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Description
Introduction
Those of you who follow me know that I'm interested in animals, zoology, the ecosystem, nature in general, and fable animals. They will also know I have an on-and-off project about unicorns, and how they would look and act in real life. However, while unicorns are the most interesting - and the species of fable animals I draw the most - dragons are certainly fascinating as well.

So here - a long article discussing if dragons could exist, and the abilities they would have if they existed, all explained. No magic involved - I'm here to try to figure out if these animals could really exist in our world.

The number of limbs - would the typical western dragon be possible?
The first thing which sets dragon apart from other mammals are the six limbs. Normal animals have four, - either four feet, wings and feet, or hands and feet -, and the dragon would therefore be an entirely different genus. Due to the build of the rib cage of typical animals and dinosaurs, it would most likely not be possible for them to have front feet and wings like we like to picture them. The muscles which are used to operate the wings and the ones used to operate the front legs would have to be in the same place - which is impossible. The dragons would therefore either have the wings in the middle of the body - something which would make them very front-heavy, and not be practical...

...or they would look like wyverns or Chinese Dragons.

The traditional, six-limbed western dragon would therefore not exist. Wyverns and Chinese dragons, on the other hand, would have functioning anatomy. We continue with these.

The wyvern
General
I think most of the readers here will know what a wyvern is - but for those who don't know it, here's a very short explanation: Wyverns look like dragons, but have no front feet. They therefore have only four limbs - the wings and the back feet. They are normally pictured as smaller than normal dragons, and with a poison barb on their tail. Wyverns are also usually though to be less intelligent than a normal dragon.

Hotblooded or coldblooded?
Reptiles are coldblooded. Dragons and wyverns are usually thought of as a type of reptile, with the scales, head, horns etc. It would therefore be natural if they also were coldblooded. However, reptiles can hardly move when it's cold. They need to warm themselves in the sun before they are able to move and hunt properly, and a wyvern which is too stiff to move its wings properly most likely won't survive that long.

If wyverns should be able to fly properly in colder regions, they would have to be hotblooded. This can lead to the theory that they have feathers... Alright, I get it - birds are actually dragons. Problem solved!
However, a far more likely solution is that they live in areas which are warm all year round, like the rainforest. This means that there is a tiny hope they actually exist, we just haven’t discovered them yet.

Anatomy
The wyverns would be able to fly. The front limbs would have evolved to become wings, most likely similar to a bats'. The placement of the muscles needed for flight could look similar to a bats’ as well, or more like a birds’. This is, of course, uncertain - both would be possible.

The length of the neck, the tail and the feet would, however, look more similar to a birds’, which could make it more likely that the musculature looks more similar to a bird as well.
The wyverns would most likely not be very large. They would live in the forest, and being large would not be a huge advantage here. The wingspan might be up to four meters, but most likely smaller. There would most likely be several different species with different sizes. Just imagine those mini-wyverns which are like ten centimetres small already

The ability to breath fire
To the fire. There are theories that the dragons could produce certain chemicals which react with oxygen, causing fire. There are no living animals, apart from the bombardier beetle, which are able to make something similar to fire (the beetle used a mixture of hot gasses, something that still is far away from actual flames).

But then, when we go away from the typical "dragon" and move to the "wyvern" - wyverns aren't known for spitting fire. They might have a poison barb on their tale, similar to a scorpions', but they cannot breathe fire. The ability to do so might also not be very useful:

Fire could be used in several different ways.
- To attack
- Defence
- To impress others
- To grill meat

It would not be a useful weapon to attack prey with, as it doesn't kill instantly, and the prey will most likely flee with singed fur/feathers. Venom would work better.

It would be a useful defence weapon. However, poison might work here as well (we are pretty careful towards venomous snakes!), and it might take time to produce the chemicals which make fire-breathing possible. Also, the wyverns fly. Therefore:
- with ground predators they would either be killed instantly, or be able to escape by flying.
- aerial predators usually attack from above (like falcons, hawks, eagles, etc.) and kill almost instantly. There would be no real way of defending oneself from these attacks apart from being careful and flee. And when you flee, fire would be an unnecessary ability to have.

To impress others from the same species. "Look, I have more fancy flames than you! I win all the females!" I doubt it - considered it is far too dangerous to do this. They might hurt themselves, or others, and that is something animals avoid when possible. They could also risk to burn down the area they live in - something which isn't fortunate for anyone.

To grill meat. Like other reptiles, and like birds, I think wyverns would be perfectly capable to eat raw meat.

I therefore count it as unlikely that they do have this ability. Being able to breath fire would also mean that they need extra armour in their mouth, something which would be difficult.

Summary
The wyverns would live in warm areas, be able to fly but not to breathe fire, and could exist in real life. And who knows – maybe they do exist, but we haven’t found them yet.

