It was claimed that German scientists created the specimen in the 1890s and sent it to the Natural History Museum in order to dupe their British counterparts.

But, the story went, the museum had dismissed it as a hoax and it had been spirited away by a museum porter.

In fact the dragon was created by Crawley Creatures, the model makers behind TV's Walking with Dinosaurs, and the jar was made by a specialist glass blowing studio in the Isle of Wight.