~ Dragons: The Never-Ending Legend ~

Growing up as a child, I heard dozens of tales and folklore about the mystical chinese dragon. When I went to chinese school, the teachers also taught us about the various types of dragons and how they had powers deemed unimaginable to common people. Dragons were and still are believed to be guardian spirits physically manifested into immensly powerful warriors of the sky. They are by no means stupid either, they are thought to be sentient beings that are very wise. The Dragon is my favorite cryptozoological animal, and I have gathered all the evidence I could find on the internet.

- Students take picture of Dragon overhead: english.epochtimes.com...

- Airplane spots two Dragons: www.theepochtimes.com...

- Water Dragons and Sightings: www.lair2000.net...

- Dragon-like image photographed by Nasa: sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov...

Is it simply a major coincidence that every single culture on Earth has a dragon-like creature either documented in myth or folklore? It is hard to find someone who has not heard of a dragon. The aztecs call it Quezacotal, the Bible calls it tanniyn, native-americans call it Thunder-Bird, tribes in Africa call it Piasa, the Japanese call it doragon and Ryujin, The Dutch and Scottish call it De draak, the Norweigan call it drage, the Greeks called it Hydra, the ancient spanish called it guita, Africans called it Aido Hwedo, in India they call it Ahi, the original australians called it Eingana, the Chinese call it Pai Lung, and the common day word is Dragon. There is even a tribe in South America where the people tattoo their arms with this design:



When asked about where they got this image from, they replied that this creature was the guardian of a river nearby, and was worshiped for protecting them.

Are you a believer that dragons are real creatures? Do you think that dragons were fabricated from dinosaur bones and natural phenomena? What are your personal views on the never-ending legend... of the Dragon.

Hey did you know that Dragons are mentioned in the King James Bible, I guess that means that they are real, ya think?

I believe they are quite real....but to what degree is unknown.

Originally posted by Zaimless
Hey did you know that Dragons are mentioned in the King James Bible, I guess that means that they are real, ya think?

Sounds logical to me. About as logical as the idea that cats are not mentioned in the King James Bible and therefore cats cannot be real.



Wupy

I do find it really fascinating that so many disparate people-groups around the globe have a mythology which features a large winged lizard (which quite often breathes fire).

Is there an anthropological explanation for it? Does anyone know of any book titles which deal with this subject?

Roark is quite right. In all (most) cultures there are dragon-like mythical creatures. I know that there are no dragon myths South of the equator in Africa. Middle and Eastern Africa has some references to dragons, but you'll find after looking deeper into it, that it's mostly European influence. And interesting enough in many different cultures and references, the dragon breathes fire.

But due to the lack of physical evidence one's first reaction is that they don't exist. And I doubt that the myth came to be because of dinosaurs, mostly because of the lack of wings. And not all cultures would have come up with the same conclusion when they found dinosaur remains for the first time.
And to make it even less believable: These creatures are huge flying beings (supposedly). Where are they hiding? Radars, satellites and a host of airplanes would spot these creatures. Animals this size would need a vast food supply. Thus it would be extremely difficult to stay hidden in these modern times. And the little evidence that exists (like the pictures TheBlueSoldier showed) is far from conclusive.

All that said, there are hundreds of ancient references to dragons from different times and cultures with extra-ordinary similarities. And we know that some of these cultures did not have contact with each other for thousands of years. So, what is the source of the inspiration for dragons?

Okay, I know dragons are supposed to be super duper intelligent, & sneaky as Hell, but if they exist, how come we haven't seen any in how many thousands of years?

Has to be a reason, either they are, or aren't real.

Originally posted by SpartanKingLeonidas
Okay, I know dragons are supposed to be super duper intelligent, & sneaky as Hell, but if they exist, how come we haven't seen any in how many thousands of years?

Has to be a reason, either they are, or aren't real.

You haven't seen one because they are all super duper intelligent and sneaky as Hell!

The world is so populated, generally speaking, that if there existed specie/s of dragon(s), I feel relatively certain that some photographic evidence, at the very least, would have presented itself.

But, hey! Wouldn't that be very cool????

I love dragons... real or mythological... Not really too fond of Oriental dragons... I'm more into medieval style... I have three dragon tattoos as well... just need two more is all.

Originally posted by SpartanKingLeonidas
Okay, I know dragons are supposed to be super duper intelligent, & sneaky as Hell, but if they exist, how come we haven't seen any in how many thousands of years?

Has to be a reason, either they are, or aren't real.

No, thats the D&D dragons.


