I have been communicating by emails with this eyewitness, although the pterosaur sighting was many years ago. A critical point, missed by critics, is the physical closeness to the flying creature, even when the encounter was years ago. In this case, the two eyewitnesses were only about twenty feet away from the “teradactyl,” when they first saw it flying away from them, in western Arkansas. I here include some of what she told me.
“My father and I saw a huge, featherless bird [later labeled “teradactyl”] in Arkansas [summer of 1977] . . . when I was 16. I’ve been telling people my story since. We were sitting on big rocks at a cliff about 300 foot above the river when it flew out just under us and we watched it all the way down toward the river till it passed the tree lines. It was an awesome experience, indeed. It was however smaller, and wing span of maybe 8 ft and had a large head.
[The father passed away in 1991.] “We went back several times, he and I, and sat and waited but never saw it again. . . . We talked and agreed it looked like a small teradactyl. The skin kind of like an elephant?? . . .”
I sent the eyewitness many questions, a few at a time, by email, and she answered them promptly. Here are a few.
Q: Did the creature have a tail?
A: yes, but it was not bird-like, (fanned or feathered)
Q: How would you compare the length of the tail, compared with other things: a) similar to the length of one wing b) similar to the length of both wings (wingspan, tip-to-tip) c) Other
A: “similar to the length of one wing”
Q: Did you notice any detail or details on the head?
A: Large pointed head, we couldn’t see the mouth because it was going the other direction from us.
She was positive that the flying creature had no feathers. She estimated the neck was about a foot and a half long (that alone eliminates a Frigate Bird misidentification). She also mentioned a “pointed crown” on the head; it was “long and curved back toward the neck.”
Another mountain in Arkansas
(Perhaps not closely related to the Arkansas pterosaur, but maybe)
Those “mystery lights” are probably the bioluminescent glow of nocturnal flying predators, probably hunting the Big Brown Bat or other prey at night . . . “Why are ML-III not usually seen for many nights in a row? Why are they absent for so many nights in a row? Why do they keep coming back after a few weeks of absence? This is exactly what we would expect of large predators that cover large areas. . . .”
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