Are Live Pterodactyls Only Misidentified? Living Pterosaurs? Not by Glen Kuban Pterodactyl or Kongamato “Kuban shows images of two ‘flying foxes’ in flight, suggesting ‘that at least some’ sightings of pterosaurs are misidentified fruit bats. That choice of Kuban’s, to show those two images, may be related to [not mentioning the names] ‘Hennessy’ and ‘Hodgkinson.’ Both men described a long tail and a head crest, and Hodgkinson’s estimate for tail length was ‘at least’ ten to fifteen feet. Since he said ‘at least,’ let’s take this to mean it is unlikely to have been less than ten feet. Critics might argue that the surprise of his encounter . . . made him exaggerate, so let’s say the actual tail length might have been as little as eight feet, although I believe it was much longer. Eight feet is longer than the entire wingspan of the largest fruit bats, and those two images shown on Kuban’s web page make it obvious that those bats have practically no tail, at least not visible.” “Some skeptics have suggested that this flying creature is just a misidentified bird. One or two skeptics have even suggested it is just a Manta Ray or Singray, for those fishes, at times, can jump out of the water and might appear to fly. “There are major problems with a gliding-fish interpretation, however. One skeptic said a little about two sightings in New Guinea: the Hodgkinson sighting of 1944 and the Hennessy sighting of 1971. Details were entirely absent in this critic’s writing, however. Neither sighting could have been from any fish.” Live Pterodactyl “I interviewed Hodgkinson (and two Australians . . .) by email and by phone. The demeanor of these three English-speaking eyewitnesses convinced me that the natives were correct in their descriptions. I traveled, late in 2004, to Papua New Guinea, where I interviewed native eyewitnesses and explored Umboi Island, in search of the live pterosaurs. “After two weeks on Umboi Island, I learned that . . . it was too difficult to find [a ropen] in such a short time. I was disappointed but had to be satisfied with the interviews [of eyewitnesses]. “I returned home . . . with video footage of many native eyewitnesses. Although I returned without any photo or video of any pterosaur, I carried a firm conviction of the reality of the ropen of Papua New Guinea: Pterosaurs live!” When somebody reports a live pterodactyl, could it be mistaken identity? Could it have been a bird, bat, or mechanical model of a pterosaur? Several problems fly up at that suggestion. For example, how could Duane Hodgkinson have seen a mechanical model of a pterosaur in a remote tropical wilderness in New Guinea, in 1944? And how could a bird or bat have a 10-feet-long tail? Eskin Kuhn’s sketch (top) is nothing like the Frigatebird. The head alone is proof of that. The Flying Fox fruit bat is big for a bat. But it has nothing that could be related to Hodgkinson’s description of a tail “at least ten or fifteen feet long.” Copyright 2011 Jonathan Whitcomb Photo by Stella’s Mom Frigate Bird (Misidentification?) (Reality of the Ropen)