Pterosaur of New Guinea?

A new book has been released that’s stirring up some controversy. Entitled Searching for Ropens, its author is Jonathan Whitcomb, described as a forensic videographer. Between 1994 to 2004, there have been intermittent expeditions to a place called Umboi Island over in New Guinea. Explorers like Garth Guessman, a firefighter from California, and David Woetzel, a businessman from New Hampshire, have collected and compiled testimony and traditions regarding a giant pterosaur-like bird sighted in the region. Whitcomb visited Umboi Island himself in 2004 and interviewed some of these natives personally. Their name for the creature is ropen. Is it possible that the pterosaur thought extinct by science for some 65-million years may still haunt this remote region of New Guinea? Jonathan Whitcomb seems to think that it’s possible.

For more information, go to: http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/ropenx/

Do Dolphins actually whistle their ‘names’?

Dr. Vincent Janik of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at Scotland’s St. Andrews University, believes that he and his team have made an important discovery about the bottlenose dolphin. He states in a press release:

New research by marine biologists at the University of St. Andews has revealed that dolphins name themselves using unique ‘signature’ whistles.

The study, by Dr. Vincent Janik of the University’s Sea Mammal Research Unit and his colleagues in the USA, suggests that dolphins share the human characteristic of recognizing themselves as individuals with separate identities.

The researchers studied a group of bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida and found that not only do they appear to convey information about themselves by their whistle, but they seem to recognize each other’s unique whistles. Recognition of the signature whistle can be compared to humans recognizing a name.

Dr. Janik, a research fellow at the School’s Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), said:

“As infants, bottlenose dolphins develop their own signature whistles to use throughout their lifetimes. Group members repeat these whistles back during vocal interactions, and we believe that the whistles form a system similar to that of human names.

“The researchers played synthetic whistles to dolphins through an underwater speaker. In 9 out of 14 cases, the dolphin would turn more often toward the speaker if it heard a whistle resembling that of a close relative, demonstrating that the synthetic signature whistle contains information that is used by the listeners to identify the caller.

“Since the dolphins reacted less to synthetic whistles of unrelated dolphins, the research suggests that dolphins use unique signature whistles to keep track of friends and family and maintain group cohesion.”

Website: http://smub.st-andrews.ac.uk/PressRelease3.html

The UFO that hovered over Palenque’s ancient Temple of King Pacal

According to one Elliot Lemmon:

“I live in New Zealand and my father, who is a professional director of photography, was filming a BBC series called “Spirits of the Jaguar” back in ‘96 when he along with two or three others had the sighting. What really blows me away is that sighting was in Palenque, Mexico, and the apparent interest the UFO had either in the people viewing it or King Pacal’s tomb/pyramid. Basically, they were setting up their equipment, camera, etc. for the day shoot. It was only 4:00 or 4:30 a.m., so still dark, so unfortunately there was no way of filming the event. After realizing there was a small light on the horizon over the jungle in Palenque my father and others became curious as it was a little unusual, although at first they speculated it could be some kind of micro- light craft. Eventually the light came silently zigzagging towards them.

“Now at this stage they were directly at the bottom of the Temple of Inscriptions setting up. As the light came closer it suddenly sped up, if I recall correctly, and zoomed towards their position, where it ‘stopped on a dime’ in my father’s words. Now keep in mind as far as my father was concerned UFOs were only something his son talked and read about all the time. He had no belief whatsoever in their existence and never really looked at the evidence, despite my pleas!“Now this light had stopped directly above them (or perhaps above the temple itself) and its luminescence went out to reveal a solid oblong kind of shape, perhaps a couple thousand feet up and the size of a large truck, but I’m not 100% sure about that. My father described it as pretty much brick like. After a few moments of awe and confusion amongst the watchers the craft’s light came back on and it shot off to the horizon again at a seemingly impossible speed, all the while completely silent! I believe the light was pretty much the entire craft glowing (propulsion system effect?) One of the things my father still finds hard to fathom is the complete silence of the craft as it shot off at lightning speed.”