Sightings in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina

Although pterosaur sightings are reported across the contiguous 48 states of the USA, the southeast has enough of a similarity of environment to suggest the “pterodactyls” seen in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, may be similar species or even the same species.

In mid-2010, I received the following sighting report:

Large Pterosaur in Florida

“In 1995 I was living in Pensacola Fl. I was having a yard sale, so I was in the driveway at 5 am. I saw this huge bird with bat wings, at least a 20 ft wing span, flying towards me, I just turned and ran screaming into the house. The shadow it threw covered the driveway.”

Pterosaurs in Georgia

. . . my 16 year old son and I both saw [something that] resembled a small pterodactyl. Very large wingspan, but the odd thing was it had no discernible feathers. My son saw it better than I as I was driving, albeit slowly. He said it was a leathery-looking skin. Pointed head, diamond shape at the end of the tail. It appeared to me that its legs were kind of pointed backward. Today we saw this thing again about 2 or 3 miles from the original sighting. This time my daughter aged 14 also saw it. The sighting was longer and clearer as well. My son described it as having . . . like bat wings . . . I am also very familiar with turkey vultures and this was nothing like that either. . . .

Sighting in Another Part of Georgia

[Near Winder, Georgia] . . . an animal suddenly flew from the right, just over the front of her car. Although alone, she yelled, “What the — what — what is that?” . . . Overall, the animal was tan, similar to the light brown of the local deer, and the color was uniform. . . . [From her sketch of the creature—she is a talented artist] a ridge runs along the underside of the tail. [The tail is long, with a heart-shaped structure at the end.]

Pterosaur in Clinton, South Carolina

I saw a pterosaur in Clinton, [South Carolina] when I was 15 or 16 while at a soccer camp at Presbyterian College in 1994 or 1995. . . . It was huge, as big as a plane, and looked very similar to the sketch created by Susan Wooten on your website. . . . It was the last day of camp . . . I happened to be on the side lines resting when I saw a huge pterodactyl-looking creature, flying very high in the sky. The strangest thing . . . how slow the wings were flapping and how high it was flying. Several parents who were watching the scrimmages and some of the other players on the sidelines saw the creature too. [We] watched it fly into the clouds and disappear. . . . I remember shouting “that was a pterodactyl!” . . .