I want to preface that I am a tourist. I occasionally lurk in search of a spooky story or whatever but I was told this story and I thought I'd share it here for other opinions. For some background, I do work in paleontology. I've often done fieldwork, volunteering, and held a couple seasonal museum gigs doing fossil prep work and such. This story comes from a previous coworker of mine, who heard it from a museum guest. I'm going to attempt to greentext, but I'm retarded so bare with me.

>be coworker
>giving tour for kids birthday party at museum with kids familiy/friends
>kids love looking at dinosaurs and other fossils, kids dad is uninterested and slowly following behind
>Tour done, time for cake and presents. Head back into gallery and see kids dad looking at exhibits
>See that he is fixated on female Pteranodon Sternbergi mount, approach for small talk.
>Small talk ensues
>"You know I saw one of these", in reference to pterosaur
>Talk about seeing one too, doing fieldwork digging up pterosaur bones before
>"No, like I saw one on a hike"

Dad proceeds to tell coworker that back in 2009 he was on a hike somewhere in New Mexico when he ended up startling some kind of animal while it rested. Basically, he rounded a group of juniper trees and almost bumped into the thing. It was a kind of lightish grey, almost like a rhinoceras, and was furled in on itself and standing in an upright position with its head pointing downwards. It kind of jolted its head in surprise when the dad found it and it unfurled its wings, flapped twice, and took off. The dad did not follow but continued the hike.

I will return to add extra details later, promised some friends I would hit the gym with them. If this is of interest to anybody or anybody has seen anything similar (pterosaur, thunderbird, big flying thing) please share. I will return

Pic related, its a female P. sternbergi skeleton

Look at that monster.. and that beak. No wonder god wiped out the dinosaurs.

>>40508717 (OP)
Do you have any reason to accept this as not a stork or heron other than "I saw an animal for a brief flash"?

>>40509045
OP here, back from gym and realized I should've put the more interesting details in before leaving. Apologies, but I was pressed for tine and riddled with ADHD. Here is some more context on the story.

My coworker proceeded to tell me that they talked with the dad for almost 2 hours about his experience. They asked the same question, asking if it was just a stork, heron, or some other very large bird. But the dad said that when it took off it was featherless, and more of a velvety texture. He could see sunlight and veins through the wings, as well as fingers on the wings. My coworker then asked if it could've been a large bat and the dad said no it had a beak and a large tube-like crest which he said "must of served some purpose". He also mentioned that the beak itself was a lot shorter than the Pteranodon's, at around a third in size. It also sported diamond like nasal openings.

>>40509290
>He could see sunlight and veins through the wings, as well as fingers on the wings.
Sounds like feathers to me.
>Large beak, shorter than ptero, with crest
That's a great blue heron.
Do you have ANYTHING other than basic desire for it to be otherwise?

>>40508749
What does this have to do with dinosaurs being wiped out? It’s not a dinosaur anon.

>>40509769
Ironically, a great blue heron WOULD be a dinosaur.

>>40509733
You’re a fucking asshole.

>>40508749
people like you are why so many people despise christians

>>40509045
>>40509733
do you have any reason to be a gigantic faggot samefagging what could be an interesting thread

>>40508717 (OP)
the mothman saga actually began when john keel started hearing eyewitness reports of unusually large birds. there are many accounts in american history of "thunderbirds" or flying creatures that appear to be larger than anything conventionally known. i dont think it's out of the realm of possibility that this guy did see some weird flying creature.

>>40509733
OP here

I talked with my coworker for any other detail I could get and they said the dad described it being around 5 ft 6 inches standing. It definitely could’ve been - heron but I’m pretty sure most people know what a heron looks like and could easily spot feathers in broad daylight. Idk what he saw but he definitely saw some kind of animal. The guy drew this pic of what the nasals and the crest looked like. Very basic drawing but interesting.

>>40508717 (OP)
>>40509290
>Tour done, time for cake and presents.
>My coworker proceeded to tell me that they talked with the dad for almost 2 hours about his experience.

Did the kids just eat cake for 2 hours while the dad and your coworker chatted? LOL

>>40509909
>>40510029
Because intelligent people are not here to play make believe.
Go ahead and admit you just want to play pretend, I will leave the thread.
After I mock and repeat the quote at least three times.

>>40510025
I'm not a christian, but I thought that post was funny so I said it.

>>40509769
Don't call me "anon". I don't care what it is, it should stay dead.

>>40510025
This.

>>40510456
if you don't want to be anon give yourself a name
holy shit how can you not figure that out

>>40510218
Im surprised the kids didn't kill themselves or something unsupervised for 2 hours

>>40512619
>>40510218
There was Xanax in the cake

>>40512722
You are sneaky

Bump

>>40508717 (OP)
woah! spooky