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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.

i'd guess it's either wax or rubber. nothing too big.

Apparently Dragons give birth to live young and don't lay eggs?


Or do embryos that are in eggs have umbilical cords?

That's AMAZING craftsmanship. VERY impressive that they could do something like that at the time. I wonder how much it cost them.

Wow, what a conversation piece!

I wish i had one!

Seriously, very cool.

it's definitely a neat piece of art. sort of like those aliens in jars that you see at novelty stores from time to time. maybe some company would pick up on it and decide to make a small run of these.

Gotta love the history to this - bloody foreigner trying to discredit the good old NHM.

Wow. That's incredible.

InnerBrat wrote:Gotta love the history to this - bloody foreigner trying to discredit the good old NHM.

You know, it kind of looks like a pteradactyl. You don't suppose.....

Cool, but...umbilical cord?!

Yeah, I picked this up on a D&D forum I post at. That's awfully thin for an umbilical cord.

Rogue 9 wrote:Yeah, I picked this up on a D&D forum I post at. That's awfully thin for an umbilical cord.

Fact is, it shouldn't be there, I think. Reptiles=don't have umbilical cords, IIRC

I know. And even if it was, that's awful thin for an umbilical cord. But who's to say that dragons would be properly considered reptiles?

Let's ask our resident palenontologist-type girl who is adept at ruining imagery!

InnerBrat? Care you to ruin my image of a dragon as a giant reptile-thing replete with scales, cold blood and *no* umbilical cord?

IMHO the cord might have been made by the hoaxer to gain a sense of plausibility, since it is odd and different from the idea that dragons lay eggs.

Or maybe I'm reasoning a concept for my April Fool prank.

Chardok wrote:Let's ask our resident palenontologist-type girl who is adept at ruining imagery!

InnerBrat? Care you to ruin my image of a dragon as a giant reptile-thing replete with scales, cold blood and *no* umbilical cord?

Well, if we go with fire breathing, it strikes me as even less likely for an ectotherm to pull off than an endotherm. And also, not all cold-blooded creatures lay eggs. Several species of shark give birth to live young.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that I think this is real. Perhaps I suspend disbelief too much.

Darth_Zod wrote:it's definitely a neat piece of art. sort of like those aliens in jars that you see at novelty stores from time to time.

And that sort of treatment of our compatriots does not go unnoticed

Excellent craftsmanship, especially for the 1890's. Wonder how long it took them to make?

What I wanna know is has anyone tried to dissect the thing? Or at least X-rayed it.

(puts on "Atlantis Ascendant" CD by Bal-Sagoth, skips the two first tracks and goes straight to "Draconis Albionensis"... the mighty battle-anthem of the ancient war-dragons of Albion!)

BTW - anyone want to bet on how long time will go before the Creationists start using this "pickled dragon" as an argument?

Peregrin Toker wrote:BTW - anyone want to bet on how long time will go before the Creationists start using this "pickled dragon" as an argument?

A long time.

Rogue 9 wrote:

Chardok wrote:Let's ask our resident palenontologist-type girl who is adept at ruining imagery!

InnerBrat? Care you to ruin my image of a dragon as a giant reptile-thing replete with scales, cold blood and *no* umbilical cord?

Well, if we go with fire breathing, it strikes me as even less likely for an ectotherm to pull off than an endotherm. And also, not all cold-blooded creatures lay eggs. Several species of shark give birth to live young.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that I think this is real. Perhaps I suspend disbelief too much.

Why can they not do the chemical combination thing like Ring Of Fire? Two glands and all....

It's not a reptile, as it has six limbs. It's as distantly related to reptiles as it is to mammals, which is hella distant, having evolved from fish independantly.

Therefore, it could quite happily be a placental animal, even if it looks 'reptilian'

Dragons are rather necessarily endothermic, if they breath fire, so that rules out lizards. Besides, the legs are tucked under the body, not out to the sides. Far more feline than lizard.

SirNitram wrote:Dragons are rather necessarily endothermic, if they breath fire, so that rules out lizards. Besides, the legs are tucked under the body, not out to the sides. Far more feline than lizard.

Well, there's bombardier beetles, but I don't think a dragon could do the same thing on that scale without blowing up its face.

It's a cool art piece. I can't find mention of it beyond that, but I wonder if they'll bother to figure out what it is and who made it? It's an incredible effort for 1890.