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.

[aculeus]

Britain, the country of fakirs: Piltdown Man, Nessie, Crop Circles, Robert Fisk.

[cripplecreek]

its a fair bet that the global warming crowd wants to get a look at it before the comming ice age.

[lilylangtree]

Ron Weasley's older brother studies dragons in Romania.

[SengirV]

I hate it when stories like this have no photo's. I know it's not your fault.

[trebb]

Britain, the country of fakirs: Piltdown Man, Nessie, Crop Circles, Robert Fisk

Crop circles are fake?

[BibChr]

Dan

[cripplecreek]

oh my god!!! is it real?

[eastforker]

I don't think dragons would have umbilical cords but hey, what do I know about mythical creatures.

[CathyRyan]

Norbert!!!

[cripplecreek]

they come out of mythical eggs.

[Hatteras]

[Not A Snowbird]

Norbert!!!

Shh! Don't tell Hagrid he's been pickled!

[The Green Goblin]

But everyone who sees it immediately asks, 'Is it real?

Big deal. People say the same thing when they see the effects done at the haunted house I work at every Halloween.

[JenB]

Cool. Looks similar to a dragon in my collection. Someone had too much time on his hands.

[templar]

"The dragon is flawless, from the tiny teeth to the umbilical cord.

The umbilical cord would seem to suggest live birth of dragons, wouldn't it? How many reptiles have umbilical cords? (and I thought dragons were egg laying creatures). For that matter, although they look like it, are dragons reptiles?

[aruanan]

I don't think dragons would have umbilical cords but hey, what do I know about mythical creatures.

Hey, embryonic chicks have umbilical cords; no reason a fetal dragon shouldn't.

[Blood of Tyrants]

This is as fake as the "15 meter snake" story that was circulating a few weeks ago.

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

I don't think dragons would have umbilical cords but hey, what do I know about mythical creatures.

Yeah, everybody knows that Dragons are hatched and not birthed. Or so I've been told.......

[gnarledmaw]

This is obviously a fake. Baby dragons dont have umbilical cords, dragons are oviparous.

[aruanan]

The umbilical cord would seem to suggest live birth of dragons, wouldn't it?

See #16. Just because some animals that are born live have umbilical cords doesn't mean that all animals with umbilical cords must be born live.