancestry philosophy of Darwin, making it clear that we differentiate between observed biological changes and the “molecules-to-man” assumptions commonly portrayed in much of American media as if “fact.”
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Scientific paper on living pterosaurs
The ten-year anniversary is approaching for the publication of my scientific paper “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific,” so here is an introduction to that peer-reviewed article, with links to images of some of the pages. It was published in Volume 45 of the Creation Research Society Quarterly (issue: Winter of 2009), beginning on page 200 of that issue.
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The head of the ropen shown at the top of this post was sketched by Patty Carson, who saw this flying creature at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1965. This is where the U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn saw two “pterodactyls” in 1971.
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A new paperback nonfiction book on modern pterosaurs
The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur (a short book for young readers)
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