• Question: is there any evidence that dragons ever existed?

    Asked by gingerninja2011 to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi gingerninja,

      I’m not sure about fire-breathing dragons! Dragons appear in many mythologies and cultures and many words in ancient literature have been translated as “dragon”…but what actually were they?

      Its likely that what we call dragons are based on large dinosaur-like creatures…stories about these may have been passed down from generation to generation and “grown legs” as it were. Also when dinosaur bones were discovered some people thought that they were “dragons”.

      So really – dinosaurs existed…but whether or not there were any that looked like cartoon dragons is unknown. Its unlikely they breatherd fire – I would think.

      🙂

    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi Ginger Ninja – Cool name! I should clarify that there weren’t humans around at the time of dinosaurs, so any stories didn’t actually get started from human’s seeing dinosaurs. We can actually trace back the modern idea of dragons through literature. In the early tales they were generally big worms with smelly breath, so we are quite sure that big fire-breathing things who could fly are a human invention.

      “Dragon” is actually a real category of lizard. I have a friend who specialises in the mating habits of female dragons.

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Dragons didn;t exsist.. they orginate from ancient oriental myths..

      However there are some repiles that resemble the characteristics of dragons.. Obv lacking the wings and fire… but all good myths take somehting from nature! e.g unicorns, griffins (hehe), centors etc!

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hello gingerninja! Like the others have said, their is no evidence that dragons ever existed. However, like other common mythological creatures, such as unicorns and mermaids the myth is somewhat (although loosely!) rooted in fact. Most likely ancient man thought dinosaurs had existed long in the distant past, as they only ever found their bones (really these were dinosaur bones – but isn’t a dinosaur really just a dragon that doesn’t breath fire). The fact that dinosaur fossils exist all over the globe may be the cause for dragons being a common mythology across many cultures (note European and Chinese dragon myths appeared separately!). There are also large lizards, like the Komodo Dragon that add fuel to the mythology. Komodo’s can get up to lengths of almost 10 feet!

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