Sometimes, ancient stories of magic and the arcane are shown to have some basis in fact. In the last decade years paleontologists have been researching a curious dinosaur called Dinocephalosaurus orientalis.

With 32 vertebrae, the dinosaur had a very long 16-foot neck. So its resemblance to mythological dragons, has not been lost on researchers.

Two skeletons of the newly-discovered dinosaur have been found in the Guizhou Province of Southern China; one in 2003 and a complete skeleton this year.

One scientist called the animal, “a very strange” one. Dr. Nick Fraser, of National Museums Scotland, also added that “this discovery just adds to the weirdness of the Triassic [period],” BBC News reported.

Ancient Germanic peoples, who unearthed dinosaur skeletons, believed in dragons called them ‘wurms’. In 1582, a sculpture was made based on the fossil remains of a dinosaur, which had popularly been considered a dragon. The sculpture can still be found in Klagenfurt, Austria.

One wonders that since Dinocephalosaurus orientalis lived in water, some people might begin  drawing parallels with the legendary monster, Nessie, from Lock Ness, as well.

Sources

Fossil reveals 240 million year-old ‘dragon’. BBC News. (2024, February 22). https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68374520

Paleontologists discover a 240 million-year-old ‘dragon’ fossil in full. NPR: National Public Radio. (2024, February 23). https://www.npr.org/2024/02/23/1233468580/dragon-fossil-china-triassic

Natural History of Dragons. AMNH: American Museum of Natural History. https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/dragons/natural-history-of-dragons#:~:text=Long%20before%20the%20development%20of,dragons%20from%20an%20earlier%20age