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Enter the dragon
By Humfrey Hunter Last updated at 00:00am on 23.01.04
With tiny teeth and claws, a little tail and soft-looking white skin, could this really be what it seems - a baby dragon?
Highly unlikely of course, but this disturbingly realistic model almost had the experts fooled.
The dragon, suspended in a jar of what is thought to be formaldehyde, is believed to be the brainchild of German scientists who wanted to humiliate their English counterparts in the 1890s, when the rivalry between the two countries was intense.
Had they pulled it off it would have been one of the greatest hoaxes of all time.
However, according to documents found with it, the Natural History Museum turned the dragon away, possibly because they suspected it was a trick.
It was then sent to be destroyed. But it appears a porter intercepted the 2 1/2 ft-high jar and took it home. Now the dragon has surfaced in an Oxfordshire garage.
The papers say the porter was either a man known only as Moredun, or a Frederick Hart - whose grandson David found the jar containing the dragon in his garage last month.
Mr Hart, 58 , from Sutton Courtenay, said: 'My father, George, who is dead now, left it at my house when he moved away from London about 20 years ago.
'I was not there when he put it in my garage so I never really looked at it. It was just in the corner with a load of other junk and I found it when I was having a clear-out.
'I had never looked at it so when I saw the dragon it was a huge shock. I remember the crate it was in from when I was a kid because it was in my dad's workshop.
He just used to say the crate was fragile because it had a glass container in it. But I never saw what was in it.
I didn't know until recently and when I first saw it I didn't know what to make of it. Such things don't exist do they? It is very odd-looking.'
Mr Hart, who runs a marketing services company, asked his friend Allistair Mitchell to help him investigate the dragon's background.
Mr Mitchell, 42, who runs a marketing company in Oxford, said: 'The late 1800s were a time of intense rivalry between Britain, Germany and France over who was the world's leading nation.
'It would appear that this was an effort on the part of interested parties in Germany to discredit the British scientific community.
'At the time, scientists were the equivalent of today's pop stars and their achievements were heavily reported in newspapers.
'It would have been a great propaganda coup for the Germans if it had come off. Some of the documents are in German and date back to the 1890s.
'I've shown the photos of the dragon to someone from Oxford University and, like everyone who sees it for the first time, he thought it was amazing.
Obviously he could not say if it was real or not but he wanted to come and take a biopsy of it.
'It is a truly amazing thing. It stands about 30 centimetres but if you were to take it out of the jar and lie it flat with the tail extended, it's probably about a metre long.
'The dragon is flawless, from the tiny teeth to the umbilical cord. No matter how closely you look, you cannot tell if it is real.
It could be made from India rubber, because Germany was the world's leading manufacturer of it at the time, or it could be made of wax.
'Or, of course, it might be real.'
Reader views (13)
I doubt that scientists are really all that worried about having their "precious" laws broken or even shattered, especially since the area in science that the dragon would most apply to would be biology and most any serious biologist will tell you that for every rule they have in biology there is an exception (including this one). On top of that, this would not be the first creature that science had to admit existed. There are other animals that were previously unknown or thought to be just folklore that have been discovered and are now accepted by the scientific community.
- Justin Remmers, Hastings, Nebraska, USA
yeah come on! it takes less than a minute for an xray! seriously whats the big deal if its fake oh know we go on if its real. . . dragon army anyone?;}
- Harry, cheyenne, WY U.S
To be honest i think they are scared and they want it to be fake, so they will just leave it there. Which is completely stupid, plus if they did find out it was real, they would say it is fake to the public and the government will keep it somewhere, and no-one will ever find it. Also by not testing it, it keeps everyone wondering therefore just making their lives harder.
- Casey, England, UK
Well as hard we want to belive its real ,theirs always the possibly its fake, whitch it might be .Nobody knows fershere . But it can always be tested, who knows ? All i'm trying to say is that anythings possible, so it might be real or it might be fake . I relly hope its real . thanks for reading .
- Ibelive, castaic usa
This is all very interesting, but scientists don't know EVERYTHING. They're always contradicting themselves, and no one knows if dragons are really 'hatched.' and the reason they don't know this is because they have never found an actual dragon preserved well enough to disect, to determine 'how' dragons are born. Like every one else who hase given their opinion, disect the damn thing and get it over with.
- Heidi Dearmond, 22, Idaho, USA
the article says it had the umbilical cord, but dragons are born from eggs so how would it even have an umbilical cord, unless it was fake?
- Happymeal, houghton lake usa
So why don't some of you guy go take it for an X-ray or examine it? (if you had x-ray it.)
does the dragon have bone and all the part's?
what if it's a real dragon?
isn't the responsibilities that sciens should uncover the things that are mistery?
- Leonard, Malaysia(SABAH)
They should have it dissected to see if its real or not. If it was real, that would mean dragons are in fact mammals and not reptiles. Seeing how this baby dragon has an umbilical cord. I do in fact think that scientists are afraid to dissect it because they don't want their precious laws to be proven wrong.
- Travis, Leander, USA
Interesting, I wonder if it is real, ya? I've seen a lot of things about it, but nothing says if it's real or not.
- Aleaha, Machias, USA
That is not how scientists work, there is no conspiracy to maintain scientific laws. Every scientist would love to examine and publish an article about a REAL dragon, but it is just so very very very very unlikely it is real, why has no one else in the entire world seen a dragon or any fossil records? The answer is simple, because they (sadly?) don't exist off course. Dragon myths may have come from fossil dinosaurs....
- Bjorn (Zoologist)., Norway
I believe the scientific community is scared to death to find out it's possibly real. If this little thing truly is real, it would shatter so many laws of science.
Although, if it is real, I'd be one of the happiest people alive to know it.
- Lisa, USA
Why don't they just test it? Or are they afraid of it being real?
- Ariel, California, United States
I sure would like to know if it is real or not.
- Norby, North Dakota, USA
