Dinosaur Found Alive: Two Species Recorded in Papua New Guinea

Jurassic Park in New Guinea? Not quite, but close...

Amazing amateur daylight video of a ‘Ropen’ (Dimorphodon pterosaur) hunting for fish off a Papua New Guinea beach.

(PAPUA, New Guinea) - The Ropen or ‘demon flyer‘ is a monstrous creature that’s terrified the natives of Papua New Guinea for thousands of years. Another smaller creature, the Duah, is possibly related to the Ropen; this creature haunts some of the far flung outlying islands.

Now sensational eyewitness reports—collected by determined exploration teams seeking strong evidence of the creatures—have led serious researchers to the conclusion that two distinct animals exist.

The descriptions of both monsters match that of fabled pterosaurs—ferocious flying dinosaurs thought to be extinct for 65 million years.

The hunt for the glowing dinosaurs

US Researcher Davie Woetzel

Jim Blume and David Woetzel are two daring researchers that have explored the dangerous regions—including the treacherous outlying islands—where the prehistoric monsters are known to hunt their prey.

Not only have these two compiled eyewitness accounts of the creatures from frightened natives, and physical evidence of gigantic nesting sites in some of the mountainous cliff areas, both men have personally witnessed the soaring creatures—and Woetzel even shot some video footage of one.

The creatures first came to the attention of missionaries who described these nocturnal fliers as having large creatures with bat-like wings, that were connected to an elongated beak. They described razor sharp teeth, muscular tearing claws and a very long whip-like tail with a split or flange on the end. There are reports from both investigators and natives of these creatures glowing in the dark. Researcher David Woetzel called the phenomenon 'Ropen light', he spent time studying them and even recorded images with his video camera^[1].

It’s hypothesized the bio-luminescent glow assists the creatures' efforts to hunt and catch fish—their primary diet—in the deep darkness of the tropical night.

The evidence for two types of living pterosaurs

Although the Ropen and Duah have strikingly similar physical characteristics, the giant Ropen inhabits Papua New Guinea while the smaller Duah stays relatively close to the outlying islands.

Other than actual modern-day sightings of the two, a surviving 16th Century maritime chart lends credence to the hypothesis of two distinctly different creatures.

The 1595 chart cautions sailors about ‘sea monsters’ and depicts various coastal regions of Earth where monsters might be found. In the area of Papua New Guinea, two 'sea monsters' are illustrated: one is much larger than the other, yet both have almost identical physical traits. Each have long necks, prominent head crests, tails ending with a flipper like appendage and ridges along their backs. They are shown flying above an island^[2].

Despite the general consensus amongst orthodox zoologists that the creatures don't exist, those that have actually traveled deep into Papua New Guinea's primitive rain forests and tiny offshore islands are convinced the creatures are living there now—especially since they have seen them firsthand.

(Editor's note: We have included one video with this article, but there are more. Go to helium.com, the link is listed below, and check out Terrence's more expanded report with more video:

Found alive: Two dinosaur species in Papua New Guinea [with videos] by Terrence Aym

Footnotes

[1] 'Ropen Light' Sighting by David Woetzel

[2] 'A Pictorial History of Sea Monsters,' Sweeney, James B. 1972, p. 42.

Expedition Links

Results of Investigations Concerning Pterosaur Sightings In Papua New Guinea

The Woetzel-Guessman Expedition

The Living Pterosaur Expedition - John Whitcomb

Aym has several book projects in the works. Media sites that have recently featured Aym, and/or discussed his articles, include ABC News, TIME Magazine, Business Insider, Crunchgear.com, Discover, Dvice, Benzinga and more recently, his work has been showing up in South Africa and Russia.