Chinese – or rather, Asian - dragons
General
The Asian dragons look radically different from Western dragons. The most common description is that they have “the scales like a koi, a head like a camel, eyes like a daemon, ears like a cow/bull, horns like those of a stag, claws like an eagles’, a neck like a snakes’, feet like a tigers’ and teeth like a wolf.” Asian dragons are described to be intelligent.

Anatomy
These dragons have four feet and no wings. Legends claim they are able to fly – but without magic, I see no possibility for this to happen. In this article I therefore conclude they do not have this ability.

They would therefore look rather like a variety of lizard. This means they will be coldblooded – they have no need to be able to move very swiftly, as they do not need to fly. The muscle and bone structure would be very similar to that of a lizard as well. They would most likely be larger than any known lizards, including the Komodo dragon. With such size, they could have large brains, explaining their intelligence.

They do most likely not exist, since China, Korea and Japan – where these beasts are claimed to live – are crowded with people now, and no-one has reported a creature like this. However, they might have existed in the past. After all, if ten-meter-long snakes existed, huge lizards could probably have existed as well.

Legends do not tell us that these creatures could breathe fire, and it is not likely that they can.

Summary
The Asian dragons would look quite similar to lizards. They would not be able to fly or breathe fire, and they do not exist – at least not now.

Conclusion
In short – the typical Western dragon cannot, and does not, exist. If six-limbed creatures with wings and four feet exist, they would most likely not look like these either.

Wyverns can exist, but it is unlikely. These would be cold-blooded creatures living in areas which are warm all year round, and might act like birds or bats. There could be many different species, ranging from carnivores to herbivores.

Asian dragons would be anatomically possible, apart from their ability to fly, but it would be known if they existed. They might theoretically have existed before.

Author’s note
Alright – I hope this was an interesting read for all of you, and I hope at least some of you like it. However, some things to bear in mind: I am in no way educated within zoology, biology or such. I am interested in it, and I know a lot about it, but I am in no way an expert. Also, this text is written over some three hours, and I have just used logic and what I knew from before (and one source, link below). This all means there might be mistakes and errors here – do not take this very seriously. I wrote this down for fun.

Also – you can share this text, but do credit me as BeckyKidus on DeviantArt.

Source:
dragons.wikia.com/wiki/Dragons…

Description
Introduction
Those of you who follow me know that I'm interested in animals, zoology, the ecosystem, nature in general, and fable animals. They will also know I have an on-and-off project about unicorns, and how they would look and act in real life. However, while unicorns are the most interesting - and the species of fable animals I draw the most - dragons are certainly fascinating as well.

So here - a long article discussing if dragons could exist, and the abilities they would have if they existed, all explained. No magic involved - I'm here to try to figure out if these animals could really exist in our world.

The number of limbs - would the typical western dragon be possible?
The first thing which sets dragon apart from other mammals are the six limbs. Normal animals have four, - either four feet, wings and feet, or hands and feet -, and the dragon would therefore be an entirely different genus. Due to the build of the rib cage of typical animals and dinosaurs, it would most likely not be possible for them to have front feet and wings like we like to picture them. The muscles which are used to operate the wings and the ones used to operate the front legs would have to be in the same place - which is impossible. The dragons would therefore either have the wings in the middle of the body - something which would make them very front-heavy, and not be practical...

...or they would look like wyverns or Chinese Dragons.

The traditional, six-limbed western dragon would therefore not exist. Wyverns and Chinese dragons, on the other hand, would have functioning anatomy. We continue with these.

The wyvern
General
I think most of the readers here will know what a wyvern is - but for those who don't know it, here's a very short explanation: Wyverns look like dragons, but have no front feet. They therefore have only four limbs - the wings and the back feet. They are normally pictured as smaller than normal dragons, and with a poison barb on their tail. Wyverns are also usually though to be less intelligent than a normal dragon.

Hotblooded or coldblooded?
Reptiles are coldblooded. Dragons and wyverns are usually thought of as a type of reptile, with the scales, head, horns etc. It would therefore be natural if they also were coldblooded. However, reptiles can hardly move when it's cold. They need to warm themselves in the sun before they are able to move and hunt properly, and a wyvern which is too stiff to move its wings properly most likely won't survive that long.

If wyverns should be able to fly properly in colder regions, they would have to be hotblooded. This can lead to the theory that they have feathers... Alright, I get it - birds are actually dragons. Problem solved!
However, a far more likely solution is that they live in areas which are warm all year round, like the rainforest. This means that there is a tiny hope they actually exist, we just haven’t discovered them yet.

