could dragons have exsisted?

in almost every culture around the world, the dragon has been a part of legend. even cultures that didn"t even know each other exsited until recently have the same creature. i find through research that it was entirely possible for dragons to have exsisted with all of there legendary powers and abiliities, even the fire breathing. what do you think?

well ay, could there not have been a few dino's about. I thought the metior thing was still just theory, coss of them bee's that seemed to survive. I think the history about dino's etc is a load of balls. We dont know squat.

Hi dragonkid,

There are two or more possible sources for the dragon legends.

1) They were some type of natural dinosaur-like creature
2) They were extraterrestrials
3) They were the flying craft of extraterrestrials or of a previous earth civilization

z

or maybe they were deamons!

..if your inclinded to think that way ofcourse.

I regard it as more likely that dragons were conceived as fantasies in some culture, perhap in China, and the concept spread by bards, minstrels, and artists.

The fantasy model might even have been conceived earlier, even before China was settled by humans.

If dragons really existed, I believe it likely that some fossil traces would have been discovered by now.

There are bombadier beetles, of course, but that's a far cry from a large flying critter that could breath fire.

Hi All,

I have seen Komodo Dragons. They are large Lizards up to 12 feet long and weigh up to 300 pounds and hunt in packs. They at least certainly do exist. In a Museum here in Brisbane we have a model of another Monitor Lizard which stood about the height of a full grown man and 30 ft long. This is very like the Komodo Dragon's really big brother. Now they were part of Australia's Megafauna 30,000 years ago but are long gone now. This is within the living memory of modern humans. Who knows what else once existed out there.
Komodo Dragon
There are also rumors of giant arboreal lizards in the jungles of Papua New Guinea even bigger than the Komodo Dragon. They are so rare that their existence is still a relative secret for their protection.

Now there were really big Dinosaurs including a Pteranodon the size of a fighter jet. Those eagles in Lord of the Rings were around in New Zealand 12,000 years ago and are gone but they once existed. Who knows? Just recently in Indonesia they found the remains of "Hobbits". They are not "humans" but were as intelligent and upright as humans, just smaller. I would like to see them "resurrected" some day using advanced technology. I can live in hope can't I?

The Hobbits of Indonesia

I would not hold out any hope though...

Cheers

Yes, dragons did exist in real life in every culture. But now we know them
by two names: Cattle, and sea serpent.

Take a look an old literature on European "dragon" and you find that they were
not the skyscraper size creatures depicted in comic books, but the size of
cattles, because that's what they were.

Cattles always barf methane gas and they are curious creatures that occasionally
get attracted to fire, rather than repelled by it as lowly creatures are.

If it gets too close, the continuous methane gas that comes out of its mouth
is ignited, and seeing a fire in front of themselves, them go wako, running
amok and setting everything around them on fire. Since homes and agricultural
products will burn without the help of fire extinguishers, they were much
feared.

It sounds dumb, but farmers occasionally make the news when they do bring a
flame in front of a cow and it run amok, setting the barn on fire.

There is a lesser known sea serpent that has a head like a horse that's
occasionally documented and about as big as a telephone pole that's said to be
the sea dragon.

Why were they both called "dragons"? People in the past generalized everything.

That's why anemic people who craved blood were called vampires. People whose
skin burned in the Sun's ultraviolet light were called vampires. People who
were bitten by a mad dog and feared water were called vampires and so on.

yeah.. either that or it was aliens...

A great many reasons and ideas have been put forward for the existence of Dragons, Vampires, Werewolves etc.

Considering how many Dragons were slain in various European folklores, it's interesting to see that not one part of any dragon's remains have ever been uncovered, you would have thought that such things would be kept as trophies at least once. That said, they are extremely prominent in a great number of Myths and legends, from the Eastern 'Serpents of Sea and Air' which were mainly benevolent, to the much more malevolent European version.

I suspect the whole 'breathing fire' part of the Dragon stories (which mainly occured in Western tales) was more a matter of making them appear more fearsome, after all, it's a lot more valiant to say 'I hath killed a 3-storey tall monster that did spit hellfire', rather than 'I went out on a quest 3 months ago and hath found bugger all'.

The Eastern tales of serpents have often been attributed to Giant Squid or the like, whales have been found with sucker marks on them that prove that there are far larger squid in the depths of the ocean than we have so far encountered.

The thing is, you can't just take a small lizard, stick wings on it, supersize it and then expect it to fly, something the quoted size of a Dragon would be as manouverable as a potato in the air, and would probably shred it's wings in the first beat. Even if it did have hollow bones and used hydrogen in it's stomach to increase lift (another theory as to how they could breath fire), you're basically talking about a Hindenburg of a monster, you wouldn't need a lance to kill it, they'd be on the verge of exploding every minute of the day.

So, no, I remain very sceptical about the existence of Dragons, but I do think we need them, if not in the world then in our minds, just as we need Elves, Unicorns, Vampires and Werewolves

It's amazing what people will waste their time debating. Star Wars is coming out!!!

I think Good Elf would refute you that elves are only nessisary in our minds. Without them, who would have saved Middle Earth.

u insane were u get that skrewed idea?

Hi All,


I noticed an "aquatic" reference... I have always suspected that "sea serpents" were large members of the oarfish species, they have that "mane" along their dorsal surface...
Pictures of oarfish

Then there is this picture of a pleisiosaur-like creature from 1970...
pleisiosaur

Usually they are badly decomposed and might be the remains of "basking sharks".
Or this closely associated New Zealand one...
pleisiosaur in NZ


But elves are surely real.... believe me I know!

Cheers

Hey Good Elf...

how very weird!!

Years ago when I had a particularly bad flu, I had these really vivid dreams of a fish, and it wasn't until I saw your pics of the Oarfish, that I even knew it existed.. strange!

As for dragons, like many many things in legend and myth they all have some loose basis in reality, my own take on them is that they were invented in much the same way as we join up unrelated dots on a piece of paper, our brain sees what it wants to see. I personally thought it could have been huge swarms of bats flying out at dusk which could have been mistaken for one huge flying lizard, which is a common site all over asia, but could easily have been mistaken for something else, especially after eating one of the numerous magic mushrooms also found in Asia!

Like flying reindeer in lapland.