As Regular readers will know, Richard is one of my dearest friends, and furthermore someone I have known since 1970 when we were children together in Hong Kong. He is a natural polymath, and one of the best researchers I have ever met. Today he brings us an overview of a mystery flying dragon from New Guinea and Melanesia..If there is any possibility of prehistoric survivors on the planet then Melanesia and Papua New Guinea would be the place where they might live. The Ropen (“demon flyer”) a putative pterosaur ,”said to frequent lakes and mountain caverns”according to M.Newton`s Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology (1) was brought to the attention of the cryptozoological world in late 1999 by Bill Gibbons,(2) It is actually quite suprising that the Ropen is still not particularly well known in the cryptozoological world given that it is ten years since its “discovery” though this is changing with the publication of the 2nd edition of Jonathan Whitcomb`s Searching for Ropens in 2007.
See also http://www.ropens.com/ There are also its parallels elsewhere in the world which should be considered. For example,the giant flying snake of Namibia is said by locals to have a light on its head(3.) Could this flying snake actually be a pterosaur? It is possible. Roy Mackal in his book Searching For Hidden Animals mentions reports of living members of “ extinct” “pterodactyls” in Kenya in March or April 1974 and in a swampy area of Namibia in late 1975, allegedly filmed by an American team but this is nearly all the information Mackal gives. (4.) Large flying creatures are also reported from Mexico and parts of the U.S. In Indonesia,the ahool and the Orang-bati may relate to the Ropen of Umboi Island off Papua New Guinea.
One of the earliest reports of the Ropen was from Perth, Australia,rather than Papua New Guinea. In December 1997,one evening, a couple saw a flying creature with “ a lizard appearance” and a size of “thirty to fifty feet”. Even earlier,in 1944,Duane Hodgkinson, a friend and a native guide witnessed a giant flying pterodactyl emerge from the undergrowth having been startled by a pig. “The creatures` colour was dark,its neck was long, and the head-length…Both the head-crest and beak(or mouth) were long and narrow,parallel to each other,and,in flight,almost parallel to the neck.”(4) In 2003 a man named Abram saw a Ropen glowing red and white flying 100m above Opai Beach on Umboi island. The bioluminescence is said to be related to secretions which fall from the creatures as they fly,which can cause severe burns to human skin. In October (2004?) a David Woetzel saw a golden shimmering light coming from the direction of Mount Barik,on Umboi Island,flying at mountain top height. It has been said that the Ropen light is brighter than the moon. Frighteningly, the Ropen was once said to rob human bodies from graves. It is worshipped by at least some in parts of Papua New Guinea and there are said to be grey-spotted,blue-spotted and dark-spotted Ropens. Critics of the Ropen as pterosaur theory suggest that the Ropen is a flying fox bat. But as Whitcomb points out: “……fruit bats never grow long tails,never eat fish,never glow at night, and never dig up the grave of a recently-deceased human to carry away the body”(5.)
REFERENCES.
M.NEWTON. ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF CRYPTOZOLOGY. p.401
IBID P.401
R.MUIRHEAD. THE FLYING SNAKE OF NAMIBIA: AN INVESTIGATION. IN CENTRE FOR FORTEAN ZOOLOGY YEARBOOK 1996. pp112-123
R.MACKAL. SEARCHING FOR HIDDEN ANIMALS. P.54
J.WHITCOMB SEARCHING FOR ROPENS. 2ND EDITION p.26
Yours sincerely
Richard Muirhead
112 High Street
Macclesfield
SK11 7QQ
Telephone +44 (0) 1625 869048
eMail: richmuirhead@tiscali.co.uk
website: http://www.cryptozoology.net/sabretoothtiger/
One of the earliest reports of the Ropen was from Perth, Australia,rather than Papua New Guinea. In December 1997,one evening, a couple saw a flying creature with “ a lizard appearance” and a size of “thirty to fifty feet”. Even earlier,in 1944,Duane Hodgkinson, a friend and a native guide witnessed a giant flying pterodactyl emerge from the undergrowth having been startled by a pig. “The creatures` colour was dark,its neck was long, and the head-length…Both the head-crest and beak(or mouth) were long and narrow,parallel to each other,and,in flight,almost parallel to the neck.”(4) In 2003 a man named Abram saw a Ropen glowing red and white flying 100m above Opai Beach on Umboi island. The bioluminescence is said to be related to secretions which fall from the creatures as they fly,which can cause severe burns to human skin. In October (2004?) a David Woetzel saw a golden shimmering light coming from the direction of Mount Barik,on Umboi Island,flying at mountain top height. It has been said that the Ropen light is brighter than the moon. Frighteningly, the Ropen was once said to rob human bodies from graves. It is worshipped by at least some in parts of Papua New Guinea and there are said to be grey-spotted,blue-spotted and dark-spotted Ropens. Critics of the Ropen as pterosaur theory suggest that the Ropen is a flying fox bat. But as Whitcomb points out: “……fruit bats never grow long tails,never eat fish,never glow at night, and never dig up the grave of a recently-deceased human to carry away the body”(5.)
REFERENCES.
M.NEWTON. ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF CRYPTOZOLOGY. p.401
IBID P.401
R.MUIRHEAD. THE FLYING SNAKE OF NAMIBIA: AN INVESTIGATION. IN CENTRE FOR FORTEAN ZOOLOGY YEARBOOK 1996. pp112-123
R.MACKAL. SEARCHING FOR HIDDEN ANIMALS. P.54
J.WHITCOMB SEARCHING FOR ROPENS. 2ND EDITION p.26
Yours sincerely
Richard Muirhead
112 High Street
Macclesfield
SK11 7QQ
Telephone +44 (0) 1625 869048
eMail: richmuirhead@tiscali.co.uk
website: http://www.cryptozoology.net/sabretoothtiger/
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