Debate Were there ever any creature similar or like a Dragon

It depends on what you mean by similar, since there are quite a few creatures alive in the world today that kinda look like a dragon, depending on your definition, the Komodo dragon being an obvious example.
To say that lots of different cultures arrived at the same conclusion regarding what a dragon looks like isn't really correct, since lots of different creatures are grouped under our word dragon, and the variations are clear.

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Even though there are general consistencies between various cultures' dragons, its fair enough to assume that mythical creatures are extrapolated from existing creatures that looked odd or strange to the people at the time. The consistencies amongst what we call "dragons" could reasonably come from various mythical, large reptiles being grouped due to their apparent common derivation.

I don't know a massive amount about the specifics of bone structure, but I'm pretty sure all bones amongst certain groups in the animal kingdom, reptiles included (just look at the dinosaurs) share pretty strong similarities. I can't believe its very likely that a creature evolved from something with regular bones, leaving no trace of fossils, then evolved into another creature with regular bones again (otherwise we would be able to see descendants with this new, non-fossilising bone structure today).

Whilst there have obviously been large reptiles in the past, some that may have resembled what some call a dragon, I don't believe there has been such a species within the lifespan of humanity. I also don't see any reasonable evidence for a creature that could breathe fire, or any explanation of how it would work.

Sorry, but I don't buy it.

 

But that's kinda my point, they're variations on a theme of a large reptile creature. This is always gonna be something humans involve in myth, mythical creatures must be impressive, scary and very different looking to what we see as "normal" (creatures like us, mammals, that share common features like hair etc.). Doesn't it seem very likely that multiple cultures invented mythical creatures based on a reptile? Since reptiles are often associated with fear due to their massive differences in appearence, movement etc.

Who's to say the people who were writing about these creatures even called them dragons? We class various myths under the english word "dragon", but that doesn't mean that they were originally called this.

 

If i strapped wings onto my leopard gecko then yes.


Other than that.
Minus the wings?Possible
Wings?Doesnt make sense for any ind of reptile to be flying around or in general anything that exerting

 

Man you always seem to beat me to the punch.

To put it simply, Dragons are the ancient version of Godzilla. This "dragon" creature was invented to tell unique stories that entertained people. The same could be said for any mythic creature.

 

Genetic memory of dinosaurs would be my guess. That or modern man was not the first to discover dinosaur fossils and Ancient man being the superstitious creature that he was, created a fantasy around these large bones of giants.

 

To add to the debate so far as Pegasi has said creatures like the Komodo Dragon and others certainly bare many similarities to what we consider to be a "true" dragon. Also the idea of bones that do not leave fossils is incredibley unlikely becuse it would not then be bone. What you would be dealing with would be something completely different.

I think that to find the origin of Dragons we need to look very far back in History. They are part of the Chinese Zodiac and an integeral part of Chinese mythology, which is considered to have started in the 12th century BC. So the origins of dragons must come before this.

What is important to consider it that the Chinese Dragon is not the fire breathing monster that Western Culture came to know. Western civilisation first into contact with the "creature" dragon in ancient Greece much later than the Chinese mythology. The greek word for dragon Drakon actually means a serpent of huge size.

So if we now have a dragon that doesnt have to breath fire and is originally depicted as a great serpent with four claws then a creature similar to a dragon certainly exsists. The Mointor Lizard a family relation to the Komodo Dragon. It is plausible that the Monitor lizard may have been larger in the past and have during their evolution become smaller.

So why then does western society have a fire breathing dragon?
Well the most logical explanation is trade and story telling. The most important Dragon in western history is the Welsh dragon, my personal opinion it is certainly one of the first fire breathing dragons, this came into exsistence around the same time as King Aurthur. Now this is not an arguement about Aurthur or whether he or Merlin exsisted do to take the earliest possible date going all stories, tales, myths and legends about Aurthur. We are looking at the end of Roman occupation of Britain. Trade between Asia and Europe has happened throughout history so it is quite likely that the idea of a dragon travelled with the merchants and was changed or bigged up to be more exciting. The chinese did believe that dragons were god like creatures so it would not be unrealistic was a merchant to tell a tall tale to western listeners of how the dragons flew, something that the chinese themselves believed, and how they breath fire. Now being told that dragons could fly is it silly that a European might have perceived this to mean dragons have wings. Its a logical progression.

So as to whether dragons exist it depends largely on your definition of what a dragon is. Fire breathing dragons however do not exist.

