After World War II, as Western missionaries began to penetrate the deep jungles and remote islands of Papua New Guinea, stories of a flying creature called the Ropen ("demon flyer") began to be reported. Described as a nocturnal creature, the Ropen has two leathery wings like a bat, a long tail with a diamond-shaped flange on the end, a beak filled with teeth, and razor-sharp claws. The creatures inhabit the caves that on the islands of New Britain and Umboi, located in the Bismarck Archipelago. Reports seem to fit the presumed-extinct Rhamphorhynchus, a pterodactyl with a wingspan of 3-4 feet. Like the Kongamato in Kenya, the Ropen is said to have a taste for decaying human flesh. Carl E. Baugh of the Creation Evidence Museum has conducted two Ropen expeditions to New Guinea. He observed one of the creatures through a night scope and snapped a picture of a strange print in the sand the next morning.
This information is a bit outdated. At least three expeditions have taken place since Carl Baugh was in Papua New Guinea. Most of these have been to Umboi Island. (I was the first of three Americans in the 2004 expeditions there.) The ropen can be over 20 feet in wingspan in some areas. One of the two eyewitnesses I interviewed on Umboi Island described it as being "seven meter". (He knows some English) Searching on "ropen" will bring up many web pages, including some of my own (Pterosaurs Still Living, etc)
