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Los Angeles County’s Modern Pterosaurs

Why would it be difficult to believe in modern pterosaurs that fly through the skies of Los Angeles County? Would the San Fernano Valley sighting appear too unbelievable because it is too close to Universal Studios? Then what about the Umboi Island ropen sightings? An island with a “prehistoric” creature sounds like Jurassic Park, a movie produced by Universal Studios. Americans who have been raised watching science fiction movies about dinosaurs and pterosaurs may find it strange that one of those creatures might actually fly over Hollywood at night. But that’s what appears to be happening, at least sometimes in some parts of Los Angeles County.

I know of one cryptozoologist, who will remain nameless, who was preparing to go on an expedition to Papua New Guinea to search for modern pterosaurs. He had hardly begun his preparations when he got a message from somebody who reported to him a sighting of a large pterosaur in the cryptozoologist’s own general area, only about ten miles from his house. That cryptozoologist carried through with his expedition in Papua New Guinea but found it difficult to believe in a large pterosaur so close to his front door.

But if modern pterosaurs now live in remote jungles north of Australia, where did they live a thousand years ago? Surely in those same jungles they lived ten centuries ago. So what would keep individual creatures from venturing out? What would keep them from spreading out across the planet over a period of a thousand years?

Why would a large pterosaur avoid Los Angeles County? It has many bodies of fresh water and many storm drainage systems. Under the assumption that the creatures are nocturnal, they would not be seen often, and even when they were, they would not always be recognized as anything other than large birds in the dark.

Los Angeles, California, downtown, at night

Live Pterodactyls in Los Angeles County

Just before sunset, she was amazed to see a giant “pterodactyl” fly “straight up” over a mountain ridge, perhaps in the Henneger Flats area.

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Television Episode of “Destination Truth” – Ropen

The ropen-chupacabra episode on Destination Truth was broadcast before I started writing on this blog. Since this television episode is being covered now in other blogs, I’ll jump in.

Josh Gates in a jungle in Papua New Guinea

I watched this episode and enjoyed it. Josh Gates led the way, at least with the way the show episode was produced, for he seemed to be calling the shots, at least symbolically.

The climax was when Josh and one or two others entered a cave at night. They found insects, spiders, bats, and human bones. They did not find any ropen.

Soon after the cave adventure, they set up cameras nearby, hoping for some sighting at night. They were not disappointed, for a strange flying light appeared over the sea, out beyond the high cliff on which they had set up their four cameras.

expedition results in recording a weird flying light at night

Pterosaur on Destination Truth

Gates asked a native eyewitness about the flying creature that glows at night. Fabian appeared to have significant experience observing that creature

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Nocturnal Ropen Appears in Daylight in Southern California

On June 19, 2012, over a storm drain in Lakewood, California, in clear daylight at about noon, a long-tailed featherless creature sat on a telephone line, making strange burping noises. A lady, who desires to be anonymous, was sitting at her computer, under her gazebo in her backyard, when she realized that the strange noises were not coming from her dog, who was barking wildly.

Ropen in Lakewood, California

She looked up to see a strange winged creature that immediately flew off, startled by the human who had suddenly come out from under the nearby gazebo. . . . The long-tailed creature flew off to a large tree in a neighbor’s yard, whereupon the lady ran into her house to tell her husband. The two of them then drove around the neighborhood, camera in hand, searching for what the lady later referred to as a “dragon pteradactal.”

The next day, she and her husband were interviewed by the cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb. She estimated the wingspan at five and a half feet. Whitcomb realized that she could not have seen a Frigate bird, sometimes mistaken for a pterosaur, for the lady described a long neck and a “triangle on his tail, like a dragon.”

Three and a half days later, at about midnight, the husband went out into the backyard to search for any sight of the creature, for Whitcomb had mentioned that it was probably mostly nocturnal. He did not see anything but heard a strange noise in the neighbor’s backyard. He later imitated the sound for his wife to hear; she responded that it was the same noise that she had seen just a moment before she had seen the creature.

The next day after the man’s audio encounter, he told Whitcomb that he used to see many possums around the storm drain but in the past twelve months they have almost all disappeared. Whitcomb concluded that the ropen had been catching possums and rats at night, in that area of Lakewood, California.

deep storm channel under where a ropen had perched in mid-day

Storm channel where a ropen was seen in Lakewood, California

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