Anatomy
The wyverns would be able to fly. The front limbs would have evolved to become wings, most likely similar to a bats'. The placement of the muscles needed for flight could look similar to a bats’ as well, or more like a birds’. This is, of course, uncertain - both would be possible.

The length of the neck, the tail and the feet would, however, look more similar to a birds’, which could make it more likely that the musculature looks more similar to a bird as well.
The wyverns would most likely not be very large. They would live in the forest, and being large would not be a huge advantage here. The wingspan might be up to four meters, but most likely smaller. There would most likely be several different species with different sizes. Just imagine those mini-wyverns which are like ten centimetres small already

The ability to breath fire
To the fire. There are theories that the dragons could produce certain chemicals which react with oxygen, causing fire. There are no living animals, apart from the bombardier beetle, which are able to make something similar to fire (the beetle used a mixture of hot gasses, something that still is far away from actual flames).

But then, when we go away from the typical "dragon" and move to the "wyvern" - wyverns aren't known for spitting fire. They might have a poison barb on their tale, similar to a scorpions', but they cannot breathe fire. The ability to do so might also not be very useful:

Fire could be used in several different ways.
- To attack
- Defence
- To impress others
- To grill meat

It would not be a useful weapon to attack prey with, as it doesn't kill instantly, and the prey will most likely flee with singed fur/feathers. Venom would work better.

It would be a useful defence weapon. However, poison might work here as well (we are pretty careful towards venomous snakes!), and it might take time to produce the chemicals which make fire-breathing possible. Also, the wyverns fly. Therefore:
- with ground predators they would either be killed instantly, or be able to escape by flying.
- aerial predators usually attack from above (like falcons, hawks, eagles, etc.) and kill almost instantly. There would be no real way of defending oneself from these attacks apart from being careful and flee. And when you flee, fire would be an unnecessary ability to have.

To impress others from the same species. "Look, I have more fancy flames than you! I win all the females!" I doubt it - considered it is far too dangerous to do this. They might hurt themselves, or others, and that is something animals avoid when possible. They could also risk to burn down the area they live in - something which isn't fortunate for anyone.

To grill meat. Like other reptiles, and like birds, I think wyverns would be perfectly capable to eat raw meat.

I therefore count it as unlikely that they do have this ability. Being able to breath fire would also mean that they need extra armour in their mouth, something which would be difficult.

Summary
The wyverns would live in warm areas, be able to fly but not to breathe fire, and could exist in real life. And who knows – maybe they do exist, but we haven’t found them yet.

Chinese – or rather, Asian - dragons
General
The Asian dragons look radically different from Western dragons. The most common description is that they have “the scales like a koi, a head like a camel, eyes like a daemon, ears like a cow/bull, horns like those of a stag, claws like an eagles’, a neck like a snakes’, feet like a tigers’ and teeth like a wolf.” Asian dragons are described to be intelligent.

Anatomy
These dragons have four feet and no wings. Legends claim they are able to fly – but without magic, I see no possibility for this to happen. In this article I therefore conclude they do not have this ability.

They would therefore look rather like a variety of lizard. This means they will be coldblooded – they have no need to be able to move very swiftly, as they do not need to fly. The muscle and bone structure would be very similar to that of a lizard as well. They would most likely be larger than any known lizards, including the Komodo dragon. With such size, they could have large brains, explaining their intelligence.

They do most likely not exist, since China, Korea and Japan – where these beasts are claimed to live – are crowded with people now, and no-one has reported a creature like this. However, they might have existed in the past. After all, if ten-meter-long snakes existed, huge lizards could probably have existed as well.

Legends do not tell us that these creatures could breathe fire, and it is not likely that they can.

Summary
The Asian dragons would look quite similar to lizards. They would not be able to fly or breathe fire, and they do not exist – at least not now.

Conclusion
In short – the typical Western dragon cannot, and does not, exist. If six-limbed creatures with wings and four feet exist, they would most likely not look like these either.

Wyverns can exist, but it is unlikely. These would be cold-blooded creatures living in areas which are warm all year round, and might act like birds or bats. There could be many different species, ranging from carnivores to herbivores.

Asian dragons would be anatomically possible, apart from their ability to fly, but it would be known if they existed. They might theoretically have existed before.

Author’s note
Alright – I hope this was an interesting read for all of you, and I hope at least some of you like it. However, some things to bear in mind: I am in no way educated within zoology, biology or such. I am interested in it, and I know a lot about it, but I am in no way an expert. Also, this text is written over some three hours, and I have just used logic and what I knew from before (and one source, link below). This all means there might be mistakes and errors here – do not take this very seriously. I wrote this down for fun.

Also – you can share this text, but do credit me as BeckyKidus on DeviantArt.

Source:
dragons.wikia.com/wiki/Dragons…