Can you imagine dragons? Wait, it is not about the American band, we mean can you imagine the features and appearance of real dragons? Oh wait, is this creature even real? Never mind, that’s not the point anyway.
Okay, we will make it simpler. When we say dragons, what comes to your minds? Most of you might answer it as flying and fire-breathing lizard-like mythical creature in the size of a dinosaur. Yes, that’s the answer we are looking for.
We have been told that this creature only exists in fairyland and no chance for such creature to exist in real life. Not only because there has been no evidence of its existence, but also because their abilities and features are too unreal to be true.
If you are on that side thinking that the reason why dragons are unreal because of those features, are you sure about that? Some real animals in this world actually have those features. Here in this article we will show you unreal features of some animals that a dragon might have.
Winged Lizard
One of the most noticeable feature in a dragon is its flying ability. And most of us only know one creature having this ability: birds. However, not all birds can fly and not every single flying animal is a bird.
A species of lizard called Draco is might remind you of the appearances of dragons. The only difference between this lizard and a dragon is its size. While dragons in the past might have the size of a dinosaur and able to an adult while flying, Draco is not.
With a length of only 20 centimeters, the biggest thing it can carry while flying might be a dragonfly. This flying lizard is equipped with wing-like flaps at the sides of its body which can be folded or spread as it wants.
The ‘wings’ are used to move from one tree to another. While floating mid-air, this lizard uses its tail and neck flaps to stabilize and control the movement. This flying lizard can be found throughout Southeast Asia.
Flying Giant
So we know that a flying lizard exist, even though the size of that lizard is pretty small compared to the dragons in your minds. But if you want the evidence about the existence of flying giant, we can give you the prove.
In the Late Cretaceous era, the sky was terrorized by a flying giant named Quetzlcoatlus northropi. This creature is basically a winged dinosaur, having a wingspan of 11 meters and weight up to 250 kilograms.
This creature was a carnivore, eating smaller land and aerial animals it catch. Luckily, as the era of dinosaur came to the end, Quetzlcoatlus northropi disappeared from the surface of the earth too. Imagine if this animal still exist until nowadays, it will spread terror to the every one of us from the sky.
But Quetzlcoatlus northropi is not dragon, since dragons’ wings appear to be smaller than its body size. Thus, you might think that if dragons ever existed, it should not be able to fly. And if it cannot fly, then it is not a dragon.
That’s also what scientists thought about the bumblebees. The size of their wings was considered too small to support their body weight, however they can fly freely in the air. However, in 2001 the scientist finally figured out that the width and strength of the wings are not the only thing this creature need to fly.
Bumblebees can fly because they make use of aerodynamic body supported by its pitching motions mid-air. Thus, if a real dragon had this kind of mechanism too, then it should have been able to fly.
Breathing Fire
A dragon is not a dragon if it cannot breathe fire. And this is the most recognizable yet the most impossible feature of a dragon to be applied in real life. However, scientists might have the prove that this ability is possible in real life.
While this creature is not breathing real fire, this is the closest creature to be known able to excrete something ‘hot’. Meet bombardier beetle, which uses irritating, boiling hot fluid from its body to defend itself.
The boiling hot liquid is actually the result of chemical reactions as two compounds mixed and react to each other. The two compounds are hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide which are stored in the abandonment of this beetle.
But real dragon breathes real fire! Yes it is. But looking on how a small beetle can produce boiling hot liquid from its body by mixing two chemical compounds, real dragons might get its ability to breathe fire from similar method.
Taking it into scientific explanation, every single creature in this world is actually blessed with potentials to produce flammable compounds and catalyst. We know that we breathe the flammable oxygen all the time, while we also produce hydrogen peroxide in our metabolism process. In addition, we also produce methane in our digestion system.
All of those things are flammable and reactive. Luckily, we don’t have the ignition system to start the fire. But what about fire-breathing dragons? It seems to be the difference between us and the dragons, is that those dragons have some kind of ignition mechanism in its body.
But is it possible to have ignition mechanism inside a living creature? Yes it is. By crushing together piezoelectric materials, we can make a spark which may ignite the flammable compounds. The example of those piezoelectric materials are tooth enamel and dentin, dry bone, and tendons.
So let’s say we combine those possibilities into one creature, it might be able to breathe real fire. The mechanism include spraying the flammable compound like hydrogen peroxide or methane from a specialized structure or glands and start the fire by crushing some kind of special bones together. The result is obvious: fire breath. So, theoretically fire-breathing ability is possible.
So, looking on those possibilities, do you still think that dragon is just a mythical creature and impossible for it to ever lived on earth?
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