Could dragons have existed?

[IMAMONKEY!]

Well here's my two cents. Dragon lore exists in many many cultures and various folk lore. Since this "tale" seems to be so wide-spread it would suggest stories spread by travelling merchants, or a widespread population growth of such creatures.

The existence of such an animal close to the description of what we call a dragon is quite feasible considering the actul lore dates back 10,000 years or more in chinese, korean, and japanese culture (or so i believe), but the question is did it happen, not how.

I personally believe that dragons could have existed and may have at one time interacted with people. They may have just been fairly rare and maybe were so good at evading humans that they were able to avoid anyone from recording their behaviour. or maybe they were so dangerous that noone could study them .

ANyway thats my view on it, but knowing you guys, you'll probably sway it.

IMAMONKEY!... signing out

[blazer2000x]

"Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook,Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose,Or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many supplications to you?Will he speak softly to you? Will he make a covenant with you?Will you take him as a servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird,Or will you leash him for your maidens? Will your companions make a banquet of him?Will they apportion him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons,Or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hand on him;Remember the battle — Never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false;Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.Who then is able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him?Everything under heaven is Mine. "I will not conceal his limbs,His mighty power, or his graceful proportions. Who can remove his outer coat?Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face,With his terrible teeth all around? His rows of scales are his pride,Shut up tightly as with a seal; One is so near another That no air can come between them; They are joined one to another,They stick together and cannot be parted. His sneezings flash forth light,And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights;Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils,As from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals,And a flame goes out of his mouth. Strength dwells in his neck,And sorrow dances before him. The folds of his flesh are joined together;They are firm on him and cannot be moved. His heart is as hard as stone,Even as hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid;Because of his crashings they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail;Nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw,And bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee;Slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw;He laughs at the threat of javelins. His undersides are like sharp potsherds;He spreads pointed marks in the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot;He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He leaves a shining wake behind him;One would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is nothing like him,Which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing;He is king over all the children of pride."
Job 41:1-34

[blank]

Umm i don't know about you guys but from what i remeber the documentary 'Dragon's world:A fantasy made real' is just showing us that if dragon's were real; what their evolutionary paths would be like. Yeah sure i know it would be awesome if dragon's were real, it's just that we don't have solid evidence showing us that dragon's are real. I'm not a scientist or a biologist and such and such, but to me their could be possibilities that dragons are real, i mean it is such a big world out there and none of us really knows if dragons are real for sures, it's just something to consider. There is so much to learn, hec we are finding knew things everyday.

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by blank

it's just that we don't have solid evidence showing us that dragon's are real.

Well, we do have solid evidence that they aren't real, and never existed.
Things from the mundane (like breathing fire) to simple everyday aeronautical engineering (they needed much greater wings for their bodymass; unlike birds' tails, thin whippy dragon tails won't make usable rudders, etc.) makes a pretty solid argument that whatever might have been mistaken for dragons by the ancients was most likely a misinterpretation of fossils they might have found of animals wholly unknown to them.

But you gotta love zombie threads, though...!

[Zythryn]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

But you gotta love zombie threads, though...!

Appropriate for Halloween I suppose

[Moontanman]

I saw that, it was a spoof! It was advertised for weeks before showing as a spoof, I'm amazed this thread took so long to die without really showing the evidence for real dragons and how the myths and reality merged into what now think of as dragons. The show did address some of this but it was a spoof and wasn't seriously delving into the whole "Here there be dragons" mind set.

Travelers tales of crocodiles, spitting cobras, pythons, strange bones, and probably for the people in England during the middle ages a Nile Crocodile that was given to the king as a gift that got loose and terrorized the population, ate peoples livestock and a few people. This one instance probably did more for renewing the idea of dragons than all the European myths put together.

When the Spanish explorers got to the new world and found the giant alligators there, they at first described them as dragons and many tall tales were told about them. Fortunately the alligators stayed around to be described by real naturalists and their dragon like characteristics mysteriously disappeared.

No real dragons, no vertebrate animals with 6 limbs (maybe dragons came from another planet, the same one centaurs came from!) But the myth of dragons does seem to cross oceans and civilizations so some investigation of the idea of dragons might indeed revel something about the human mind.

[Ganoderma]

is proving their existence, or lack of, really any more possible or sure than proving god?

why are so many cultures drawing similar drawings of a "dragon"? same reason so many cultures drew up pictures of spirits or any other number of wondrous beings thought by some to be real.

i tend to side on the myth side of things and agree certain things like their wings, tails etc woudlnt make sense. but one cannot without doubt rule out the possibility. maybe they were one step on the path fo evolution that failed because of the things we are saying *cant* happen. cannot, impossible, didn't happen are are very dangerous words and are little more than educated guess and assumptions

the thing i love about the phantasticus is the inability for anyone or any science to truly prove or disprove them beyond reasonable doubt. it shouldn't happen, it cant happen because we have never seen it before, but what have we seen? everything, a little?

what if?

the attraction of life.