Uncovering the Truth Behind the Myth: Investigating the Existence of Dragons

[Danger]

This is my first venture into this forum. Nobody seemed to be doing anything in GD or GP, and the title caught my eye. I don't have time to read most of the foregoing -- a half dozen or so posts -- but thought that you might be interested in this. Although he certainly doesn't purport that dragons really existed, Larry Niven (one of the gods of hard SF) detailed how they could. I can't remember which book it was in, or exact details. Basically, it was thus:
large reptillian lifeform that reprocesses its gastrointestinal methane and stores pure hydrogen in a cavity similar to the swim bladder in a fish; bouyancy allows it to float like a balloon, so small wings are enough for propulsion and manoeuvring; fire breathing is achieved by releasing some of the hydrogen in a jet and igniting it by gnashing its teeth, which incorporate iron pyrite instead of calcium in their enamel
I think that there's even more to it than that, but you see what I mean.
I'm outta here now; have fun.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

HCl is common in nature. Methane is also common. The author in Omni suggested that as cave dwellers, spontaneous combustion of accumulated gases might by considered a potential explanation for dragons "breathing fire".

Btw, I read Omni for many years and this is one of the few articles that really stuck with me over the years. In some ways it makes sense given the legends. Now, not only do we find hobbits, but we find them where we find real [Komodo] dragons; not to mention dwarfed island elephants! That is a pretty amazing coincidence, don't you think? How can one not wonder?

Something else noted, at least as reported by some scientists in the pop science media, is that Neanderthals were more advanced than previously thought. Apparently they appreciated symbolism; as seen in some burial sites. Might we have advanced religious or mythical symbolism long before we believe possible; allowing for the most ancient myths to be common to otherwise separate cultures?

 

[Bladibla]

HCl is common in nature. Methane is also common. The author in Omni suggested that as cave dwellers, spontaneous combustion of accumulated gases might by considered a potential explanation for dragons "breathing fire".

Btw, I read Omni for many years and this is one of the few articles that really stuck with me over the years. In some ways it makes sense given the legends. Now, not only do we find hobbits, but we find them where we find real [Komodo] dragons; not to mention dwarfed island elephants! That is a pretty amazing coincidence, don't you think? How can one not wonder?

Something else noted, at least as reported by some scientists in the pop science media, is that Neanderthals were more advanced than previously thought. Apparently they appreciated symbolism; as seen in some burial sites. Might we have advanced religious or mythical symbolism long before we believe possible; allowing for the most ancient myths to be common to otherwise separate cultures?

I'm not so sure with the dragon talk. I don't think each culture which has in the past showed these pictures of 'dragons' really mean the same thing.

If dragons did exist in the past, why would they look any different portraits of different cultures? The fact that they do look slightly different could mean that they are not emphasising the same type of creature.

I mean, the oriental/Chinese Dragon is often described as to be a long, serpentine creature, with scales, and very often a 'ball' in their mouth which grants people wishes. On the pther hand, we often see the Western dragon as a enormous lizard with wings, breathing fire, green, and chomping up knights

I come from a oriental country, and although even experience might prove me wrong, we have never depicted our 'dragon' in the same way. Often in legends of our countries birth, we would have a dragon with the depiction of having a chickens head. Now that's not the western dragon sterotype, is it?

But i would like to see 'dragons', meaning of a giant green creature that flies and breathes fire shown to have exist, because that would be awesome

 

[hypatia]

http://www.ancientspiral.com/dragon.htm

 

[godzilla7]

I remember reading somewhere that the fact that many cultures have a 'Dragon' mixed up in there mythology, was due to a memory of our distant ancestors of dinosaurs themselves that was passed down through our genome to this day; kind of like an instinctual fear of the dinosaur, from our scurrying ancestors, this could account for the racial memory they proposed. Sounds a bit far fetched but who knows?