I seriously cant make anything out on those pictures in the first post.. People REEAAALLY see what they want to see.. *Bleh*

Personally, a thing as large as a dragon is not gonna stay out of sight. Especially not when it can fly.

i beleive in dragons, but those pictures, the first one is obviously the sun shooting over the clouds, i see that all the time. the second, i forget what it was but i beleive that was debunked on here already. and the third obviously is just the title, if you actually read about it.

Im convinced dragons did indeed exist

They dont anymore, and they never flew or breathed fire

Heres a real dragon
Megalania
Megalania prisca AKA Giant Ripper Lizard

Body length: 5.5m; Weight: 400kg.

They were carnivores. It is likely that giant ripper lizards both caught their own prey and scavenged, as the Komodo dragon does today. Extrapolating from the habits of the Komodo, it could easily have caught prey of twice its own weight, and could have tackled animals of up to 10 times its own weight.

Here you can get a understanding of the size of this thing



The important thing about this "Dragon" unlike the dinosaurs this thing lived along side man.

This was the true dragon IMHO and the origin of dragon stories. All the other stuff fire breath flight etc.. that was all added later by people that never saw a living dragon.

Well, I'm not so sure that Giant Ripper Lizards are responsible for the myth of dragons mainly because of two pointz:

A) Australia is known for its wide variety of strange animals. In fact, Australia has dozens of species of marsupials including the wallaby, kangaroo, and koala bear while the rest of the world only has one kind of marsupial which is the possum. Since the Giant Ripper Lizard is indigenous only to Australia, how would people around the world know about it and create an entire myth around this animal?

Z) Dragons and Giant Ripper Lizards are both very large reptiles, but this is where the similarities end. Dragons are known to breathe fire or acid, fly with extremely large wings, have the knowledge of the greatest scholars, protect something sacred (whether it be treasure, land, etc.), and their facial features are extremely different.

I doubt that Giant Ripper Lizards are the source of the Dragon myths because of these reasons. There is definitely something mystical to the origin of dragons.

I'm a believer of dragons. A whole globe of people having similar accounts of creatures? Check the sig.

BTW did anyone in UK watch that show on channel 4 called the Last dragon?
It was a 'documentary' on this guy who found a weird skull and it had scientific explanations for the dragons abilites. Flight and fire was produced by a type of enzyme in the stomach that when digesting food created a gas (can't remember which) which produced lift and fuel, and that they had a platinum filament in their mouths which sparked the flame.
It was soooooo cool. When i started watching it i thought it was for real and had my mum their too.

Back to the point, dragons are mentioned in the bible as well as other countries early histories. there still here, maybe living in high altitudes where we can't get at them.

Originally posted by TheBlueSoldier
Well, I'm not so sure that Giant Ripper Lizards are responsible for the myth of dragons mainly because of two pointz:

A) Australia is known for its wide variety of strange animals. In fact, Australia has dozens of species of marsupials including the wallaby, kangaroo, and koala bear while the rest of the world only has one kind of marsupial which is the possum. Since the Giant Ripper Lizard is indigenous only to Australia, how would people around the world know about it and create an entire myth around this animal?

Thats really simple and the answer is Dinosaur bones, Which happen to be found all around the world. People stumbled across dinosaur bones thuosands of years ago as they do today. Early people had no concept of extinction let alone a mass extinction that took place 65 million years ago. The found what they thought were bones of living animals giant reptile like creature Dinosaurs or "Dragons" to them. The only animal that even came close to being called a Dragon that lived along side man was Megalania and its lesser cousin the correctly named "Komodo dragon".

Bones of extinct and misidentified animals was the core of most mythical animals, Cyclops, Giant humans, Griffins etc.. Dragon like bones (Dinosaur) are found all over the world and thats why myths take place all over the world.

Originally posted by TheBlueSoldier

Z) Dragons and Giant Ripper Lizards are both very large reptiles, but this is where the similarities end. Dragons are known to breathe fire or acid, fly with extremely large wings, have the knowledge of the greatest scholars, protect something sacred (whether it be treasure, land, etc.), and their facial features are extremely different.

If your talking about flying, fire breathing, gold hording, super smart dragons then no they never existed. I dont know how people can seriously believe such a creature existed. The flight mechanics of depicted dragons alone is absurb.

All that stuff was added afterwords for good story telling. Natives in Africa use to tell stories about a undiscovered animal the Gorilla. In their stories it fought elephants with trees and kidnapped native women and other absurb stuff. There was indeed a real animal but those stories as we now know were bull plop.

