A "pickled dragon" which hoaxed the world's press is on display at The Story Museum in Oxford.

When the preserved foetus of a dragon, complete with wings, talons and a miniature tail, turned up in Oxfordshire in 2004 the discovery seemed too good to be true.

Allistair Mitchell, from Eynsham, told newspapers that his friend David Hart, of Sutton Courtenay, had found the specimen in his garage.

In fact, Mr Mitchell created the stunt to help sell a fantasy novel he had written about dragons.

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Mr Mitchell, a marketing consultant, had paid £6,000 to have the one-foot dragon created in latex by Crawley Creatures, the prop makers who worked on TV's Walking with Dinosaurs.

Allister Mitchell and son Edward (Image: Oxford Mail)

The hoax proved stunningly successful and Mr Mitchell's Eynsham home was briefly under siege by the world's press.

His knack for publicity was noticed by the head buyer of book chain Waterstone's who agreed to stock his book, Unearthly History, written under the pen name PR Moredun, which had previously been rejected by numerous British publishers.

The book sold more than 2,500 copies and Mr Mitchell was also contacted by the US publishers HarperCollins, who offered him a $150,000 three-book deal.

He told the Oxford Mail at the time: "I was really lucky. Many published writers cannot make a living out of it and now I have been given 18 months' salary to get on with writing the sequels."

The dragon is currently on display at The Story Museum in Oxford as part of their ‘Here Be Dragons’ exhibition.