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Why creationists love Meyer's dragon

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This is a dragon, "as it was recovered in the hands of the engineer Cornelius Meyer" — at least according to the inscription in the picture. Said picture comes from a book written by Meyer, himself, in 1696. On the book's cover is an etching of the dragon as he purports it looked — alive — in 1691.

And it turns out some creationists totally love Meyer's dragon. Not because they believe in dragons (that would be stupid) but because they believe in pterosaurs and — more importantly — that these pterosaurs were alive in the 17th century. New Scientist's Jeff Hecht explains:

In the minds of "young Earth" creationists, Meyer's dragon has evolved far beyond an engineer's flight of fancy. They claim it's clearly a pterosaur - proving that, far from being extinct for the last 150 million years, the monster flying reptile was alive and kicking in 1691. They have even identified it as Scaphognathus, a pterosaur that scientists believe lived in what is now Germany. The first fossils were discovered in 1831, embedded in the limestone beds like those that later yielded archaeopteryx.

Sadly for creationists and dinosaur-loving dreamers everywhere, the beast was, of course, a fake, cobbled together from animal parts and fancifully sculpted fabrications The skull and jaw came from different dogs, the ribs from a fish, and the hind limb is the arm of a bear.

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