A baby dragon, or a bad joke?

Electronic Telegraph ^ | 24/01/2004 | Roger Highfield, Science Editor

[aculeus]

A pickled "dragon" that looks as if it might once have flown around Hogwarts has been found in a garage in Oxfordshire.

Yesterday the baby dragon, in a sealed 30in jar, was in the office of Allistair Mitchell, who runs a marketing company in Oxford. He was asked to investigate by his friend, David Hart, from Sutton Courtenay, who discovered it.

A metal tin found with the dragon contained paperwork in old-fashioned German of the 1890s. Mr Mitchell speculates that German scientists may have attempted to use the dragon to hoax their English counterparts in the 1890s, when rivalry between the countries was intense.

"At the time, scientists were the equivalent of today's pop stars. It would have been a great propaganda coup for the Germans if it had come off.

"I've shown the photos to someone from Oxford University and he thought it was amazing. Obviously he could not say if it was real and wanted to do a biopsy."

The documents suggest that the Natural History Museum turned the dragon away, possibly because they suspected it was a trick, and sent it to be destroyed. But it appears a porter intercepted the jar and took it home. The papers suggest the porter may have been Frederick Hart - David Hart's grandfather.

Mr Mitchell said: "The dragon is flawless, from the tiny teeth to the umbilical cord. It could be made from indiarubber, because Germany was the world's leading manufacturer of it at the time, or it could be made of wax. It has to be fake. No one has ever proved scientifically that dragons exist. But everyone who sees it immediately asks, 'Is it real?' "

Yesterday the Natural History Museum said that it was interested in following up the find.

The scientific journal Nature once carried a tongue-in-cheek article on the ecology of dragons written by Lord May, who became the science adviser to the Prime Minister and is now the president of the Royal Society.

From the reported sightings, Lord May concluded that dragons are "both omnivorous and voracious", with great variations in diet: one made do with two sheep every day while another, kept by Pope St Sylvester, consumed 6,000 people daily. Their lifespan seems to range between 1,000 and 10,000 years.

Some scientists believe that dragons, though the product of imagination, were inspired by the extraordinary creatures that once roamed the Earth. As J K Rowling's alter ego Hermione Granger once suggested, legends have a basis in fact.

[mindspy]

"At the time, scientists were the equivalent of today's pop stars.

We've come a long way, haven't we?

[MattAMiller]

It is interesting to note that most cultures have stories of dragons or are familiar with the concept of such creatures.

It's probably not much of a leap from "Boy these reptiles sure are creepy" to "Maybe there's really big ones that are even creepier." Any small child will at some point make a game out imagining how some frightful thing could be more frightful. It's part of human nature.

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh. Didn't realize the pic was modified. I found the pic as posted there and uploaded it.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

**So sonny, go do your homework, then come back and play.***

I'm Back! When you fly over the farm fields of the midwest and look out the window and see 40 acres of Will Rogers looking back at you it is obviously NOT AN UNEXPLAINABLE MYSTERY! Yet when you see a simple circle in a grain field you cry It's Impossible to do this with our technology! BUNK, BUNK, BUNK!

I WAS MAKING CROP CIRCLES in an alfalfa field in 1956 in Farmington NM until the owners complained to my dad and we were ordered to quit. I was only 9 years old.

[RightOnline]

"I WAS MAKING CROP CIRCLES in an alfalfa field in 1956 in Farmington NM until the owners complained to my dad and we were ordered to quit. I was only 9 years old."

Sure you were. Absolutely. Just like the ones reported around the world. Incredibly complex with mounds of evidence against hoaxing. Right. Might even want to read up on sites like this one.

Comes a point where one has to open one's mind to the possibility that you JUST might not have it all figured out; that just maybe you AREN'T so much smarter than many thousands with a different and better informed point of view.

[Shooter 2.5]

I was at a shopping mall yesterday and "America Woman" was on display. It's a marble sculpture of a reclining woman on a Grand Piano. Francisco, the artist, created such a beautiful image and it's the only marble statue that includes eyelashes.
Some people are talented beyond belief. I think it's sad some believe certain works are impossible only because the detractors can't accomplish the feat. The pyramids come to mind.

[4mycountry]

And this is scientific documentation, right? Aliens came out to make these circles, huh?

Yeesh. Tin foil hat, anyone?

[Lazamataz]

Comes a point where one has to open one's mind to the possibility that you JUST might not have it all figured out; that just maybe you AREN'T so much smarter than many thousands with a different and better informed point of view.

But I DO have it all figured out and I AM smarter than everyone.

[Bikers4Bush]

What video game is that from? It looks sweet.

[Alouette]

What video game is that from?

[Bikers4Bush]

I'll have to pick it up. Looks excellent, thanks!

[RightOnline]

Your intellectual laziness, closed-mindedness, and failure to research ain't my problem, sweetheart.

[4mycountry]

Not believing in little green men isn't closed-mindedness, it's common sense -- which you obviously lack.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

A few years ago A wind storm came through here and knocked down my garden of corn. It bent every stalk over and didn't break any of them.
I suppose you believe in Faries also. Arthur C Doyle did. Years later they were proven fake.
How about the Sasquatch? A proven fake.
The "Men in Black", a proven fake.
The Amityville Horror, a proven fake.
Loch Ness monster, finally proven a fake!
Canals of Mars? Ha ha ha!
As P. T. Barnum said, "There is a sucker born every minute!"
I suppose now you will tell me there is a hole at the North Pole with a new world inside!
Maybe you can bend spoons with your mind. Any magician worth his salt can!
As the Amazing Randi says, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." and you don't have any!

[RightOnline]

Sasquatch, a proven fake? Evidence. Lay it out.

I mean proof. If you do, by the way, you'll make headlines.

Nessie? Proven fake? Prove it. Same challenge. Lay it out. If you do, you'll be the first in hundreds of years of trying by people far smarter than you and me. Give it a shot.

Now, cut your pissant sarcasm and pathetic attempts at humor, son. Don't work with me. I'll await your proof.

[Cold Heart]

A picture is worth a thousand words. The bottled dragon looks like a computer generated plastic forming process my brother described as he had used. The level of a special liquid plastic is slowly lowered as a laser is played upon the surface as directed by software. The plastic is hardened at the surface where the laser touches.

On the chance it is real, when would the hunting season be, and are tags available over counter?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Evidence. Lay it out. ***

Why should I!
If you had been paying attention to FR for the last few years you would have seen posted that each one of these hoaxes was proven fake when the perpetrators finally came clean and owned up to the fact that started the hoax.
The girl who faked the faries admitted it.
The man with the fake sasquatch feet admitted it before he died.
The people who taped themselves making crop circles! Yet the "true believers" refused to believe it when shown the tape!
Nessie, the men who faked the camera shot fessed up!
We can add to this the man who claimed to have talked to a spaceman from VENUS back in the 1950's.
and Please don't get me started on Jean Dickson.

Where is YOUR proof that the crop circles are of extraterestial origin!

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."...James Randi

[TASMANIANRED]

Babs can breathe fire can't she.

[Junior]

You guys'll probably enjoy this...

[PatrickHenry]

I can only handle one or two goofy threads at a time. I leave this one to you.