bioluminescence – Live Pterosaurs in America

September 12, 2014September 18, 2014

Ropen or Pterosaur in New Mexico

An amateur astronomer, standing outside his New Mexico home, about 140 miles west of Lubbock, Texas, saw an apparent bioluminescent nocturnal pterosaur on September 1, 2014. It was gliding across the telescope’s field of view, which was at low magnification for finding the Andromeda Nebula. Michael Slack, of Roswell, New Mexico watched the flying creature both through the eyepiece and by direct observation.

Possible Ropen Bioluminescence

The eyewitness said, “As to there being any ‘lights’ or luminescence…the grayish colored areas of my sketches was a dull grayish brown (Brackish) color that could easily be seen with the naked eye against the night sky. The yellow colored pencil I used in my sketches represents the “Dull” yellowish spotting I saw. On the drawing of the winged creature if you will notice there is some yellow color added…this also represents the area of the creature that looked to me like the most illuminated aspects/parts of the thing combined with the afore mentioned grayish/brown coloring.”

Other Night Sightings of Possible Pterosaurs in Western USA

From the book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (third edition) we read about sightings of strange nocturnal flying creatures:

That report prepared me for an email I received years later, early in 2012, about two men who had seen two huge flying creatures about twenty-five miles to the south, over San Diego [California]. One of the men told me, “It was about 8 pm. . . . it was a really clear night cuzz it had rained the day before. We were standing in the street . . . from the west came this dark object in the sky. It was right over us [90-120 feet high] . . . it looked like a huge bird, it was gliding in the air . . . it turned around and it stood still in the air, it was flapping its wings while it was there. Then . . . came another one . . . as it got close to the other one they both went east.”

From a California Newspaper Article in 1891

[Introduction to Los Angeles Herald article] The Fresno sportsman now goes gunning for pterodactyls. These are dragons who lived in the carboniferous age, but who forgot to get petrified . . .

FRESNO, July 31. The report that two strange dragons with wings have recently appeared in the swamps east of Selma was at first regarded by many as a sen- sational story without foundation in fact, but after different persons at different places had claimed to have seen the strange creatures it began to be thought worth investigating. . . .

The men who live along the swales and sand hollows east and southeast of Selma on the evening of July 13th heard strange sounds in the air just after dark, like the rushing of wings when some large bird passes swiftly through the air overhead. At the same time a cry was heard, resembling that of a swan, though enough different to make it plain it was not a swan . . .

[On another night two men] were surprised to hear a strange, strangling noise in the deep swale under the bridge. In a moment there was a heavy flapping of wings and the two monsters rose slowly from the water and flew so near the men that the wind from their wings was plainly felt.

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Glowing Ropen in New Mexico

The moon had already gone behind the trees, by the middle of that night a week ago Monday, so Mr. Slack and his buddy searched the sky for the Andromeda Nebula. This required using a low-magnification eyepiece, fortunately, to locate that galaxy, allowing the amateur astronomer to see the flying creature sweep through the field of view.

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

Jonathan David Whitcomb, a forensic videographer, interviewed Hodgkinson, in 2004, and found his testimony credible [the sighting itself was in New Guinea in 1944]. In 2005, Garth Guessman, another ropen investigator, in Montana video-taped his own interview with Hodgkinson and the session was analyzed by Whitcomb, who became even more convinced the World War II veteran was telling the truth: The man had seen a ropen.

“Pterodactyl” in Southern States

“I live in central [New Mexico]. Fourteen years ago, in [Socorro], N.M., me and a close friend, who now has a masters in biology, were hiking during the midday sun at [a] box canyon and something blocked the sun for a moment. We both looked up to see what did that and saw a large flying animal.”

Live Pterosaurs in Texas

Getting back to the lady’s encounter northwest of Austin, she told her husband, “It looked like a pterodactyl.” Note that she first was thinking or hoping for a commonplace explanation: a big turkey vulture, only this thing had a long neck and a pointed beak and head. The wingspan was the length of the water trough, six feet, and it was “at least four foot tall.”

August 24, 2013

Marfa Lights and Bioluminescence

I recommend the nonfiction book Hunting Marfa Lights, by James Bunnell. It is the best resource I know of for data on the more mysterious of the lights. This book should be a major reference for any researcher of this phenomenon, at least until we have a major breakthrough in discovering the nature of the CE-II and CE-III mystery lights (ML) of Marfa, Texas.

