Hodgkinson, however, was not shocked by what he at first thought was a “pterodactyl,” visualizing features that his mind inserted onto the experience. When the creature first took off into the air, he assumed that it must have been a bird; only after looking at it, taking in the features of it, did he realize the differences: long tail and long head crest.

But few, if any, other eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs were likely to have been influenced by that old cartoon strip, for that cartoon went extinct decades ago. Most recent depictions of pterosaurs (movies and television especially) are of Pterodactyloids (short tail).