Another pterosaur has flown into news reports, this one, called “ropen,” is reported to fly at night in Papua New Guinea. The glow reported to come from the ropen has been compared with the flying Marfa Lights of Texas.

The blog post about the glowing flying creature of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, mentions years of expeditions in which many native eyewitnesses were interviewed. Their testimonies were deemed credible and were compared with those of an Austalian and an American, who had also described a long-tailed featherless flying creature in Papua New Guinea.

The strangeness of modern glowing pterosaurs was compared to the strangeness of the technological developments of human aviation: “I think it far easier for humans to believe in modern bioluminescent pterosaurs . . . than for those pterosaurs to believe in non-winged humans flying around the world. Try explaining airplanes to a pterodactyl.” (quoted from the post by the American cryptozoology author Jonathan David Whitcomb: “Umboi Island Expeditions”)

(ksn) A new theory to explain the mysterious dancing lights of Marfa, Texas, has been suggested by a cryptozoologist in California. Jonathan Whitcomb, of Long Beach, compares the Marfa Lights, sometimes called “ghost lights,” of southwest Texas to flying lights, in the southwest Pacific, called “ropen” in Papua New Guinea. According to natives of those tropical islands, the ropen is a large flying creature. Those few eyewitnesses who have seen it describe a giant pterosaur-like animal, with no feathers and a long tail. In Texas, some eyewitnesses have described a long-tailed “pterodactyl.”

Whitcomb says, “It may not be a coincidence that a few Texans have seen apparent living pterosaurs and many Texans have seen flying lights that seem to move intelligently; in some remote tropical islands, a few natives have seen similar large featherless flying creatures and many natives have seen similar lights.” The cryptozoology author believes that bioluminescent flying creatures in Texas may be hunting and eating the Big Brown Bat, in addition to other small animals of southwest Texas; in Papua New Guinea, the ropen may feed mostly on reef fish or clams. Whitcomb had explored Umboi Island in 2004, interviewing natives.