Pterosaurs Living in Modern Times |
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"Pterodactyl" is technically inaccurate, for what people usually mean, for the correct word is "pterosaur." There are modern reported sightings, although what eyewitnesses call what they have seen depends on culture and language.  The ropen of Umboi Island is normally nocturnal. It uses what seems to be intrinsic (self-controlled) bioluminescence for short periods of its flight. Sometimes the glow is described as lasting about five or six seconds. This strange flying lights seems to be related to the "Cheesman Lights" of the mainland and possibly the Marfa Lights of southwest Texas, USA. This glowing creature that flies at night, and which is described like a "pterodactyl" when seen in daylight, may be related to ancient accounts of "fire-breathing dragons."
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In the late twentieth century, Paul Nation accompanied the missionary James Blume and one or two other Americans, as they interviewed native eyewitnesses of the ropen of Umboi Island. One young lady (pictured at the left), at Lab Lab settlement, on the east coast of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, described the flyover of the giant flying creature. In some villages on Umboi, the glowing creature (believed by some cryptozoologists to have intrinsic bioluminescence) is called "ropen." Paul Nation returned to Umboi, with his son Nathanael, in 2002, but they did not themselves see the ropen. Four years later, however, Paul explored a remote area of the mainland of Papua New Guinea (it is one of the largest islands in the world, little explored in many areas). There he had several sightings of the glowing creature that natives around Tawa Village call "indava."  Paul Nation, of Texas, (left) crossing a river on Umboi Island, during his 2002 expedition (his second time on that island) |
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