#ropen

ROPEN

In the stories of New Guinea, the Ropen is a pteranadon-like creature with a leathery wingspan of about 3-4 ft. When Western missionaries first started to penetrate Papua New Guinea in the 1950s, they began to hear tales of the Ropen, which people said lived in the caves along the islands of New Britain and Umboi on the Bismarck Archipelago. People said it flew by night and had a long tail ending in a diamond-shaped tip, a beak with teeth and razor-sharp claws. When the English missionary Tyson Hughes was helping the Moluccan tribes of Ceram Island in the 1980s, he was told about the Orang-bati (men with wings) who lived in the caves of an extinct volcano, Mount Kairatu, in the centre of the island. The Ropen has a taste for decaying flesh and is said to harass any funeral gatherings, swooping down upon the corpse.

Cryptids & Creatures of Folklore Drawtober Day 9 — Ropen

The Ropen are flying creatures said to lurk around Papua New Guinea and the surrounding areas of the Southwest Pacific. Reports of its description vary quite a bit but most say they have wingspans of around six feet or more, have long tails, eat fish or sometimes dig up graves to eat the recently deceased, and are bioluminescent.

I tried drawing my own interpretation of the Ropen! I may have gone a bit overboard with the luminescence, but ehh I think it's cool!

This incarnation is the ghost of Azdarchid that died in the KT asteroid impact 66 million years ago. Haunting the night skies of New Guinea, it feasts upon the dead, undead, and spineless libelous missionaries as its main source of food.

The idea of living pterodactyls in the modern world is captivating. It is fueled by cryptozoological claims and anecdotal sightings. There is also an enduring fascination with these prehistoric flying reptiles. However, despite persistent reports and imaginative depictions, the scientific consensus remains firm. Pterodactyls, along with all other non-avian dinosaurs, went extinct approximately 66…

Shortly after World War II, as western missionaries began to penetrate the deep jungles and remote islands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), stories of a flying creature called the Ropen (“demon flyer”) began to be reported. Duane Hodgkinson was stationed east of Lae, near Finschaven, PNG as part of the Army cavalry in 1944. About noon one day in August he was walking down a trail through a clearing in the forest when he was startled by a crashing in the brush. As he watched a large bird-like creature ponderously rose from the ground, circled and flew away. Hodgkinson, a pilot, estimated the wing-span to be that of a small airplane, about 25 ft. He clearly recalls the dark-gray coloration, long serpentine neck, beak, and distinctive head crest. Described as a nocturnal creature, the Ropen possesses two leathery wings like a bat, a long tail with a flange on the end, a beak filled with teeth, and razor-sharp claws...

Wisp by @macaroonkitti

Ropen and Aegyptacus by @/mr_dinobutt on twitter

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