1 week Ago By PHIL CONNELLY For the Ravalli Republic
By the late 1600s, the 120,000 residents around Rome had long been the victims of frequent flooding from the Tiber River. Rather than correctly blaming the local floodplain topography, they instead blamed a serpentine monster they believed to slither around in the watery depths. Pope Clement X put Dutch engineer Cornelius Meyer in charge of a major civic project that aimed to protect the Via Flaminia (the major road used by pilgrims) against the flooding of the Tiber river.
Meyer replaced the architect Carlo Fontana as head engineer of the project because his plans were less expensive than those proposed by Fontana. Meyer knew how to solve the actual problem of flooding — build levees. However, the problem was that local workers he depended on were skittish.
They would not work near the river out of fear of offending the dragon that lived in the river. At that time, even learned individuals thought that the existence of dragons was plausible. A local legend held that it had been killed years earlier, but new rumors claimed it was once again alive; no one wanted to run into it at the work site.
To get his workers working on the levees, Meyer rather miraculously "recovered" the skeletal remains of the dead dragon. This would prove that his workers should not fear working on the dikes. He later included a sketch of his creation in a book.
Meyer may have cut some ethical corners, but the most assuredly dead dragon allowed the work to proceed. The levees were built and Rome was saved from periodic flooding. While the immediate problem was solved, he could not have imagined how his dragon, centuries later, would be misappropriated as evidence.
The story and engraving of the dragon was forgotten for the next 300 hundreds. In 1979, the drawing of Meyer's dragon re-appeared in a book about dragons. Individuals who believe the earth is only 6,000 years old seized on Meyer's dragon engraving as showing a pterosaur, specifically Scaphognathus crassirostris.
Its presence in a 17th-century engraving was conclusive proof that pterosaurs did not, as scientists had long claimed, go extinct millions of years before humans were around. In fact, these creatures were still alive right up through the Renaissance. Unfortunately, for the pterosaur-seeing creationists, the engraving they cited had been carefully detailed.
In fact, it was so detailed that a reexamination published in 2013 proved that Meyer's dragon bore no resemblance to the pterosaur Scaphognathus crassirostris. By comparing the so-called dragon to living and fossil species, the study authors determined how Meyer had cobbled together various animal parts to make his monster. Authors Wilkins and Senter concluded: "The skull of Meyer's dragon is that of a domestic dog.
The mandible is that of a second, smaller dog. The ribs are those from a large tetrapod (a vertebrate animal with four limbs). The thoracic vertebrae are probably from a large beaver.
The 'hind limbs' are the forelimbs of a juvenile bear. The wings, tail, beak, and cranial horn are all fake." Meyer's fake dragon "skin" conveniently hid how the parts from various animals had been joined together.
It turned out that Meyer's 'dragon' was not particularly unique — it was much like other taxidermists' fake monsters created during the Renaissance. But, it was good enough to convince workers to complete Meyer's work to protect a key entrance into Rome from future flooding..
