A pair of mountain dragons.
A dragon is a large, flying, fire-breathing reptile. Once thought to be the stuff of myths and legends, the discovery of a well-preserved ice mummy soon turned everything that was known about the animal kingdom on its head.
Appearance and traits[]
Dragons appeared as large reptiles belonging to the infraclass, Archosauria, which also includes dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodilians, and birds. Despite their large size, they are able to fly due to a combination of light-weight bones and the presence of a pair of flight bladders, which stores 30 cubic feet of a hydrogen-methane gas mixture produced by specialized microorganisms living in their guts. Additionally, the flight bladders serve as the dragon's fuel reserves for their fire-breathing capabilities.
Dragons are heterodonts, meaning they possess different tooth morphologies. At the front of their jaws, dragons are equipped with pointy, flesh-tearing teeth while in the back are flat, grinding teeth, which are used to grind, process, and store platinum, which acts as a catalyst when the dragon wants to use its fire breath.
A unique feature all dragons have is their wings. Unlike most vertebrates, which possess four limbs, most dragons possess six limbs; four legs and a pair of wings, due to an advantageous mutation that occurred in the group's evolution. The only exception to this rule is the Prehistoric Dragon, which possesses the standard tetrapod morphology, instead.
Another adaptation most dragons have is a false palate. Originally used to keep water from entering the throat in Marine Dragons, later species used the false palate to prevent the backdraft of fire when using their fire breath.
Evolution and extinction[]
Dragons first evolved from an archosaur relative at an unknown point during the Mesozoic era. The group would then diverge into two branches at some point before the Late Cretaceous, with one lineage giving rise to the Prehistoric Dragon and the other giving rise to the Marine Dragon. The Prehistoric Dragon lineage seemed to have retained the ancestral tetrapod morphology whereas a mutation in the limb genes of the Marine Dragon lineage caused the development of an extra pair of limbs, which would later become the wings. Additionally, the Marine Dragon lineage also evolved aquatic traits, such as smooth skin, a paddle-like tail, a false palate, and reduced limbs, and converted their flight bladders into swim bladders to better adapt to life in the ocean.
Following the K-Pg extinction event, only the Marine Dragon remained, and as the world transitioned into the Cenozoic era, the species slowly began to make its way into fluvial environments. Soon, after returning to land, the Marine Dragon diversified and evolved into new species of dragons, such as the Forest Dragon, the Desert Dragon, and the Mountain Dragon. However, after the last ice age, dragons slowly began to dwindle in number as their usual prey, such as mammoths and other ice age megafauna, went extinct. Additionally, pressure from human encroachment into their natural habitat and their use of the dragons' own weapon; fire, soon drove the last dragons into the most isolated and inhospitable regions of the world, where the once-great family would live out the rest of their days before the last known individual, a female Mountain Dragon, was slain at the hands of mercenaries in the Carpathian Mountains.
List of Known Dragon species[]
- Prehistoric Dragon: A large, bipedal dragon, this species of dragon lived alongside the dinosaurs until their extinction during the K-Pg extinction event.
- Marine Dragon: A relative of the Prehistoric dragon, this species of dragon managed to survived the K-Pg extinction event due to its aquatic lifestyle.
- Forest Dragon: A species of long-bodied, gliding dragon living in Eastern Asia, this dragon is adapted to life in the bamboo forest.
- Mountain Dragon: One of the last species of dragons to exist, this dragon lived in the mountains across Europe and North Africa, having been pushed there due to human encroachment on their natural habitat.
- Desert Dragon: A species of dragon adapted to living in the desert. Not much else is known about them.
Gallery[]
