Pterosaur Seen in South Carolina

I [Jonathan Whitcomb] interviewed Susan Wooten, by email in 2007, about her sighting of an apparent pterosaur that flew over a highway that ran by a swamp in South Carolina. She told me “It looked as big as any car, and had NO feathers, not like a huge crane or egret.” With a wingspan that she estimated at 12-20 feet, the creature glided over the highway, passing close to her car: about twenty feet high and twenty-five feet in front of her car. The sighting by Wooten was at about 3:00 p.m. between Greenville and Florence, South Carolina. The visibility was clear. She was following a friend who was driving in a car ahead (the second woman did not notice anything, for the apparent pterosaur had flown behind that second car). Several things caught my attention. Wooten’s sketch of the pterosaur (“pterodactyl” is the common word) showed a very long tail and legs. She was sure that what she interpreted as a tail was indeed a tail and that she saw the legs separately. She was also sure of a head appendage and showed it in her drawing. She also noted that other drivers pulled over after the creature flew over the highway. This is another clue that Susan saw something strange flying over a remote area of South Carolina. The description itself shows it was a living pterosaur.

When I brought up this sighting on a cryptozoology internet forum (cryptozoology.com), skeptics were quick to offer alternate explanations: anything except a pterosaur. It seems to me, however, that the skeptics failed to read or consider the testimony itself, offering suggestions that contradicted what was in the report. (Why not read it first? Really!) The first comment included “how good a look can someone get of something in a moving car?” This skeptic seems to have only scanned the report or only read my brief comment on it, for the eyewitness described the creature: “as big as any car.” She also estimated that it flew about 20 feet high and about 25 feet in front of her car. And the description itself (it includes many details) shows that she did indeed get a good look at the creature. Not all comments were from skeptics but the general tone from most of them was that no pterosaur can live anywhere in South Carolina, therefore there must be a problem with a sighting report that suggests a large pterosaur flew over a highway in South Carolina. They rejected the report because of their preconceived ideas about pterosaur extinctions. It was almost like they said, “Nobody’s seen a pterosaur or somebody would’ve seen one,” which would have been obvious circular reasoning.

Live Pterosaur

River in South Carolina (Photo by “Let Ideas Compete”)

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, Southern California

Introduction to the sighting and the controversy

Whitcomb is a living-pterosaur expert and author of the nonfiction books Searching for Ropens and Finding God and Live Pterosaurs in America (both in revised editions)

Consider Paul Nation’s 2006 expedition on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. He saw the indava-light several times and videotaped two indava lights on a ridge. First Nonfiction Book Jonathan Whitcomb wrote " Searching for Ropens " (now in its fourth edition) after he traveled to Papua New Guinea to interview credible native eyewitnesses on Umboi Island. This book is nonfiction: a true story. The revised book title is Searching for Ropens and Finding God (4th edition).

Deep in the oceans, many creatures [fish, squid, etc] use bioluminescence for various purposes. On the land, perhaps the best known case is in the abdomen of the firefly. . . . About two thousand species of fireflies [fly] in the world. Each bioluminescent species has its own pattern.

Bioluminescence

Wooten wrote under her sketch “Definitely no feathers -- this thing was not only huge but was practically on top of me -- maybe 20 ft? above & 25 ft? in front of me > crossing highway” The above sketch is by Susan Wooten, eyewitness of the South Carolina pterosaur. Note similarities to the Hodgkinson “pterodactyl” sighting (1944, Finschhafen area of New Guinea). This South Carolina sighting may relate to the Marfa Lights of Texas, but as of late 2010 the evidence for Marfa Lights being nocturnal bioluminescent flying predators is only indirect, even though the circumstantial evidence has been accumulating dramatically through March, 2011. Nevertheless, the creature Wooten saw flying over the highway was nothing like any “huge crane or egret.” Common sense suggests it was a pterosaur. Learn more about living pterosaurs , what some eyewitnesses might call “dinosaur birds.”

Expedition of 2006

Learn much more about the South Carolina sighting. Read the non-fiction cryptozoology book by Jonathan Whitcomb: Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition). Delight in details: many sightings across the United States of America: astonishing true accounts of living pterosaurs in many states of the USA.

Cryptozoology & Pterodactyls “People think that these are flying dinosaurs, but scientists notice they differ from dinosaurs.” Ropen and South Carolina Sighting This flying creature resembles the ropen of Papua New Guinea, at least somewhat, but this “pterodactyl” is also called the “South Carolina pterosaur.”

Sketch by the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn: one of two pterosaurs he observed in Cuba

The original version of this web page was on prodigy.net, before the host discontinued PWP support. The word “prodigy” is continued in this URL. We honor child prodigies.

Consider these book reviews on strange and paranormal phenomena: near death experiences (NDE) and eyewitness accounts of living pterosaurs and dinosaurs (books by George Ritchie, Betty Eadie, F. Silcock, and Whitcomb).

By the end of the 20th Century, the living Coelacanth was no longer considered very strange. The origin of the idea of the ancient Coelacanth, however, is strange. Believing in a living Coelacanth, why should we not consider a living pterosaur? And if these two kinds of creatures still live, why consider them “ancient?” Consider that.

Marfa Lights Explained

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