Photo by imelda of a photograph of a CE-III flying Marfa Light

The above is a photograph of a CE-III Marfa Light, flying horizontally

What do I mean by “major breakthrough?” I believe that a future discovery involving Marfa Lights may involve capturing an animal, but that requires an explanation. Let’s begin with strange lights outside of Texas.

Ropen Lights of Papua New Guinea

I led the first of the two ropen expeditions of 2004 on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea. After interviewing three important eyewitnesses just south of Lake Pung, I began to return to Gomlongon with my natives guides and my interpreter. We met a man, Jonah Jim, who also had seen the huge flying creature. Of course with his limited English, he did not know the word “bioluminescence,” although he surely knew of glowing things in the sea.

I was tired and anxious to get back to Gomlongon and prepare to leave the island, for my funds were running low; I took no notes of my brief communication with Jonah Jim. Fortunately, a few weeks later, Garth Guessman and David Woetzel, on the second ropen expedition of that year, found this eyewitness and interviewed him with a detailed questionnaire. After my associates returned to the USA, I was thrilled at what they had learned from Jonah Jim.

By the way, I had little or no knowledge of Marfa Lights in 2004.

Here is part of what Jonah Jim revealed to us, quoting from the second edition of my cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens:

Page 95:

. . . this young man saw the ropen not as a vague, distant light but as a creature—close. In addition to the glow, he saw the long tail.

Page 113:

All six members of his family were together when the ropen, without wing flapping, flew “directly overhead.” . . . Only the tail was glowing and it was blue, “a shade darker than sky blue.” The “wingspan” [he estimated to be] six to seven meters; tail length, two-and-a-half to three meters . . .

Can you see Jonah Jim in the coconut tree? (Photo by Whitcomb)

In other words, we have no need to rely on native traditions to tie together the flying lights to the giant flying creatures. And Jonah Jim was not alone. Guessman and Woetzel also interviewed Jonathan Ragu, who also saw a ropen at night: the general form, the shape of the wings, and the glow emanating from the flying creature.

So for Americans who have heard about the strangest kinds of Marfa Lights in Texas, it’s not so strange to consider bioluminescent flying creatures in Texas; we have the glowing ropen that may be related.

Why Should CE-II and CE-III be Bioluminescent Creatures?

Take the CE-III’s first. They sometimes fly long distances well above the desert vegetation, though not as high as airplanes normally fly at night: Sometimes the CE-III’s fly just a few feet off the ground. Those uncommon glowing balls commonly turn off and on. Ropen lights also have a limit to how long they can stay on; they have a shorter duration than Marfa Lights of CE-II and CE-III types.

Bunnell calls the truly unexplained glowing objects around Marfa “mystery lights” or ML. CE-III mystery lights are absent from the Marfa area for weeks at a time. They may be seen in the same area two nights in a row (in warmer weather), but they then commonly disappear for weeks. As far as I can tell from analyzing Bunnell’s data, this CE-III type of light never returns to this area of Texas after 4-10 days or so. When these lights leave, they are gone for weeks. The explanation is simple.

Unless the hunting is especially successful, the bioluminescent flying predators (BFP) will move on to another area of Texas or Mexico, on a night following an appearance near Marfa. And when would hunting be most likely to be especially successful? In warmer weather, when prey is more active and easier to find. Can you guess what Bunnell’s data shows for weather when the CE-III’s are seen two nights in a row? It’s on warmer nights.

What about CE-II mystery lights? They are similar to CE-III’s except that they do not fly; they are stationary. How does that relate to my theory? Flying creatures do not always fly.

Many other details in Bunnell’s data fit perfectly well with the Bioluminescent Flying Predator theory, notwithstanding his reluctance to consider such an unorthodox interpretation. I don’t blame him. After all, the glowing ropen of Papua New Guinea is considered by those who search for it to be a modern living pterosaur, and “not everybody embraces a live pterodactyl.”

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Explanation for Marfa Lights

The author of Hunting Marfa Lights, James Bunnell, said nothing about the following theory in his book. I informed him of part of my theory early in 2010, after the publication of his [book].

Marfa Lights in Texas

. . . a press release about Marfa Lights, suggesting they might be related to the ropen lights of Papua New Guinea . . .

Marfa Lights – Flying Predators?

James Bunnell has observed and videotaped those strange flying lights that appear near Marfa only a few times each year . . .

Marfa Lights on Consecutive Nights

In the book Hunting Marfa Lights, James Bunnell reveals, “On rare occasions I have observed MLs [mystery lights in the Marfa area of Texas] repeat their location but only on consecutive nights.”

