Can you name a flying dinosaur?
Chances are you might think of either a Pterodactyl or a Pteranodon, who are Pterosaurs, a group of extinct flying Reptiles who once dominated our ancient skies. Pterosaurs aren’t really “true” dinosaurs, lacking holes in their hip sockets and crests on their upper arm bones.
But if dinosaurs once ruled the Earth, then Pterosaurs most definitely owned the skies— that is, until a monster, 12-kilometer long asteroid decided to body-bump our planet 66 million years ago, unleashing the equivalent of 10 billion Hiroshima bombs and forcing legions of plant and animal species, including both dinosaurs and Pterosaurs, to go bye-bye.
So how is it that people have reported seeing Pterosaurs flying up and down the remote islands of Papua New Guinea?
Flight of Fancy. Papua New Guinea’s Ropen is said to be a modern Pterosaur, a remnant of a bygone era when flying reptiles ruled Earth’s skies. The Ropen is said to grow as large as a small propeller plane, with a wingspan of 30 feet. Real Pterosaurs died around 65 million years ago, after Earth was smashed by a monster asteroid. (Getty Images)
BATMAN WANTS A WORD
For this month’s Wild Side entry, we’ll do a Commissioner Gordon, shining our spotlight skywards to search for a little-known flying cryptid called the Ropen, known to locals as the Duwas or “Demon Flyer”.
Tribesfolk are deathly afraid of the creature, viewing them as a sort of boogeyman who digs up graves to feast on carrion.
Said to inhabit Umboi and other isolated islands in Papua New Guinea, the Ropen sports a Crocodile-like head, a spindly tail that terminates in a kite-shaped flap, plus massive leathery wings stretching up to 30 feet.
Given their appearance and the way locals are scared of them, these Demon Flyers give off Batman vibes… except that they glow in the dark— and Batman doesn’t.
They emit bioluminescent light, possibly to attract the Fishes they supposedly hunt by night.
ELUSIVE CREATURE
The cryptid was first recorded as early as the 1930s, when British biologist Evelyn Cheesman saw “distant moving lights above the mountains that no human could have generated” during her nights in Papua New Guinea. This strange phenomenon, though never directly attributed to the Ropen, was recorded in her book “The Two Roads of Papua”, published in 1935.
During the Second World War, an American soldier named Duane Hodgkinson approached an isolated jungle clearing in the same region on a hot August day in 1944.
“Soon after we entered the clearing, we startled a wild [B]oar, [who] ran through grass about two feet tall. The [P]ig in turn startled a much larger creature that then started flapping its wings. It flew right out of the jungle clearing. After a few moments, it flew back over us, giving us a clear glimpse,” recalled Hodgkinson in an interview with cryptozoologist Garth Guessman in 2005.
Hodgkinson was fascinated by the dark grey creature’s elongated head, which he estimated to be around six feet long. Years after the sighting, the old veteran – who at the time of the encounter was a certified flight instructor – estimated the creature’s wingspan to be at par with his Piper-Tri Pacer airplane: almost 30 feet from tip to tip!
FANTASY OR FACT?
Numerous expeditions (one by Monster Quest) have since been mounted to find concrete evidence of the Ropen, but aside from filming some nifty local testimonials and blurry film segments, none have generated real proof.
Despite flying in the relatively unobstructed sky, growing as large as a small propeller plane and even glowing at night, there’s currently no proof that the Ropen – or any other Pterosaur – still lives.
The Wild Side’s verdict? The Ropen or “Demon Flyer” is 99% not true. Maybe the combination of long dark nights, giant Bats (Papua New Guinea’s Great Flying Fox, known to science as Pteropus neohibernicus, has a wingspan of around 1.2 meters, after all), and too much banana beer is enough to fuel dino-sized flights of fancy — certainly enough to “spice up” the reputation of a few islands for tourism.
Still, Animal Scene loves both animals and good mysteries. So, even if the evidence is meh, let’s good-naturedly keep the “unflappable” case of the Ropen a little open.
