On the History and Biology of Dragons

From the dawn of time, dragons have fascinated mankind. They have had a profound effect on the human imagination. Dragons can be found throughout history in artwork, literature, songs, and oral legends. What we have long forgotten is that they are REAL.

Dragon History
Dragons have long been dismissed as fictional, for very logical reasons. Where is the evidence of dragons? Where are they in the fossil record? How can they be so big and yet still fly? And how on earth do they breathe fire?! Each of those can be very easily explained (see the next section for the answers to the last two questions).

Evolutionary Ancestry
Dragons are in fact descended from rhamphorynchoid pterosaurs. In the Middle Jurassic period of the Mesozoic, a division of rhamphorynchoids branched off and became isolated on the Atlantic tropical island known today as Avalon. While the other rhamphorynchoids died off due to competition from pterodactyloid pterosaurs, a phenomenon happened on Avalon that set the Avalonian rhamphorynchoids apart forever: a meteor shower. Not just any old meteor shower, either; these were special meteors from beyond the solar system. In them, there was what some would call "magic", for it did give the isolated pterosaurs some unusual powers. The dragons (for that was what they had become) somehow became relatively sentient as well (presumably due to meteoric radiation). Over eons, dragons spread around the world and evolved to survive just about anywhere. Being relatively sentient, they would normally burn their dead to show respect. Therefore: not much fossil evidence of dragons.

There is, however, some fossil evidence of dragons. Ironically enough, scientists consider this evidence (some teeth) to be a spinosaurid. Convergent evolution produced a dragon (the ancestor to the Kyarim, actually) that had a spinosaurid-esque skull.

Dragon Biology
After millions of years of evolution, there are many varieties of dragons. All dragons, however, share certain features that make them dragons: fire-breathing and wings.

Breathing Fire
Dragons can breathe fire because their mainly meat diet produces large amounts of methane. This methane is stored in special glands and can be ignited via special enzymes and forced out through their mouth and nostrils. Originally, fire-breathing was used mainly as a defense mechanism (dragons' ancestors were not the biggest creatures on Avalon!). When dragons became sentient, they realized that fire-breathing had so much more potential. See the article on Dragon Culture and Behavior for more on how fire-breathing is used.

Wings and Flying
Not all dragons can fly, actually. But all true dragons have wings (orientals are exceptions; they're not true dragons). In most dragons, the wings are batlike and separate from the forelegs, which obscures their biological ancestry. In truth, their wings were originally their true forelegs (pterosaur ancestry). Over millions of years, the true foreleg-wings evolved to incorporate the whole hand structure into the membrane-wings. Most dragons evolved another pair of forelegs to compensate; one group did not (the wyverns). In some dragons, such as the Kyarim, this wing-change simply did not happen (as the original wing design was well-suited for the kind of flying done by these species). Some dragons' wings atrophied because of their ecological roles, and so those species can no longer fly. (Examples of this are the Atlanteo-Leviathans and the Magmaran Mantle dragons). There are some huge dragons that are able to fly, seemingly defying physics! How can these giants possibly fly? In addition to light pterosaur bones; dragons, as they grew larger, developed gas bladders to help them stay aloft despite their size.

Oriental Dragons
A common misconception is that Oriental dragons are dragons. THEY ARE NOT TRUE DRAGONS! Oriental dragons are actually descended from ancient monitor lizard ancestors. These monitor lizard ancestors lived on ancient Avalon alongside the dragon-ancestors at the time of the mysterious meteor shower. They too were affected by the meteoric radiation. An ancient pact between the true dragons and the orientals made sure war would never break out between the two dragon races. The orientals decided that they liked Asia and so they got that as their territory. They really don't have much to do with the greater dragon community, nor do they care to. They can fly without wings because of their large gas bladders, making the the only lighter-than-air creatures on Earth. They move through air by undulating their long, snakelike bodies. Oriental dragons can breathe fire, but prefer not to because this uses up their gas for flying. Biologically speaking, orientals are more closely related to lizards than true dragons (who are more closely related to dinosaurs than lizards).