If you go to the Eastland County Courthouse in Texas, you may lay your eyes on an unusual sight: a dead Texas horned lizard on display in its own velvet-lined coffin. According to local legend and newspaper reports from the 1920s, the reptile certainly earned this honor, living an unusually long time trapped in a time capsule beneath the courthouse. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Texas is home to the Texas horned lizard ( Phrynosoma cornutum ), a spiky-bodied reptile often referred to as a "horned toad". The animals were subject to an old local myth that they are able to survive for over 100 years, without the need for food and water.

In 1897, the courthouse was under construction, and local man Ernest Wood decided

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