South Carolina – Modern Pterosaur

July 12, 2013September 4, 2013

Sighting in Raleigh, North Carolina

I was going over a report of a pterosaur sighting in North Carolina and noticed similarities with Susan Wooten’s sighting in South Carolina. There are also differences.

Date of Sighting

NC: March 23, 2013
SC: about fall of 1989

Size of Flying Creature in Wingspan

NC: 5-6 feet
SC: 12-15 feet

Feathers or not

NC: “NO feathers”
SC: “NO feathers”

Conditions and Time

NC: driving on a highway at sundown
SC: driving on a highway at about 3 p.m.

How High Above Highway?

NC: “about 7 or 8 feet off the ground”
SC: “probably 20 ft or so” (above the highway)

Tail Details

NC: “a LONG tail with a spade at the end”
SC: “long, long tail”

Head of Flying Creature

NC: “enormous pointed beak, with a pointed top of it’s head.”
SC: “Big thing coming out of its forehead like a boomerang, and also the same in the back.”

We could just as well compare this sighting in North Carolina with other sightings in the eastern states of the USA. Many eyewitnesses have reported a large flying creature with a long tail but no feathers. Some report a “diamond” or similar structure at tail-end, and some report a head crest.

The March-2013 sighting in North Carolina needs to be taken in perspective in relation to other sightings in North America. Details in these reports need to be compared and evaluated.

Pterosaur Sighting in North Carolina

When somebody reports a pterosaur sighting in Raleigh, North Carolina, we can expect objections from skeptics. That’s what we got earlier this year, on a musicians’ forum.

Pterosaur Sightings in North Carolina and Spain

. . . saw something HUGE above me in the sky. It looked like a pale greenish white and smooth-skinned. It didn’t appear to have any feathers, and it had the tail with the diamond shape on the end.

Cover of the third edition of "Live Pterosaurs in America" by Whitcomb

Live Pterosaurs in America (nonfiction cryptozoology book)

From page 124 of the book:

“I saw two pterosaurs . . . flying together at low altitude, perhaps 100 feet, very close in range from where I was standing, so that I had a perfectly clear view of them. . . .

The rhythm of their large wings was very graceful, slow, and yet they were flying and not merely gliding . . .”

The marine observed details, later recording them in his sketch: The head was large in proportion, with a large head crest; the short “hind legs” were attached to the trailing part of the wings; the vertebrae were noticeable; the end of the tail had a “tuft of hair.”

September 30, 2010February 7, 2011

Pterosaurs in Georgia and South Carolina

Modern Pterosaur in Georgia

Georgia is not far from South Carolina, and reports of modern living pterosuars have come from both states. In the book Live Pterosaurs in America, by Jonathan Whitcomb, one anonymous eyewitness described in detail the two flying creatures that she had observed on two different mornings, as she was driving to work to a nearby town.

I live in a small town in northeast Georgia, called Winder . . . On August 27, [2008] I woke up very early in the morning . . . I had driven less than ten miles from the house. . . . and suddenly an animal flew out from my right . . . it flew directly in front of my car . . . the shape of the tail . . . was very long with a shape on the end. . . . head that was curved, like a hammer; the head had a crest on the top that was solid, not feathery at all . . . I was floored. I knew what it was. I couldn’t believe what it was. But I knew what it was.

Modern Pterosaurs in South Carolina

I say “pterosaurs” because more than one sighting has been reported in South Carolina. The sighting by Susan Wooten is well-publicized online, although still little known in traditional news media. That South Carolina pterosaur sighting may relate to the following sighting.

It was huge, as big as a plane, and looked very similar to the sketch created by Susan Wooten on your website. . . . a huge pterodactyl looking creature, flying very high in the sky. The strangest thing about the sighting was how slow the wings were flapping and how high it was flying. . . . Years later in college, I was having some beers with some friends and somehow one of them ended up blurting out that he saw a pterodactyl. I told him I had seen one too . . . if this creature I saw, or its offspring are still
alive, then someone will get it on film eventually.

June 25, 2010June 25, 2010

Flying Creature in San Fernando Valley

A report of a large flying creature in Sherman Oaks, California, suggests similarities to the ropen of Papua New Guinea. A man reported the creature after he and his girlfriend observed it while taking a walk at about 10:30 p.m., on September 21, 2009. He reported, “It was a very large, winged creature that was gliding maybe 100 yards above us. . . . it beat its wings, once, before going out of view.” His girlfriend had a better view (she has better vision) and saw a glow or reflection on the wings.

The man estimated the wingspan: ten to fifteen feet; the girlfriend estimated twenty feet. The wings appeared more like those of bats than birds, with a greater depth from leading-edge to trailing edge. The sighting lasted ten to twenty seconds.

Pterosaur in Southern California: “I interviewed the two eyewitnesses separately, by phone . . . the creature they saw flying about 300 feet above them . . . was too big to be a bird. . . . I found the two eyewitnesses of the Sep 21st sighting quite credible. . . .”

Flying Creature in South Carolina: “The strange creature flew gracefully over the highway, right in front of the car Susan Wooten was driving to Florence, South Carolina. . . . ‘It looked as big as any car, and had NO feathers . . .”

Cryptozoology Book Live Pterosaurs in America: “From California to Maine, from Washington state to Florida, apparent living pterosaurs appear to be able to hide in any or all of the 48 connected states of the United States.”