A museum in Teply Stan in Moscow displays lizard skeletons found in the 20th century. These are about the size of the beast that St. George kills on the coat of arms of Moscow. Most of the finds were dug up on the Northern Dvina River, but they were simply buried back in because "keeping such a huge collection of bones was impossible."
Impressed by the size of the lizards, scientists immediately attributed them to the Paleozoic, although mentions of them survived in texts until the 17th century.
Indeed, who would want to explain to the public and to children at school how a reptile the size of a calf was able to survive in the northern latitudes and periodically "please" the peasants by crawling out of the river to them?
