A CRYPTID expert has uncovered chilling evidence that a horrifying dinosaur-like creature is stalking around rural New Jersey.

Author Paul Evans Pedersen has heard eerie descriptions of the legendary Jersey Devil while living in the Pine Barrens.

Chosen to represent New Jersey’s NHL team as its mascot, the Jersey Devil dates all the way back to the early 1700s.

In fact, the fear-bringing monster was once thought to be a child.

Legend has it that Jane Leeds, known as Mother Leeds, fell pregnant with her 13th child and cursed it out of frustration at her impoverished life.

Some say the unborn creature immediately twisted into a demonic creature that a local clergyman tried to exercise to no avail.

And others believe the baby was born healthy and normal until it transformed right in front of Jane’s eyes and scurried up the chimney of her home.

According to Pedersen, who studied the tale in his book The Legendary Pine Barrens, parents would tell their children the tale of the Jersey Devil to keep them out of the woods.

In the forests were escaped convicts, runaway slaves, and moonshiners who all wanted society to leave them be.

But as the centuries passed, it became clear that something strange was lurking in the Pine Barrens, Pedersen said in an exclusive conversation with The U.S. Sun.

“People are seeing something, and that’s irrefutable,” he said.

“We’ve had mayors, cops, reputable people seeing that they describe as this creature, or most of them had heard it.”

According to legend, the Jersey Devil has a massive goat-like head, stands on two hooves, and has large bat wings, but descriptions from witnesses vary.

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One description relayed to Pedersen even compared the beast to a dinosaur called the dimorphodon, a flying reptile with two types of teeth.

“Sometimes it breathes fire, sometimes its eyes glow red, but that fits other cryptids,” he said.

Others have described it as serpentine and believe it lives near water, like the so-called portal to hell where several children have drowned.

While the appearance of the monster is unclear, what remains true among witnesses is the Devil’s blood-curdling scream.

Pedersen remembers hearing the shriek years ago when he was camping as a boy scout.

He said the noise was so eerie, that his scout leader commanded all the young boys to stay in their tents and took everyone back home the following morning.

“People are genuinely scared of the Jersey Devil,” he said.

“They don’t want to take the chance of even getting to where it’s supposed to live, let alone see it.

“It’ll scare you. You are afraid for your life.”

He’s also attributed the 1928 plane crash of Emilio Rodriguez to the beast, who died after his craft nose-dived into the Pine Barrens during the first-ever trip from Mexico City to New York.

“They found a paper that Carranza had written that he hit a creature that caused the plane to crash,” Pedersen said.

“He didn’t die right away. He jotted down on a piece of paper that he hit the serpentine creature that caused his plane to crash.”

Pedersen said that there have been massive rewards offered for the Jersey Devil, dead or alive, but he warned the public that a captive creature could mean the end of a rich mystery.

“I don’t know that that’s why people are looking for it,” he said.

“From what I understand, it’s never killed anybody. So, I think people would be disappointed if somebody finally catches it.

“That’s what I hope doesn’t happen, that somebody catches it, if it exists, and tries to put it in a zoo or a cage.”