I SeNTiNeL I

 

Its called a crododile
And the most open to that sort of theory claim the smaller dinosaurs evolved into todays birds....

To sentinels point.I would imagine in a similar,lost in translation sort of way,same as the wings.Westerners amy have been told were powerful being(gods).Back then the most destructive force in medieval times was fire.
It would be a simple progression to develop a winged serpent that breathed fire.
And so we have the western wyvern

 

I agree with the rest of your post as you can see in mine but a creature breathing fire is possible.

Watch the Movie Reign of Fire. Yea I know it's a movie and as such fake but the way they make their dragon breath fire is two naturally occurring chemicals that when mixed together violently, ignites.

It is possible and maybe one of the dinosaurs could have done it. We don't know and there really isn't anyway to know.

 

An animal that destrucive would have no possible natural predators.
Logically then they would have grown out of control.
While the extinction would have wiped them out there would be million of skeletons of this creature.
There arent and so it did not exist

 

Hey Stean, glad to see ya.

What you're really proposing here is that some dinosaurs survived when we think they died. Whilst this is not a ridiculous proposal in the short term, it seems very unlikely in the long term.
Say some Dinosaurs survived past the point when we assume they had all died (bear in mind that the extinction of the dinosaurs did not happen overnight, they died over a long period of time, all different species considered). I don't know of any kind of dinosaur that could survive in a small enough ecosystem not to be noticed by us, especially one that could be called a dragon.
Think about a massive, carnivorous, dinosaur like creature that can fly. Its going to have to have a hunting ground of many, many miles, and you're going to notice it pretty damn quickly. Creatures like this can't really survive in small, tucked away spaces, and if the species was to survive more than one or two generations, it would have to expand and spread about. How could one or two have survived the thousands, even millions of years to be recognised in times which we consider ancient, but were actually pretty recent in terms of the dinosaurs.

 

Why would something that breathed fire have no natural predators?

T-Rex as mighty as that creature was, still had to worry about Raptors hunting it in packs.

Lions are often hunted by Jackels and Hyenas. Sharks get taken down by Killer Whales. Even Mankind with all our weapons still fall prey to Bears, Wolves, Sharks, Crocodiles, Alligators, ect, ect.

Only reason it doesn't happen more often is because we are smart enough to avoid them or create an area of safety for ourselves.

 

Think how densly forested the world was back then.
Then imagine the chemical(albeit it biological) fire you describe.
Chemical fires are affected much less than normal ones by water meaning it could easily cause treesaround it to catch fire.
I take back my word that it would have NO predators but what im saying is very few.
In the same logic.In a world full of boxer fighting each other...if another guy has a gun.While yes he could be killed but its much less likely

 

To be fair, the T-rex couldn't fly, nor could it breathe an effective beam of death from its mouth.

I can't think how anything this powerful could have a predator within the creatures we know of, and if it did have a predator, then there would be evidence of both of them. Creatures that kickass do not fade away without a trace.

 

My point exactly

 

alligators or komodo dragons i guess but i don't think there are any winged reptiles.

 

It biologically unlikely.
Reptiels are cold blooded.
This means they spend time "basking" in sunspots or hold areas.
Reptiles lead a slow calculated life.
IE they do not expend unnecessary energy.Young and captive ones will explore but thats a territorial instinct.
A crocodile will sit patiently at a river bank for hours/days waiting for something to come into range,rather than go hunting.
This is completely different to how a warm-blooded animal works.
W have to constantly eat to keep our body heat going.
From thisit seems unlikely that a repile would be flying around hiding in caves or that a dragon is even a cold blooded creature(considering it
a breathes fire
b would be out in the open basking-ie very noticeable)

Of course in past times a pterodactil that breathed fire wouldnt be far off.
However very very unlikely and there would be exidense

 

I see your point. However, have you every tried to light wet green (fresh from the still living tree) wood on fire? It's bloody hard no matter what you use. And in the humid climate back then the trees and such would have been fairly soaked a good deal of the time.

The Terradon could fly. Birds fly, but how many of us have cats that love bringing birds they've caught to us as a gift?

And as for it being a beam of death, perhaps it had a limit to it's use. There is a type of tarantula that when suprised will kick fur off it's back end in the face of whatever was attacking it causing temporary blindness and extream discomfort and make it hard to breath. If it does this too often it goes bald. Also the lizard that shoots blood from it's eyes. If it does it too often it suffers from blood loss. Even Snakes only make enough venom for a limited number of bites ate a time.