January 16, 2012April 2, 2012

Attracting a Pterosaur

The following was sent to me by a blog reader who suggests a possibility for attracting a nocturnal bioluminescent pterosaur:

“Has anyone tried the obvious strategy of luring a pterosaur with a glowing decoy? If there are still living pterosaurs, they would be quite rare, and anxious to find a mate (assuming they use their glow like fireflies do.)” [From Joe]

Well, Joe, I believe that some persons have unintentionally done just that, through simply driving a car at night. I have never encountered a nocturnal pterosaur myself (not yet), but I have encountered eyewitnesses who have been surprised and even terrorized, at night, by a glowing pterosaur who appeared to enjoy car chasing.

One case involved a young man who was traumatized by an apparent glowing pterosaur that chased his car for some distance at night. The young man later went through many sessions with a psychologist. How tragic if that psychologist assumed that there was no such flying creature!

Driving While Under the Influence of a Pterosaur

. . . Americans (at least a few Americans) observed Drive Safely Work Week . . . I doubt we will ever have Drive Safely While Witnessing a Live Pterodactyl Week. But in the United States, driving may be the most common activity when someone sees an apparent living pterosaur . . . Within a period of about three years, I received reports of at least ten sightings involving driving, in seven states . . .

American Ghost Lights (bioluminescent pterosaurs)

My associates and I have a unique perspective, having studied the ropen light of Papua New Guinea. We know, from many eyewitness testimonies, that those nocturnal lights correlate with sightings of glowing flying creatures described like giant Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs.

Live Pterosaurs in America -third edition of the nonfiction book - covers

From the Acknowledgements page of the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America:

Ignoring previous ridicule from those who would not listen, Hodgkinson told us of his experience, helping prepare the way for many expeditions in the southwest Pacific. Alongside countless other American veterans of World War II, who risked their lives to preserve our freedom, he faced the threat of death in a faraway land. But his bravery in reporting a giant living “pterodactyl” gave us another freedom, even the freedom to believe in a life thought to have been long extinct—featherless flying creatures unlike any bat, some of them gigantic, both faraway and here in America: live pterosaurs.

May 27, 2010July 21, 2010

British Biologist Observes Strange Lights

How are a British insect expert and strange flying lights in New Guinea related to reports of modern living pterosaurs in the United States? That requires a detailed explanation, but they do relate.

Bioluminescence is light produced by living organisms such as fireflies, some fungi, and some oceanic life (especially marine life deep in the oceans). According to many natives in Papua New Guinea, some flying creatures glow as they fly at night. Daylight descriptions strongly suggest modern pterosaurs live in Papua New Guinea, and some native eyewitnesses have observed the glowing flying creatures close enough to see the form (Jonah Jim and Jonathan Ragu of Umboi Island), comparing it to a silhouette sketch of a Sordes Pilosus (Rhamphornynchoid pterosaur).

The point? Evelyn Cheesman, a British entomologist, long ago observed strange flying lights deep in the mainland of what is now the nation of Papua New Guinea; just south of that location, in 2006, Paul Nation, of Texas, observed similar lights (called by the local natives “indava”). When native eyewitnesses observe the indavas in daylight, they see large winged-creatures; one native described the size in terms of an airplane (near Tawa Village is an airstrip for small planes). But strange flying lights are hardly confined to Papua New Guinea. Stories of American ghost lights abound in many areas, and in Marfa, Texas, the behavior of strange lights suggests nocturnal flying predators are hunting bats. In the United States, sightings of strange flying lights and rare daylight sightings of obvious pterosaurs are in the same general areas. As rare and strange as they may be, it seems that nocturnal pterosaurs hunt bats at night, even in the United States of America.

Saving an endangered salamander in Mexico

February 17, 2010April 7, 2010

Giant Bat . . . in the United States?

A common explanation for reports of giant living pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific–that is the fruit bat called “Flying Fox.” But many problems plague that explanation. Descriptions include a very long tail, brilliant bioluminescence, fish-catching habits, and a truly giant size (sometimes over twenty feet in wingspan). The fruit bat hypothesis falls on its face.

But another problem with the fruit bat explanation stares us in the face. Two similar descriptions are found in many eyewitness accounts of “pterodactyls” in the United States: a very long tail and a truly giant size. Many accounts include a wingspan estimate of over seven feet, which is too big to be a Flying Fox that escaped from a zoo.

Revolutionary as it may at first appear, why not consider the obvious? Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs still live.