Where did dragons come from?

[Blue Moon Knight]

I hope that someday, fuzzy-wuzzy caterpillars will turn into dragons. That would be awesome.

There is proof that things were bigger a long time ago. Like centipedes. They were as big as a person. *shudder*

Maybe there were giant caterpillars that turned into giant butterflies, who would carry people away to their lairs. Then centuries later, when giant butterflies became a thing of the past, someone tried to draw a picture of what they thought the "dragons" looked like, and ended up drawing a giant fire-breathing lizard.

Or there is the simple answer: dragons come from eggs. But then we are left with the question: which came first, the dragon or the egg?

[plums_deify]

Caterpillars, in my experience, grow up to be nothing more than fuzzy-wuzzy chimeras.

Are you basing the rest of your post on your experience as well?

I said nothing.

[Bluesecrets]

I have found a living dragon!

http://www.divegallery.com/Leafy_Sea_Dragon__1.jpg

[Maedhros]

I have found a living dragon!

http://www.divegallery.com/Leafy_Sea_Dragon__1.jpg

Ok, that thing was strange

[JoshWedin]

Yup, real dragon. I forgot about those. There was one at our local aquarium a few years ago....on loan from another aquarium, if I remember correctly.

Don't forget Komodo Dragons either.

Josh

[wobnam]

Hmm, this seems like the time and place to post a picture of my ex..

[Blue Moon Knight]

Hmm, this seems like the time and place to post a picture of my ex..

That was lol worthy.

[Bluesecrets]

So I found this:

http://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/20 ... marduk.jpg

What is it? Well it comes from this link:

http://sawiggins.wordpress.com/2009/10/ ... f-dragons/

Which I found rather interesting and on topic for this thread.

[Ye Olde Republic]

^^If you aren't going to take this topic seriously, I suggest ignoring it altogether.........

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

I also fail to understand why anyone would want to take a dragon - a mythical, incredible, magical creature - and reduce it all to next to nothing by making it something as lame and boring as "real".

I agree with Wobnam on this point. It's a little difficult coming to terms with a supposed dinosaur to dragons connection. With or without dinosaurs, people have no trouble coming up with all sorts of ghosties and ghoulies and beasties and bogeys and things that go bump in the night. Now, please excuse me while I go chase the chupacabra out of the chicken coop.

FLK

[Napoleon]

I also fail to understand why anyone would want to take a dragon - a mythical, incredible, magical creature - and reduce it all to next to nothing by making it something as lame and boring as "real".

I agree with Wobnam on this point. It's a little difficult coming to terms with a supposed dinosaur to dragons connection. With or without dinosaurs, people have no trouble coming up with all sorts of ghosties and ghoulies and beasties and bogeys and things that go bump in the night. Now, please excuse me while I go chase the chupacabra out of the chicken coop.

FLK

Agreed! And I was telling my dad after I watched History Channel's "Ancient Aliens," that it would be a lot more fun to not know if aliens existed than to prove they didn't and ruin a lot of peples' ability to create stories and movies about them. Same goes with dragons, IMO. That aforementioned show also said that there is a possibility that what the ancients were seeing as dragons were actually poorly-described alien spacecraft. In China, people were said to have gone into the dragon which transported them from place to place. A famous example is the Yellow Dragon; modern spacerockets emit a yellow gas,Not tht I believe it, mind you.

[Robin Hood]

Agreed! And I was telling my dad after I watched History Channel's "Ancient Aliens," that it would be a lot more fun to not know if aliens existed than to prove they didn't and ruin a lot of peples' ability to create stories and movies about them. Same goes with dragons, IMO. That aforementioned show also said that there is a possibility that what the ancients were seeing as dragons were actually poorly-described alien spacecraft. In China, people were said to have gone into the dragon which transported them from place to place. A famous example is the Yellow Dragon; modern spacerockets emit a yellow gas,Not tht I believe it, mind you.

Well if it makes you feel better, it is impossible to prove dragons didn't exist, and equally impossible to prove that they don't exist now. Since none of us will ever (assuming the laws of physics remain as they are) actually go back in time to the era when dragons are supposed to have existed, we can never definately say for sure if they were around or not. And since we can't do that, we'll have no way of knowing just what it was that the dragon myths came from, and therefore no way of proving or disproving their existance today. And even if we did know that, we still can't disprove their existance. That is logically impossible.

Dan

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Just joined the group and this is one topic that caught my eye.

It seems that at some point in human history there existed dragons or dragon like creatures. This is supported by the fact that dragons exist in the cultural mythology of several regions of the world, most notedly the Orient and Europe. For two cultures located on opposite corners of the planet with no trade or communication between them to independently have dragons in their history has to be more than a coincidence. Either there was the discovery of fossil dinosaur remains (first found in England) which were attributed to dragons or there was some other creature still alive in the early historys of these regions.

It isn't unreasonable to believe that some dinosaur species may have survived longer than is popularly believed. It is now widely accepted that dinosaurs were warm blooded and that some species had feathers. Some species would have survived in isolated pockets in different regions of the world. It may be that these animals existed right up until fairly recent (last 50,000 years) history and were thus became the stuff of legends.

That said there are some parts of dragon lore that don't appear plausable. Breathing fire - not very likely. Very hot bad breath that smells so bad it makes your eyes burn could be the explanation for this. Flying takes a lot of energy even for birds. The largest birds around today either rely heavily on soaring (condors) or don't fly at all like ratites. Some large birds (Wild turkeys) are only able to fly for short distances. (NOTE: as seen on WKRP in Cincinatti, domesticated turkeys do not fly!). A more likely explanation would be either gliding or simply being able to jump an impressive distance giving the impression of flying.

[Napoleon]

It isn't unreasonable to believe that some dinosaur species may have survived longer than is popularly believed. It is now widely accepted that dinosaurs were warm blooded and that some species had feathers. Some species would have survived in isolated pockets in different regions of the world. It may be that these animals existed right up until fairly recent (last 50,000 years) history and were thus became the stuff of legends.

Yeah, and if you believe in Noah's ark, it would be even less time than 50,000 years. Who says Noah did'nt take a pair of dinos? Who knows, maybe the Romans fought dinosaurs in Britain around the time of Hadrian's Wall. The stories were then brought back to Rome, were circulated like a fiction story, and became the legends of Medieval Europe. It's a reasonable theory.

[Tower of Iron Will]

Personally I think the idea of dragons came about when earlier cultures discovered dinosaur bones and misinterpreted them. Or it could be due to a prehistoric version of modern-day fantasy story writers. People have been telling Bigfoot stories for years, but it doesn't make them any more real. Whether its bigfoot or dragons or whatever the value of a good story will be a part of the human existance for a long time to come.
-Tower