There is often kernels of truth for myths. In this case is was dinosaur bones and the very real monster the Giant ripper lizard.

As to the comment of the absurd physics of a dragon and its capabilities to fly... Scientists are still baffled about how a bumblebee can remain airborne. According to their calculations, a bumblebee's body mass is much too large in order for those small wings to sustain flight, no matter how fast they beat. Don't believe me eh? check this out: www.sciencenews.org... . And this too: www.hypnosis-kids.com...



As to Gemwolf's comment about that show, I saw it too! The show stated that dragons had a special enzyme in their stomach that produced helium, which is an extremely light gas that causes lift, which when added to the component of the rapid beating wings could lift a dragon. And there are many animals that breathe or spit fire/acid, such as termites and driver ants. Some species of beetles will actually explode, splashing acid everywhere as a self defense mechanism. Certain types of ants will also create a spark between their pincers and ignite it with their own chemicals to create a small fire-thrower mechanism thing-a-majigger.

Bioilluminescence is quite common in nature, everywhere from lightning bugs to angler fish.

A dragon breathing fire or acid would not be impossible in nature.

sry if i went a bit overboard with the pics, but i like to have evidence with my claimz.

First the story that Bumblebees in terms of theoretical aerodynamics, did not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beat per second) to achieve flight is a myth. It even says so in your first link -

Whatever its origins, the story has had remarkable staying power, and the myth persists that science says a bumblebee can't fly.

The statement was based upon an assumption that the bee's wing could be treated as a static aerofoil. However, in reality the bumblebee's flight is characterized by an oscillating wing that shares more characteristics with a helicopter rotor than an aeroplane wing.

link

There are also some slight differences between a bumblebee and a Dragon. Things that work on a tiny scale often dont work on a large scale. If you scaled up a ant to the size of a human it wouldnt be able to breath or walk.

Theres no way something as big as depicted dragons could beat their tiny wings fast enough for lift the energy requirments would put a humming bird to shame and they are always a few hours away from starvation.

There are NO animals that breath fire. There are some animals mainly insects that use acidic chemical weapons but that aint fire.

Chinese dragons of myth could make themselves as large as the universe or as small as a silkworm. They could also change color and disappear in a flash.

Dont tell me you believe a real animal could do that as well. Theres just as much evidence behind those dragon claims as there is about Fire breathing and flight.

I am crazily searching the internet for that species of ant that shoots fire from its pincers, but have not found it yet. A month ago, I was reading some books about the various types of animals and their strange habits at my church. I was flipping through the book and I came across an ant that literally shot fire out of its mouth. There were pictures of burn marks and even a frame by frame picture sequence that showed the process of the fire breathing ant. I CANT FIND THE DARN ANT ON THE INTERNET but I wont give up that easily, I shall be back with a picture and all that good stuff.

I don't believe actually believe that a dragon can change its size that dramatically, but there must be a secret they are harbouring to evade us this long. Perhaps they are just pterodactyls or maybe they really are mystical creatures capable of things we cannot fathom. It is not impossible for a creature to completely dissappear and reappear out of thin air either. According to the "Law of Conservation of Mass", matter cannot be created nor destroyed. But Einstein proved this wrong with his "Theory of Relativity". It states that matter can be transformed into pure energy (or light) with the right amount of activation energy. So a dragon could technically fly around the skies and disappear within a blink of the eye. I know this delves into fantasy, but lets analyze this. All types of fantasy are deemed unrealistic and purely fictional, but is it? Many people think of God as simply a fantasy because:

1) People created God in order to feel better about themselves and assured that Humans are above animals.
2) God cannot possibly love us as much as the Bible says he does.
3) Satan is not the cause of man's suffering, it is our own actions that cause pain(which is sometimes troo).

But is this truly fantasy? If we think outside the "cosmopolitan" viewpoint of life, maybe we can humble ourselves and think that God loves us and that Satan doesn't kill man by crude ways. If Satan is real, wouldn't he be a bit smarter and attack us indirectly instead of out in the open. And furthermore... er... crap I side-tracked from the mainpoint... I'm sorry but I can really get enthusiastic about religion. I dont really feel like erasing all the stuff I just said, so I'll intergrate it into cryptozoolgy. Dragons may be fantastic creatures with powers, but is it really too impossible to exist? I think not. As people delve deeper and deeper into science and exploration, I believe we shall find the root of Dragon myths. In the meantime, I shall entertain you with dragon pics because I side-tracked into God stuffz: