I like a dragon, though, I’ve never actually met one.
For some reason, I find them interesting.
I call to mind some animated films, like Shrek and How To Train Your Dragon. I love the dragons in both of these movies, and truthfully, I’d like to have any of them as friends.
Those, of course, are dragons in myth. They can fly and breathe fire like crazy. And many of us still think of dragons as mythical beasts. Because who would ever believe a flying, fire-breathing reptile could exist?
Let’s step forward for a moment to the present day. We have dragons right now. Seven kinds:
1. Komodo Dragons. They can be ten feet long and weigh 300 pounds.
2. Leafy Sea Dragons. Rare marine fish that grow up to about a foot long, Australia.
3. Bearded Dragons. Australia. Beards.
4. Blue Dragon Sea Slug. Venomous. Deadly. One-inch long little demons.
5. Chinese Water Dragon. Strong swimmers. China.
6. Dragon Millipede. Found in the caves of Thailand. Only three centimeters in length, these tiny creatures are toxic.
7. Flying Dragons. Yes. Flying dragons. Also known as Draco Lizards. They can “ fly” through the sky like a mythical dragon. They have scaly membranes between their forelegs and hind legs, plus a big set of ribs. This allows Dracos to “fly. ” Actually, they are gliding, up to 160 feet from tree to tree. But get this. There are more than 40 species of flying dragons. You might miss them, though. They are small, only about 3 inches long.
While all of these are cool and possess their own talents, they still don’t match those flying fire-breathers of yore. And while it is also true that no fire-breathing dragons have ever been proven — scientists have discovered plenty of flying lizard-like creatures — the proof is in the fossils.
Here are some of those old discoveries.
The Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of around 15 meters and weighed about 500 pounds. Other dragons have been found with similar dimensions. Scientists today generally agree. Our modern birds descended from flying dinosaurs. So in the science world, there isn’t much of a debate about whether dragons could fly. And, as it turns out, they could be large enough to prey on people and livestock.
But what about breathing fire?
Once again, no fire-breathing animals have been found.
But it doesn’t mean it wasn’t possible. Today we have a little booger called the Bombardier Beetle. When they get threatened, they spew out a volatile, burning liquid. And when those chemicals mix with the air? It has a heat-releasing chemical reaction.
There are a lot of theories on these chemical manifestations of toxic burps. I know some humans who can do this. So, scientists have not discounted the possibility of creatures having this ability in the long, long, ago.
Big dragons, just flying around, burping fire.
Dragons or not, I always like to consider the impossible. We live in an infinite Universe. And we are tiny, tiny, little-brained humans. While many people believe we are at the center of the Universe, we are not. It is, in fact, a black hole at the center. And that, my friends, explains a lot.
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“In this unbelievable universe in which we live, there are no absolutes. Even parallel lines, reaching into infinity, meet somewhere yonder.”
— Pearl S. Buck, ‘A Bridge For Passing’.
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“Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore.”
— Edgar Allan Poe
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“He had only heard of dragons, and although he had never seen one, he was sure they existed.”
― Dee Marie, Sons of Avalon: Merlin’s Prophecy
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Flying about, burping fire.
