Intermittent expeditions on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, from 1994 through 2004, resulted in the compilation of eyewitness testimonies that substantiated a hypothesis that pterosaurs may be still living Whitcomb, from Long Beach, California, disputes an  old idea that they are misidentifications of Flying  Fox fruit bats, for in an early expedition in Papua  New Guinea, two natives were interviewed and they  described a ropen holding itself upright on a tree  trunk (fruit bats hang upside down from branches).  Whitcomb’s book also describes an apparently  bioluminescent glow that may help the nocturnal  ropen catch fish at night.   The puzzle for some investigators, perhaps even  some of the creationists, is that the ropen is unlike  Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur fossils in some ways:  A few of the nocturnal flying creatures are larger  than fossils of long-tailed pterosaurs and at least  one report suggests dorsal ridges along the back. In  addition, some eyewitnesses report a head crest on  the ropen while few long-tailed pterosaur fossils  have such appendages. Although Whitcomb admits that nobody has yet  come up with a clear photograph to disprove  textbook declarations that all pterosaurs are extinct,  he disputes the suggestion that the ropen is an  unknown bat. His book examines an investigation by  the explorers Garth Guessman and David Woetzel,  American Creationist cryptozoologists. Their late-  2004 expedition, a few weeks after Whitcomb’s,  uncovered a native tradition about the ropen’s tail:  It moves only near the tail’s base. This, says  Guessman, relates to Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur  anatomy, and Whitcomb agrees. Before his expedition on Umboi Island, in Papua  New Guinea, Whitcomb questioned the American  veteran Duane Hodgkinson, now a flight instructor  in Livingston, Montana, who maintains he saw a  large “pterodactyl” in 1944, near Finschhafen. The  World War II veteran’s description of the flying  creature resembles that given by a couple who saw  a creature flying over Perth, Australia, in 1997.  Whitcomb also noted similarities to native accounts  recorded by the earlier explorers on Umboi Island in  expeditions between 1994 and 2002.  Web Site Copyright 2011 Jonathan David Whitcomb Pterosaur-Like Creatures in Papua New Guinea This revised version of the 2006 press release includes updated contact information and news about recent investigations in Papua New Guinea The conflict between evolution and creation took a  new perspective with a recent cryptozoological  investigation of reports of a pterosaur-like creature  in Papua New Guinea. According to popular  standard models of science, all species of pterosaurs  became extinct by about 65-million years ago,  notwithstanding traditional interpretations of the  Bible suggest that they lived in human times.  According to Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic  videographer who interviewed native islanders in  2004, the “ropen” of Umboi Island is at least similar  to a long-tailed pterosaur.   Several American creationists explored the island  intermittently from 1994 through 2002, searching  for the ropen. Whitcomb believes that they were not  overly imaginative in believing the creature to be a  pterosaur. According to Whitcomb’s nonfiction book,  “Searching for Ropens,” there are many similarities  between the American, Australian, and native  eyewitness accounts. Ropens appear featherless  with long tails, and they eat fish.   Whitcomb found no indication of any hallucination  or hoax with the two Australians and the American  veteran. He also noted that the native eyewitnesses  he interviewed mentioned no supernatural elements  and that their descriptions resemble those given by  the Westerners. Around Manus Island, the wingspan is three to four  feet, according to Jim Blume, a missionary in Wau,  on the mainland. Blume’s investigations indicate that  wingspans may reach ten to fifteen feet in other  areas. Whitcomb’s book mentions a few ropens that  are even larger, including the ones seen by  Hodgkinson and the Australian couple.  The book Searching for Ropens (now in its second  edition) acknowledges differences between the  ropen and Rhamphorhynchoid fossils; nevertheless  it emphasizes that the “diamond” on the ropen’s tail  may relate to the fossil tails.   Whitcomb, who had previously worked as an  independent videographer recording evidence for  attorney firms, completed his book after one year of  compiling and analyzing eyewitness testimonies. He  encourages a major expedition to observe and  videotape a living pterosaur. The upcoming third  edition will have a new title: Searching for  Dragons, and it will be in cryptozoology genre, not  a cross-genre of religious-cryptozoological, as in the  first two versions of the nonfiction book.   Analysis, by a missile defense physicist, of the two lights videotaped in Papua New Guinea by Paul Nation in 2006, showing they were not from any commonplace sources. Why Fight Light? The original press release was written in Long Beach, California, (PRWEB) July 20, 2006; Revised in April, 2011 The ropen flew thirty meters above the surface of Lake Pung, Umboi Island Gideon Koro describes the flight of the ropen Since July of 2006, several living pterosaur expeditions have given us much new information on these huge live pterosaurs of Papua New Guinea The ropen flew to the reef, on the south coast of Umboi, like it was catching fish In the Long Beach, California, area code, Whitcomb can be reached at 277-8180, for those who have an eyewitness account to report or for qualified news professionals Paul Nation (seen here in his 2002 Umboi expedition)  later explored  deep in the  mainland of  Papua New  Guinea, and videotaped two lights on a ridge. He and  other cryptozoologists  believe the indava  lights her  recorded on video were from a similar type of flying  animal that is called “ropen” on Umboi Island. They  believe these  flying creatures are living pterosaurs.  Special thanks to Clifford Paiva, BSM Research Associates Pterosaur Bioluminescence