Living Pterosaur
Stories of living prehistoric creatures can be found all over the world. Of course there are the numerous living plesiosaur stories like Nessie and Champ, and there are also a number of stories that come out of the continent of Africa, like the Monkele-mbembe, which is said to resemble a sauropod dinosaur. Then there's the Ropen of New Guinea, a large pterosaur. These stories seem like they're confined to the murkiest of lakes, or the deepest of jungles, but in recent years a surprising number of tales about living pterosaurs have come out of Kansas. These pterosaurs are usually described similarly to the Ropen, being 30 feet in length, and having both a head crest and long tail that ends in a spade. While both the head crest and long tail are features found in pterosaurs, there is no known species with both. Though this description fits that of the Ropen from New Guinea.
Pterosaurs of Prehistoric Kansas
The fossil record shows us that long ago, Kansas was covered by water as a vast inland sea covered the center of North America splitting it into two. This sea was inhabited by large marine reptiles like Tylosaurus and Elasmosaurus, and giant carnivorous fish and sharks like Xiphactinus and Cretoxyrhina patrolled the oceans of Kansas. The skies were also filled with life being ruled over by pterosaurs. The skies of Kansas were home to numerous species of pterosaur like the famous Pteranodon, as well as their smaller cousin Nyctosaurus. Numerous pterosaur fossils have come out of Kansas, so in a weird way it's not impossible to think there'd be one seen in Kansas. The geography is right, but at the same time it's hard to imagine such a large and aerial species would manage to go undetected for so long.
Tales of Dragons
Jonathan David Whitcomb is a cryptozoologist who has deticated his work to documenting modern pterosaur sightings from across the world, particularly in the United States. His sight includes a three reports that come from Kansas which I will provide. The first story was a comment on one of Whitcomb's YouTube videos. The sighting took place in Garden City, Kansas in 1994
"I was playing outside with my siblings and uncle. . . . I was running home on a dirt road when I noticed it above me. It was about the size of a small plane. . . . about 30 ft. long. There were no feathers on it for sure, it had a long tail with a triangle at the tip, and a crest on top of it’s head. The wings were like that of a bat- you know membrane and the beak was long and on the thinner side. It was so large as it flew/glided (more glided) above me . . . it was dark in color . . . probably dark gray. I was not scared but frozen in awe. I watched it until it disappeared off into the horizon. I remember even at that age knowing that people would think I was crazy if I recounted my story. . . . This is what I saw, it’s inexplicable and unbelievable, yet it happened. . . . the weather was clear . . . What I saw was clear as day. It was about as high up as the telephone wires . . ."
Whitcomb's page also features two other reports, both listed in the same post.
". . . my wife and I were leaving the small town of Hudson, Kansas . . . traveling on a rural [two-lane] highway. There was a row of trees along side the road on the North . . . As we approached the end of the tree row, something huge took to the air from the top of the tree row. . . . I said “what the Hell is that?” My wife said . . . “It looked like a dragon.” . . . We sure saw something huge."
“My friend and I were talking and I mentioned that I had seen an extremely large bird that resembled a pterodactyl some years ago when [I was] driving to town from the family farm [in Kansas] . . . I immediately thought of a prehistoric bird when I saw it. It must have had a wing-span of 16-20 feet. “I asked my friend what kind of bird it could have been. We looked at pictures on the internet to see if we could figure anything out. I know he thought I had a vivid imagination, etc. So I decided to check further and ran across this site. I was amazed to find a lot written about others who claim to have seen such a bird. . . .”
I myself once believe I may have had a run in with a living pterosaur when I was younger, though the creature I saw was much smaller, around the size of a large bird. It was gray and had a long tail that ended in a spade. It had a long beak and flew with minimal wing flaps. I saw the creature multiple times. Once I even tried my best to follow it on my bike as best as I could. Then one day while I was watching the creature I came to the realization of what it was. I was looking at your common heron. When these birds fly, they tuck there legs back in a way that made it look like a tail. Of course this doesn't account for the size describe in the other reports, but I believe it's worth noting that a large bird like a heron really is a valid explanation for these pterosaur sightings.
