It was found in an English garage.

This seemingly pickled dragon was also found with technical papers, in German. The papers suggested that in the 19th century, German scientists had created the creature - most likely out of india rubber, or wax - in order to hoax their British counterparts at the Natural History Museum. Supposedly, it was rejected and sent to be destroyed - but was intercepted by a porter in the process, and saved.

But it wasn’t just a fake - it was a marketing scheme. The entire story - the garage, the porter, the duplicitous 19th century scientists - was actually created out of whole cloth by a British fantasy author. The dragon, meanwhile, were created by modern model makers. But in the resulting media furor, he managed to finally score a book deal - about, of course, dragons.

It even has an umbilical cord. And hoax or no hoax, it was enough to make a few scattered dreamers very, very happy.