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Could dragons really exist?

162 replies

ThatBrightHelper · 19/11/2024 07:42

I am friends with someone of viking descent, and she told me that her ancestors were friends with dragons, just like How To Train Your Dragon! I find that really cool that dragons might not be that imaginary.

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ReadWithScepticism · 19/11/2024 07:56

Well, there are Komodo dragons and monitor lizards and crocodiles and alligators. So in one very boring sense, dragons do exist.

But it is natural to say 'oh, but they aren't actually dragons because actual dragons are fictional. That makes perfect sense to me: It is part of the concept 'dragon' that it is a mythical/fictional beast. So any really existing alleged dragon would not really be a dragon at all.

BilboBlaggin · 19/11/2024 07:56

Well, we had dinosaurs once, and we still have Komodo Dragons in parts of the world, so it's a possibility. I doubt they breathed fire though.

NoNapsNowPlease · 19/11/2024 07:56

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HowardTJMoon · 19/11/2024 07:56

Large, vaguely lizard-like animals have existed. Large, vaguely lizard-like flying animals have also existed. Large, vaguely lizard-like flying animals with the proportions of Toothless and the other dragons in How To Train Your Dragon couldn't exist as they don't have big enough wings to support their weight. And I can't see any practical way of any animal being able to breath fire. Or, at least, being able to breath fire more than once.

Hoardasurass · 19/11/2024 07:54

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GingerLiberalFeminist · 19/11/2024 07:53

I suspect the dragon concept came from dinosaur fossils.

MrsGhastlyCrumb · 19/11/2024 07:53

It's a cool idea, but when you're talking about ancestors thousands of years ago you cannot know much at all about what or who they were 'friends with '. I highly doubt they had dragon pals, though.

I think it's possible that people saw the odd dinosaur skeleton or bones at va tous points globally and the myth spread.

unclebuck · 19/11/2024 07:52

Could dragons exist in the millions of years the earth existed and left no fossils/trace - yes possibly. During the very short period of human existence when we have had sophisticated weapons - no.
The evangelical movement has tried to dismiss dinosaur bones as dragon bones to disprove evolution.
Why people make this shit up when there are so many incredibly animals that do exist and are becoming extinct I do not know.

SpanThatWorld · 19/11/2024 07:51

Probably most people in England are of viking descent. Thousands of them colonised northern England. There were viking settlements around Dublin. Some of their descendents will have moved to England in the intervening millennium. More vikings colonised northern France and these people's descendents invaded England as the Normans.

One viking a thousand years ago probably has thousands of modern descendents. I have zero idea what my antecedents were doing in 973AD but it probably involved digging in soil and dying of unpleasant diseases.

truegum81 · 19/11/2024 07:51

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Agix · 19/11/2024 07:48

Um well, I mean they could?

It is kinda weird how so many cultures continents away from each other all have dragon mythology, and kinda like different species of dragons depicted.

So yeah dragons are real. Why not!

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