I saw a pterodactyl in the summer of 1985 in northern Illinois. I kid you not.
I was driving with my cousin Kathleen as my passenger, entering some freeway. The pterodactyl was standing in the ditch, facing the road, with its wings partly outstretched. I saw the long beak and the claws halfway down its wings. It was a leathery brown and had no feathers, and I could see the outline of bones in its wings.
I immediately hit the brakes and pulled over, putting the car in reverse. As I did, I realized my cousin was staring at me with her mouth hanging open, saying "Did you just..was that a...did you see...?" As I backed down the shoulder of the highway, I completed my cousin's sentence "...pterodactyl!" and she said "YES! One of those!" When we were still about 20 yards away, it flew off, directly away from the highway. It was huge. We watched it fly away and then just sat there with the car running, saying nothing, for a good five minutes.
I have since researched every North American species of bat, crane, and heron, and nothing comes even close to what we saw that day.
Tonight, just for fun, I Googled "I Saw a Pterodactyl." Wow. Was I surprised. The following video clip and the first three links are from search results. The last link is from a documentary that I watched on Netflix a few weeks ago and found very enlightening.
Check out the Civil War photos starting at 1:19.
"I Saw a Pterodactyl" Sighting Testimonials
"I Swear I Saw a Pterodactyl" Sighting Testimonials
Modern Dinosaur Sightings A Christian View
Dragons or Dinosaurs A Creationist View
My fellow eye-witness is in Heaven now. Kathleen, I remember you.
