Pennsylvania Pterosaur

I have not yet interviewed this eyewitness of an apparent living pterosaur; I found the story on “Above Top Secret.” (See the long comment by “kcs7272” posted on the date 31-12-2010 @ 02:04 p.m.)

In the summer of 2006, at about 8:00 p.m., near Route 119, in southwest Greensburg, Pennsylvaniva, a karate teacher and two of his students were talking outside. Above some small trees, at the far side of a nearby lot, they saw something that at first could have been mistaken for a large bird.

I observed it for about two minutes as it flew towards us . . . roughly 200 to 300 feet in the air. That is why . . . it caught my eye. Being that far up the “birds” body still appeared to be much larger than my 100 pound dog (wider and longer). . . . The wing span appeared to be at least 6 feet and although it was a bit away from us you could clearly make out a long “horn” or “cone” type protrusion coming out of the back of its skull, which was at the end of an elongated neck.

The eyewitness compared the proportions of the creature’s long tail to the proportions of a rat’s tail: thicker compared with its length. The creature “appeared to be jet black with some dull brown in certain spots.”

The wings also looked odd to me, they looked to be connected to the body and the clearly visible “arms” in the same manner as a bat. As it was almost directly over us we all agreed we couldn’t see feathers anywhere and my student Carrie said, “It looks like pterodactyl.”

The “bird” was descending and it had its talons or feet jutted out and forward. It flew over top us and landed in the water behind the school. . . . We could here it splashing around, and Carrie ran around the building to see it. There are always ducks in that water as well as rats and other things. When she came back in like three minutes she said it had taken off, Carrie said it was in the water splashing and eating or grabbing something in its mouth.

In my book Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition), on page 55, one eyewitness described a “pterodactyl” that she saw flying over a neighborhood in Philadelphia, strange as that may appear. Pennsylvania is just as likely many other states to host a living pterosaur, whether the location is rural or urban.