Investigation of claims of late-surviving pterosaurs: The cases of the winged dragons of belon, aldrovandi, and cardinal barberini

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

Here we investigate claims that pterosaurs survived into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1557, 1640, and 1651 the European naturalists Pierre Belon, Ulisse Aldrovandi, and Giovanni Faber, respectively, published illustrations of winged, bipedal specimens that had been stuffed and mounted. Some recent young-Earth creationist authors claim that these specimens were recently-killed pterosaurs. The drawings and descriptions are detailed enough to test the pterosaur hypothesis as well as the alternative hypothesis that the specimens are taxidermic composites of parts of different animals. However, before now, no one has investigated these three cases or attempted to test these hypotheses. Here we report an investigation in which these hypotheses are tested. By comparing the specimens with pterosaurs, we found that in all three specimens, all regions of the body are inconsistent with pterosaur anatomy. Comparison with extant animals reveals that Belon’s and Aldrovandi’s dragons are decapitated snakes with attached mammal heads. Their wings are the pectoral fins of flying gurnards (Dactylopterus volitans). Their “legs” are the forelimbs of rabbits or canids in reptile-skin sleeves. The dragon illustrated by Faber and owned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini includes the skull of a weasel (Mustela nivalis), the belly skin of a snake, the dorsal and lateral skin of a lizard, and the tail skeleton of an eel (Anguilla anguilla). These hoaxes now join the list of discredited “proofs” of human-pterosaur coexistence.

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